The pawns of Fidel
The Economist (4/22/00)
economist.com
He should not stay. Despite the best efforts of his relatives to lure him with toys, clothes and video games, his place is with his father. But it is hard to see how matters can be resolved without violence. Miami?s Cuban exiles, though their power has been waning in recent years, are utterly immovable on one point: they will not deal with Cuba while Fidel Castro is in power. He is the devil, and Elian their saint. His case has become the pivot on which all their arguments, and all their hopes, turn. They are determined not to lose it. This small boy encapsulates their message that Cuba is evil, America is good, and that the two sides must not do business with each other until the regime has changed. If they have to defy their own government to make this point, so be it.
How misguided they are. The Economist yields to nobody when it comes to contempt for Mr Castro. But to use Elian for propaganda purposes, as the exiles now are, is exactly the tactic Mr Castro would choose. He is getting huge mileage out of this case. It shows, even better than the trade embargo can, how vindictive and inhumane the United States can be. Elian?s Miami relatives believe they are doing the best thing for him, literally saving his life. But actually they are playing into the devil?s hands; and, in the process, they are also restricting Elian?s choices as surely as Mr Castro would.
There is also a more fundamental point. These exiles came to America after the Cuban revolution not just because they believed in capitalism, but because, presumably, they believed in the rule of law. They are now treating the rule of law as contemptuously as Mr Castro himself does. They will abide by it merely if it suits them. This defiance does not show Mr Castro, and Cuba, that America is a morally superior place. On the contrary, it displays a country where even an administration with law on its side may be bullied out of doing the right thing because it is election year |
