- The Democracy Virus

Ever since Barack Obama made his statements supporting the elimination of the restrictions on Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and send money to their relatives still living on the island, we have been bombarded by news stories and editorials supporting the presidential candidate’s ideas. Although he and others have toned down their anti-embargo rhetoric somewhat, Obama’s premise is nothing new—he rehashes the same flawed logic that more interaction with “free” individuals and more influx of hard currency will somehow infect the oppressed Cuban population with the Democracy Virus and bring about the end of totalitarian rule on the island.

This hypothesis, which is the nucleus of almost every embargo detractor’s argument, sounds great on paper: Infect the subjugated population of a communist dictatorship with capitalist ideals and luxuries and sooner, rather than later, the dictatorship will have to enact massive reforms which will eventually lead to a democracy. If only life was so simple.

Millions of tourists from “free” countries have injected tens of billions (if not hundreds) of foreign currency into Cuba’s communist economy. Unless Euros, Pound Notes and Canadian dollars lack this miraculous Democracy Virus that is the cure-all for Cuba’s oppressed masses, I fail to see how US dollars will achieve what hundreds of billions of foreign currency has not. Nevertheless, the Barack Obamas and Chris Dodds of the world continue to promote their faulty plan. The US’s decades long embargo has achieved nothing, they say, so we must do something different. Well, the decades long influx of tourists from democratic countries spending capitalist currency has also achieved nothing. If fact, it has entrenched the despotic regime further by giving it the currency it requires to maintain a police state.

This insistence on replacing the supposedly ineffective US policy towards Cuba with another ineffective policy begs the question: Just what do they hope to achieve by trading with a tyrant? The answer is obvious—more business and more money for American agricultural and tourism industries. And that is just the beginning; imagine how cheaply goods could be produced in Cuban factories using the regime’s slave-labor pool and the incredible savings on shipping. Imagine the revenues Wall Street would generate financing new business ventures on the island. The list of benefits to the US goes on and on, but the list of benefits to the Cuban people still suffering under tyranny remains ominously empty.

At the end of the day, this philosophy of change is not about the cause of freedom for Cuba and it is not about helping an historic friend and neighbor regain its independence and liberty; it is about US interests cashing in. Their portrayal of sincere concern for the plight of the Cuban people is as mythical as the Democracy Virus they claim will save the island.