THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
More U.S. Navy ships set sail from Norfolk yesterday to deal with an apparently undiminished flow of Cuban refugees one week after President Clinton announced his plan for ``de-magnetizing'' the United States for Cuban refugees. Unfortunately, the administration appears to have learned nothing from the Haiti debacle. The administration's Cuba policy seems designed to punish the Cuban people rather than Fidel Castro.
The administration has announced the ``indefinite'' detention of Cuban refugees in American or foreign camps. It has also said it will cut off dollar remittances by Cuban-Americans and end ``family reunification'' flights, both of which are designed to turn the screws on the Cuban dictator. The idea seems to be that drying up the $500 million or so sent annually by Cuban-Americans to their relatives back home will either force Castro to open his system or face a poverty-maddened population taking to the streets.
Of course, all this has already been tried in Haiti, and Gen. Raul Cedras seems unimpressed. There is also the possibility that as the flow of dollars stops, even more Cubans will flee: Those remittances are all that allow ordinary people to buy their necessities on the black market.
Moreover, the Clinton policy in Cuba has about it the same constituency-driven aroma that permeated the Haiti policy. There is no clear connection between ends and means. How long is the administration prepared to let the refugees languish in camps before a free Cuba is achieved?
As we have said before, lifting the economic embargo, completely or selectively, would deprive Castro of his favorite excuse for his own economic failures. (In his long television stemwinder Wednesday night, Castro blamed the embargo again.)
The president could dispatch an envoy to Cuba to explain our new policy and demand that Castro hold free elections. Even if the Bearded One refuses to receive the envoy, or won't listen to what he/she says, he is then on the spot as the obstacle to change. President Clinton could also publicly recognize and encourage the handful of Cuban dissidents.
As on so much else with his foreign policy, the president tends to behave tactically rather than strategically. Instead of tinkering with refugee policy, he should be leading the hemisphere on a pro-democracy offensive designed to remove the reason people are fleeing in the first place. by CNB