Hal O'Brien

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."

*^*^*

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