The future of Cuba continues to be uncertain as dictator Fidel Castro’s health remains poor. On February 27, AEI hosted a conference to address the transition from dictatorship to democracy, the evolving Cuban society, and Cuba’s economic outlook.

Secretary of Commerce  Carlos M. Gutierrez

Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez delivered a keynote address. A native of Cuba who left the island as a boy to escape the Castro regime, he is currently co-chairman of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. He remarked that Cubans today “are economic captives and they are political captives. . . . They have become the workers of this hemisphere’s last plantation.”

The United States has spent recent decades “actively working to support independent civil society on the island, providing funding for education and exchanges and helping to break the regime’s information blockade,” Secretary Gutierrez said. “The Cuban system amounts to nothing more than indentured servitude, yet the exploitation and repression of workers on the island are rarely acknowledged by those who call for lifting the embargo,” he added.

According to Secretary Gutierrez, the George W. Bush administration is not the greatest threat to the Castro regime. Rather, “the biggest threat is in the hearts of the Cuban people, and that is their ability to invent, to dream, to create a society of prosperity, equality, and hope” for themselves. He emphasized that the United States has no imperial or military ambitions in Cuba, but that the United States is a friend of the Cuban people and will support them in their quest for freedom.

Panelists specializing in democratic change addressed several of the issues facing the hoped-for transition from dictatorship to democracy. AEI’s Roger F. Noriega commented that the debate should not focus on what U.S. policy should be, but rather what Cubans can do at home to establish a legitimate post-Castro government. Jose Antonio Font of American Capital Partners echoed Noriega’s sentiments and called for continued U.S. support of resistance movements on the island through funding, rhetoric, and communications. Georges Fauriol of the International Republican Institute argued that democratic institutions must be built by Cubans themselves, not superimposed by outside actors. “The end product of a transition is the collective work of Cuban citizens themselves,” he said.

Caleb McCarry, Cuba transition coordinator at the State Department, commented that Cubans expect a major change after Castro departs and that the State Department intends to follow through on its many promises of assistance to the Cuban people. McCarry also spoke about the institutional and communications structures through which the United States encourages a democratic transition.

During a panel on Cuban society, Frank Calzon of the Center for a Free Cuba said that the key to a successful transformation of Cuban society is to balance the concerns of Cubans with U.S. foreign policy interests. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat of the Cuban Democracy Directorate spoke about the repressive actions taken by the Castro regime against dissidents. John Sanbrailo of the Pan American Development Foundation argued that underground civil society activity will move Cuba from oppression toward openness and freedom.

In a discussion of Cuba’s economic transition, John Anderson of the U.S. Commerce Department described federal programs to stimulate growth in post-Castro Cuba. Juan Belt of the U.S. Agency for International Development contended that Cuba’s nascent oil industry could prove essential in the transition to a free-market economic system. Ralph Galliano of the Institute for the Study of U.S.-Cuba Policy said that the key to transforming the Cuban economy is the establishment of private property rights.

For a video, transcript, and summary of this event, please visit www.aei.org/event1471/.