CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADVANTAGE

CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADV.

Economic engagement with Cuba is the best path the democracy. The U.S. should removal all economic barriers Arturo Lopez-Levy, 11, lecturer and PhD Candidate at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver,
May, Change In Post-Fidel Cuba: Political Liberalization, Economic Reform and Lessons for U.S. Policy, ACC. 6-14-2013, http://newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/naf_all_cuba_reform_final.pdf, JT//JEDI

Support for greater openness in Cuba must be an American foreign policy goal on its own merits, regardless of its direct effect on democratization. The optimal antecedent to promoting democratization in the medium term is by supporting marketoriented economic reform today. A peaceful and gradual transition to democracy in Cuba in the midterm depends as much on economic reform as on the emergence of an independent and globallyconnected middle class. In the context of liberalization, improvements in human rights should be measured through the effect of the
sum of all policies in the majority of the population not exclusively on those who challenge the political regime. The most salient human rights issue on the horizon will likely be the lack of jobs for the million and a half workers who will be dismissed from the state sector before the end of 2011, not prohibitions in the political sphere, such as the lack of freedom to organize a political party.

The United States must remove all barriers to trade, international assistance and investment that affect Cubas emerging private sector. American and Cuban-American trade and investment in joint ventures with Cuban, nonstate owned entities must be encouraged. President Obamas decision to remove limits on remittances sent to Cubans in the private sector and religious groups is a positive step, but insufficient. A Cuban nationalist position rooted in
economic growth, anti-corruption and political stability that functions in partnership with American society is the best antidote to the visions of a Latin America governed by totalitarian nationalists united in their antipathy for the United States.

Ending the embargo sends a powerful signal for democracy Robert E. White, 3/8 13, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, was the United States ambassador to Paraguay from 1977 to
1979 and to El Salvador from 1980 to 1981. After Chvez, a Chance to Rethink Relations With Cuba, New York Times, ACC. 7/12/13, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/opinion/after-chavez-hope-for-good-neighbors-in-latin-america.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0, JT//JEDI Throughout his career, the autocratic Mr. Chvez used our embargo as a wedge with which to antagonize the United States and alienate its supporters. His fuel helped prop up the rule of Mr. Castro and his brother Ral, Cubas current president. The

embargo no longer

serves any useful purpose (if it ever did at all); President Obama should end it, though it would mean overcoming powerful opposition from Cuban-American lawmakers in Congress. An end to the Cuba embargo would send a powerful signal to all of Latin America that the United States wants a new, warmer relationship with democratic forces seeking social change throughout the Americas.

CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADV.

Democracy I s key Extinction Diamond 95
Larry, Senior Fellow Hoover Institution, Promoting Democracy in the 1990s, December, http://wwics.si.edu/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/di/1.htm OTHER THREATS This hardly exhausts the lists of threats to our security and well-being in the coming years and decades. In the former Yugoslavia nationalist aggression tears at the stability of Europe and could easily spread. The flow of illegal drugs intensifies through increasingly powerful international crime syndicates that have made common cause with authoritarian regimes and have utterly corrupted the institutions of tenuous, democratic ones. Nuclear,

chemical, and biological weapons continue to proliferate. The very source of life on Earth, the global ecosystem, appears increasingly endangered. Most of these new and unconventional threats to security are associated with or aggravated by the weakness or absence of democracy, with its provisions for legality, accountability, popular sovereignty, and openness. LESSONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The experience of this century offers important lessons. Countries that govern themselves in a truly democratic fashion do not go to war with one another. They do not aggress against their neighbors to aggrandize themselves or glorify their leaders. Democratic governments do not ethnically "cleanse" their own populations, and they are much less likely to face ethnic insurgency. Democracies do not sponsor terrorism against one another. They do not build w eapons of m ass d estruction to use on or to threaten one another. Democratic countries form more reliable, open, and enduring trading partnerships. In the long run they offer better and more stable climates for investment. They are more environmentally responsible because they must answer to their own citizens, who organize to
protest the destruction of their environments. They are better bets to honor international treaties since they value legal obligations and because their openness makes it much more difficult to breach agreements in secret. Precisely because, within their own borders, they respect competition, civil liberties, property rights, and the rule of law, democracies

are the only reliable foundation on which a new world order of international security and prosperity can be built.

CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADV. - SOLVENCY

Setbacks in a transition to democracy are offset by material gains and is widely popular in Cuba Commander Carlos Iglesias, U. S. Navy, 12, United States Security Policy Implications of a Post-Fidel Cuba, US Army War
College, www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA560408, ACC. 6-4-2013, JT//JEDI
That said, even if democratization acquires a foothold many problems and risks will remain. The revolutions profound scars will take long to heal. Similarly to other democracy transitions around the world, reconstruction will have its challenges and travails.47 At

the same time, these challenges should be more than offset by the long-term advantages that a democratic or Free Cuba will enjoy. The most salient is its proximity and extensive legacy of close relations with the worlds sole remaining superpower just to its north. From a resource perspective, Cubas extraordinary natural beauty and rich cultural heritage have already proven their desirability in the global tourist market. Also, the Cuban
diaspora is a large, wealthy and one of the most politically powerful exile groups in the U.S. It could easily back an informal Marshall Plan for Cuba.48 Collectively

these advantages promise unprecedented support and capacity for a government that adopts an economically liberal, politically free and tolerant, and rule of law centric society. 49

Adopting a policy of economic engagement is the best way to foster Cuban democracy David A. Perez, Spring, 10, JD Yale Law School, currently serving as The Legal Advisor to the State Department, America's
Cuba Policy: The Way Forward: A Policy Recommendation for the U.S. State Department, Harvard Latino Law Review, 13 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 187, JT//JEDI

Freedom has always been an important part of America's narrative, but too many leaders in Cuba see America's promotion of human rights and democracy as a war on sovereignty. The new central premise of America's Cuba policy must focus on economic reform, including an American commitment to helping Cuba develop on its own terms. This approach would support our interest in one day seeing a free and open society flourish in Cuba.

Lifting sanctions fosters Cuban democracy by improving economic growth Brandon Amash, Univ. California, San Diego, July 23, 12, EVALUATING THE CUBAN EMBARGO, Prospect:
4.3: Lifting

Journal of International Affairs at USCD, http://prospectjournal.org/2012/07/23/evaluating-the-cuban-embargo/, ACC. 6-1-13, JT//JEDI

economic sanctions will improve economic growth in Cuba, which correlates to democratization. Empirical evidence shows that a strong economy is correlated to democracy. According to the Modernization Theory of democratization, this correlation is a causal link: economic growth directly leads to democratization. Lifting the current economic sanctions on Cuba and working together to improve economic situations in the state will allow their economy to grow, increasing the likelihood of democracy in the state, and thus promoting greater freedom of expression, opinion and dissent.

CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADV. SOLVENCY/INTERNALS

Cuba rapproachment would remove the last vestiges of Communism and bolsters civil society Arturo Lopez-Levy, 11, lecturer and PhD Candidate at the Josef Korbel School of Intl Studies at the Univ. of Denver, Appease Cuba?
What Would Winston Churchill Say?, Havana Note, http://thehavananote.com/2011/01/appease_cuba_what_would_winston_churchill_say, ACC. 6-14-2013, JT//JEDI Fidel Castros opposition to U.S. policies over the world is documented and consistent. The

Cuban historicos, the generation who fought in the revolution, dont secretly aspire to be United States allies or to relations between Cuba and the United States of the cordial kind Russia and Finland have. It is logical, they know only one way to govern, the under siege one. A rapprochement with the United States would unleash unpredictable pressures for reform and public deliberation, with more transparency and opportunities for those who think differently. Such a situation would undoubtedly dilute their power. But there is a growing pluralism not only in Cuban civil society but also within the Cuban elites. The business of revolution for many of the sons and daughters of those who fought in Sierra Maestra or Bay of Pigs is not communist revolution but business in a globalized economy. Communism is as much a bankrupt ideology in Havana as in Moscow or Beijing. Some months ago, Esteban Morales, a leftist intellectual, denounced corruption,
authoritarian lack of transparency, and inefficiencies as the most powerful threats against the current system.

Restricting travel to Cuba undermines democracy Jake Colvin, July 6, 11, Vice President for Global Trade Issues with the National Foreign Trade Council, NEW DIRECTION FOR U.S.-CUBA
POLICY, http://www.icosa.co/2011/07/new-direction/, ACC. 6-25-2013, JT//JEDI

There is no shortage of good reasons for allowing Americans to travel to Cuba. By far the best is that the United States should not be in the business of restricting the right of its citizens to choose where they want to travel. We undermine the cause of freedom abroad when we restrict it here at home.

Lifting the embargo leads to democracy Herald Tribune 09

Herald Tribune. "U.S. Business Community Urges End to Cuba Embargo." Http://www.laht.com. Herald Tribune, 2009. Web. 12 July 2013. <http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=334000&CategoryId=14510>.
WASHINGTON The

U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked in the Capitol on Wednesday for an end to the 47-yearold U.S. economic embargo on Cuba because of the opportunities doing so will offer to both countries. Chamber President Thomas Donohue participated in an event with Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and other lawmakers who expressed support for an unconditional trade policy with the communist-ruled island. According to Donohue, lifting the embargo will promote the transition to democracy in Cuba and will offer significant opportunities to U.S. businessmen, farmers and workers. For the benefit of both countries, its time to turn the page, he said. The embargo has failed and its time for a change. Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) are sponsoring a bill to eliminate the trade restrictions. Rangel, meanwhile, has long defended a bill to lift the embargo but it has not come up for debate in the House of
Representatives. The United States is redefining some of the policies it has maintained to date in foreign affairs and the government of Barack Obama is undertaking a tentative rapprochement with Cuba. Obama in April ordered the lifting of travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba by Cuban-Americans, a decision made on the eve of his first trip to Latin America and his participation in the 5th Summit of the Americas. But the president says he opposes lifting the embargo until Cuba takes steps such as releasing political prisoners and allowing freedom of expression.

CUBAN DEMOCRACY ADV. SOLVENCY/INTERNALS

Increasing trade with Cuba is more likely to bring democracy Daniel Griswold 5 (director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.) Four Decades of
Failure: The U.S. Embargo against Cuba October 12, 2005 // mms http://www.cato.org/publications/speeches/four-decades-failure-us-embargo-against-cuba
Presented at the the James A. Baker III Institute Program, Cuba and the United States in the 21st Century at Rice University, Houston, Texas. Economic sanctions rarely work. Trade

and investment sanctions against Burma, Iran, and North Korea have failed to change the behavior of any of those oppressive regimes; sanctions have only deepened the deprivation of the very people we are trying to help. Our research at the Cato Institute confirms that trade and globalization till the soil for democracy. Nations open to trade are more likely to be democracies where human rights are respected. Trade and the development it creates give people tools of communication-cell phones, satellite TV, fax machines, the Internet-that tend to undermine oppressive authority. Trade not only increases the flow of goods and services but also of people and ideas. Development also creates a larger middle
class that is usually the backbone of democracy.