Cuba remains locked in past

Opinion: October 19, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Miami Herald: As Cuba continues its crackdown on dissidents and young Cubans complain of no future, the number of Cubans caught at sea or pleading ”dry foot” here or at crossings on the U.S.-Mexican border have doubled from last year.

The Castro brothers’ escape valve is operational again. That’s because pressure from within is mounting for change.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s attempts to free U.S. Agency for International Development worker Alan Gross (for a ”crime” that most everywhere else would have been handled with a fine and a return trip home) have fallen flat.

No surprise there, as Washington has not yet fully understood that Havana has no interest in negotiating better relations with the United States. Its intent remains turning Uncle Sam into the Boogey Man, to take the heat off the regime’s own failings.

Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, went to Cuba on an ”unofficial” trip looking to bring back Gross, who’s serving an outrageous 15-year prison sentence. Cuba accuses Mr. Gross, 62 and ill, of being a spy for bringing communications equipment to Jewish groups in Havana.

Predictably, Richardson returned without him. Another mind game from a 52-year-old dictatorship worried about the ramifications of the Arab Spring and fearing what technology in the hands of a new generation of Cubans might bring.

Cellphone cameras from Santiago to Havana are capturing growing discontent for the world to see. Brave young women and men are standing on street corners, even on the Capitol steps, to denounce abuses and call for democracy. The protests are gaining in number and in support from average Cubans on the street.