LETTER FROM MIAMI

On October 4 a coalition of U.S. and Cuban American organizations sponsored a conference in South Florida to consider U.S. policy toward Cuba. Nothing unusual about that. Miami's exile Mafia has been holding public meetings for decades to discuss how horrid Fidel Castro is, how the embargo should be tightened, how travel to the island should be reduced to zero, and all family remittances banned.

In some of these exile get-togethers, panelists also discuss how Fidel is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the island. Indeed, they allege he has already deployed them: thus, West Nile virus was supposedly introduced into the United States some years ago by Cuban biotechnicians who used specially infected migratory birds for the purpose.

One might like to attribute such silliness to our local lunatic fringe. But some of these charges have also been repeated by Congressional Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, as well as by John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security and by Roger Noriega, former aide to Jesse Helms and now Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Obviously, the lunatic fringe is not confined to Miami.

The October 4 conference was a diametrically different event from those described above. Titled the “Florida National Summit on Cuba,” it was convened to consider the failure of our 40-year hard-line policy toward Cuba and to “explore what an effective, proactive U.S. policy could be.”

It was assuredly no love-in for Fidel. Rather, it was a serious effort to evaluate policy alternatives that could lead to a relaxation of tensions with the island and a posture that would ease the way to a peaceful — rather than a confrontational — denouement.

Spearheaded by the World Policy Council, the Summit was co-sponsored by a significant number of moderate Cuban American organizations. The site was the upscale Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. (It was a fitting venue. The architect who designed the Biltmore also designed the Hotel Nacional in Havana.)

The keynote speaker was Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union. Among the panelists were William D. Rogers, former Undersecretary of State under President Gerald Ford; Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts; Michael Dow, Mayor of Mobile, Alabama; and, most prominently, retired Marine Corps General John Sheehan, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command (which, among other things, includes Cuba in its purview).

Also, former President Jimmy Carter sent an open letter to the conferees in which he urged a unilateral end to the embargo “because as the more powerful nation, we should take the first step.” While he deplored the recent round-up of dissidents and the execution of three would-be hijackers, he unequivocally advocated unrestricted trade, travel and person-to-person exchanges with Cuba.

The Spoilsports
When they got wind of the upcoming Summit, South Florida's Cuban American Congressional trio — Lincoln, Ileana, and Lincoln's baby brother Mario (newly elected from a gerrymandered district in Miami-Dade County) — had a hissyfit. With Lincoln as point man, they conjured up what they hoped would be a double whammy against the moderate interlopers on their turf.

First, they persuaded Jaime Suchlicki, Director of the University of Miami's conservative Center for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, to mount a counter “academic” meeting at the Biltmore. Same date, same time, same place. Keynote speaker: Roger Noriega. Since Suchlicki's Center gets at least one million dollars annually from the federal trough, this was an offer he could not readily refuse.

As if that were not enough, Lincoln, Ileana, and Mario decided to organize a protest across the street from the Biltmore by such groups as Alpha 66, Unidad Cubana, and multiple other members of the so-called “exílio histórico.” They had all the de rigueur paraphernalia in place. A mammoth Cuban flag, posters against Perestroika, against the Plan Varela, “Gorby go home,” et alia.

What they did not have was much of a turnout. Scarcely 150 protesters showed up. I was surprised by the skimpy attendance at an event where Lincoln and Ileana and Mario would be down on the ground with their constituents. Perhaps there is a new dynamic at work in South Florida.

The Conference(s)
Noriega spoke early in Suchlicki's counter-conference. It was the usual bilge and boilerplate. Travel to Cuba puts money in Castro's pocket. Lifting the embargo would put money in Castro's pocket. Castro has weapons of mass destruction. Etc., etc., etc.

General Sheehan had left the Summit meeting briefly to sit in on Noriega's speech. He returned fuming. The Suchlicki group had asserted that those attending the Summit were newcomers to the Cuba issue. Sheehan noted that Noriega was a little kid when he, Sheehan, was at Guantánamo during the Cuban missile crisis.

On the issue of WMD, Sheehan was even more scathing. “The fact is that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the fact is that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Cuba.”

Gorbachev's keynote address was an expanded version of the op-ed piece he published in The Washington Post on the morning of the Summit. Among other things, he echoed Jimmy Carter's call for a unilateral end to the embargo. As the only superpower on the planet, the U.S. should take the first step. He stressed how the accords he had reached with Ronald Reagan at their 1985 summit in Geneva” did much to improve mutual understanding between our two countries.”

The Aftermath
It is difficult to gauge the impact of the Summit in the local community. Recent polls are showing that Miami's Cubans and Cuban Americans are increasingly in favor of lifting the embargo. On the other hand, the leaders of the “exílio histórico” still have the money and, thus, the clout to call the shots in Washington. And many of those who oppose the embargo and travel restrictions are newly arrived and cannot yet vote.

Nita Rous Manitzas
October 17, 2003