By Brian Carnell

Thursday, March 22, 2001

The United Nations' Human Rights Commission is presently meeting in Geneva and one of the issues it will take up is a resolution condemning Cuba's human rights record. Last year a resolution highlighting Cuba's longstanding human rights problems infuriated Fidel Castro and the dictator is busy lobbying to derail the proposed resolution.

Cuba maintains that the real human rights violation is the U.S. embargo of the island nation. The obvious compromise in that situation would be to condemn both Castro and the embargo, though the United States, not surprisingly, has been strongly lobbying against any resolution that would criticize the embargo.

But conservative opponents of Cuba don't need to take Castro's word that the embargo is a bad idea -- all they need to do is listen to Cuban dissidents who seem to have a much better grasp of free, open markets than their alleged defenders in the United States.

The BBC notes that after Cuba formally allowed the dollar to be used as currency, Cuba began heading toward a two tier economy divided between foreign workers and others who have access to dollars and the rest of Cuba which only has access to the highly devalued Cuban peso. As dissident economist Oscar Espinosa tells the BBC, this two tier system undermines Castro and reveals the problems with Cuba's centrally planned economy,

The government knows that when a person is free economically, or at least a little freer economically, then he has greater political freedom. So that's why it's trying to close those openings. There is a contrast because the foreigners here have all the opportunities...every day the foreign investments are growing... I'm not for or against foreign investment or the tourist industry, what I'm against is the discrimination against Cubans.

Lifting the embargo and resuming trade with Cuba would drastically accelerate this trend. Already it is apparent that rising prosperity and market reforms in China are beginning to erode the Communist Party's authority in that nation, especially by emboldening reform-minded individuals within the Party. Ditching the embargo would have much the same effect on Cuba, with liberalization of the regime likely to occur much faster given Castro's age and the dominant role that trade with the United States would likely quickly come to play in the underdeveloped Cuban economy.

Republicans in Congress and the White House should actually stand up for free trade and unilaterally end the embargo against Cuba as soon as possible.

Cuba's local dissidents speak out. The BBC, March 19, 2001.

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