Siren Songs / Fernando Dámaso

Siren Songs / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

At election time, the issue of relations between the governments of Cuba
and the United States becomes a regular part of the speeches of the
different candidates, whether Democrat or Republican. A key issue is the
so-called blockade (in reality an embargo), which for over fifty years
has served Cuba's leaders as a comfortable rug under which to sweep the
national trash resulting from their inabilities (economic disasters,
inefficient public services, general scarcities, difficulties, dual
currency, abusive taxes, travel bans, limitations on civil rights, etc.).

There were times, while enjoying the millionaire Soviet subsidies and
living the story, when it was barely mentioned, and if it was talked
about it was to make fun of it: "the blockade is a strainer" the
president once said. Then the subsidies ceased and, given the need for
belt-tightening,it returned to the fore. When the Bolivarian friend
(Hugo Chavez) appeared and, on a much smaller scale, undertook subsidies
at the expense of the wealth of the Venezuelan people, it changed shape
and became a required component of the official discourse, trying to
meet, with its elimination, the gaps that were impossible for the new
guarantor to fill. Along with the battle for the liberation of the five
spies (actually only four are prisoners), achieving the unconditional
removal of the blockade (embargo), as emphasized, is a priority of the
authorities, trying to attract broader international support. They have
been repeated so often that all visitors must refer to both in their
public statements — it seems to be a requirement for granting a consular
visa. Many argue that the blockade (embargo) is unfair, but they forget
that the reason for it was the uncompensated seizures, which were also
unfair, as implemented by the Cuban government against citizens and
foreigners alike in the early years of the establishment of the "model,"
not to put what was expropriated into production for the nation, but to
manage it terribly and leave it destroyed, turning it into actual ruins.

Today, in the face of economic chaos and uncertainty about the future of
Venezuelan subsidies due to the illness of its president, the Cuban
government, with little international credit (because of its reputation
for not paying its financial commitments), has focused on U.S.
investments as the only possible hope of salvation. But given the choice
between the democratization of the country or the maintenance of
absolute power at all costs, it seems to opt for the latter. Perhaps the
tutelary shadow of the former President weighs too heavily on the
shoulders of the current one, though both, each in his own way, have
been and are staunch supporters of the failed model. It seems the update
that has been implemented has not delivered the expected results, plus
it has no certain future for solving the nation's economic problems. The
logical thing would be to change the model, but in our case that is like
asking an elm tree to produce pears. The same is true in the case of the
blockade (embargo), where the logical thing would also be to sit down
and talk responsibly, ready to receive but also to give.

It is understandable that North American (and Cuban-American) producers
see in Cuba a major market for their products and wish to participate in
it: they are businessmen and not politicians. They may forget their own
negative experiences (or those of their parents, grandparents, or other
relatives) when they were stripped of all their property and expelled
from the country in the frantic years of the sixties, or the later
experiences, also negative,of Spaniards, Italians, Mexicans, Canadians,
Israelis, and others, who came hurrying to invest, and have had to
withdraw in the face of millions in debts and absurd restrictions on the
exercise of their activities.

I believe that the embargo should be eliminated, but for that to happen,
serious and visible democratic measures are necessary: freedom of
speech; the right to form groups, associations and political parties;
freedom to leave and enter the country; separation of the legislative
and judicial powers of the executive; elections with full participation
of all components of Cuban society, etc. Without these, everything else
are siren songs to trap the new unwary, with the sole purpose of
extending a little while longer absolute power of the current authorities.

June 3 2012

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