Engaging Cuba in the Post-Castro Era
MasTec recently became the first Cuban American-created company to join the Fortune 500 list of largest publicly traded companies in America, ranking at 428. Joining the list is a milestone for the company founded by the late Cuban exile Jorge Mas Canosa and for the larger Cuban American community which has worked its way up and into the fabric of American business, politics, and culture. The success story of MasTec stands in stark contrast to the reality that continues to exist in Cuba today.
Despite the legalization of some private businesses and a growing number of self-employed entrepreneurs or cuentapropistas in Cuba, the economy is still state-led and there continue to be stories about private businesses opening, but then getting shut down by the government when they get “too successful.” One Cuban man’s private restaurant or paladar was shuttered recently for this reason: He said the government’s tax code does not allow for tiered tax collection, so the government simply closed the business. Rather than facilitating the tourists’ and Cubans’ growing demand for services, the Cuban government wants to contain and control it. The Castro-era is over, but the Cuban government still does not promote private enterprise, entrepreneurship, or innovation in Cuba.
The new Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel took over for Raúl Castro in April, but little has changed so far, and frankly, not much was expected of him. Even just a couple of months before the transition from the “historical leadership” of the 1959 Cuban Revolution to the next generation, average Cubans from Havana to Matanzas knew very little about Castro’s hand-picked successor, Díaz-Canel. In fact, Díaz-Canel’s ascension to the presidency was met largely with a yawn from Cubans and Americans alike — ironic really, considering the incredible amount of time, money, and energy the U.S. government has put into ousting the Castro brothers since the 1960s.
Cubans say they want the pace of change in Cuba to be as scripted and calibrated as the transition of leadership. In a recent 2018 visit to Cuba, one Cuban woman said, “We want change, but we want incremental change.” This echoes sentiments voiced in 2015 following the diplomatic opening between the United States and Cuba announced by former President Obama and Raúl Castro. It is not nearly fast enough for us, but Cubans want the transition to a more open political economy to be slow and steady. They want to preserve the Revolution’s legacy of equality, even as they begin to address the need for domestic policy changes, namely monetary policy, uniting the dual currency system, updating the tax code, tackling the inefficiencies of state-owned enterprises, expanding access to the internet, and attracting foreign investment to boost economic growth.
It is too soon to tell if Díaz-Canel will have enough autonomy from Raúl Castro, who remains head of the Cuban Communist Party until 2021, to make any real changes to the economy or political system. Most observers believe that Díaz-Canel will not have enough independence until he begins his second term in 2023 and Raúl Castro is finally out of a leadership role. But in a big departure from the Castro approach, press coverage of the new president meeting with factory workers, garbage truck drivers, high school students, and even grieving family members following a recent airplane disaster indicates that Díaz-Canel wants to be more in touch with the Cuban people’s daily plights and opinions.
At the same time, Díaz-Canel met recently with U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, providing evidence that he believes political dialogue and engagement with the United States is good for Cuba, even as the Trump Administration has made no effort to engage. Since taking office, President Trump has limited further dialogue and cooperation by painting the Obama opening to Cuba as a “bad deal,” drawing down U.S. embassy personnel following the mysterious “sonic attacks” he blamed on Cuba, and setting out new restrictions on American trade and travel to Cuba. This is a missed opportunity and a retreat to an antiquated U.S. policy of economic isolation and regime change that failed demonstrably for decades. A policy of isolation today just increases the likelihood of Cuba turning to Moscow (again) or Beijing for support. Furthermore, continuing to isolate a country like Cuba that is no longer a national security threat, while engaging with North Korea, is inconsistent policy at best.
A better way forward would be to engage Cuba. Congress should lift the U.S. embargo. 73 percent of Americans believe we should, and this would actually hasten the rate of change in Cuba that Americans want to see. The overarching objective of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba should be to help the Cuban people and to empower them to seek political and economic change for themselves. We know Cuba is not going to change overnight; thus, the strategic goal should be long-term change under the new generation of post-Castro leadership. Then we can begin to look for a brighter future for Cuba, when U.S. engagement will be the norm, successful business stories for Cubans in Cuba are as common as they are for Cuban Americans here, and hard-working, innovative entrepreneurs are driving growth and development on the island.
Amanda Mattingly is a Managing Director at The Arkin Group and a Security Fellow with Truman National Security Project. She previously served as a foreign affairs officer at the State Department. English Norman is a small business owner who traveled to Cuba in 2016 and February 2018. Views expressed are their own.
