Chess in Miami

Fabiola Santiago took the time to write her version of the 50 year old chess match being played between two giants.  One is the imperialist giant, the United States.  The other is the tiny giant which has been a bulwark in the anti-imperialist camp since 1959, Cuba.  Sitting on the side of the imperialist power which is accustomed to getting its way, Santiago is a bit perplexed by how the game has gone so far and displays an uncertainty about what the outcome may be.  Hey, chess is a difficult game when your paying attention.  Imagine what happens if you only pay attention to half of the board.

Just as are most of the anti-Cuba commentators in Miami unable to recognize that changes are going on in the island, Fabiola Santiago seemed to not be able to figure them in to her prepackaged ideology, quite probably blocking her view of the chess match.  Metaphors aside, she is either unwilling or unable to factor in everything so her ability to formulate useful analysis of the situation is hampered by selective choice of information rendering it useless or just plain propaganda.

She passes off some statistics about the number of Cubans who have received visas in the recent period which shows an increase so high that the total exceeds the number the US agreed to in 1994.  That's impressive, I mean let's look at the good will of the United States to surpass its agreements.  Or, since the US often fell way short of meeting its agreed number, could the US just be trying to catch up?  She notes that the Obama administration has expanded tourist visas for Cubans to be valid for five years.  She failed to explain that on the other side of the chess board, the Cuban government had eliminated the "white paper" requirement for Cubans to travel.  Looking at the chess game as a whole, Obama's move might be considered a defensive one to protect himself from such a difficult situation in which Cubans, who had always been supposedly "trapped" on the island suddenly found themselves free to leave only to be prevented by visa denials by the United States.  Fabiola probably missed that one.

Even Ileana Ros-Lehtinen gets in on the confusion by saying that more or less even though anti-Cuba policy is the basis for her career "I don't know what to make of it."  Try looking at the entire game mam.  "It's a free for all," laments the most out of touch expert on the issue, failing to realize that the policy which allows any Cuban who touches our shores to get political asylum even though that might include Cubans who you don't approve of.  For years the policy was used as a way of padding the statistics to show how many people were "fleeing" Cuba.  Now some people don't know what to do about all of those "refugees" who want better relations with the island and have diluted the hard line narrative of South Florida.

For the fading hard liners, what may be even more troubling than the refugee "snitches and state security officers" living in Miami and other US cities, are the former hard liners who have been watching the whole chess board.  They are lining themselves up and are ready and willing to engage with Cubans on the island, some even wanting to grant loans for the small businesses that have been created on the island.  My goodness, if that were to happen the chances of the only acceptable change on the island, one which ushers in a return of pre-revolutionary Cuba with its corruption and domination a the capitalist elites at the expense of almost everyone else is likely never to happen!  It wouldn't happen anyway with or without the economic blockade, but the hard liners have to have some kind of hope.

Fabiola resorts to her expertise on international law to remind readers that besides the facts, Cuba remains a danger to the security of the United States.  In her infinite wisdom and ahead of the United Nations' experts who are looking in to the North Korean ship carrying out dated military equipment, she has declared it from her side of the chess board in Miami "a violation of international regulations."

Let's not forget that as long as there are people like Fabiola Santiago, the US funded dissidents on the island, and a press always willing to question things no matter how absurd, all things Cuban are "questionable."

Yes, as she said in her article, "a checkmate seems a long way off."  I'll add that when there is a checkmate, Fabiola Santiago may be one of the last people to learn of it.

In an article this week by Nelson P. Valdes about Fidel's 87th birthday, he stated one of the most logical and accurate analysis that can pertain to these types of handicapped chess players.  He asked "How come talking heads, editorial writers and wishful thinkers were so wrong about a post Fidel or a post Castro’s Cuba?"  Then astutely answers "One basic reason is that attention has not been paid to the real developments in the island.  Wishful thinking and lies dominated the debate."  Well said.