Letters
U.S. Cuba Policy About a year ago, one of your contributors took me to task for being ignorant of how politics operates in the United States [see the exchange between Webber and Van Gosse,...
...The balance is perfect...
...I have just returned from Colombia and the only "progringo" converts I found are those who over the years have seen their status and influence disap- orrupt pear under the ents, like avalanche of drug dolMexico lars...
...The point is that the shoot-down and subsequent purge of moderate voices for change ill serves the Cuban people, who have demonstrated a desire to adapt to a globalized capitalist, post-Cold War economy but without sacrificing the gains of the revolution...
...However, NACLA has always considered it legitimate to be critical of the internal policies of the countries within the range of our coverage, and we saw the headline as merely descriptive...
...This is not to deny or downplay U.S...
...So people believe that the current situation is just a game about a closer control of the country's economy by the United States, and the stricter implementation of IMF policies...
...The Clinton administration's willingness to negotiate a solution to the crisis, however, demonstrated for the first time in some years flexibility in U.S...
...The eagerness of his administration "to shore up the Cuban-American vote," in fact, predates the February 24 incident, and is something over which the Cuban government has absolutely no control...
...corporate leaders were visiting the island, many returning as advocates for normalization...
...These dollars of obscure origin have backed the national currency, subsidized the operations of legal economic groups, and filled the gaps produced by trade deficits...
...Perhaps for a few months, in the first half of 1959, when the Yankee rulers entertained the illusion that the pledges the Cuban revolution had made to the workers and peasants were just words, as in so many other instances in the Americas...
...In fact, the editorial recognizes that the U.S...
...spare it was becoming clear that the restrictions on pressure travel and currency their poli transactions -tight- already A A ; t balsero crisis-would be relaxed...
...Cuba policy...
...pressure because their politicians are already in Uncle Sam's pocket...
...It also led to a severe straining of relations with the right wing of the CubanAmerican lobby...
...to U.S...
...The 1994 immigration accord to which the editorial refers as "helping to normalize relations between the two countries" did nothing of the sort, if "normalizing" means a lifting of the blockade...
...Cracking the whip of Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy and blindly reasserting Communist Party hegemony, however U.S...
...Webber is, of course, correct in stating that the Clinton administration-motivated by electoral and financial concerns-has demonstrated the same intransigence on the embargo as its predecessors...
...As a consequence, there is little that is not contaminated by the drug traffic, and the difference between what is legal and illegal is just a matter of the heart...
...Rather, the essay was an attempt to put Cuba's crackdown on internal debate and "loyal dissent" into context in the aftermath of the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down and the subsequent signing of the Helms-Burton bill by President Clinton...
...Perhaps with good reason...
...governrr More moderate voices those ir in Cuba policy within the administration and Pan were having their say...
...conduct may seem to justify it, is not a viable long-term strategy for survival in this brave new world...
...Mike Webber Aylesbury, England Pierre LaRam6e responds: Deidre McFadyen's Taking Note column on Cuba was not about Helms-Burton and economic aggression, as Mike Webber seems to suggest...
...How exactly did these Cuban "hard-liners" interfere in U.S...
...There is, however, no contradiction between strangling a country's economy and encouraging a few dozen fifth columnists within it...
...Juan Alonso Crosby Port Jefferson Station, NY...
...At best, the accord achieved a limited, albeit valuable objective, by breaking off the immediate threat of U. S. military aggression against Cuba, but only thanks to the firmness and flexibility displayed by the Cubans...
...Did I blink and miss the time since 1959 when they've been anything else but polarized...
...the election been won because by Conservative Party candidate Andres icians are Pastrana, a candidate n Uncle with very strong ties ocket...
...Webber sees the column's headline as "grotesque" since he assumes that Cuban interference in the United States' internal affairs should serve as the only possible criterion for describing Cuban policy as "hard-line...
...it is beyond my understanding how one of the most prestigious left-wing publications in the United States could respond to the latest North American economic aggression against Cuba with an editorial headlined: "Hard Liners Gain the Upper Hand in the United States and Cuba" [May/June, 1996...
...politicians and business, the issue of obscure funds financing political campaigns would have been a minor thing...
...Once again...
...There were, nevertheless, indications of growing rapprochement prior to the Other downing of the plane...
...c nE a t p Narcodollars in Colombia A na Carrigan's description of the attitude of the Colombian population regarding the political and legal consequences of the financing of Ernesto Samper's presidential campaign ["An Unlikely Hero," July/August, 1996] doesn't take into account the local interpretation of the story...
...dollars without asking where they have come from...
...Contrary to Mr...
...Once they determined that the revolution was for real, they set out to destroy it...
...and there was still a real possibility that Clinton would veto Helms-Burton...
...hostility to the revolution, which continues to this day...
...hard-line" has consisted of-terror bombings, biological warfare, plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, a mercenary invasion, a naval blockade that brought the world to within 48 hours of nuclear destruction, and-the centerpiece-an economic blockade over three decades old, now reinforced by the Helms-Burton Act...
...The United States is to blame for its latest illegal aggression, while Cuba is to blame for defending itself...
...Let's recall what the completely bipartisan U.S...
...The accord was clearly seen by the Cuban government as a significant opening, and it was followed by a concerted, though ultimately unsuccessful, effort to exploit this opening by widening its scope...
...Among the peo- ple, there is the gener- Ima, are alized belief that had U.S...
...The editorial's final paragraph thoughtfully splits the blame 50-50...
...While Clinton had since January, 1993 to lift the blockade, he did not do so...
...It will, indeed, come as news to the Cuban people that there existed any "possibility of rapprochement" for the downing of the planes to derail...
...For many years in Colombia, the central bank has bought U.S...
...The editorial continues, "U.S.Cuban relations are once again extremely polarized...
...internal affairs to justify such a grotesque headline...
...government maintained the economic embargo, but claims it "encouraged cultural exchanges and above all supported Cuba's tiny human rights movement...
...Cuba Policy About a year ago, one of your contributors took me to task for being ignorant of how politics operates in the United States [see the exchange between Webber and Van Gosse, Sept/Oct, 1995...
...Other corrupt governments, like those in Mexico and Panama, are spared U.S...
...Webber may not agree, but the Cubans themselves recognize that there have been periods of detente and depolarization in U.S.Cuban relations over the past 30 years...
...Webber's allegation, there was no known military threat against Cuba occasioned by the balsero crisis of 1994...
Vol. 30 • November 1996 • No. 3
