By Marc Frank in Havana
Published: January 13 2010 00:46
A year after Barack Obama became US president, pledging "a new
beginning" in relations with Cuba and winning praise from Fidel Castro,
vitriolic rhetoric is once more flying between the two governments.
Governments, investors and residents – both on the island and off – who
had hoped that relations would improve are wondering whether recent
events will plunge them back to the gloom of the past 50 years.
Fidel Castro, the veteran revolutionary ex-president who has not
appeared in public for nearly three years but remains active behind the
scenes, has lashed out at Mr Obama. He has accused the US leader of
attempting to roll back populist movements and leftwing governments in
Latin America, and of putting a "friendly smile and African-American
face" on "imperial policies".
Mr Obama answered questions put to him recently by Havana's best-known
opponent, the dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez – praising her courage and
efforts. The move will have angered Cuban authorities who regard such
high-level recognition of opponents as provocative and disrespectful. A
round of immigration talks set for December was soon postponed.
The mood at the Cuban foreign ministry is grim, despite the Obama
administration's lifting of travel and remittance curbs on Cuban
Americans and an initial round of immigration and then postal talks that
were praised by both sides.
"We expect nothing more during Mr Obama's first term," said one
official, off the record. "We invited them to discuss a series of
substantive issues and they responded with trifles, sanctions and
subversion."
Wayne Smith, who opened the US mission's interests section under Jimmy
Carter's presidency, said US-Cuban relations appeared at stalemate. "The
Obama administration is now suggesting that it cannot take further
measures until it sees Cuban willingness to accept democratic changes.
The Cubans, on the other hand, take the position that it is not their
intention to change their internal political system as the price of
moving the process forwards."
Islanders are being mobilised in community and workplace rallies to de-
nounce a US decision to include Cuba on a list with 13 Middle Eastern
and African nations from which all airline passengers will receive extra
screening.
The US state department repeatedly branded the communist-run island a
state sponsor of terrorism when asked what it had to do with the
attempted Christmas bombing of a US airliner, for which a branch of
al-Qaeda claimed responsibility and which triggered the security clampdown.
The anti-US rallies are the first of their kind since Fidel Castro
became ill in 2006. Mr Castro resigned as president in favour of his
younger brother, Raúl, 78, who hit out at Mr Obama in a year-end speech
as he announced the arrest of a US citizen for handing out satellite
communications equipment to dissidents.
"The US government has not given up on destroying the revolution, and on
producing a change in our social and economic regime," said the Cuban
president.
Havana says the US citizen, whose identity is not known and who entered
the country as a tourist, is under investigation for working for US
secret services. Washington insists he was simply working for a
Maryland-based aid organisation called Development Alternatives Inc, on
contract with the US Agency for International Development to promote
democracy in Cuba.
"Havana clearly views President Obama's moves as marginal and wants
action on more fundamental issues such as the embargo and US political
programmes inside Cuba, and the arrest of a US government contractor
appears to be part of that effort," said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at
the Washington-based Lexington Institute.
US diplomats said Mr Obama had always made the lifting of US sanctions
on Cuba conditional on the island moving towards democracy and showing
greater respect for human rights. "The bilateral dialogue on issues such
as immigration is supposed to resume in February. Let's hope that it
does and that it leads towards a more constructive posture on both
sides," said Mr Smith.
FT.com / In depth - Bitter words cut short US-Cuba progress (13 January
2010)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5776c2ee-ffd7-11de-ad8c-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=3d806e42-a627-11db-937f-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1
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