As residents of Cuba celebrated in
the streets, Marco Rubio and other representatives of the old guard of
Cuban-Americans predictably protest the president’s decision. Their claim: Cuba
does not deserve this concession because it does not meet US standards of human
rights. A quick breeze through recent global events shows that US foreign
relations are ruled not by human rights concerns, but by Realpolitik, which the
US learned from Kissinger, who borrowed it from Bismarck. This is neither a
policy of appeasement nor of domination; it is the pragmatic acceptance and use
of actually existing conditions to one’s own advantage. Moving from our own
backyard, to the Eastern end of the Mediterranean, to Southern Asia, US
policies are not driven by human rights.
This summer, as thousands migrated
from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to the USA, our country’s response
was to build detention centers to house them while processing their
deportations. These countries of origin, despite their nominally democratic
governments, are known for their political instability, gangs such as MS-13,
and depressingly low levels of development compared to other nation-states in
the hemisphere. At least one of these centers, the for-profit Karnes Facility
southeast of San Antonio, is now under investigation by ICE for its treatment
of inmates, which has morphed from lack of freedom of movement and inadequate
food when it opened in August to allegations of sexual abuse by prison guards. A
policy built on human rights would not imprison these refugees, much less in
these conditions.
The USA’s main allies and aid
recipients in the Middle East remain Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. Last summer, while Israel used shells made in
America to literally flatten Palestinian residential areas to rubble and Saudi
Arabia increased the speed with which it carried out its annual dozens of death
sentences by beheading, Egypt sentenced hundreds of people who disagreed with
the government to death in mass “trials”. A policy built on human rights would
give neither arms nor funding to these regimes.
Under a Cuban government nearing
the level of evil that US opponents claim, an embargo is much more likely to
harm private citizens than the state. During the embargo of Iran following the
Shah’s overthrow, the people suffered from malnutrition, while what funds were
available were used by the government. This is the logic that was used by the
Clinton administration in its decision to open relations with China. In recent
years, the middle class has grown and has seen the hated 1-child policy eased.
The free market economy, while bringing these developments, has also brought new
human rights questions to the Economic Free Zones that service the global
economy. Recent protests in Singapore underline that open economies and
democratic governments do not necessarily bring human rights. A policy built on
human rights must take the experiences of the ordinary citizen into account,
regardless of the name of the economic or political system and will allow for
free contact between the peoples of the countries involved.