Emilio González - Cuba Transition Project - University of Miami

I wish to thank the organizers of this conference, the University of Miami, theUniversidad de Belgrano and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, for organizing such atimely and important gathering such as this. The subject of Cuba is one that inflamespassions on all sides of the political spectrum. Honorable people can disagree ondifferent aspects of Cuba’s role in the international political arena as well as Cuba’sdomestic political model, but only the most partisan of these can negate the totalitariannature of the Castro Government. In my view Cuba is not a Republic, it is not a Socialiststate, it is not a nationalist revolution and it is not an experiment in tropical Marxism. Incommercial terms, Cuba is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a small band of aging antidemocraticrevolutionaries that manage the affairs of state much like GeneralissimoTrujillo of the Dominican Republic or General Somoza of Nicaragua. There are no clearlines that distinguish when the Castro cabal stops and when government institutionsbegin.In a hemispheric context, Fidel Castro’s Cuba is a stain on the wave of democraticgovernments now flourishing, an insult to all of our collective consciences. It is withinthis context that the United States has established a decades-long policy of supportdemocracy while isolating Cuba’s anti-democratic leaders thus denying them theresources with which to foment political instability around the world.For over four decades, the policy of the government of the United States ofAmerica (U.S.) towards Cuba has been dominated by a bipartisan consistency both in theexecutive and legislative braches of the U.S. government. Since the enactment of the U.S.trade embargo and other sanctions toward Cuba in the early 1960’s to the results ofCommission for Assistance to a Free Cuba implemented by the George W. Bushadministration in 2004, all policies towards the country’s communist regime have beensupported by both Democratic and Republican administrations.One of the most important aspects of the policy of the U.S. government vis-à-visCuba is to promote a peaceful transition to a democratic regime that respects individualrights and the democratic process. The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 (CDA), forexample, states that it should be the policy of the United States to seek a peacefultransition to democracy and a resumption of economic growth in Cuba through the1