New US-Cuba Rapprochement
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
July 17, 2015The historic diplomatic reality that the Obama administration has decided to re-establish a US embassy presence in Havana, Cuba on 20th July, 2015, signals a new geopolitical policy of the United States toward Cuba, albeit "Charting a New Course on Cuba."
Firstly, by this diplomatic policy decision the Obama administration is renouncing the geopolitical decision by then US President Dwight Eisenhower to severe diplomatic ties with Cuba on 3rd January, 1962.
This presidential decision reveals the salient geopolitical reality that the Obama administration has now caught up with US-Cuba symbiotic colonial connection.
Secondly, now is the time that before he demits office for US President Barack Obama to announce/formulate a holistic, comprehensive foreign policy toward the Caribbean that includes, not excludes, Cuba.
Indeed, this new foreign policy shift will bring to the fore the salient historical-colonial truism that Cuba is in and belongs to the Caribbean. Now is not the time to perpetuate that 15th century Euro-centric colonial policy of divide and rule, namely, one policy toward Cuba and another policy toward the Caribbean.
In this new geopolitical scenario, now is the time for President Obama to appoint an Assistant Secretary of State for Caribbean Affairs. Now is the appropriate time to move from the micro to the macro. There is only one Caribbean.
The fact of the matter is that Cuba was colonized by the Euro-Spanish while the other Caribbean islands were colonized by the Euro-British, French and Dutch.
Thirdly, the geopolitical reality is that Cuba under the leadership of President Fidel Castro in the 1970s is certainly not the same Cuba under President Raul Castro in 2015. There is absolutely no debate or discussion on that point.
Ipso facto, in 2015, Cuba is no longer a threat to the national security interests of the United States by any and all stretches of the imagination. Ergo, the Cold War thaws must subside between these two nations at this point in time. The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between these two nations does just that.
In this regard, it is indeed noteworthy that US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have both totally refused "to be imprisoned by the past."
In the final analysis, the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba undoubtedly cements the umbilical nexus/cord between the European Caribbean colonial legacy and the Euro-British colonial legacy of the peoples of the Caribbean and the United States.
Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").
Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies.
Nantambu's Homepage | Archives | Trinicenter Homepage