“I am Castro.”
Until yesterday, we knew what they did but not what was said.
According to Cuba’s former president, Fidel Castro, when the Presidents of the United States and Cuba shook hands in South Africa ten days ago, Raúl Castro spoke to Barack Obama in English: “Mr. President, I am Castro.”
These were not the ten days that shook the world, so why is this event still gripping us?
We can appreciate the impact it had in Cuba. As we described last week, Cubans reacted strongly because they did not expect Mr. Obama to offer his Cuban counterpart the recognition and respect that his greeting conveyed.
After all, a handshake is the physical manifestation of equality; quite literally, no one has the “upper-hand.”
To Cubans – after being marginalized and snubbed by a virtual conga line of eleven American presidents – this gesture offered hope.
That hope may be optimistic, since the two presidents who have done this (Bill Clinton offered a similar greeting to Fidel Castro in 2000) shook with one hand but enforced the embargo, quite aggressively at times, with the other.
U.S. Presidents shake hands with foreign leaders all the time. But, here in the U.S., Americans are paying close attention to this story. Why? Cuba interests us. More Cubans live in our country than any place on Earth outside of the island itself. And yet, Cuba is a forbidden fruit. Most Americans can’t travel there. Most businesses can’t sell there.
Many Americans may not know the Helms-Burton law, which makes it impossible for a president to recognize Cuba unless it forms a transitional government that “does not include Fidel Castro or Raúl Castro.”
But that statute enshrines our isolation from Cuba into law – an isolation that can only end with an Act of Congress – an isolation that will continue when the Cuban government celebrates its 54th anniversary in power on January 1, 2014.
The law is not just a warmed-over Cold War anachronism, it locks us into a strategic error that really hurts U.S. interests.
If we ever hope to end the stalemate between our two governments, and begin a process that seeks to resolve the problems that divide us, the most meaningful agreement we can reach will be negotiated by the man who said “I am Castro,” as reported by his older brother.
No name in Cuba, no bureaucrat who succeeds them, will have the historic credibility to sign an agreement that the United States finds acceptable and make it stick.
If we do not talk now, because the hardliners who wrote Helms-Burton – or the hardliners of today – force us to wait for what some call a “biological solution,” until both Castros leave the scene, our government will be waiting for a favorable solution to this problem for a long, long time to come.
You will not be hearing from us again until January 10th. We hope you enjoy our break with a happy celebration of your own.