Cuba: Does modernization lead to democratization?
US-Cuba Relations (Recap of the last 55 years)
In April, 2015 both President Obama and President Castro greeted each other with a
hand shake at the Summit of America’s. This act, despite how small, hasn’t occurred
since 1961 and therefore signifies one step forward, from each side, into reconnecting
severed ties. Reestablishing this relationship between Cuba and the United States will be a complicated process, as each decision made will affect the outcome of Cuba’s
integration into the 21st century. Will modernization in Cuba, facilitated by the US, pave
the way for democracy? I hope to explore this question throughout my blog posts this
semester. Specifically for this entry, I hope to analyze how the historical relations
between the US and Cuba have affected their current state of relation today.
When remembering past relations between the United States and Cuba, from the
perspective of a US citizen, the mind immidiatley goes to the Cuban Missile Crisis or the
Bay of Pigs. Both of these events are responsible for determining the past 55 years of US- Cuba relations. As Fidel Castro gained power with his guerrillas in Cuba in 1959,
overthrowing the dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista, and as communism reached as
close as 90 miles to the coast of the Florida Keys, the United States was struck with fear, especially from the previous growth of McCarthyism in the US. In short, Cuba became an imminent threat. In response, in 1961 the US attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro in the infamous Bay of Pigs expedition. This invasion ended terribly for the US; building tension and suspicion in Cuba of the US. Following this event, the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962 further exacerbated fear and caused a major national security crisis for the US, prompting them to take grave actions towards Cuba. From this, the international embargo on Cuba was put into an extreme measure, ending all political, social and economical relations between the two countries.
One might think that due to the fact that the fundamental conflict between two
countries was ideological first and a security threat second (given that the security threat itself was driven the clash ideological difference), that with the removal of an ideology, conflict itself should decrease. Thus, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 which signified the end of the Cold War, tensions between the US and other communist proxies would also come slowly to end. This prediction, however, is not the case between the US and Cuba. With the 1992 Cuba Democracy Act and the Helms – Burton Act in 1996, the US strengthened the embargo on Cuba and showed little signs of warming up to their Caribbean neighbor. Yet, with the Obama Administration now in DC, US-Cuba relations have taken a drastic turn towards communication. On December 17, 2014 Obama announced that the US will reconnect diplomatic ties with Cuba, the very first means of business being a prison swap between the two countries.
Despite this being only a small step, this brings to question if future relations between the two countries will be thisreciprocal. In addition, the lift of the embargo opens Cuba back to the modern world of trade, political issues and social movements: how will their reintegration affect the growth of democracy?
In this blog post I hope I have provided essential background information on the
relations of these two countries that are essential to understanding how unprecedented
their communication is today. As well, I hope I have been able to pose some important
questions surrounding the nature and future of the Cuba’s relationship with US. As the
two continually begin to open up, as they both begin to influence the nature of one
another, it will be interesting to watch American culture, political ideals and trade goals
shape the future of Cuba.
http://www.cfr.org/cuba/us-cuba-relations/p11113
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/bay-of-pigs-invasion
