Hello folks.

Reese Erlich

Reese, welcome back to Firedoglake. With Obama headed for Mexico and then the Summit of the Americas, do you think, realistically, the leaders of the rest of the hemisphere will be able to talk any sense into his head about normalizing relations with Cuba? Or will he be too scared of the rightists forces here in the U.S. to do anything beyond the tepid moves he made this week?

“There’s a small group of wealthy Cubans who profit handsomely from the trade embargo and they won’t give up power easily.”

You’re not kidding.

Welcome back, Reese, & thanks for hosting, Howie.

I wish talking sense would result in changing policy. But Obama, like previous US presidents, needs more than cogent logic. The Latin American presidents are all opposed to US policy on Cuba. Every country in South America has normal diplomatic relations with Cuba. The US is isolated.

But the power of the Cuba Lobby, combined with cold warriors still lurking in the State Dept, CIA, etc., have controlled US policy towards Cuba. Obama will have to take them on.

It’s a pleasure to back here. This has been a big week for Cuba news and I hope to answer lots of questions and provoke lots of good discussion.

The ultra-rightists in the Florida and New Jersey Cuban American community are funded by wealthy businessmen with their own agenda. For many years, multi-millionaires such as Jorge Mas Canosa (late president of the Cuban American National Foundation) saw themselves as coming back to power in Cuba. They secured leadership in the US through a combination of populist anti-communism, bribery, chicanery and violence. For many years in Miami, moderate Cubans were intimidated, run out of town or shot. The ultra-right ruled Miami like Batista used to rule Cuba.
But the Cuba Lobby convinced Democratic and Republican leaders that they represented the Cuban community, and to disagree with them meant political death. They wielded power similar to that of the Israel Lobby or the NRA.
But that’s not the whole story. Cold warriors in the State Dept. and intelligence agencies agreed with the hard line against Cuba, supported the Cuba Lobby, and engaged in lots of mutual back scratching. The Cuba Lobby had the power to select key under secretaries for Latin America and, in turn, they made sure government money flowed to the Cuba Lobby. Radio and TV Marti, to cite just one example, spends $37 million/year, mostly to pay right-wing “journalists “in south Florida. The Cuban American Fanjul family, which controls a chunk of the US sugar industry, profits by not having to compete with sugar from Cuba. There’s a small group of wealthy Cubans who profit handsomely from the trade embargo and they won’t give up power easily.

Reese, it worries me that the extremists in the Cuban-American community still seem to be able to exert a hold on the Democrats. I thought it was dying but I see both Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kendrick Meek, the two nationally prominent Democrats most implicated in the activities of the Cuban-American right, gaining national stature. She’s a rising power in the congressional caucus and he could wind up with the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. And it’s not like either of them has a huge Cuban-American population in their district. What’s it going to take to end the hold these people have on American politics?

Hello and welcome, Reese!

Reese, would you care to address the legal issues that stand in the way of the Cuban exiles’ fantasy of simply moving back into their great-grandfathers’ villas?

Breaking the power of the Cuba lobby will require:
1. grass roots efforts to force Congress and Obama to act. Pastors for Peace commit civil disobedience by breaking the embargo. Sister city officials in cities around the US want closer ties. Academics and musicians all want closer ties.

2. The business community will have to be better organized. If Cuba brings in a major oil find (as opposed to just geological surveys), US oil companies will want to participate in off shore drilling and will lobby hard to end the embargo.

3. Pressure on congress. Right now even reps from areas without large Cuban constitutencies can get away with ultra-rightist policies because Cuba is not a big issue. Ordinary people will have to make it a much bigger issue, with consequences for voting the wrong way.

What about the role of the sugar lobby? How does that tie in with Florida politics and with Cuban-American relations?

I interviewed a lot of Cubans in Miami. They say they don’t want to move back into the family house because it would be too disruptive. But they definitely want to get back the family business. They want to run the Cuban economy as they did before 1959, and / or get compensation for lost property. I doubt this will every happen, even if the US eventually lifts the embargo. The Cubans will tell the American government to handle these folks as an internal matter in the US.

Ahhhh, the sugar lobby. Remember free trade? The US is for free trade, right? Except when we impose a sugar quota and artifically boost the price of sugar grown in the US. Who benefits from this lack of competition? The Fanjul family, which owns much of the Florida sugar crop, benfits handsomely by its virtual monopoly.

Does that mean Lincoln Diaz-Balart doesn’t get to be president after Raul?

Lincoln Diaz Balart gets to be Cuban president, right after Glenn Beck becomes US president.

Reese, did you follow the congressional races in Miami-Dade this past year against the 3 right-wing Cuban-American congressmembers? It looks like Mario Diaz-Balart is especially vulnerable. And if the Democrats nominated a progressive to run against Lincoln Diaz-Balart– and maybe even someone who isn’t a crook– they might be able to get both of those two anomolies out of office. Or am I being overly optimistic?

It was intersting to me that after the Black Congressionl Congress visited Cuba last week, someone in the State Dept. leaked a 2 year old report accusing Cuban officials of poisoning the pets of US diplomats in Cuba. I think that’s an example of some cold warriors holding out at State to maintain the old policies towards Cuba. But it was a particularly bizzarre choice.

There was a lot of hope that Joe Garcia (Democrat) would beat Diaz Balart in one Congressional race. He lost by about 3%.

Interestingly, about 10% of the voters who voted for Obama didn’t cast a ballot for either Diaz Balart or Garcia. These were non Cubans (whites, blacks, other Latinos) who didn’t see their interests represented in the race. If Garcia had won over even a small number of those folks, and not taken such a hard line on Cuba, he might have won.

You think Garcia took too hard a line on Cuba? I was worried about that all during the race. I figured he was a savvy enough politician to know what he could get away with.

Is there a break between the really far right nutcases and the merely right-wingers in the Cuban-American community now? It looks like some of them have actually embraced Obama’s modest reforms. While the others are more hysterical. I’m sure you know that the Diaz-Balarts are Fidel Castro’s nephews by marriage (of their aunt, who travels to Cuba). Their cousin, Fidel’s son, is called Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart. What a joke that these people dictate American policy towards Cuba and sour our relations with the whole hemisphere!

Joe Garcia was a former leader of the Cuban American National Foudnation (CANF) and a die-hard anti-communist. He supported the idea of elimiinating prohibitions on Cuban American travel and remittances to Cuba. But otherwise, he was a strong supporter of the embargo, not having normal diplomatic relations, etc. I think that actually alienated non Cubans in his district who saw the race as a fight between two Cubans.

Yes the Diaz Balart brothers have a fascinating history. Their father was an official in the Batista government responsible for repression in the Inteior Ministry. So that’s why I have to laugh when the Cuban American right wingers protest human rights violations in Cuba. What about human rights in Miami?

Is their anyway of importing the “Cuban Revolution” to the shores of the U.S.? If there is any country in need of “liberation” it would seem to be the U.S.. But then maybe that’s what the teabaggers have in mind only a revolution of the far right. That’s change that the corporate media and the plutocracy can believe in.

To answer another part of your question:
Today 55% of Cubans in Florida oppose the US embargro, according to an authoritative poll by the Florida International University. I wrote an article interviewing Patty Khuly, whose uncle was shot down during the Brothers to the Rescue incident in 1996. She stood behind Clinton when he signed Helms Burton. But today she opposes the embargo. She reprsents the changing views in Florida.

Do you think the moves Obama made this week will help a Democrat win Martinez’s Senate seat or will it make it more easy for a Republican to replace him? How big a factor will it be in the 2010 election?

It is ironic that the far-right wing is now calling for revolution.
What’s next, flag burning?

I don’t believe revolution can be imported. Fidel and the July 26 Movemet couldn’t import their revolution from the USSR or China. In fact, the old, pro-Moscow Communist Party opposed the armed struggle in the early years. The 1959 revolution was indigenous and unique.

If fundamental change comes to US shores, it won’t wash up from Havana.

I’m not close enough to Florida Democrats to know if Obama has even thought that far ahead. It should be a seat that the Democrats can pick up, but the Cuba Lobby will exert tremendous prssure to pick somone who represents their views.

I guess Kendrick Meek will be their guy then. Which brings me to this: What do you know about how the Cuban American extremists funnel money into the camapign coffers of freshman Democrats in districts that don’t have a stake in Cuba?

If anyone is interested in reading the article about Patty Khuly and changing attitudes among Cubans in Miami, check out my article in TruthDig.

http://www.truthdig.com/report…..us_policy/

The Cuban American PAC, which propounds far-right views on Cuba, distributes money to every freshman representative who is willing to accept. The first donations start at the $5-10,000 level and go upward depending on future cooperation. That’s a lot of money for a congress person with no Cubans in their district.

This money goes to both Democrats and Republicans. It’s easy to sound anti-communist and stand for “freedom” in Cuba, and take the cash. They’ve bought a lot of friends with that money.

I was shocked when shallow GOP heartthrob (and purported closet case) Adam Schock came out so strongly against opening up even a little to Cuba yesterday. I mean his central Illinois district is EXACTLY the kind of district that would benefit most– with food and agricultural machinery to sell. It’s the home of Catepillar. But then it just looked like Schock was confused and mixing up free trade deals with normalizing trade. It actually looks like Republicans outside of Florida are ready to give up on the outdated policies towards Cuba easier than many Democrats. Do you know the details of how Wasserman Schultz and the Cuba-America Democracy PAC were able to sabotage Charlie Rangel’s bill not too long ago?

welcome back, reese. thank you howie for hosting.

reese, what would you like to see the cuba policy changed to?

The question was tongue in cheek. Fundamental change in the U.S. is nothing more than a pipe dream given the venal and corrupt nature of the political system that is contolled by corporations and big media.

Allow any American to travel to Cuba
End the trade embargo and sanctions
Remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism (a ridiculous fiction)
Restore full diplomatic relations.
End the preferential immigration policy that gives any Cuban landing in the US automatic track to citizenship and welfare benefits. Cubans should be treated like any other immigrant group.

Once the furor subsides from those moves,
Return Guantanamo to its rightful owners, the people of Cuba.

Thanks everyone,
It’s been a pleasure exchanging views with all of you.

Be sure to check out more about my book Dateline Havana at
http://www.reeseerlich.com

Reese Erlich

Sounds ultra-reasonable. Could you guess when that entire program will be implemented? Will it by during Obama’s first term?

thank you reese. that sounds so logical – i hope that is what our policy will be.

Thanks again for spending the time with us– twice in one week!

Folks who want to regain the right to travel to Cuba should be loudly applauding what President Obama did on Monday in authorizing unlimited Cuban American travel and remittances.

At the same time they should insist he use his power to give the same right to all Americans for non-tourist travel for educational, religious, humanitarian, cultural, sports and other people to people exchanges.

More information at http://archive.constantcontact…..09004.html

I think its pretty bold and insulting for the author to outright call one of our best Florida Congresswoman corrupt in a last and baseless sentance. I’m quite perplexed by this. Trust me firedoglake I’d choose Debbie Wasserman Schultz over you guys or almost anybody in the nation faster then you can say libel.

Its too bad I predict so many will sit and moan or call Obama names than recognizing this is quite the opportunity for Cubans and Cuban Americans to act on some of their desires to create change sobre la isla.

There are plenty of actually corrupt politicians in my area and I assure you would thank your lucky stars daily to have someone like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as a Congresswoman from your state no matter what side of the isle you were on.

Te amo Cuba. La gente aqui y allá.

Sinceramente,

El Pensador Independiente