Ted Perkins: Rid Cuba of Castro by opening free trade

Last summer, Marcial Basanta L¢pez of Havana mounted makeshift pontoons to his green, 1953 Chevy, attached a motorized propeller, and steered the "vessel" to Florida. His Chevy was unfortunately pulled over by the Coast Guard and he was swiftly repatriated. Basanta came very close to bringing the first Chevrolet across the sixty-mile span in decades.

This summer, several Republican lawmakers are taking a more sophisticated crack at moving Chevys across the Gulf. New legislation would reform US-Cuba Trade policy and pave the way to a complete elimination of trade-sanctions on the Communist country. The day is near that shipments of Chevys, Barbies, and Cuban Cigars will freely pass. This will create export markets for US manufacturers, offer a fantastic Spring Break location on the Cuban beaches, and arguably more importantly, end the cruel, Communist reign of Fidel Castro.

The embargo was originally imposed under the Trading with the Enemy Act. It was natural enough to halt trade with a Soviet stronghold, particularly one with a record of nuclear deployment. To the US' credit, it tends to impose sanctions in some of the more justifiable circumstances: South Africa (pursuing apartheid), Libya (sponsoring terrorism), and most recently Syria (fostering violence in Iraq). Fortunately the era of Cuba (facilitating complete and utter annihilation of continental United States) has ebbed into the era of Cuba ("historically" facilitating complete and utter annihilation of the continental United States).

Americans are guaranteed certain rights, including both the rights to trade and to travel. Kent v. Dulles interpreted the First and Fifth amendments to establish the freedom of movement as an inherent American right. The due process provisions of the Fifth and 14th Amendments similarly grants Americans the right to sell products abroad. These preclude the government from determining where products may be legally sold for political expedience. The only foreseeable exception when these rights can be violated occurs when national security is at stake: when there is a real, tangible threat from our most menacing enemies. And no, a fleet of well-armed naval Chevys does not constitute a real, tangible threat.

Cuba is a laughable "enemy" at best. The 4 to 6 billion dollars of annual Soviet payouts ended in 1990 and have left the island with 20-billion dollars of debt to its former ally. The USSR cut all military aid likewise in 1993. The country has an aging military infrastructure, a weakened intelligence network, and an economy tied to the US dollar. Communism does not an enemy make. Communist Vietnam and China have enjoyed all the products that America has to offer. The only legitimate argument presented in favor of sanctions is Castro's horrendous human rights record. Despite the seemingly benevolent intent of the sanctions, they do little to bring down Castro's oppressive regime. What is more, embargonomics has served as the dictator's primary scapegoat for the economic woes of the Cuban people.

With some exceptions, most countries have open-trade with Cuba. Although we would be a major trading partner to the island, it is an ounce narcissistic to think that our "stance" would have any measurable effect on 'stamping out" Fidel. Instead, embargonomics is used as a propaganda weapon against the US government. It is fed to the Cuban people as reason enough to continue their failed, four-decade social experiment to disprove the merits of capitalism.

In 2000, Congress pulled back the embargo for all food and medical products. In the four years since, the US has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in export trade. The change was made (at least officially) because it was viewed that it only hurt the Cuban people to deny them food and medicine.

This summer, I have been working as a Cuban trade coordinator for an LA-based export company. What has struck me most from trade with Cuba is that Cubans don't simply crave America's affordable commodities. They crave M&Ms.; They crave Corn Flakes. They crave Viagra. They crave the name-brands that make America great.

It seems ironic that the United States has gone to considerable trouble to broadcast Radio Marti to the Cuban people-even flying broadcast jets to counter Castro's frequency-scrambling measures. Yet, for decades we have failed to use our most potent weapon: stuff. Blue jeans and heavy metal played as large a role in collapsing the Soviet Union as ICBMs.

With no foreseeable impact on shaping Cuban policy or protecting the United States from an enemy, the federal government is obliged to return constitutional rights to the American people to travel and trade with Cuba. Ending the embargo will foster exports, further expose the Cuban people to the bounty and glory of capitalism (via personal contact and new Chevys), and run Castro out of excuses. American lawmakers might beat Basanta in the race to bring a Chevy across the Gulf; however, it will be Basanta's love for capitalism that will bring about the end of sanctions, and with them, the end of Castro.

Ted Perkins is a sophomore diplomatic history and finance major from Los Angeles, Calif.

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