Cuba and Its Exiles

Cuban affairs drew many headlines in 1994. Spring marked the beginning of a headlong cascade of events: a bungled attempt by the Havana regime to stage a dialogue with moderate exiles in April, a mass exodus of Cuban balseros (rafters) to U.S. shores in July and August, subsequent bilateral meetings with the United States throughout early fall, a November solidarity gathering in Cuba with what remains of the Latin American left, a non-invitation to Miami’s Summit of the Americas in early December, the Vatican’s appointment of a new Cuban cardinal in mid-December, an ongoing debate over the encampment of nearly thirty thousand Cubans in Guantanamo, rioting by Cubans in Panama, more bilateral meetings to discuss immigration and perhaps the economic blockade scheduled for early 1995, and so forth.

The list goes on, but the impasse remains. Still no opening in sight for bridging the thirty-six-year-old rift between Cuba and Washington. Or is it between Cuba and Miami?...