In Cuba, Hopeful Tenor Toward Obama Is Ebbing
Tom Davos
In Cuba, Hopeful Tenor Toward Obama Is Ebbing - NYTimes.com
HAVANA b The Obama honeymoon here is over.
Jose Goitia for The New York Times
A billboard in Havana in 2004 placed President George W. Bush
alongside Adolph Hitler.
When President Obama came to office, the unflattering billboards
of George W. Bush, including one outside the United States Interests
Section of him scowling alongside Hitler, came down and the
anti-American vitriol softened. RaC:l Castro, who took over from
his ailing brother Fidel in 2006, even raised the possibility of a
face-to-face meeting with Mr. Obama, which would have been the first
time one of the Castros met with a sitting American president.
But the tenor here has changed considerably, and Mr. Obama, whose
election was broadly celebrated by Cubabs racially diverse population,
is now being portrayed by this nationbs leaders as an imperialistic,
warmongering Cuba hater.
bAs things appear now, there will be no big change in the relationship
in the near future,b said Ricardo AlarcC3n, the president of Cubabs
National Assembly. He dismissed the Obama administrationbs recent
steps, like loosening restrictions on Cuban Americansb traveling
or sending money to the island and allowing American telecommunications
companies to do business there, as bminor changes.b
The two countries have postponed the talks they restarted at the
beginning of the Obama administration to discuss migration, postal
delivery and other issues, blaming each other for the delays. In
the absence of talks, Mr. Obamabs carrot-and-stick approach of
relaxing some Bush-era policies while continuing to denounce the
Castro government on human rights has failed to engage b and perhaps
has enraged b the Cuban leadership.
While RaC:l Castro repeated the offer to meet with Mr. Obama in a
fiery speech recently, he also blasted the Obama administration for
bundercover subversionb against Cuba and warned that his nation was
ready for any American invasion. In one of his recent written
commentaries in the state press, Fidel Castro, who has not appeared
in public in nearly three years, wrote that Mr. Obamabs bfriendly
smile and African-American faceb masked his sinister intentions to
control Latin America.
Foreign Minister Bruno RodrC-guez Parrilla also recently accused
Mr.
Obama of behaving like an bimperial chiefb at the climate change
talks in Copenhagen, displaying barrogantb behavior aimed at quashing
developing countries.
bItbs unfortunate,b Wayne S. Smith, a former American diplomat in
Havana, said of the rising tensions. bThere was and still is potential
for the Obama administration to change relations with Cuba. These
comments coming out of Havana donbt help.b
Mr. Obama is the 11th president from what the Cubans call bEl
Imperio,b or bThe Empire,b that the Castros have jousted with since
the revolution a half century ago. And given that the Cubans have
used Washington as a foil for so long, some of the high-voltage
criticism of Mr. Obama is chalked up by some Cuba analysts as merely
Havanabs normal stance when it comes to the United States. It is
only a matter of time before the first anti-Obama billboard goes
up, some experts speculate.
Mr. AlarcC3n, the National Assembly president, did give Mr. Obama
credit for using language that is bmore peaceful, and civilized and
openb than his predecessor. But he said that it was clear to him
that the White House was too distracted with other issues to make
Cuba a priority.
Others in the Cuban government take matters further, maintaining
that Mr. Obama, despite some initial steps toward rapprochement,
has continued to follow the Bush administrationbs goal of toppling
the Communist leadership. bIn the last few weeks we have witnessed
the stepping up of the new administrationbs efforts in this area,b
RaC:l Castro told Cubabs National Assembly during its annual session
on Dec.
19. bThey are giving new breath to open and undercover subversion
against Cuba.b
He was referring to the detention this month of an American contractor
distributing cellphones, laptops and satellite equipment in Cuba
on behalf of the Obama administration. The Cubans have accused the
contractor, whose identity has not been made public, of giving the
equipment to civil society groups in Cuba without permission. For
its part, the Obama administration complains that RaC:l Castro is
running the island exactly like his brother did, without fundamental
freedoms and with continued abuses against political opponents. But
Cuban officials say Washingtonbs insistence on more democracy in
Cuba continues an old pattern of meddling in their countrybs sovereign
affairs.
bIf the American government really wants to advance relations with
Cuba, I recommend they leave behind the conditions of internal
governance that they are trying to impose on us and that only Cubans
can decide,b RaC:l Castro said in his assembly speech.