A few weeks ago President Bush announced that he would liberate the Cuban people from Fidel Castro’s regime by tightening the trade embargo and by increasing efforts to spread U.S. propaganda in the nation.

For Bush, this was little more than talk aimed at getting the Miami vote, but this talk is very harmful, especially to Cubans.

Possibly recognizing this, the House and Senate have moved to reduce enforcement of the travel ban. A recent New York Times editorial said, “As the main beneficiary of this failed policy, Mr. Castro may want to call Mr. Bush and encourage him to get that veto pen ready.”

Castro indeed would be disappointed to see the sanctions lifted. This would remove the one thing that has kept Castro in power all of these years – fear.

Like any government that crushes its people, the best asset that Castro’s regime could have is the fear of its citizens. Fear of state terror will do, but fear of foreign invasion and domination is better.

The forty-year economic embargo, coupled with covert U.S. action to destabilize the current government, has given the Cuban people fear. This fear has been used by the Castro regime to justify its abuse of human rights and its mockery of democracy.

Recent events illustrate this claim. About a year ago, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter became the first U.S. president to visit the island since the 1959 revolution.

A few days before his arrival, a group of Cubans presented a petition to the government demanding freedom of speech, of communication, of enterprise, and free elections. This timing was not a coincidence – the signers and leaders of the project waited for Carter’s visit, because they knew that the Cuban government would not dare perpetuate a human rights disaster in front of a former U.S. president.

This was about the same time that current U.S. president, George W. Bush, made some hostile, idiotic, and widely published remarks about Castro’s government.

As soon as Carter was safely off the island, Castro organized a widespread effort to combat the protesters’ threat to his government by using the remarks by our current president to rally the Cuban people behind him. The largest march in Cuban history was coordinated as a protest reacting to Bush’s gibberish.

Following this rally, a change to the constitution was proposed, which would make the current economic and political structure of Cuba forever unchangeable.

Official government reports say that 99.25 percent of Cuban citizens “voted” on this proposition – putting to death any notion of peaceful political change on the island.

This trade embargo and these hostile actions from the U.S. government do not hurt Castro; they justify his hold over the country. Negative attention from the United States, such as Bush’s statements on Oct. 10, strengthen the dictator and his oppressive policies.

His defense is that Cuba is in a state of war with the United States, and that it is necessary for all citizens to sacrifice a few freedoms.

To show that we care about the freedom of the Cuban people, let’s stop the war and let Castro stand on his own legitimacy. If he stands, then he is what the Cuban people want. If not, ending the embargo is how we can effectively bring about change on the island.

~ Muetze Hellmer is a sociology senior.