An old saying has it that circumstances alter cases and recent events suggest that the way is once again opening for a substantial discussion among governments on the issue of Cuba’s role in the Hemisphere, and more particularly on the question of Cuba-United States relations. But having made this observation, it is necessary to bear in mind the Cuban view that this is a matter for the United States itself, given that that country took a unilateral view of the fate of the relationship after the Cuban revolution, and more or less pressed it on a more supine Hemisphere, in the context of the Organisation of American States at the time.
Now however, even as the government of Panama, as host to the next Summit of the Americas in April of next year, has invited the Cuban President to attend that meeting, and an American State Department spokesperson has responded that the US may have no objection as long as a discussion on Cuba’s human rights is on the agenda, circumstances seem to be indicating that that may not be enough to inhibit a growth of pressure, between now and April, for Cuban participation on terms acceptable to the government of that country.
Recognition of this has been indicated in an obviously carefully crafted editorial in the New York Times a little over a week ago, entitled “Obama should end the Embargo on Cuba” which received the attention of, and a response from, Fidel Castro himself in one of his Granma articles a few days later.
The former president’s response has come in the specific context of the training and despatch of four hundred and fifty medical personnel to deal with the dominant global issue of the last few weeks, beside the Middle East complex of wars, that is the eruption of the Ebola disease in West Africa.
The New York Times itself has noted the fact that the Cuban government’s response to the Ebola crisis was both immediate and substantial, in a context in which global opinion, while recognising the fact that the US and some European states have also been assisting in that regard, will have easily observed the discrepancy between their efforts and that of the small state of Cuba.
As the Times put it, “the global panic over Ebola has not brought forth an adequate response from the nations with the most to offer”, this remark recognising that the efforts of the Western powers have been directed primarily at ensuring that the disease does not spread to their shores. In other words, to the general public listening to the daily news, the primary focus, for those countries, has been on tightening scrutiny of Africans seeking to enter the United States.
Another saying tells us that it’s an ill wind that does nobody any good, and whether fortuitously or by design, Fidel Castro has used the opportunity, and the Times Editorial, to emphasise in his regular columns in Granma, the significance of the Cuban effort, and by implication, the importance of focusing global relations, and relations in the Hemisphere towards maximizing the contributions of all countries to global peace, development, and personal as well as national security.
In that context the former President has focused attention, in his commentary, on the necessity for, and timeliness of, normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, no doubt in the context, too, of the initial economic reforms that Cuba has been attempting to put in place, certainly since the advent of Raul Castro to the Presidency.
These events come in the context of changing Inter-American relations as a number of Latin American states would wish to put the long (almost since 1959) Cold War in the Americas aside, as countries grapple now to come to terms with the effects of a globalization that has virtually put a rapidly industrialized China at the centre of international economic relations.
Placed next to the divisions in the Hemisphere, and particularly those that focus on the role of post-Chavez Venezuela, the activities of Brazil, for example, in seeking with other BRICS to open new possibilities for bolstering economic development in the Hemisphere, have sought to influence the United States to reduce its emphasis on ideological orientations and divisive designs, given that it is clear that Venezuela, the focus of this, is, whatever its own geopolitical designs, firmly within the sphere of the international capitalist system.
From the beginning of his administration, President Obama has seemed tentative in his approach to the residue of ideologically-based political and diplomatic designs in the Hemisphere. This was originally notable in his appearance at the Summit of the Americas hosted in Trinidad & Tobago, and he has concentrated on a reorganization of relations with Mexico which, following the last presidential election, has sought to reorganize that country’s economy, including, contrary to Venezuela’s efforts, a drastic reduction of the role played by the state.
The revelations of extensive spying and eavesdropping, particularly as these focused on Brazil has further muddied Inter-American diplomatic waters, with the Brazilian president placed in a circumstance of having to seem wary, and not entirely welcoming, of positive changes in relations sought by Obama. And indeed, conflicts of orientation between some countries in the Hemisphere – for example involving Argentina and the United States in financial policy and relations, have not helped in inducing a more cohesive set of diplomatic orientations in the area.
With the American President now being drawn into a Middle East imbroglio which, since the beginning of his administration, he had sought to avoid, a question arises as to whether he will feel inclined to pursue any further normalization of relations in the Hemisphere, especially if this is seen to require at least a beginning of a normalization of relations with Cuba, which the former President Fidel Castro would now seem to want to induce. No doubt, another old saying, that actions speak louder than words, will be given precedence.
The period between now and the forthcoming Summit of the Americas six months hence, will indicate whether Obama will feel it possible to expend any of his political capital – already so much under contention over a variety of policies and situations at home and abroad – on at least beginning the process of unification of the Inter-American system, essentially breached since 1959.
