WikiLeaks Offers Info on Cuba

All the WikiLeaks attention so far has been on Afghanistan, but apparently there is some serious information about Cuba in the dump as well. The Miami Herald, relying heavily on Spain's El Pais, reports that Raul Castro apparently wanted to open secret talks in 2009, but that the administration seems more interested in waiting the Castro regime out and dealing with the next generation of Cubans.

Sadly, this likely means the administration is satisfied with the status quo regardless of any actions Raul Castro is willing to take, but it also shows an envisioned future of open relations with Cuba.

But the most important part of the glimpse at the cables is understanding the realistic philosophies regarding Cuban relations. As I have noted before, the political posturing around Cuba has always been far to catered for extremists within a politically-active population of Castro-haters in South Florida.

The cables seem to show the biggest motivation for limiting communication channels between the White House and the Castros is that the ruling family is becoming increasingly irrelevant within Cuba. That is valuable information, apparently based on ground assessments and revelations that the younger blogger class on the island is increasing filled with dissent. While I personally wish the State department would more earnestly begin good faith talks about ending the embargo, there does seem to be interest in changing the status quo. That seemed to be upheld by further reporting beyond the WikiLeaks dump.

From the Herald:
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State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that U.S. and Cuban diplomats are in touch routinely, but ``a broader, higher-level dialogue . . . will only be feasible once we see real change in Cuba. . . . We have not seen anything approaching fundamental change.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/17/1977391/cuba-sought-secret-channel-to.html#ixzz18OM96txz
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Crowley, by the end of his statement, falls back onto the stick-in-the-mud rhetoric that every White House since Kennedy has chosen to adopt, but his words are not inconsistent with cables which suggest that "real change" may be on its way within the population of regular Cubans rather than the ruling class.

The documents seem to indicate an irritation on the part of the administration that rulers in Cuba only want to open U.S. talks so that U.S. aid can start coming to the island. This is the first time such a frank assessment has come to public light, and while it seems a bit petty, it also offers a genuine justification for the diplomatic recalcitrance that the administration has held onto.

The cables also indicate that the message mostly likely to spur change within Cuba is not a promise of improvements on the human rights front, the main focus of Cuban dissidents in the U.S., but on the opportunities for personal prosperity which come with open travel and communication with the outside world. Turns out they aren't that different from normal Americans, and are most easily wooed with a chance to get rich quick.

I would like to see what Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart, David Rivera and Bill Nelson have to say about these cables. I hope this leads to something constructive. It may lead to more brutish political statements intended to appease our own older generation Cuban critics. But I hope the revelations made public in these cables encourages a more honest conversation on how to move forward with Cuba.