More, on Havana and Miami: the Cuba embargo serves no useful purpose ... by gimleteye

Commenters have made interesting points on my blog posts on Cuba. I have lived in the shadow of Cuba as writer, environmentalist, and civic activist in Miami for 20 years. I recently returned from Havana after my first visit, through a licensed cultural tour to the Havana Bienal.

On this blog and for national publication I have written about Cuba and the Cuban American community, related to my experiences: how Cuba influences local Miami and Florida politics related to land speculation and its consequences: the slow decline of quality of life and regulatory failure by design. I did not write about the embargo because I did not feel qualified. In that respect, my visit to Cuba changed what held me back: respect for my Cuban American friends who have passionately embraced the embargo for many years. I have no less respect for them, but I do have insight that I am willing to share in a way I hope will be clear and foster more dialogue in Miami.

I don't offer these views as an expert on Cuba: on its health care, development of its tourism industry, its architectural, artistic and culture heritage, or educational system. One visit won't make a Cuba expert out of anyone.

But I am highly qualified as an expert in human suffering caused by war and the devastation of ideologies. I didn't need a degree. The knowledge was conferred by family history -- eastern Europe Jews-- , by birth -- child of immigrants and of the Holocaust-- , careful learning -- after a university degree in Chinese, considerable business experience dealing with state run economies in China and Vietnam-- , listening and the passage of time. But from my one visit (one reader refers to it as a "Disneyland" experience) I do believe what a fellow traveler said: whether or not you are a Cuban American, you cannot understand what the embargo has done to Cuba unless you visit the country.

What emerges as a surprise: there is more bandwidth inside Cuba for political discussion than there is in Miami. (I don't disagree with commenters regarding political prisoners in Cuba. Abhorrent, awful and repellant. But let's be clear: as a matter of foreign policy, the United States' interest is advanced in many nations incarcerating political prisoners.)

None of our commenters, though, offer a good reason to continue the embargo against Cuba.

The embargo is ridiculous. It is all the more ridiculous because Cuban Americans and their families in Cuba now benefit from a thousand small pipelines funneling cash into private property and small businesses allowed by a government that is taking small, tentative steps toward a hybrid model of economic development along lines of its own determination.

The second point: that while the embargo has served to solidify political power on both sides of the Florida Straits, the main benefit has been to Cuban Americans who control local politics in Miami, and through Miami, Florida and through Florida, Congress and sometimes the White House. I know this conclusion irritates some of our readers. But on this issue, I speak from considerable direct experience.

What is the most visible result of Cuban American power in South Florida?

Culture? An urban fabric in Florida that serves all spectrums of housing needs? No. It has been suburban sprawl, platted subdivisions in farmland and soul-less places by design, zoning and local control. Florida is substantially controlled by Cuban American politicians for the purposes of zoning, permitting and development of suburbs and cities. The results etched in the built landscape ignore all the wisdom and learning that created the city of Havana long before the socialist revolution.

So now that we have these niceties out of the way, calling these views "communista" or with other epithets that serve to stir up the passions serve one purpose in my opinion: to return the same political incumbents to elected office in Miami and Florida. What unites these politicians is not ethnic identification but cynicism. They know perfectly well that the game is to pray to God on Sunday for absolution and on Monday to go back to the work of pillaging the public treasury for personal and political gain.

The Cuban economy is a wreck. Still the Cuban government is not going to turn its back on fifty years of sacrifice to return power to the inheritors of Batista or whatever shape, form or nationality new interlopers emerge. Change from Cuba will come from within.

Congress and the White House -- as matters of political expediency -- should cease holding a nation hostage to the echo chamber that passes for political dialogue in Miami.

Some readers chide me for a single-minded criticism of the Growth Machine in Miami, that helped crash the economy through a housing bubble it supported and now is mainly recycling because the fuel has dried up except for new foreign investors from Spain and the Americas. My critics accuse me of finding a Cuban American builder behind every bush.

South Florida has been defined by selling swampland (i.e. the Everglades) and luring visitors to mass market attractions and low cost housing. I know, as well as any student of Miami history, that Cuban American insiders in local government have strengthened growth-at-any-cost policies that predated the Cuban revolution and mass exodus.

So what purpose does the embargo serve? None. Today, the embargo is already being busted by many Cuban Americans passing money through to relatives or friends to enable the purchase of property or bringing in supplies to start a small business. It would be interesting to know how many members of the Latin Builders Association are now funneling money to relatives in Cuba for the purposes of buying a home or starting a business today. Were I in their position, I would be doing the same.

Cuban American business leaders have so far remained silent on the failure of the embargo. In private they find ways to move dollars into Cuba. In private they chafe, especially at this time of long-term stagnation of the economy in Florida, under the prospects of investors from Spain and elsewhere gaining advantage. In private, their best laid plans for Cuba collect dust on the shelves of engineering firms. In public they support the embargo.

So why not change, when change benefits both sides of the divide: Cuba and the United States. The first step is to engage and to agree on certain rules of the road. For Cuba, given the decades of US hostilities, building a two-way street has its own considerable internal difficulties. But the evidence is that, today, the government is taking small steps forward. It really has no choice, nor do we. Dismantle the Cuba embargo, now.