• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 07 / 2010

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The half-century-old Cuban trade embargo has seen better days.

The collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago undermined the Cold War rationale for the effort. International and domestic support steadily eroded.

Even Bay of Pigs veteran Francisco J. Hernandez, head of the hard-line Cuban American National Foundation, last year undercut the once-sacred embargo, not calling for ending it but calling it "a symbol'' and "not something that is that important anymore."

But you're in very deep trouble when none other than Soldier of Fortune magazine blasts the embargo in an article headlined Fifty Years of Failure: Petrified U.S. Policy Toward Cuba."

Worse, the lead author of the piece, coming out in the October issue, is Jay Mallin, a former Latin America reporter for the
Washington Times and news director of Radio Marti during the Reagan administration. (His co-author is former Miami Herald Latin America editor Don Bohning, who covered Cuba and the region for many years.)

The embargo "is essentially an absurdity that accomplishes nothing."

On the international front, the United Nations has regularly condemned the embargo. Last year's cliff-hanger vote was 187 to 3 -- the United States, Israel and Palau (although key allies Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained).

The Organization of American States, which kicked Cuba out in 1962, invited the Cubans back in, they note. Cuba declined.

The authors include a list of lesser-publicized matters. For example, "U.S. appliances and such are sold to Cuba by other trading nations, such as Panama."

And it's not as if the two governments aren't cooperating on a number of matters, Mallin and Bohning write, including immigration and the Navy base at Guantanamo.

After the BP oil disaster, "U.S. and Cuban officials conferred on the potential oil threat to Cuba." In addition, "U.S. and Cuban coast guards coordinate on anti-drug operations" and "military personnel recently held joint maneuvers in an anti-drug exercise. Helicopters from the two sides flew over each other's jurisdictions."

In recent years, agriculture and business groups have been increasingly opposed. A business group from Virginia went there recently. (And look for Obama administration action, after Congress leaves town, to loosen travel restrictions.)

By Al Kamen
Friday, August 6, 2010; A16

Source: www.washingtonpost.com/