For relations to improve, Cuba must do its part

Guillermo Martinez:

For relations to improve, Cuba must do its part
Guillermo Martinez, El Sentinel
Columnist
September 5, 2013

Pravda first posed the question in June of 2011.

"Can it be assumed that Raúl Castro is the Cuban Gorbachev, or Deng
Xiaoping?" the article said.

More than two years later the question remains unanswered, yet Gorbachev
himself now has joined the chorus of those who say the changes being
made by Raúl in Cuba should be respected and allowed to develop without
foreign interference.


Guillermo Martinez, El Sentinel

The last president of the Soviet Union and the man who allowed Communism
to die in Europe now wants to see relations between Cuba and the United
States improve. Gorbachev told a group of journalists gathered in Geneva
that the United States had to play a leading role in improving the
relationship between the two countries, and that no foreign country
should impose its views on what should happen in the island.

Put me on the side of those who want to see relations between the two
nations improve. I sit with those who hope the incipient changes in Cuba
are real and not easily reversible, as it has in the past. Consider that
I would like to think that someday I would be able to travel to Cuba and
show my children and their children the places where I grew up.

I have no ambition of reclaiming properties in Cuba. I am a South
Floridian. This is where I live and where my two children and their
children live. I am very much at home in the United States and follow
American politics much closely than I do that of Cuba.

Still, I don't understand why the burden of improved relations between
the United States and Cuba rests with the American government. President
Barack Obama, like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, before him, did much
to bring the two countries together.

Cubans who come to this country to visit a relative or seeking a better
life are still given their legal residency a year after their arrival.
They are granted this privileged status because of a law passed in 1966
– the Cuban Adjustment Act – when those leaving the island were fleeing
communism. The law still applies although those now leaving the island
do so for economic, not political, reasons.

Those that come to this country now, by boat, crossing the border from
Mexico or on a tourist visa, are the first to return to the island to
see their loved ones and to take them the basic food products and new
electronic gadgets.

The trips to Cuba and the monies those in the United States send to the
island are Cuba's largest source foreign currency. The government has a
hand in every transaction.

Cuba talks a good game. They seek better relations with the United
States. Yet it must come on their terms.

Recently a famous Cuban baseball team, the Industriales, came to the
United States to celebrate in this country its 50th birthday. Some
people here say why not let them play. They ignore, or don't care, that
the Industriales became a team in 1963, shortly after the Cuban
revolution had prohibited professional baseball on the island and
confiscated all their properties. The Industriales represent the Cuban
Communist regime that expropriated properties and executed or jailed
those who dared to dissent.

The American government is easing up considerably the restrictions on
Cubans coming to this country. Recently one of the most feared members
of Cuba's political prison system was found living in South Florida.

Cuba, however, is much more demanding in granting permission to travel
to the island. Those who have left recently may return; no questions
asked. Those who publicly applaud Cuba's policies are always welcomed.

Ah, but those who dare question why Cuban thugs still beat up dissidents
in the island; or those who believe that economic changes need to come
with political choices; or think that free speech and democracy should
be part of the changes in Cuba. Those are not allowed to travel back to
the island.

The United States already has done enough – maybe too much – to bring
about closer relations with Cuba. It is up to Cuba now to reciprocate
and allow democracy to flourish in the island.

Guillermo I. Martinez resides in South Florida. His e-mail is
Guimar123@gmail.com and his Twitter is @g_martinez123

Guillermo Martinez

Source: "Guillermo Martinez: For relations to improve, Cuba must do its
part - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com" -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-gmcol-pravda-oped0905-20130905,0,1995912.column