I was stunned when I recently read in the news that a delegation from South Carolina visited Cuba to cut a deal with one of the world's last communist dictators, Fidel Castro.
In the late hours of Jan. 9, a delegation from South Carolina led by Lt. Gov. AndrČ Bauer signed a deal with Castro to ship more than $10 million of agricultural products from South Carolina to the tiny communist country just south of Miami.
Please don't misunderstand me, I fully support free trade and particularly the expansion of economic opportunities for South Carolina's farmers and businesses. That is something I learned the value of firsthand during my father's eight years as governor (1987-1995). Economic growth and opportunity were the foundation of his administration and South Carolina enjoyed unprecedented success in those areas under his leadership. But I can assure you, Carroll Campbell would have never sat down and cut a deal with the likes of Castro. No matter what the reward. It wouldn't have been a good idea then and it's not a good idea now.
For more than 45 years, Castro has ruled the good people of Cuba with a heavy hand and a cold heart. His regime has conducted the summary trials and executions of 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 South Carolina's delegation was drinking wine and smoking cigars with Castro, his regime began tightening control over the Internet, 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 that has been 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 regime 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 South Carolina's 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." Secretary 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."
Knowing this, think of how the military men and women from South Carolina who are risking their lives every day to fight the war on terror must feel about their home state doing business with a terrorist.
Trading with a communist dictator like Fidel 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 enact legislation that would prohibit our 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 Fidel Castro.
South Carolina is a wonderful state with tremendous resources and honest people. Let's show the world we can achieve the level of economic success we once enjoyed by expanding trade and opening new markets the right way, by forging relations with peace-loving, capitalistic and democratic nations, not with terrorists and communist dictators.
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