Congress certainly wants to turn up the heat. This week it is expected to pass a measure that would strengthen the U.S. trade embargo by prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba. In Miami, hardline Cuban exile leaders are pushing a stronger sanctions proposal. It would impose fines on U.S. firms whose foreign subsidiaries trade with Cuba and would prohibit U. . aid to the Soviet Union until it cuts off all military and economic assistance. Says Cuban-American National Foundation chairman Jorge Mas Canosa: “We have to do something to shorten the time that Castro is left in power.”
For the moment, the White House wants no part of tougher action. It points out that the U.S. list of grievances against Castro is getting shorter by the day. With the Angolan war settled and left-wing revolutionaries on the run all over the world, what is left are human-rights abuses and Castro’s refusal to hold free elections-not issues the United States normally goes to war over. Any intervention beyond the current, widely flouted trade embargo would look like yanqui imperialism to other countries in the region–not to mention the Cubans who might lead a new government. A military strike could cause another exodus of refugees to Miami. In time, the administration maintains, the Castro regime will simply fall of its own weight. “The idea is to encourage contacts that could lead to peaceful change, not violent overthrow,” said one U.S. official. “We are not fostering rebellion in Cuba,”
While Bush lies low, one of his closest friends in the hemisphere is quietly working on Castro. NEWSWEEK has learned that the Cuban leader flew to Venezuela in July for secret consultations with President Carlos Andres Perez. And last August Castro quietly received Venezuela’s foreign minister. Backed by Spain and Mexico, Perez is urging Castro to accept some kind of emeritus status in his country while an interim government conducts elections. Yet so far, Castro “simply will not listen long enough for these efforts to have any effect,” says a Latin diplomat. A major congress of the Cuban Communist Party this week is expected to impose only cosmetic change: minor market reforms and the token appointment of a prime minister. Says a senior Venezuelan official: “Castro still thinks he can overcome all this.”
Perez argues that Bush can do the most good by forgoing harsher trade measures and letting time and gentle diplomacy take their course. If the United States drops its “policy of harassment” against Cuba, he says, the country stands a better chance “to evolve democratically as it accepts the new world realities.” But that approach will be hard for many in Congress and the Cuban exile community to swallow. And if Castro doesn’t budge, they are going to insist more loudly that Bush step up and push him.
