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Fidel Strikes Out
Right now there are probably two dozen
major league teams who would kill to have Andy
Morales playing ball for them, now that the Cuban
all-star has landed on American soil. But we'd say his
talents are probably more urgently needed over at the
Clinton State Department.
Mr. Morales, you might recall, was the player who last
year hit a home run for Cuba's national team against the
Orioles in Baltimore and who last month saw his first
bid for freedom end when he was intercepted at sea and
quickly repatriated back to Cuba. There, surrounded by
state security agents, Mr. Morales was no doubt
supposed to brood on his situation and learn from the
example of Elian, who arrived shortly after. Separated
from his father and packed off to a state "education"
center, Elian has been transformed into what Fidel hails
as "a symbol, an example and a glory for all the children
of Cuba and a pride for all the teachers of Cuba."
Apparently Mr. Morales wasn't buying. Though the
details of his dramatic escape have not yet emerged, his
landing in Florida Tuesday night represents a huge
embarrassment for Messrs. Clinton and Castro both. For
he is far from unique: Over a five-day period from July
5-10, three over-loaded vessels filled with desperate
refugees fleeing Fidel's regime washed up on dry, free
land. Though most Americans no doubt will be inclined
to cheer, there will be no champagne opened at the
White House. Indeed, that Cubans continue to arrive at
all only underscores the human price paid for Bill
Clinton's Cuba policy.
The latest batch of 37 refugees was found on a Bahamian
desert island, having gone without food or water for five
days. They included a pregnant woman and an
unconscious child. Another group of 25, 10 of whom
were children, made it to Marathon, Florida. A separate
boat with 43 aboard, this one with children, rammed a
U.S. border patrol boat that was chasing it, took off and
managed to land on Islamorada, another Florida Key.
Said a Border Patrol spokesman referring to their right
to asylum, "They were dry feet."
These are just a fraction of the more
than 1,200 Cubans whom the Coast
Guard reports as having made it to the
U.S. this year. The number is
impressive because success requires
not only piecing together something
that floats, outwitting Fidel's
notoriously inhuman border guards
and surviving the ravages of nature. It
also means dodging the Clinton
Administration legal blockade. And
Havana is not shy about pressing its
advantage: The Miami Herald reports that Cuba has sent
a note to the State Department demanding the names of
these latest arrivals, with particular interest in any
children who might have made it out.
Now under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who
reach the U.S. have the right to refuge. And until Bill
Clinton came along, picking up a Cuban at sea was not
unlike helping a Soviet Jew out of Russia. But in August
1994, Mr. Clinton started sending Cuban refugees back,
to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay. A few
months later he announced a new immigration accord
with Fidel, whereby an annual lottery would provide
20,000 resident visas a year. Henceforth, all rafters
picked up at sea would be returned to the island
dictatorship unless they could prove fear of persecution.
The rationale behind this change in policy was that it
would coax better behavior from the Cuban government
while providing Cubans themselves with an alternative
to leaky liferafts. The problem, of course, is that 20,000
visas is nowhere near enough to meet demand. And it
doesn't address the people who might most need them:
those Fidel is determined not to let go.
Which brings us back to Mr. Morales. Last month the
third baseman was returned because U.S. authorities
found he did not meet the fear-of-persecution standard.
But if he didn't before, he does now. Which tells you
something about what makes Cuba different from, say,
Haiti. Though the government claimed he would not be
punished, Mr. Morales's every move was watched. At
that time, his father said his son might as well prepare
himself for a career sweeping streets. As he told the
New York Post, it was the worst moment in his son's
life: "He has no future. He is dead. I am dead."
That Mr. Morales could defy the odds and make it back
to Florida creates huge problems for Washington and
Havana alike. No doubt Fidel's response will be to do
what he always does: Rev up the propaganda machine.
Within days of Elian's repatriation, after all, the
government promised new, mass demonstrations in a
different provincial city every Saturday to protest the
Cuban Adjustment Act. And so by day Cuba has
"anti-Yanqui" rallies -- which American journalists
report on with straight faces -- while by night Cubans
continue to pile into boats hoping to get to America.
Clearly there was never much heart behind the
Administration's shift in U.S. policy toward Fidel. But
the continued exodus of Cuban refugees and the
increasing anti-American belligerence of Fidel himself
shows there is not much logic in it either. So what is it
exactly that Fidel has that Bill Clinton thinks worth the
soul of a small boy like Elian or the future of a talented,
young ballplayer like Andy Morales? |
