There are two aspects of this Cuba-US thaw which need to be emphasized. One is that if Latin American governments had pressured Cuba over the decades to make some concessions this might have happened sooner. Carter tried, Clinton tried, Bush senior tried. They all, left, right, extreme right, whatever, put the burden of concession exclusively on the US while the Cuban regime wallowed in its victim status and basked in the glow of benevolence from all save the extreme right in the US. (In his memoirs Fernando Henrique Cardoso dares to recall a private dinner with numerous Latin American leaders when finally someone expressed his exasperation and asked Fidel till when were they going to have to defend his dictatorial ways - but was just a passing moment.) In short anti-Americanism is the easiest - and of course the most hypocritical - card to play in Latin America, still. Lula studiedly and pointedly ignored and snubbed the human rights protestors (the Women in White) who demonstrated during one of his visits to Cuba as President. But this sort of behaviour has not been a monopoly of the left. The other important point is that this is happening when US-Venezuelan relations are getting worse and worse (and the oil price has collapsed). The thaw was announced almost at the same moment as the US Congress was engaging (without opposition from Obama, signifcantly) in another piece of gesture politics by sanctioning some individuals in the Venezuelan government. It is very striking indeed that neither party allowed this to interfere with their agreed scenario.This must surely mean either that Cuba reckons it has little more to expect in material support from Venezuela,or that the government has concluded like everyone else that Chavismo and Maduro are utterly chaotic and useless whatever their rhetoric may want to say.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:07:50 +0000
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