Tear down this wall!

[libertango]

I've long thought the best approach to the Cuba problem was to throw open the commercial floodgates, and essentially kill them with kindness.

But this piece in Newsweek by Patrick Symmes goes one better by leveraging an asset we already have on the island: Guantánamo.

Hey, if it worked for Hong Kong vis-à-vis China...

"The way to bring radical change to Cuba is to return Guantánamo Bay to the Cubans—but not to the Castros. The Miami-based diaspora of some 1.6 million Cuban-born people and their offspring could turn the base into something many of them love dearly: a business opportunity. As a tax-free, duty-free, open-trade zone run by Cuban-Americans for the benefit of their brethren on the island, Guantánamo Bay could become a model for a new Cuba, a place where fair dealing, the rule of law and free speech are the norm. By starting businesses catering to Cubans, and later opening factories to employ them, Cuban-Americans would bring normal rights onto Cuban soil. Open the border at Gitmo, initiate trade and the Castro regime's stranglehold would start to crumble."

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Originally posted at my blog on business matters, Not That Kind of Operation.

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

That's actually one of the most amazingly interesting out-of-the-box ideas I've heard on Cuba in a LONG time. Thanks!

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

As happens so often, I'd say the credit should go to John Brunner. He had a story, "Who Steals My Purse," in the March 1973 Analog where consumer goods are actually parachuted in to an opposing country until they surrender. I think he was thinking of Vietnam at the time, but Cuba will do just as well.

That's what I meant by "I've long thought..." The interesting fillip here is using Guantánamo as a beach head. The strategy is still the same.

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

It is interesting. Perhaps the 2nd or 3rd generation of Cubans could do it. However, what flashed through my mind were visions corrupt gambling casinos (really corrupt), whorehouses, and unbelievable poverty. The Cuban revolution overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, friend of the U.S. Mafia. Girls were kidnapped off the street and made "working girls." Admittedly, Castro has been just another dictator, but Cuba does not deserve to have the Batistas visited upon them again.