Q: Will stricter sanctions against Cuba bring down the Castro regime?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 22, 1996 | by Dan Burton, | Roger W. Fontaine

The law already has had a chilling effect on potential investors in Cuba. Many companies are reluctant to put themselves in a situation in which they may be sued by the original owners of confiscated assets.

The libertad act has been misrepresented in some reports as punishing foreign investors in Cuba. This is a clear distortion of the facts. We can take action only against those who benefit from stolen American assets. By protecting the rights and property of American citizens, the U.S. government is simply doing its constitutional duty. The protests ring hollow. The right to do business with a gangster dictatorship simply does not stack up well against the legitimate rights of U.S. property owners and the long-term rights to freedom, democracy and human rights of the Cuban people.

Furthermore, it has been asserted wrongly that our legislation would penalize traffickers in a retroactive manner. This simply is untrue. The bill spells out our intention to affect only future traffickers, who will have been given ample warning. The prospective nature of this provision is quite consistent with international law and common sense.

Throughout the debate about Burton-Helms, which raged for the better part of the last year, detractors promoted the view that engagement and investment in Cuba were the best ways to promote democracy. They compared Cuba to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in its supposed vulnerability to Western ideas and capital. Furthermore, they contended that the Cold War is over, and our policy toward Cuba is an anachronism.

Yet, if the Cold War is over, Castro apparently hasn't noticed. He continues to engage in vitriolic anti-American rhetoric, affirming his belief in doctrinaire communism at every opportunity. And his regime is as corrupt, repressive and coercive as ever. To this day, Castro's motto is printed on billboards seen all over Cuba: "Socialism or Death!"

Granted, Castro may be one of the most clever dictators the world has ever seen. He has managed to retain absolute power for 37 years. His longevity gives him an added advantage: He has witnessed the removal from power, whether peaceful or violent, of almost all his communist-dictator allies. Mikhail Gorbachev, Erich Honecker, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Daniel Ortega and Nicolae Ceausescu -- all gone. Castro refuses to end up like them. He is a megalomaniac who once called perestroika and glasnost "disgusting." He knows the danger of allowing any political or economic openings in his system and is determined not to repeat the mistakes of his fellow communist thugs. Hence the brutal crackdown on Concilio Cubano.

Similarly, the Castro regime will control any economic activity tightly. The limited, cosmetic reforms undertaken in recent years were made under the pressure of an economic squeeze and aimed solely at attracting foreign investment. The limited investment that has gone in (after all, Freedom House rates Cuba dead last in the entire world in terms of economic climate -- even behind Somalia) took the form of joint ventures with the Cuban government, which totally dictated the terms. For example, if a foreign company wants to build a hotel, it must do so as a partner of the Cuban government. Tourist facilities are off-limits to average Cubans. In addition, the foreign hotel partners must pay the Cuban government exorbitant fees for each worker. The workers are chosen and paid by the Cuban government, which offers salaries reflecting only a fraction of what the foreign company pays to it and, of course, pockets the profit.