US-Cuban Politics: A Lecture with Cuban Academic Jorge Mario Sánchez Egozcue

Each morning while in Cuba, our Baltimore City College scholars and teachers have been participating in lectures by esteemed intellectuals and academics in fields such as gender and race, contemporary Cuba, architecture and political climate and history of the US and Cuba. In preparation for our trip, I have been reading a book that I highly recommend, called “Trading With the Enemy” by Tom Miller. This book was top on our suggested reading list from Spanish Studies Abroad (our travel group), and I have greatly enjoyed reading Tom Miller’s account of his travels through Cuba in the early 1990’s, amidst the struggles of the “Great Blackout” after the fall of the Soviet Bloc.

An academic and professor, Jorge Mario, who has lectured extensively in the United States and throughout Cuba, presented this morning’s lecture. Jorge Mario has also lectured to visiting politicians who visit Cuba from the United States. As we had explained to him that our high school students were highly versed in Cuban-United States politics, to our delight he promised to present us with the lecture that he usually reserves for visiting US politicians.

Beginning the lecture with a modern history of US-Cuban relations, Jorge Mario explained the ramifications of the collapse of the socialist bloc in 1989, where Cuba was forced to interact more extensively with other countries as a result of the collapse. This huge change in trade relations resulted in an intense struggle for Cuba, but eventually the country was able to develop its' tourism industry quite extensively, which was able to pull the country out of "The Great Blackout". Trade with Cuba that developed in the 1990’s and has continued to the present are through Venezuela, China, Canada and the EU, with some trade in Brazil and the Caribbean as well, which was largely underexploited.

Today, Cuba’s social construct is best explained as a “European” or 1^st world population in a 3^rd world economy. This resulted in many young professionals migrating from Cuba, and with an aged population, Cuba is now close to a “no-replacement” level.

As a result, the Cuban government has sought the voice of public opinion, with the aim of “Prosperous and Sustainable Socialism”. The Diagnostic Agenda includes 313 guidelines, which are all suggestions from the public forum. As of May 29^th, the United States has taken Cuba off the state-sponsored terrorism list, which was a huge step for US-Cuban relations. In this year alone, over 390 private restaurants have been opened in Cuba, which is a huge step for the economy and tourism industry of the country.

Cubans remain wary of these new US-Cuban political developments, however. After 54 years of the same policy, 11 presidents, and an embargo cost of 1.3 trillion dollars of the US, the embargo won’t fall so easily. The law hasn’t changed, only Obama’s order, which could be reversed by the next US president in 2017. The law that was created by Bacardi lawyers in 1996 will be very difficult to dismantle, and would require 212 votes in Congress to be removed. 

Will an army of American mojito drinkers descend on “La Habana” in the next year? What development strategy will the Cuban government take to avoid the “spring break frenzy” that descended on the Yucatán Peninsula, and many islands in the Caribbean? With a compensation for nationalized properties on the table; 7 billion in claims from US companies, namely Colgate, Coca Cola and Office Depot, and 181 billion in counter claims for the cost of damage done by the embargo on Cuba, it seems unlikely that the US-Cuban relationship will be strong as soon as the American public seems to expect.