Our nation misunderstands grass roots revolutions

Andres Oppenheimer’s May 4 column, “Biden deserves applause for excluding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua at Americas summit,” is his expected politic for these “renegade” nations. Such applause has been the standard for Republican and Democrat administrations since the 1960s, when Fidel Castro challenged the old Latin politic of right-wing dictators.

How did Castro answer the CIA’s Bay of Pigs incursion and American policy thereafter?

He got in bed with the Russians and later gifted us with the Mariel boat lift.

My CIA case officer training ended in 1964. My roommate was sent to the CIA’s Miami station to participate in a program training Cubans here to establish footholds within Cuba for counter-revolution. This did not work, and half a century later, there is no Cuban regime change.

Nicaragua went through a revolutionary regime change similar to Cuba’s. More recently, Venezuela has done the same. During my time in South America, I helped develop CIA recruitment. Exiles come our way, not the reverse. Later, I realized what these types of revolutions have primarily as their driving force: revenge of the have nots against the haves.

These three revolutions took a heavy toll on those who had to flee early on and even some who stayed behind. Nonetheless, the damage was done. When revolutions are fed by grassroots support, changing the top often does not deliver success.

Best we learn to deal better with what is than encourage a Russia or China competitor to fill our void. That is what is occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean today, on a small but growing scale.

Block voting exists and politicians must listen, but our policy is not working.

– Michael G. Merhige,

Kendall