S.C. should not strike deals with dictators

I was stunned when I recently read in the news that an S.C. delegation visited Cuba to cut a deal with one of the world's last communist dictators, Fidel Castro. On Jan. 9, a delegation led by Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer signed a deal with Castro to ship more than $10 million of S.C. agricultural products to the communist country just south of Miami.

I fully support free trade and, particularly, the expansion of economic opportunities for S.C. farmers and businesses. That is something I learned the value of firsthand during my father [Carroll's] eight years as governor (1987-1995). Economic growth and opportunity was the foundation of his administration, and South Carolina enjoyed unprecedented success in those areas under his leadership.

But Carroll Campbell would have never sat down and cut a deal with the likes of Castro, no matter what the reward.

For more than 45 years, Castro has ruled the good people of Cuba with a heavy hand and a cold heart. His administration has conducted the summary trials and executed thousands; suppressed political opponents who hungered for freedom; closed independent media outlets; ended economic activity and made itself an economic dependent and military agent of the former Soviet Union. In 1962, preparing to strike the United States, Castro positioned 40 Soviet nuclear warheads directly at the United States, prompting the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And on the very day that the S.C. delegation was drinking wine and smoking cigars with Castro, his government began prohibiting Internet access to most ordinary Cuban citizens. The Internet was their only outlet to the free world.

Since 2001, Castro has been buying American grain, food and medicine to prop up an economy hurt by the recent withdrawal of more than $200 million a year in Russian aid, a depressed sugar cane market and the ill effects of communism. Castro's government is now broke and trying to bolster itself by campaigning to get the U.S. government to extend trade credits. This comes after several countries have frozen Cuba's assets to pressure Castro to resume debt payments. Essentially, a deal with Havana means S.C. farmers and taxpayers stand to pick up the bill when Castro fails to pay for what he buys.

President Bush has characterized Castro's attempt to trade with the U.S. as "a foreign aid program in disguise" benefiting an openly anti-American regime and Castro's elite few.

Secretary of State Colin Powell recently wrote, "Trade by other nations with Cuba has brought no change to Cuba's despotic practices, and it's frequently proved to be an unprofitable enterprise." Powell further commented, "Cuba continues to harbor fugitives from the American justice system, and it supports international terrorist organizations." In fact, the U.S. State Department currently ranks Cuba "as one of seven state sponsors of international terrorism, as developing biological weapons and as providing a safe haven for terrorists across the globe." Think of how the S.C. military men and women, risking their lives every day to fight the war on terror, must feel about their state doing business with a terrorist.

Trading with a communist dictator like Castro is not in the best interest of South Carolina. I strongly urge the lieutenant governor and the other members of his delegation to stop the deal with Castro. Now is the time, before any goods are delivered, to cease and desist any relations with this tyrant. I also encourage the General Assembly to prohibit state leaders from cutting deals with individuals such as Castro on behalf of South Carolina. We didn't do business with Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, and we don't need to do business with Castro.