Cuba’s new place in the sun

S Nihal Singh

THE symbolism of the Cuban flag being raised in Washington at its new embassy encompasses the tragedies and exhilaration of whole generations of Cubans and Americans as the small plucky island brought the world closest to a nuclear war during the Jack Kennedy era. The romance of Fidel Castro’s revolution, with some help from Ernesto “Che” Guevera, lives on even as he is incapacitated and his brother Raul rules in his stead. 

US President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba by incremental steps leading to the reopening of diplomatic missions in each other’s country after 54 years is indeed a revolutionary development. An anachronism of the Cold War was living on after the two Germanies reunited, the Soviet Union disintegrated and even as a paler Cold War took shape.

Yet the resumption of diplomatic relations comes after the unsuccessful American Bay of Pigs invasion, CIA plans to assassinate Fidel Castro, some of them almost comical in nature, such as an exploding cigar, and efforts to swing the recalcitrant nation to democracy. The disintegration of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s ally and benefactor, was a great blow to the island nation's future, and it was Raul Castro who has been making a series of economic reforms for the country's survival.

But the flying of the Cuban flag in Washington and the raising of the Star and Stripes over the US embassy in Havana next month are only the beginning of a long process towards full normalisation. There are plenty of hardline Cuban Americans, particularly in the Republican Party, including the presidential aspirant Marco Rubio, who have unsheathed their swords to take issue with President Obama’s Cuba policy. And the two houses of Congress must agree to pass a series of measures to undo the trade embargo and other penalties to enable the two countries to have full-fledged normal relations.

Yet America and the world have moved on and recent polls suggest that despite hardline Cuban Americans, a majority of younger members of the community favour normalising relations. But, given the US presidential campaign already gathering pace, full normalisation of relations must await the installation of a new president.

Cuba has always punched above its weight in the modern era. A Spanish colony taken over by the US after defeating Spain, it lit up the Latin American continent by the revolutionary zeal of the Castro brothers and Che Guevera. Despite all the odds, Cuba stayed buoyant in an era of American supremacy and served as the world’s revolutionary outpost.

The decolonisation of Latin America was part of the process of modern progress, of which India was a part in gaining its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. But the process in the distant continent was different inasmuch as the US ran most countries as economic colonies, the proverbial banana republics, while imposing its favoured military dictators on occasion or helping displace elected presidents, as in Chile. Despite its own revolution against Britain and its lauded democratic constitution, America was the recognised overlord in Latin America warning off other outside powers by proclaiming the Munro Doctrine.

Plainly, we live in another day and age and President Obama is only catching up with reality in making the opening to Cuba. But the US interaction with Cuba has been burdened by so much emotion and history that many Americans still find it difficult to distinguish between their angst and the 21st century. The passion behind Senator Rubio’s rhetoric in wanting to bring the present rulers of Cuba to heel is genuine — fate brought his parents to Florida in the first place and his American birth gave him the privilege of contesting a presidential election.

There is little doubt that kicking and screaming, the US Congress will agree to full normal relations with Havana after a new US president takes over. Decades ago, even Fidel sought to bring a measure of normality in his country’s dealings with the US. He had an unofficial meeting with then Vice-President Richard Nixon in Washington in April 1959, although in 1960 all US businesses were nationalised without compensation, inviting the breaking off of diplomatic relations and imposition of a trade embargo. The Bay of Pigs fiasco came the next year. The US Central Intelligence Agency drew up at least five plans to assassinate Fidel between 1961 and 1963. The Cuban missile crisis startled the world in 1962.

There were dealings between the US and Cuban administrations after a fashion. In 1994, there was an agreement between the two countries, with the US admitting 20,000 Cubans a year in return for Havana helping to stem the flood of refugees. But the shooting down of two American aircraft by Cuban exiles led to the US trade embargo being made permanent. Other incidents dotted the political landscape, including the imprisoning of five Cubans in Florida for spying. 

Perhaps the forerunner of the shape of the future was the visit to Cuba of former president Jimmy Carter in May 2002. Thus far, he is the only former or sitting US president to go to the island since the Cuban revolution of 1959. In December 2006, a large US congressional delegation went to Cuba but could not see Raul Castro. Raul officially took over as president in February 2008, with Washington reaffirming that the trade embargo would remain. Barack Obama became US president in November 2008 and he started lifting restrictions on family travel and sending remittances to Cuba. 

President Obama has distinguished himself by piloting two landmark agreements — the deal with Iran on its nuclear programme with world powers and the opening to Cuba. Both have geopolitical implications, although the Cuban initiative is closer to home and has resonance in the Latin American continent. It is, in a sense, a closure in the annals of American imperialism down south, much as the US dislikes the terminology since only European colonialists fit this description in the American political lexicon.

With its distinguished revolutionary past, Cuba can hope to play a greater role in its continent’s affairs as a normal country, once the remaining American-imposed restrictions recede.