The Obama administration’s foreign policy struggle with the Middle East — concerning a chaotic Libya, Saudi airstrikes and the blowback of incessant drone strikes (not you, Iran nuclear deal; keep on keeping on) — took a back seat this week to the so-far successful and front-page detente with Castro. So much so, in fact, the president’s daughters will be spending their Spring Break in Cuba.
It has been nine decades since President Calvin Coolidge, the last American president to visit the Caribbean nation, arrived to address the sixth Pan-American Conference. Cuba was a vastly different country then, its populace still beholden to the great influence of self-interested American diplomacy.
Now, almost a century later, the Castro regime has begun to open Cuban borders to American influence once again — certainly for the better, but potentially also for the worse.
Coinciding with President Obama’s arrival to the island were Havana protesters who sought to bring to light the decades of human rights abuses unabashedly committed by Castro regimes. Fifty of the dissidents were arrested just hours before the president landed. This is a plight Obama should not ignore during his visit.
In meeting with Castro, it’s a progressive president’s duty to recognize those protesting for the liberty of political prisoners and the rights of free speech and freedom of the press without the threat of totalitarian penalty. Obama must make sure his mission to ease tensions with Cuba, especially now in meeting with the despotic Castro regime, does not come across as insinuating U.S. complacency with the human rights abuses of the Cuban government. Here is a chance to win the trust of a number of Cuban citizens by showing interest in their empowerment — citizens who, for decades, have deeply mistrusted the U.S. government on different bases: some forced to, some wholeheartedly convinced by their state’s propaganda and yet others informed on the truly questionable practices of American foreign policy in the last several decades.
The restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba has also opened the island to American business. In particular, U.S. hoteliers are hungrily sizing up Cuba for the opportunities its beachfronts have to offer. While economic opportunity undoubtedly lies here for the people of Cuba, this type of venture needs to be monitored very closely.
Unfettered access to beachfronts across Cuba for U.S. hoteliers would wreak havoc on the pristine ecosystems that serve as a model of conservation for the world. Projects like beach dredging and condominium construction would most likely follow and, in turn, do unprecedented damage to reefs along the shoreline.
The importance of preserving the Cuban wild cannot be understated. While many other Caribbean nations have forsaken their ecologies, Cuba’s untouched wildernesses, inland and onshore have created an asylum for many rare species of migratory birds, fish and reptiles.
Furthermore, advances in medicine, deeper understandings of marine ecosystems and data for climate change are all possibilities Cuba can offer.
While economic growth is undeniably important for the poor people of Cuba, their rich and diverse lands should not be subject to destruction all for the next Atlantis hotel.
The U.S. has poisoned a great many of its own ecological riches. In the spirit of true progressiveness, here is a chance to make sure a potential new ally does not suffer the same fate.
Justin Ford is a UF journalism junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
