Sunday, May 11, 2008
Ann Louise Bardach talks about the fading of Fidel, the end of the embargo, and the drive for democracy -- and why exile leaders aren't happy about any of it.
Jan 28, 2003 | Ann Louise Bardach calls her obsession with Cuba "una enfermedad," a sickness. Checking the wire-service news every day, exchanging gossip with friends in Havana and Miami, devouring each year's harvest of Cuba-related books and movies -- these are just a few of the illness' symptoms. And while it's true that others have been equally stricken -- Ernest Hemingway being the most prominent casualty -- few of history's Cuba-philes have managed to contribute as much as Bardach has to today's ongoing Cuba debate.
For the past decade, Bardach, now a columnist for Newsweek's international edition, has been the most vigorous reporter on the Cuban scene. Everything from Cuba's post-Soviet lunatic paradoxes to Miami's tolerance for terrorism has been the subject of her investigative attention. In the midst of a world filled with intrigue and polarization, she's always managed to be an equal opportunity critic. Leaders on both sides of the Florida Straits have learned to fear her efforts.
"Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana," Bardach's latest book, will likely continue that trend. Much of the reporting comes from Bardach's old assignments, and scholars of Fidel Castro will probably find few new insights that haven't already been discussed at length elsewhere. But the book is nonetheless fascinating and important. A family portrait of Cuban and Cuban-American dysfunction, "Cuba Confidential" offers both a scathing profile of Fidel Castro's cold, cruel psyche and a comprehensive behind-the-scenes account of how exile leaders have ruled Miami with an iron fist. Even the section on the Elián González saga -- a tawdry affair that few of us would like to revisit -- comes alive again thanks to Bardach's extensive reporting and critical insight.
With the advent of the increasingly popular Proyecto Varela referendum, how close is Cuba to democratic reform? Why are some leaders of the Cuban exile community so dead-set against change? How long will the U.S. embargo, or for that matter Fidel himself, last? And what will the future of a Cuba without Castro look like? Salon spoke to Bardach about her present feelings on the Cuba condition.
Oswaldo Payá, Cuba's most famous dissident, visited Miami last week and received a mixed welcome. Exile leaders denounced him for legitimizing the regime while polls showed that 68 percent of Miami exiles support him. What do you make of Payá and his visit?
Let's put it this way. The first person to make a dent into Fidel Castro, successfully, is Oswaldo Payá. This is the first successful organized opposition -- but I don't think you ever want to forget that Elizardo Sanchez and many other dissidents have paid big dues. But Payá has really gone to the mat with this one.
Jimmy Carter also hit one out of the ballpark. When he gave that speech on live Cuban TV in Spanish, he gave legitimacy to the Proyecto Varela [a peaceful opposition movement that has collected more than the 10,000 signatures required for a referendum on democratic reform in Cuba]. Remember, before Carter, the only people who knew about it were the people who signed it. After Carter, everyone on the island knows about it. It went from 11,000 people who knew about it to 11 million.
That speech totally trumped the Bush administration. To a Cuba watcher like me, the Carter speech was a really big event because it trumped the hardliners in the White House. They tried to sabotage Carter's visit with that whole thing about Cuba having biological and chemical weapons. That was done to discredit him. They let Carter go [to Cuba] thinking, what could Jimmy Carter do? He's a pathetic little peanut farmer from Georgia?
Who knew he was going to transform the Cuba debate? And on top of that, it gets Jimmy Carter the Nobel Prize. It gets Payá the Sakharov Prize [Europe's most prestigious human rights award] -- and I think Havel has nominated him for the Nobel. Now that's not bad for 20 minutes in Havana. It just tells you what can happen with constructive engagement.
I've yet to hear, however, that more people are signing on to Varela now that it's better known. Have you heard anything about the effects of Carter's speech in Cuba?
Everybody knows about it. Let me give you a story. I wrote an editorial about a person involved in this. It talks in veiled terms about a friend of mine who was going to sign it. This is a person who was very involved in the government, at the very top. And you have a person like this saying that the Varela Project is the most important thing to happen in the last decade and [this person] is desperate to support it. This is such a telling anecdote. This is a person who was making explosives to export the Cuban Revolution around the world. When people like that, on this level, are ready to support it, then discontent, at varying degrees, exists from top to bottom.
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