What's good for Charlie

Republicans don’t have a soft spot in their hearts for former governor Charlie Crist of Florida, the Republican-turned-Democrat now running to take his old office back from incumbent Republican Rick Scott. 

And some Democrats who have long labored in their own vineyard may not yet have warm feelings about him either.

But everyone agrees that he is flexible, and that Charlie will do what is good for Charlie.

So it’s quite a political event that he becomes the first statewide candidate in recent Florida memory to call for ending the embargo against Cuba, and he is now contemplating a trip there in the heat of the campaign (Herald). 

My guess is that, like many Republicans, he believes the embargo is a mistake.  What matters, and what says a lot about Florida politics today, is that he has calculated that it’s politically expedient to say so out loud. 

In that the Cuban American vote split 50-50 between President Obama and Governor Romney, there may not be a big price to pay in Miami-Dade.  Beyond that, he’ll take the issue to Tampa and other places around the state where people view the policy as a failure on its own terms that also limits Florida’s economic opportunities.

“From a selfish point of view as a Floridian,” he said last February, he would like the embargo to end “because a lot of construction would be required on the island, and South Florida could be the launching pad for all of that and really create some jobs for the people of my state.”

Good for you, Charlie, and good for Florida, America, and our eleven million neighbors in Cuba.

Four arrests in Havana (Updated)

An Interior Ministry note says that four Cuban Americans were arrested April 26 “when they were planning to execute terrorist attacks” in Cuba, specifically attacks on “military installations with the objective of promoting violent actions,” and the note says that they have admitted this.  They are alleged to be linked to Santiago Alvarez and others in Miami who have served jail time on weapons charges, which are recounted here by Café Fuerte.

Since mid-2013, three of those arrested have been traveling to Cuba to prepare for the alleged actions, the note says. 

It is hard to believe that one could find recruits for such a job, or that its leaders would think that the attack would work and then spark additional action.  But stranger things have happened. 

The Interior Ministry note says that Cuba will be discussing the matter with U.S. authorities.  The four are described as “residents” in Miami, all of Cuban origin.  If they do not have U.S. citizenship, there is less likelihood that U.S. consular officers will be able to visit them in jail.

Part of Cuba’s response to the annual U.S. designation of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism” is to claim that the United States takes no action against persons in the United States who have attacked Cuba.  The designation was renewed last week, Cuba called it “absurd,” and had a point: the State Department’s report gave no evidence that Cuba was organizing, financing, training, supplying, or otherwise participating in terrorist activity.  Cuba’s response is here.

Reuters story on the arrests is here.

Update: from the Herald, on those arrested:

Pacheco, 31, a Hialeah resident, registered a “Cuban Liberation Force Inc.” with the Florida Department of State in 2009 and listed its purpose as helping “the people in Cuba to win back their democracy and their lost liberties.”

The only post on its blog says the organization was “founded at the request of members of the armed forces who are inside Cuba, as well as members of organizations and the people” with its only goal being “the toppling of the regime.”

Rodriguez and Monzón attended some meetings of exile militants in Miami six or seven years ago but were not well known in the community and were not known to be members of any particular anti-Castro organization, said Miami radio host Hector Fabian.

New gang on the block

“Blue jeans and rock and roll brought down the Berlin Wall, so we have to recognize that there is a new wave of energy pushing a new approach toward U.S.-Cuba policy.”  That’s not an endorsement of ending the embargo, but it’s quite a statement coming as it does from Alex Castellanos, campaign consultant to Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and many other Republicans.

He was prompted to talk about the “new wave of energy” by the launch of CubaNow, an advocacy group that came out of the box this week with display ads on the Washington subway system intended to get the Obama Administration’s attention.

Future plans aren’t clear, but the organization includes Obama alumni and people politically friendly to the President, and their language reflects that. 

The President’s actions on Cuba policy have been very positive – allowing virtually unrestricted travel and remittances by Cuban Americans, allowing more travel by the rest of us, and increasing contacts between the governments – but they have also been few.  Meantime, he continues to implement and fully own those old policies, such as this week’s renewal of Cuba’s listing as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” a label that isn’t even sustained by the State Department’s own report.

From time to time, the President has mused in public that our policies are older than he is, and some “updating” is needed.  CubaNow is taking a friendly, inside-the-family tack, and hopefully they will succeed in getting President Obama to answer his own question.  My guess is that it will require some friendly expressions of impatience.

Your tax dollars at work

A Dutch travel company that was acquired by U.S. investors will pay a $5.9 million fine to the United States because it continued to engage in Cuba transactions after the change in ownership, the Herald reports. 

This is part of our policy of defending human rights in Cuba.

Meanwhile, President Obama has agreed to send 10 attack helicopters to our friends in Egypt, home of the most efficient judges in the world.  One Egyptian judge yesterday issued a death sentence to more than 680 opponents of the government.  Last month the same judge issued another mass death sentence to more than 500, but he adjusted the sentence to life imprisonment for all but 37.  Both trials lasted less than an hour, and most of the defendants were not present at the first.

U.S. aid to Egypt is about $1.5 billion per year, and the U.S. embargo against Cuba dates from 1960.