Thanks to WikiLeaks, we have been reminded about the obsession of Washington administrations with involving countries in the Caribbean/Latin American region in helping “promote democracy” in Cuba.
More than half a century after the Cuban revolution, America remains obsessed by its terribly flawed policies on that Caribbean nation.
Last Tuesday’s DAILY NATION, in reporting on exposures of United States diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, cited Barbados among countries of the Eastern Caribbean urged by American diplomats to “encourage” Havana towards “democracy and improved human rights”.
While this at first may seem harmless, it’s clearly an expression of disapproval (follow the diplomatic cables) with CARICOM’s foreign policy objectives in relation to Cuba.
Just last week, when Cuba marked the 35th anniversary of the horrific Cubana tragedy in which all 73 people on board perished, it was once again revealed during memorial activities that declassified official United States documents had confirmed what had already been widely reported, in and out of America, that the two identified terrorists, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, were masterminds of that unprecedented act of terrorism in the Caribbean.
Documented evidence of their training and funding by the United States Central Intelligence Agency was offered in separate formal petitions by Cuba (country of birth) and Venezuela (country of acquired citizenship) in seeking their extradition to face trial for their roles in the Cubana tragedy.
But despite extradition treaties with those countries, the United States never initiated action to bring to trial either Bosch (who recently died in the United States), or Posada (freed on April 8 of the mere offence of “illegal entry” via Florida) for involvement in the Cubana bombing.
Those in our midst who like to rationalize or, worse, apologize for often arrogant interferences by the United States in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries, among them CARICOM members, should perhaps familiarize themselves with the painful reminders by former President Jimmy Carter on how successive administrations in Washington have “endangered our values”.
The title of his very informative book (Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis) of five years ago focused on serious flaws in United States foreign policy, which he has analyzed in the context of America’s moral crisis.
“American policy toward our entire hemisphere,” noted Carter, “has been misshaped by this (Cuban) obsession”.
