Real progress happening in Cuba relations
In 1998, the United States unofficially declared that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism. Last week, the United States made it official. Despite what Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio say, that’s not capitulation. It’s progress.
Last December, President Barack Obama modernized America’s policy toward Cuba. Part of the move toward normalizing relations, which we broke off in January 1961, was a review of whether Cuba still belonged on the State Department’s list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Cuba had gone on the list in 1982 because of Fidel Castro’s support for communist rebels in Latin America.
Whatever role Cuba played in aiding terrorism, it ended in practical terms with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Castro’s patron. Seventeen years ago, U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Cuba posed no threat to U.S. national security. With that finding, the government acknowledged that Cuba did not sponsor terrorism.
Though it had been 36 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, it had been just two years since Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act. It toughened U.S. sanctions on Cuba. George W. Bush’s unhelpful contribution was to further restrict travel and remittances. Obama took office promising major changes in our failed policy. He has delivered, and only the hard-line Cubans who still call themselves exiles and their political enablers disagree.
On April 14, the Obama administration notified Congress that the State Department, after its review, had found that Cuba is not a state sponsor of terrorism. Congress had 45 days to respond before the de-listing took effect. Rubio, Jeb Bush, the Miami-Dade County congressional delegation and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who represents the largest Cuban-American population outside of Florida, predictably howled, but Congress did nothing.
That’s because most Americans see our half-century attempt to isolate Cuba as having isolated the United States. In January, a Pew Research Center poll found that roughly two-thirds of Americans support not just normalizing relations but ending the trade embargo that we imposed in 1962. Elected leaders in Tampa, which has Florida’s second-largest Cuban-American population, want a Cuban consulate in their city. American Airlines wants to offer flights from Miami to Havana. Ferry operators want to restore service to Cuba from Key West.
Even the trade embargo isn’t a true embargo. Last year, Cuba imported $300 million worth of American products, mostly agricultural. Under modifications to the embargo, Cuba is allowed to buy medicine and medical devices, if the country pays in cash.
Aside from removal from the list of terrorism sponsors, another recent development has moved the two countries closer to ending 54 years of diplomatic separation. An American bank – Pompano Beach-based Stonegate Bank — has agreed to conduct Cuban transactions in this country. With the ability to process visas and pay bills, Cuba can open an embassy in Washington.
The holdouts to change keep firing. Menendez fumed that Cuba continues to harbor a Black Liberation Army member who escaped from jail after killing a New Jersey state trooper. Bush, Rubio and others point to Cuba’s political repression. But as an Obama administration official said in an April briefing for reporters:
“We’re going to continue to have differences with Cuba, including some profound differences on issues that are important in terms of U.S. support for democracy and human rights. However, those differences are not going to be a factor in whether or not Cuba is a designee as a state sponsor of terrorism. Whether they engage in repressive or authoritarian activities in their own country, whether they have relationships with countries that are adversaries of the United States, are not necessarily a favor in making this determination.”
The Florida Legislature has done its share of pandering on Cuba. In 2006, the state prohibited universities from spending money — even if it had been donated privately — on academic travel to Cuba. In 2008, the Legislature made things harder for travel companies offering trips to Cuba. In 2012, Gov. Rick Scott traveled to Miami to sign legislation banning the state and all local governments from doing business with any company doing at least $1 million in business with Cuba. Small problem: States can’t regulate foreign trade.
Only Congress can end the trade embargo. Obama can’t end the pretense of the travel rules that supposedly allow Americans to visit Cuba only under 12 conditions. As the Associated Press reported, there’s little checking of Americans who travel to Cuba.
Still, by the time he leaves office, Obama will have shifted Cuba’s policy so dramatically that rolling it back will be impractical and politically impossible. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who accompanied Alan Gross on his return to the United States as part of the deal announced last December, said, “Time has gotten away from those who favor the old policy. It’s so yesterday.” Obama’s latest action takes us closer to tomorrow.