McCaffrey Calls for New Approach to Cuba

Four-Star Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (ret), has called for "a new approach to Cuba" including "decisive and rational efforts to bring Cuba back into full engagement with the economic and political dynamics of the Americas." McCaffrey, now Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at West Point, has served as SouthCom Commander in charge of U.S. forces in Latin America and also was U.S. National Drug Policy Director.

In an op-ed in the Miami Herald this week, McCaffrey stated, "The Obama administration has made an excellent first step to eliminate some restrictions on travel to the island, loosen constraints on remittances, and re-engage in migration talks. Broader contact and leverage with Cuba through additional commercial and people-to-people contacts will in time help promote a more pluralistic, less impoverished, more open society.

"While President Obama's incremental changes in policy toward Cuba are positive, they are also insufficient. Now is the time for decisive and rational efforts to bring Cuba back into full engagement with the Americas.

"The status quo is a loser. The long-term U.S. government policy of isolating the Castro regime has failed to bring about either democracy or regime change. Cuba has created well-established diplomatic and economic relations with a range of international partners.

"The Cuban state has been unable to meet the economic and democratic aspirations of the Cuban people. Cuba must double their economy within the coming decade. The hard-liners here who are counseling that we tighten the noose now in hopes that we'll break the regime's back would allow average Cubans to suffer mightily, put our security interests at risk with a massive boatlift, and turn the rest of the region against us for decades. Strangulation is no solution.

"Continuation of ineffective and punitive U.S. diplomatic and economic policies will not accelerate political transition. This failed strategy of political isolation is used by the Castro Regime as a rallying point.

"In my judgment, Congress and the administration should move to:

* Remove Cuba from the State Department list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

* Repeal enforcement of the outmoded Helms-Burton legislation.

* End the economic embargo.

* End U.S. restrictions on travel by American citizens.

* Close the detention facility at Guantanamo and return the base to Cuban sovereignty. The place has become an international embarrassment to us.

* End the 'Wet Foot/Dry Foot immigration policy' and treat illegal immigrants from Cuba as we do those from Mexico or any other country.

* Formalize coordination on anti-drug trafficking matters.

* Provide significantly increased funds to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

* End U.S. opposition to Cuban participation in Western Hemisphere multilateral agreements.

"As Castro edges off the stage of history, the critical issue for the United States is whether we are going to be a constructive guiding agent."