Of all the sentiments Cuban-Americans voiced during their demonstration in Washington D.C. this week 鈥� in solidarity with last week鈥檚 unprecedented anti-government protests in Cuba 鈥� this one from Miami resident Marlen Garcia turned my middle-aged head:
鈥淭he Cuban government needs pressure,鈥� Garcia told the Miami Herald, 鈥渓ike America and other countries did with apartheid in South Africa.鈥�
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Yep, that kind of global leverage needs to be applied to Cuba鈥檚 repressive communist dictatorship. But the regime鈥檚 never felt it because the Cuban diaspora in the U.S. has time and again failed 鈥� or refused 鈥� to attract all those other countries to its anti-Castro movement the way the anti-apartheid movement did.
To better understand why, glance back at the support the anti-apartheid campaign received from Cuban exiles here in Miami. What? Don鈥檛 see anything? That鈥檚 because it got next to nada from them before South African apartheid finally ended in 1994.
Except verbal abuse.
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In 1990, iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela visited Miami. Days prior, he鈥檇 publicly thanked Fidel Castro for being one of the first and few heads of state to champion him when he was in prison. That wasn鈥檛 the savviest thing for Mandela to do before visiting Miami; but it offered the exiles an opportunity to persuade him. They opted instead for petulance. The city rescinded Mandela鈥檚 welcome; public officials snubbed him and Cuban-American protesters hurled epithets at him.
Yet afterward they couldn鈥檛 understand why more countries didn鈥檛 sign up to help them push the Cuban regime over the cliff when it lost the Soviet Union鈥檚 patronage. They asked why the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba remained a unilateral stick instead of the multilateral cudgel that helped topple apartheid.
The Cuban regime鈥檚 never felt the global squeeze because Cuban exiles have failed 鈥� or refused 鈥� to draw the world to their anti-Castro movement the way the anti-apartheid movement did.
They railed at foreign tourists who kept flocking to Cuba鈥檚 beaches 鈥� and na茂ve lefties who kept apologizing for totalitarian Marxists in Havana as shamelessly as neo-Nazis kept making excuses for neanderthal racists in Pretoria.
I wonder if they remember all that now as they urge the global community yet again to tighten the diplomatic and economic screws on Cuba. Either way, here are a few reasons they shouldn鈥檛 be surprised if the world鈥檚 more influential nations still don鈥檛 join their boycott:
- Hypocrisy is a lousy salesman for democracy. Stop acting like the Cuban regime itself. That means you, Coral Gables, where Cuban-American mayor, and Joe McCarthy wannabe, Vince Lago just purged Miami-based Cuban artist Sandra Ramos from his city鈥檚 art project. Her work is actually critical of the Cuban regime 鈥� but Lago has deemed her "a communist sympathizer."
Smacks of communist censorship? You bet. The mayor of Coral Gables is bucking for Cuban culture minister.
ECHO CHAMBER
And speaking of aping anti-democratic regimes, it probably wasn鈥檛 the best international p.r. move to have Florida Senator Rick Scott and Miami Congressmen Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez headline this week鈥檚 Washington rally. They did, after all, trash the U.S. Constitution on January 6 by genuflecting to Donald Trump and voting to block legitimate electoral college votes 鈥� right after an insurrectionist pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.
- Black Lives Matter matters. Making Cuban exile YouTube 鈥渋nfluencer,鈥� blackface aficionado and Black Lives Matter demonizer Alex Otaola the de facto MC in D.C. didn鈥檛 help, either. Beyond the Cuban exile echo chamber 鈥� especially beyond U.S. borders 鈥� the racial justice movement is respected. Seriously. I can send .
- Bomb talk ain鈥檛 the bomb. Ditch the calls for U.S. military intervention in Cuba. That means you, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Why would Canada or the E.U. cozy up to the embargo after hearing your reckless suggestion to drop bombs on Havana?
- It IS partly the economy, stupid. Cubans rose up for freedom last week. No one disputes that. But they鈥檙e also furious at chronic shortages of food, medicine, electricity 鈥� and yes, vaccines. The incessant Cuban exile insistence that those things don鈥檛 matter to Cubans on the island insults them and the world鈥檚 intelligence. If Cuban-Americans want to have both the embargo and international backing, they鈥檒l have to help Cubans meet their quotidian needs 鈥� starting with a resumption of remittances to families and aid to entrepreneurs.
It won鈥檛 mean they鈥檙e soft on communism. It鈥檒l instead help assure the world they won鈥檛 make post-communist Cuba as unfairly hard a place as Miami was to Mandela.
