US-Cuba Qualifier Tonight

Cuba is in Washington to play us in a World Cup qualifier tonight. What is the over-under on the number of defections?

Turns out two already have disappeared.

Seven Cubans Give Up on Free Health Care

Call Michael Moore! Seven members of the Cuban U-23 soccer team, in the US for Olympic qualifying, have surprisingly turned their back on the Socialist Paradise and defected. Due to a red card in their first game against the US, they ended up fielding 10 players for their game tonight against Honduras, losing only 2-0.

Back during the World Baseball Classic a few years ago, there was an issue if the Treasury Department and ICE would give visas to the Cuban team. A bunch of people felt that they should be denied visas. The issue was whether allowing the Cubans in gave legitimacy to the Cuban regime.

My theory is you should give the visas for the simple reason that someone will defect. And this has to be an embarrassment to the Cuban government. Athletes are the elite in Cuba. If they run out on the regime, what does that say to the world about the regime?

Viva Fidel!

Survivor: Cuba

The Cuban version of "Survivor" is the only one where the person NOT voted off the island loses.

Our Cuban policy has kept Castro in power. Unlike Eastern Europe, Cuba is far away from the Soviet Union. So unlike the Eastern communists, he was not kept in power with the threat of Soviet invasion. Rather, he kept himself in power by beggaring his nation. By making people turn their thoughts away from liberty and towards bare survival, he protected the regime. (Cuba in 1959 was not a poverty stricken island -- it was actually fairly prosperous. The Cuban Revolution was driven largely by the fact that the Cuban middle class was tired of playing Batista's tune).

The embargo made Castro's job easier and gave him an excuse for everything.

On top of that, the closeness of the US gave him an escape value. So people who wanted a better life for themselves jumped into inner tubes and headed north.

I am not sure where to go next. Obviously, in an election year, not much will happen. But going forward, progress can be made. Raul Castro needs to be given a face saving out. At the very least, he needs to be rewarded if he releases some political prisoners and loosens restrictions on the media. A full blown liberal democracy may take some more time, but maybe not all that much. With the exception of Haiti, pretty much all of Latin America is democratic these days. Granted, Venezuela is heading in the opposite direction, but it is Cuba which is bucking the regional and cultural trends.

Well, to Cuba Libre!

Castro’s retirement

Fidel Castro "retired" as president of Cuba today. He stayed in power 49 years – that is easy when you do not have to worry about majority votes or term limits and the Constitution is what you say it is. Hearing the name Castro always reminds me of John Derbyshire's gloss on a George Orwell quote -- "Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy."

One side note, although Orwell is always quoted as "Jackboots", in actuality, he only mentioned boots. Not really that important, unless you are concerned about precision.