Opinion: In Cuba, a complex relationship unfolds

With the Straits of Florida rippling blue behind him, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stood Friday morning at the northern tip of Havana, Cuba, where the American flag was to be raised above the U.S. Embassy.

It was, he said, a “memorable occasion” and a “day for pushing aside old barriers.”

It also was a day of firsts – the flag was the first to fly over the Havana embassy since 1961 – and a day of symbols: The three Marines who took down that flag in 1961 were there again Friday to watch it rise.

But just as symbolic was who wasn’t invited – Cuban dissidents who’ve fought courageously for human rights and suffered arrests and beatings for their efforts. Their absence, according to the official U.S. government excuse, was due to the ceremony being a “government-to-government” affair. Also, officials said, there wasn’t a lot space for people to stand.

The snub was a clear signal of the journey Cubans still face in finding changes in human rights, choices in leaders and the ability to speak freely about their country. It also illustrates how little the U.S. can do – at least in the short term – to bring about those changes.

Still, human rights activists believe the Obama administration could have done more to address the Cuban government’s repression of its people before agreeing to normalize relations and encourage investment in the struggling country. Instead, the State Department demanded little and bowed to mandates that embassy personnel face rigid constraints in their access to the Cuban people.

And so, political persecution continues on the island – and might even be worsening. There have been more than 3,000 political detentions since December, the Washington Post reports. Most detainees were beaten, according to dissident sources, with 20 requiring medical treatment just in the month of May.

All of which is sadly not surprising. With the prospect of change lifting the hearts of Cubans, many expected their government to tighten its repressive grip so that people don’t get carried away with what might be.

But change, in some form, is coming. Fidel Castro has ceded leadership to his brother Raul, who has promised to relinquish the presidency in 2018. That transition, combined with the economic investment that surely will reach Cuba’s borders, promises at least some transformation.

It’s wishful to think such change will be signficant anytime soon. Dictatorships don’t willingly go democratic, of course, and while the Cuban people want freedoms and economic opportunity, they also believe that socialism has provided good health care and education relative to other Latin American countries.

What’s to come in Cuba will be incremental. Congress will ultimately lift a trade embargo, probably in pieces. Americans and citizens from other countries will travel and invest there. The Cuban government, and its people, will wrestle with the changes – both economic and ideological – that follow.

Smartly, the Obama administration has decided that as this transformation arrives on Cuba’s shore, the U.S. is better positioned as a neighbor than enemy. Friday morning was another step, full of more firsts and more symbolism, both of the promise the relationship holds and the difficulties we should expect.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Opinion: In Cuba, a complex relationship unfolds."