By Laurence Iliff
The Dallas Morning News, 09/29/98
Many attending say now is time to strengthen ties
Cuba is rapidly transforming its socialist economy to be more in line with the rest of the world and is reaching out to Americans in hopes of ending 40 years of hostility, a top Cuban diplomat told an audience in Dallas on Monday.
"Over the years we have been promoting and will continue to promote greater ties between the Cuban people and the American people," said Fernando Remirez, the highest-ranking Cuban official in the United States. "We affirm Cuba's willingness to discuss any issue with the United States, and the only condition is respect, absolute respect, for our right to self-determination."
Mr. Remirez heads the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., which is the closest thing Cuba has to an embassy, given the lack of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations.
His keynote speech at the conference "Cuba in Evolution," sponsored by The Dallas Morning News, came amid an emotionally charged discussion among Cubans, Cuban-Americans, officials from both nations, and others with a wide variety of opinions about how to end the political stalemate between the two nations and encourage change in Cuba.
In light of the end of the Cold War, but particularly following Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in January, many at the conference said there was now a rare opportunity to build new bridges between the two countries, especially through dialogue.
"Five or six years ago, you might have seen Cuban-Americans saying they would talk with the Cuban people but not with the government," said Wayne Smith, a former U.S. diplomat to Cuba and a participant in Monday's session of the two-day conference. That is now changing, he said.
Others defended the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba, saying that the recently tightened economic sanctions are bringing about grudging change as they begin to take their toll on the government of Fidel Castro and his one-party state.
"If the policy is a relic, so is the Cuban regime" at which it is directed, said Daniel Fisk, who helped write the Helms-Burton bill, which severely tightened sanctions against Cuba in 1996. Mr. Fisk is a former aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C..
"U.S. policy seeks an end to the repressive state structure of Cuba," said Mr. Fisk. "Ending the embargo without significant political change remains the regime's Number 1 priority."
But Mr. Remirez, while side-stepping criticism of Cuba's political structure, said internal change is already taking place. He pointed to the revamping of the state-run economy after the breakup of the Soviet Union, which had pumped billions of dollars a year into Cuba during the Cold War standoff.
Dozens of foreign companies have developed joint ventures in the island nation, where the state once controlled 100 percent of the economy and even discouraged foreign tourists. Now, Mr. Remirez said, 1.4 million foreigners are expected to visit Cuba this year, a number that would rise to "3 or 4 million" if U.S. travel restrictions to his nation were lifted.
After the economic free fall of the early 1990s, when overall production fell by 35 percent, Cuba has had growth in every sector but sugar over the last three years, he said. The government has handed over most agricultural land to individual farmers or cooperatives and has cut defense spending in half since 1993. Military outlays now represent just 5 percent of the budget, he said.
He acknowledged, however, that Cubans remain poor and that the transformation of the economy is incomplete.
"We are trying to open and insert our nation into the world economy," said Mr. Remirez before a crowd of about 100 that included his U.S. counterpart in Cuba, Michael Kozak. The participation of both of these officials at a debate about Cuba is unprecedented.
At the same time, Mr. Remirez appealed to the Cuban exile community and the U.S. government to rethink nearly four decades of economic sanctions designed to bring about democratic change in the one-party state.
"We prefer to see the future and not remain in the past," said Mr. Remirez. "We hope that we're close to the day when the U.S. accepts Cuba as an independent and sovereign nation, and then we will have normal ties."
Some members of the Cuban exile community attending the event said they were ready to take Mr. Remirez up on his offer to talk.
"We are presented at this moment with a great moral decision," said Humberto Rodriguez, 80, who was born in Cuba before serving in the U.S. Army in World War II. "What's done is done. . . . Do you think it is possible that we can start a new process - please?" he said to the applause of the audience.
Others assailed the other Cuban official present Monday, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio of the Foreign Relations Ministry, during a panel discussion on U.S.-Cuba relations.
Nicolas Gutierrez, a Cuban exile from Miami, pointedly asked Mr. Fernandez de Cossio why Cuba had not held a democratic election in 40 years, why it confiscated private property after the 1959 revolution, and why it takes away the dollar-based wages from Cubans who work for foreign companies.
Pedro Rodriguez, a student at Southern Methodist University who fled Cuba in 1992, said 19 years under Mr. Castro had taught him that no population would choose such a system voluntarily. "Why would anyone impose on themselves laws that force them to work for the government?" he asked.
Mr. Fernandez de Cossio compared Cuba's political system to that of the United States - flawed but functional - and denied that the government was mistreating its workers.
"[Cuba] has a political system different from that existing in the United States," said the Havana-based official. "We also feel there are many practices in the United States that are not democratic."
Nonetheless, he said, both countries could coexist and even be friends.
"A relationship of peace and respect, that is our goal, that is our aim," said Mr. Fernandez de Cossio. "And if possible, for it also to be a friendly relationship."
The most optimistic among Monday's participants held out the possibility of that happening sooner rather than later, that Cuba and the United States would not have to suffer further decades of estrangement.
Alfredo Duran, a Miami lawyer and vice president of a moderate exile group, Cuban Committee for Democracy, said there was a new climate among Cubans both on the island and in the United States that could allow for what he called "national reconciliation."
He said the pope's words in January, "You should not fear change," fueled a new thinking in the exile community that formerly had been unspeakable: forgetting the past and "looking forward without hate and with forgiveness."
Such an attitude was also advocated by one of Mr. Castro's former foes, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, who fought alongside the Cuban leader during the revolution, only to turn on the regime and spend 25 years as a political prisoner.
"Now is the time, and now it is more urgent than ever," he said, "to lay to rest the rivalry and the division between all Cubans."
© 1998 The Dallas Morning News