Raúl: more of the same?
Written by J. Paul Johnson
Appearing in "The Guardian" (Published 05/21/2008 :: Political Commentary)
During Soviet times factory workers reportedly quipped: "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work." This axiom applies well to current events in Cuba, modified as: "The Castros pretend to give us freedom, and we pretend to be free." However, dire consequences await those willing to test their freedoms despite Cuba's recent signing of two UN covenants guaranteeing inalienable human rights: the covenant on civil and political rights (CCPR) and the covenant on economic, social, and cultural rights. Was the signing truly an indication of what some have called a "Raúlistroika" or a Cuban glasnost?
Regrettably the answer is an authoritarian "No."
Despite the new "freedoms" - to buy some DVDs, computers, and mobile phones, costing at times a year's salary, and to have access to tourist hotels once only open to visitors carrying foreign currency, preferably euros - Cubans are by and in large still under the same repressive tyranny as they have been for all of Fidel's 49-year despotism. The face may have changed, but there is no doubt Raúl is continuing his sibling's harsh repression of basic human rights rather than something more benevolent.
A recent example is that of the Ladies in White, dragged away and beaten on April 21 by Castro's forces while staging a sit-in alongside Havana's Revolution Square to plea for the release of their relatives arrested in the dramatic political crackdown of 2003.
On March 18 2003, the Cuban authorities arrested scores of dissidents in targeted sweeps. Some 75 of them were subjected to hasty and manifestly unfair trials in April 2003 and quickly sentenced to long prison terms of up to 28 years. Most appealed their sentences in vain. And just last week, before the national assembly, Raúl Castro had the temerity to utter that there has been "not one sole case of torture" in Cuba. A former political prisoner, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, told the Miami Herald " ... there is not one sole case of torture, but rather there are thousands and thousands ... with the most open impunity ... "
Among the substantive questions begging to be asked is what of the nearly 200 political prisoners being held? Amnesty International has labeled them prisoners of conscience. Cuban officials label them "Yankee mercenaries." And what freedoms do Cubans truly possess now after the two UN charters have been signed (with reservations)?
The CCPR guarantees, among other freedoms and rights, 1) civil and political freedom, 2) the right to self determination, 3) peaceful assembly, 4) freedom of religion, 5) privacy, 6) the freedom to leave a country, and 7) equal protection before the law. At best, in Cuba now there is freedom of religion. Beyond that, nearly 12 million Cubans still cannot exercise the human rights enjoyed by their neighbours.
Yet there is a strong yearning for freedom in Cuba. An opinion poll carried out by the International Republican Institute in the Autumn of 2007 showed that a majority of Cubans (75.6%) think that political democratic changes in their country would improve their daily lives. When asked if they would prefer a political system where people could choose from candidates of different parties, 76.3% said they would like to choose. The younger or more educated the interviewee, the more he or she supported political and economic changes, multiparty elections and the right to vote to decide who should succeed Fidel Castro.
May 21, the day after Independence Day, is Cuba Solidarity Day. Its celebration will not be sanctioned, but brave members of Cuban civil society will quietly gather in spite of the regime's ubiquitous general directorate for state security trying to ferret out these proponents of freedom. These associations of professionals, students, and families will be buoyed by the support they will receive when the spotlight shines upon their sacrifices to obtain still elusive basic freedoms.
On May 21, a clear message must be sent to Raúl Castro that the time for a true transition is here. Cuba must live up to its obligations undertaken under the CCPR and the inter-American democratic charter. The release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience such as Oscar Biscet, Ricardo Alfonso, Diosdado Morero, and others would be a good start.
Their release would signify that real change is beginning on an island where everyone is guaranteed a toaster by 2010 while the few computers still lack an internet connection to the outside world and where, most of all, true freedom is still missing.
J. Paul Johnson, J.D., an associate at the White House Writers Group, has been advisor to the Centro de Estudios Americanos and lecturer at Universidad Lincoln.
Emilio C. Viano, Ph.D., LLM, specializes in human rights, criminology, and victimology at American University and serves as an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law. He is a frequent commentator on the BBC, CNN, and Voice of America and lectures throughout the world.
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