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by Luis Ortega
If we start from the premise that Cuba is an American protectorate and if we admit that Fidel Castro has risen against the metropolis, then we can understand what Clinton said in Buenos Aires. This idea of a protectorate is well embedded in the minds of most Cuban-Americans in Miami and above all it is an idea that is fundamental in the American political tradition.
Since 1898 to today, during 100 years, the US has dealt with Cuba as a colony. From McKinley to Clinton US presidents, one after another, have considered all Cubans as a bunch of clots unable to govern themselves.
Clinton has declared in Buenos Aires that his point of view about Cuba is the "Democracy Law". This is the one that was paid by Cuban Americans who belong to the Cuban American National Foundation and signed by Torricelli.
He likes this law. Why? Because it is a law designed for a colony: "As you behave a bit better, I will give you something to eat. "You open your doors for us to introduce my agents so I can begin to control you then I will treat you better a bit at a time . Now, if you shut your doors and you do not let me in, I will carry on punishing you."
Well, if we admit that Cuba has always been a colony, as the bulk of Miami Cubans and all US leaders from time immemorial think, then it is obvious that Clinton is right.
But what if there are people in Cuba and in the US that actually have arrived at the conclusion that Cuba has the right to its independence and that it does not have to accept to be treated as a colony? Why should the US Congress legislate for Cuba and for the rest of the world, as in the case of the Helm-Burton Law?
"There aren't many people who are on our side," Clinton admits. Of course, only Miami Cuban groups, who give him money for his political campaigns, are capable of backing a policy as brutal as the one followed by the US against Cuba.
"The ball is in Cuba's court, and if there were some signs that they will open up and change direction, I believe that the people in Miami, even those hard liners, who are responsible for this policy, would be open to see a different point of view."
This clearly means that US Policy towards Cuba is defined by those Cuban in Miami who are all American citizens. How is it that they are so influential? Simply because they pay. They paid for the Torricelli Law and they paid for the Helms-Burton Law and they gave money to Clinton, who is being investigated precisely because of the way he collects money.
This is immoral from any point of view. Not to forget that those Cuban groups, some of which are tightly linked to drug trafficking and money laundering, represent one of the most corrupt communities in the US.
Many have become rich at the margin of the law and with fraudulent acts. One can ask Mike Recarey or even Huber Matos's own son who run away with 5 million of Medicare's money. The corruption among these Cuban groups stinks to high heaven. And Clinton knows it. How is it possible that these groups are permitted to handle US policy towards Cuba?
It is absurd that Clinton should say, after one hundred years of abuse, that he does not know what motivates Castro!
The solution to the Cuban problem is very simple: Investigate and prosecute all those groups. Shut all White House doors to those dubious types and suspend immediately the war of attrition and genocide that is being carried out against the Cuban people, just as has been suggested by the UN, the Pope and the whole world.
Hands off Cuba and stop trying to legislate for Cuba from Washington. It is obvious that if there is no one to back you, as you just confessed, it is because you are wrong. The problem is not Castro. The problem is that the US has been mistreating that island for over 100 years.
(Article courtesy of El Nuevo Miami Post, 29 October 1997)