BY: VANESSA BAUZA
HAVANA -To lift the
embargo or not to lift the embargo? Every year the
Cuban-American community stands more divided on the question
while on Capitol Hill pressure builds from farm state
lobbyists to do away with the 40-year-old
sanctions.
But for the island's leading dissidents,
it's not so simple.
While many here call the embargo
"obsolete," they say American legislators focus the question
too narrowly instead of trying to gain concessions for
economic and democratic reforms from the Cuban government. As
momentum builds in Congress to ease the embargo and travel
ban, scores of American legislators and business executives
are visiting the island and dining with Fidel Castro,
sometimes discussing the intricacies of U.S.-Cuban relations
into the wee hours of the night.
In recent months more
than 20 members of these delegations, a virtual tidal wave
compared to years past, have also sought out the dissidents'
opinions.
The meetings, mostly held in exclusive Havana
hotels, are politically delicate since the Cuban government
considers dissidents "mercenaries" bankrolled by the United
States. The federal government helps finance several
anti-Castro groups in the United States. Some of that money is
in turn used to subsidize dissidents in Cuba.
Elizardo
Sanchez, a former University of Havana Marxist philosophy
professor who 35 years ago became one of Cuba's first
opposition leaders, said he advises American legislators to
end the embargo, but says they should also roundly condemn
human rights abuses on the island.
"The best thing
would be to put an end to these sanctions. Everything that
means normalization of bilateral relations is good for both
countries," said Sanchez, who spent more than eight years as a
political prisoner here. "What is missing in the analysis is
that it is not enough to lift the embargo. I realize the
American congressmen cannot bring democracy to Cuba. What they
can do is express their solidarity for [the opposition
movement] happening in Cuba."
Like many Cuba watchers,
dissidents think this year may be decisive in widening
loopholes in the embargo and travel ban. Polls show
Cuban-Americans, especially younger generations, are
increasingly backing away from their staunch support of the
sanctions.
Many of those who oppose the embargo argue
the U.S. government should pursue diplomatic and economic ties
to Cuba -- as it has done in China -- to influence a
democratic transition now.
To Oswaldo Paya, head of
Christian Liberation Movement, that's a risky proposition.
Paya, who has met with two delegations of U.S. congressional
members since January, said he wants to know how the fruits of
free trade with the United States will trickle down to
everyday Cubans. He says he doesn't believe in isolating the
communist island, but thinks European, Latin American and
Asian investments have only reinforced Castro's
government.
"The Cuban government has shown that
investments, tourism and cultural exchange are channeled in
ways that are convenient to them," he said. "The Cuban people
can't participate in the island's economic life or be
contracted freely as employees."
The Cuban government
recently may have softened its tone for potential U.S.
business partners and American legislators, but "on the island
the 'socialism or death' recording is still playing," Paya
said.
Martha Beatriz Roque, an independent economist
who met with a couple of American senators at the home of the
U.S. ambassador in Havana, said she has no doubt a flood of
American tourists would accelerate a social transition here,
but she's not prepared to accept the tradeoff.
"The
political price is that it assures Fidel Castro has more time
in power," Roque said.
Copyright 2002 Sun-Sentinel Company
