Scott Powers
The Cuba that President Barack Obama intends to visit next month could feature streets teaming with genuinely grateful and eager people – or a street show carefully orchestrated through fear by a still-oppressive and all-powerful government.
Those were the pictures drawn Friday by Ralph Patino, founder of Cuba Now and an advisor to Obama on Cuban relations; and by Mauricio Claver-Carone, executive director of the Cuba Democracy Advocates; during a debate sponsored by the Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida.
The debate between the two Cuba polar-opposit experts and lawyers sparked into anger and name-calling at times, demonstrating the deep-seated differences that divide those who support and oppose a new American engagement with Cuba.
Obama stunned the world on Dec. 17, 2014, when he announced sweeping efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. And on Thursday he announced he and First Lady Michelle Obama would visit the country March 21-22, the first presidential visit in more than 80 years.
The Tiger Bay Club had a heads-up on the presidential trip last year, when Patino said he expected it to happen, said club president Eddie Fernandez. So Fernandez added, “It’s no coincidence we’re having this meeting in February.”
Patino, who has visited Cuba numerous times while helping secure the release of Alan Gross and to lay groundwork for Obama’s new Cuban engagement program, insisted that Cuba is ready for major change. He accused Claver-Carone of living in the 1990s and abandoning the hopes of many of Cuba’s 12 million people.
Patino, of Miami, described a Cuba where openness is flowering, where cell phones, capable of calling Miami or Orlando, are now everywhere, and where people appeared to him to be overjoyed at the prospect that the United States would open commerce, tourism and diplomacy after 54 years of embargo.
“Mr. Castro, tear down that wall. Let us engage. Let us help your people. Let us be in economy,” Patino said. “When Obama arrives on March 21 he’s being met by 1 million Cuban people. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a big difference than what was happening under Fidel Castro in 1992.”
He criticized Claver-Carone for not visiting Cuba to see for himself how much and how quickly it is changing. Claver-Carone, though, pointed out he couldn’t even if wanted to, because Cuba would never issue a visa to a critic like him.
“What Obama’s moves have been since the Dec. 17, and what this trip will cap off is an expectation of the Cuban people for a better quality of life,” Patino said. “For those of you that are on the fence, what I would do is actually get on a plane and go see for yourself, and you reach your own conclusions on what would help the Cuban people.
Claver-Carone, formerly of Orlando, accused Patino of selling a false “hope and change” agenda for Cuba and of playing money and legitimacy into the hands of a Castro regime he said has only increased oppression and control, emboldened by Obama’s blessing.
“Why is oppression increasing? Because nobody cares,” he said. “Because essentially Obama is saying, ‘Hey you know what? The month after the most oppressive month in decades, I’m going to go down there to hang out with you.'”
He described a Cuba where fresh crackdowns on the opposition have reached levels not seen since the 1990s, where a new exodus is occurring out of panic, and where the military intelligence apparatus set up by Fidel and Raul Castro controls everything, just outside the view of visitors.
Consequently, he suggested people not bother going to Cuba to check things out for themselves.
“If you think this is, “Hey, I’m just going to be tourists, look at the ’57 Chevys, look at the people.’ … That’s not the real Cuba,” he said.
2 comments
Maria S. Angulo, MD
February 19, 2016 at 8:04 pm
Clavel-Carone stated one reason he had not gone to Cuba is that the Cuban government has his name on a list of people to whom a visa won’t be granted. Since 12/17/2014 when Obama declared that he was opening relations with Cuba, the Cuban people realized that the Cuban Adjustment Act was going to be modified or do away with, this would imply that Cubans coming over were not going to receive all the benefits that they are getting now, Remaining in Cuba was not an answer because they knew there was going to be a very small change. All the business that Mr. Patiño is talking about will be done with the Cuban government, not with the people. Any industry that American companies are planning to start in Cuba will be able to hire Cuban through the Cuban government which in turn will pay the workers a minimal amount as it has been doing all along even with physicians that it has sent abroad.
There was no name calling in this debate, which was characterized for its civility and cordiality in spite of the different views that the two participants were expressing.
M.L. Barbosa
February 19, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I am totally confused about this article as I attended this debate today sponsored by The Tiger Club and did not hear or interpret some of the points that I have read herein. Firstly, I found the debate very informative (so did three other attendees at my table), and we NEVER heard or perceived what you mentioned “sparked into anger and name-calling at times”. Furthermore, you state that each of the two lawyers “accused” each other of certain issues that are also not true. We never heard any accusations, rather two very different points of views – one on Claver-Carone’s part with actual facts, and the other on Patiños side with lots of “hopes and wishes”. But in reading this article I find that the facts were misconstrued and it is sad for those not in attendance to read something which is far from reality. I don’t understand your reasoning for not informing the truth, but I can assure you that it is also my belief that with the Cuban government this “opening” will not work because they have enjoyed – an amassed a fortune! – with citizens of other countries around the world during the entire 57 years that the Castros have been in power and it has not worked. Additionally, since the announcement of the opening in December 2014, there has been more repression, arrests, tortures, than in the past. I have family in Cuba and I am told that the situation gets worse each day and the only hope that the civil society had was in the USA and with this President Obama’s actions, their hope have indeed lessened because now the population feel that there is no one they can turn to. That is the real reason why thousands of Cuban are fleeing the country again.
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