Engagement has failed in Cuba***With the blood of three executed Cuban boat-jackers barely dry and the voices of 75 imprisoned freedom activists freshly silenced, some Cuba-engagement advocates are restarting their misguided campaign to loosen U.S. economic sanctions against Fidel Castro.
These engagers continue using the cliché that the ''40-year embargo'' has failed and argue that engagement can still help reform Castro's brutal dictatorship. But recent history clearly has demonstrated that engagement has been a policy failure.***
U.S. Restricts Rights of Cuban Envoys - Don't Shed Any Tears *** The Bush administration official said there is suspicion that the personnel sent in response to service calls have other skills, such as planting bugs. Efforts to obtain comment from Cuban officials were unsuccessful. The U.S. action recalls a similar measure applied by the Reagan administration during the Cold War when the Soviet Union and its allies were forced to deal with the State Department's Office of Foreign Missions whenever they needed help for a leaky faucet, faulty electrical wiring or other problems. The rationale then, as it is now, was the same: reciprocity. After the collapse of European communism, the successor governments were allowed to deal directly with service companies.
U.S. officials were unable to say whether Cuba is the only country now barred from such contacts with these companies. According to the officials, harassment of American diplomats in Havana is commonplace and extends well beyond the need for official intervention for routine service calls. As examples, officials said tires on diplomats' cars have been punctured on occasion. They also suspect that traffic "accidents" involving official U.S. vehicles were actually planned and staged by Cuban agents. ***