Hare Publishes Op-Ed in Miami Herald
Amb. Paul Webster Hare, Senior Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University published a recent Op-Ed on the marginalization of Havana historian Eusebio Leal by the military-run business empire Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA).
Amb. Hare’s Op-Ed, entitled “More Bad News For New Ideas in Cuba,” was published by the Miami Herald on August 29, 2016.
From the text of the Op-Ed:
Very few without Castro in their name have survived in the leadership of the Cuban Revolution as long as Eusebio Leal. And he didn’t do it by the conventional means of silence and obedience. He brought loyalty but also ideas to the Castros. Now the military-run business empire has asserted itself in Old Havana as elsewhere and Leal appears to have been outmaneuvered.
Uniquely among Cuban leaders Leal has cared about other things beyond preserving the Castro Revolution. He has been as fascinated by Cuba’s past as its future. He has received numerous overseas cultural awards but his stature in Cuba has been that he thought differently.
In 2002 the British embassy in Havana staged a two-month-long series of events to commemorate 100 years of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United Kingdom. We were told it was the largest such festival by an overseas country ever held in Cuba. Leal was our indispensable ally for venues, organization, contacts and vision. At times the Revolution’s agenda surfaced and he negotiated hard. But his heart was in the history of both our countries. Leal even created a garden in Old Havana in memory of Princess Diana. And as a historian he loved the story of the British invasion of Havana in 1762.
The military conglomerate GAESA will now assume business control over Leal’s beloved Old Havana project. This has been a labor of love and ingenuity. But it has also depended on his versatile role at the heart of revolutionary politics. He proved a man of taste, of determination but also shone as a contemporary entrepreneur in a Cuba which despises individualism.
You can read the entire Op-Ed here.
Hare was the British ambassador to Cuba from 2001-04. He worked for 5 years in the private sector, in law and investment banking, before serving for 30 years in the British Diplomatic Service. Hare served overseas in Portugal, New York, at the UK Representation at the EU in Brussels, and in Venezuela as Deputy Head of Mission. He has written two policy briefs for Brookings: “The Odd Couple; The EU and Cuba 1996-2008,” and “US Public Diplomacy for Cuba: Why It’s Needed and How to Do It.” Learn more about him here.