America Loves To Hate Cuba

Cuba

TIMOTHY GATTO, former Chairman of the Liberal Party in America, opines that America loves to hate Cuba and that it was controlled "lock, stock, and barrel," by the US mafia prior to Castro's ascent to power in an oped piece posted on OpEdNews.com. Although I may agree in part with some of the conclusions in this article, I think that these two broad assertions do not necessarily support him. 

Although it is true that the US mafia controlled much of the travel and tourism industry, including gambling, in Havana prior to 1958, their influence did not reach very far outside of the city. Ordinary American businessmen controlled much of the rest of the island, including the vast sugar plantations, railroads, and public utilities.

Also, I do not see much evidence that Americans in general hate Cuba. Indeed, there is considerable evidence to the contrary. Most American tourists would love to see the island open to them once again, and American businessmen chaff at the bit to resume trade with the largest potential economy in the Caribbean. Even the Cuban-American community is softening its resistance as the older generation of Cuban refugees becomes a minority to their children who do not have the same imperative to return as they have grown up as Americans and this is their home.

Although some diplomats believe that relations between the US and Cuba cannot be normalized until the post-Castro era begins, I believe that there is strong evidence that Americans would welcome normalization now, even with Castro still in power. In fact, it might even be better to open talks now before Castro dies so that his supporters in Cuba will be denied the opportunity to resist normalization as a monument to his memory. 

Of course, those who disagree will argue that we cannot have normal relations with a tyrannical dictator, but the strategy of waiting for political prisoners to be freed before talking has not worked too well so far, has it? No, once we sit across the table from Castro, we will be better able to remind him of the words of his own patron, Jose Marti who said that "Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy."