Camila Ruiz Gallardo is director of government relations for the Cuban American National Foundation.

The word ''change'' seems to spark a range of diverse emotions in South Florida. For some, the word represents hope, an opportunity to adjust course with the goal of achieving a better outcome. For others, it evokes alarm, uncertainty, a rejection of past efforts. Merriam-Webster doesn't offer much help in its own definitions, which include: to alter as well as: to transform. So you can appreciate the complexity of using the word when applying it to Cuba policy, something so many in this community care deeply about.

The truth, however, is that those of us who desire Cuba's freedom cannot be satisfied with the current state of affairs. Cuba is still governed by a ruthless dictatorship that systematically denies its people the most basic of human rights and freedoms. Dissenters are relentlessly tortured and jailed. An entire generation has been beaten into hopelessness, enough so that they continue to risk their lives in the treacherous 90-mile journey to freedom. Cubans are in dire need of change -- the transformative kind.

Unfortunately, our current policy toward Cuba, as applied, does not provide support for that transformation to democracy. In fact, it helps perpetuate the regime's hold on power by failing to apply the teeth that were written into such landmark legislation as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (Helms-Burton) and by refusing to emulate in Cuba the direct support of democratic opposition groups championed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

We have been led to believe that the current policy promotes tough sanctions on the regime, when in fact, throughout the past decade, we have weakened rather than strengthened the embargo. With the waiving of Title III of Helms-Burton that would hold liable foreign companies trafficking in confiscated property, we missed an opportunity to place the Cuban regime in a position to choose either to reform or deal with the consequences of international isolation. Since 2001, we have allowed American companies to dump billions of dollars' worth of products into Cuba. The regime marks up these products and resells them, making extraordinary profits. This year alone, U.S. companies are expected to sell in excess of $700 million in goods that the Cuban people will never see.

In 2004, the administration further restricted family travel, remittances and care packages -- intending to place the burden of caring for the Cuban people on the regime (a burden we know the regime has never felt). Our community was misled when we were told that this was a policy that was supposed to be ''tough'' on the Castro regime. In practice, it is clear that current policy hasn't made a dent on the regime and has severely limited our ability to help support the development of independent civil society in Cuba. Today, we see that those vehicles of direct aid for the Cuban people that are paramount to a peaceful, democratic transition have been rendered ineffective. Not only are we denied the opportunity to help an extended family member in need, but we are prohibited from sending direct aid to members of Cuba's brave opposition movement and the families of political prisoners.

Programs created to directly support the democratic opposition in Cuba have been fatally flawed in their application due to the continuation of a policy -- made by a mid-level Clinton administration official -- that bans aid to dissidents. So today, Cuba's brave dissidents continue to go without, carrying on their struggle with the most rudimentary of tools, subsisting on the trickle of aid that makes its way through.

During the transfer of power from Fidel to Raúl Castro, perhaps one of the most critical moments in the past 50 years of Cuba's history, we surrendered an opportunity to bolster these forces. That's why our Cuba policy needs to be altered. This does not mean a weakening of sanctions. On the contrary, the embargo should remain in place until there is substantive, democratic reform. But we do need to move beyond today's policy that surrenders Cuba's destiny to the Castros and unleash the power of direct aid, communication and support that can lead to the transformative change we all want -- in Cuba.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@