THE PRICE OF COMPROMISE ON HELMS-BURTON MUST BE NOTHING LESS THAN AN END TO EUROPEAN HELP FOR THE COMING CUBAN ‘CHERNOBYL’

(Washington, D.C.): Yesterday’s announcement by
President Clinton that he would prevent the immediate
implementation of provisions of the Libertad Act
known for its chief sponsors, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) and
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) is a travesty. It
represents a deplorable capitulation to foreign
pressure in the face of a clear national interest in
cutting off the economic life-support to Fidel currently
being provided by European, Canadian and other Western
companies.

The effect of the President’s action will be to deny
Americans the opportunity provided under Title III of the
Helms-Burton bill to sue companies which traffic in
property they owned which has been confiscated by the
Communist regime of Fidel Castro. In his inimitable
fashion, Mr. Clinton packaged this breathtaking
abandonment of a core feature of the Act he signed into
law just four months ago by describing it not as a waiver
of the relevant provisions, but as a six-month “postponement”
of their implementation. (It escaped few commentators’
attention that this period extends conveniently through
the November elections.)

As a sop to those in the Cuban-American community who
understand the gravity of the President’s backtracking,
the Administration promised to use the next half-year to
bring the allies around to an American-led consensus view
about the need to stop propping up Castro. As Deputy
National Security Advisor Samuel Berger put it:
“[Friendly foreign governments can either] join our
efforts to promote a transition to democracy in Cuba…or
they can face full implementation of the law.” wp=”br1″>

The Predictable Consequence of Appeasement

In fact, the only “leading” likely to arise
from this Clinton capitulation — and the ignominious
U.S. behavior that is likely to follow it in the face of
further threats of economic retaliation from the European
Union — is that of the United States, by the nose.
Worse yet, in this episode, the allies have
clearly served notice that they do not intend to be
dissuaded from coddling rogue states, despots and
megalomaniacs, whether they be Cuban or Iranian, no
matter how great the danger such bad actors present to
U.S. and other Western citizens and interests.
(Such coddling has, for example, taken the form in recent
years of: transferring chemical weapons technology to
Libya, Iran, Syria and others; turning a blind-eye toward
the transfer of ballistic missile components to these and
other nations; and expanding the oil and gas extraction,
processing and transmission capabilities of both Libya
and Iran.)

Of perhaps greatest immediate concern to the American
people, however, is the assistance now in prospect from
European and other sources to Fidel Castro’s bid to
complete two Soviet-designed and irretrievably flawed
VVER-440 nuclear reactors. According to U.S. government
estimates, the all-but-certain accident that will
occur if one or both of these reactors go on-line could
expose as many as 50-80 million Americans living
downwind to deadly levels of radiation not seen since the
Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

The Bottom Line

It must be a non-negotiable condition
of any further conversations with allied governments
about implementation of the Helms-Burton legislation that
all European and Canadian assistance to the
Cuban nuclear reactor complex at Juragua — including the
supplying of any component, technical assistance or
financing — must be permanently halted. As the
nature of the flaws in these reactors are systemic (e.g.,
myriad faulty welds in the cooling system; some 60%
defective equipment; rampant corrosion; design problems
in the reactor dome and elsewhere, etc.), no
amount of Western assistance short of demolition and
a complete fresh start will significantly address
these reactors’ critical safety deficiencies. wp=”br1″>

By denying the Castro regime the ability to correct
its current 15-20% energy shortfall — to say nothing of
substantially expanding the output of its electrical
production capability needed to satisfy the requirements
of prospective tourist and industrial (notably, mining)
concerns — the U.S. can obtain a two-fer: 1) protecting
the American people against a potential nuclear
catastrophe and 2) greatly increasing the chances that
the objective of the Libertad Act, namely, freedom
at long last for the beleaguered Cuban population,
will actually be met.

A failure to make the termination of European and
Canadian component supplies and financing to the Juragua
nuclear reactor complex near Cienfuegos the minimal price
for any further accommodation on the Helms-Burton Act
would be a breathtaking betrayal of the
public trust. Should it result in a nuclear disaster for
the American mainland, fair warning is served: The
President responsible for such a betrayal may well be
held to the ultimate account by the American people and
their elected representatives — impeachment
proceedings.

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