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| Berta Soler |
Berta Soler in Miami! Join her and the exile community in a vigil in honor of the memory of Laura Pollán and other Cuban martyrs on Saturday, April 27 at 5:30pm in Merrick Park located at Le Jeune Rd & Miracle Mile in front of Coral Gables City Hall. Learn how she inspired me.
The Moral High Ground vs. The Violent Mob
“What
is the most important weapon in breaking people's wills? This may
surprise you, but I am convinced that holding the moral high ground is
more important than firepower.” - VADM James B. Stockdale, USN
The
inspiration that led to a violent mob being successfully confronted by a
minority who held the moral high ground in San Jose, Costa Rica on
November 16, 2004 came from inside of Cuba a little over a month
earlier. On Tuesday, October 5, Berta
Soler Fernandez delivered a letter addressed to Fidel Castro describing
her husband’s (Angel Moya's) plight to the government offices behind the Jose Marti
monument in Revolution Square. Later that same day, joined by five other
wives of Cuban prisoners of conscience, she went again, this time
prepared with food, water, and blankets. Berta then declared to
international media: "I am going to wait here until I see my husband with my own eyes or I get arrested." Later, despite a massive paramilitary operation, her primary demand was met. Seven years later, following a sustained nonviolent campaign by the Berta Soler and the Ladies in White, Angel Moya was released.
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| Angel Moya and Berta Soler |
Non-cooperation
is the use of force, albeit non-violent to effect profound change. Gene Sharp’s analysis of Gandhian non-cooperation is that “the primary
motive of non-co-operation is self-purification by withdrawing
co-operation from an unrighteous and unrepentant Government. Then, the
secondary objective is to rid oneself of the feeling of helplessness
thus being independent of all Government control.” In
her campaign against the Cuban government, Berta had the high moral ground
combined with the courage and discipline not to participate in the
injustice being done to her husband.
Berta Soler was willing to take action.
This had both important external and internal effects. I
believe that the internal effect had a greater impact on the final external impact. Internal
effects here are defined as effects upon the soul or spirit of the activist while the
external effects are the manner in which her action led other activists
to respond in solidarity with her, and the regime to react (either
negatively or positively to her demands).
Self purification is by
definition at its essence non-cooperation with evil. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago offers a firsthand experiential account of understanding good and evil:
“It
was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back,
which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a
human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful
successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel.
In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most
evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well
supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on
rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of
good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and
evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between
political parties either, but right through every human heart, and
through all human hearts.”
The
Christian tradition speaks of original sin and the Roman stoics spoke
of the inner conflicts between the moral purpose and the will. In all
cases the struggle to resist evil and to do good is constant and
throughout a lifetime there are victories and defeats regardless of
which one chooses to embrace. No one is purely evil or purely good.
Nevertheless, refusing to cooperate with evil -- engaging in
non-co-operation -- is a method of self purification that also raises
moral forces in the practitioner giving greater reserves to challenge an
unjust adversary.
This provides the context in which the series of events that created a nonviolent confrontation in the Legislative Assembly of San Jose, Costa Rica. Costa
Rican members of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba led
by former president Luis Alberto Monge invited other Latin American and
European leaders as well as representatives of civil society to hold an
“International Forum for Democracy in Cuba” on the eve of the
Ibero-American Summit. The
Legislative Assembly is open to the public to reserve rooms, and
organize forums and information sessions. The organizers of the forum
followed all the appropriate protocols and filled out the appropriate
forms, and were given the space. This was all done openly and without
any subterfuge.
The
Cuban government learned ahead of time on November 9, 2004 that the event was
being planned and attempted through diplomatic channels to have the event suspended, even before it started, accusing the participants of being: CIA agents, terrorists, and servants of the North American
government, and requesting that Costa Rican authorities inform them of
the steps taken to cancel the event. When Costa Rica, a bastion of
democracy and civil liberties in the Americas refused to suspend the
event on November 10, 2004 the Costa Rican consul was called to the Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Relations and once again the Cuban government demanded that the Costa Rican government cancel the event. Diplomatic notes were sent shortly afterwards on November 11 and November 12 with the aim of canceling the forum.
Having failed to stop the event the Cuban government sought to organize an act of repudiation inside the Legislative Assembly. Costa Rica being an open and democratic society with a long history of tolerance and pluralism and the ability to engage in civilized debate all of its governing institutions are open to the public. The Cuban counsel, and high ranking intelligence officer, Rafael Dausá Céspedes utilized groups with ideological affinities with the Cuban revolution in Costa Rica to physically storm the event and use physical intimidation and threats of violence to shut it down after it had started.
Having failed to stop the event the Cuban government sought to organize an act of repudiation inside the Legislative Assembly. Costa Rica being an open and democratic society with a long history of tolerance and pluralism and the ability to engage in civilized debate all of its governing institutions are open to the public. The Cuban counsel, and high ranking intelligence officer, Rafael Dausá Céspedes utilized groups with ideological affinities with the Cuban revolution in Costa Rica to physically storm the event and use physical intimidation and threats of violence to shut it down after it had started.
Six activists including the vice-president
of the Czech Senate, Jan Ruml began a “sit-in” to protest the actions
of the mob. They refused to depart the room under a threat of violence.
One of the six held up a picture of the “Ladies in White” throughout the
sit in. This led to a two and a half hour stand off by six activists against a mob of sixty.
Meanwhile in another part of the same building the event went off
without a hitch, because the sixty did not want to surrender the room to
the six.
How
was this possible? What happened? The answers are simple. This is
possible because those few who engaged in the sit-in made a specific
demand. They refused to leave the room under a threat of violence. They
were willing to risk their lives to defend their right not to be
threatened or assaulted by a mob. The sit in placed a handful of
participants at the mercy of a mob of sixty. National
and international media were present in the room to document the
behavior of both sides in the confrontation.
The sit-in
participants were willing to negotiate to achieve their goal and as the
minutes stretched out into hours the mob of sixty not as disciplined
began to leave forcing the organizers of the mob to negotiate. After
more than two and a half hours (at the time the Legislative Assembly was due to close) Costa Rican officials, still fearful of
violence from the mob, carried out the non-violent protesters engaged in
the sit-in bringing an end to the stand off.
The Costa Rican public and
press criticized the government for not removing the violent mob, and
viewed the action of the mob with justly harsh criticism. The six
engaged in a non-violent sit-in to protest the violation of their right
to free assembly, free speech and freedom from intimidation held the
moral high ground and won the day.
All of this was made possible by Berta Soler, whose example, taking action to save her husband against incredible odds but
with great moral courage inspired another act of resistance 918 miles away in the face of another mob organized by agents of the Cuban government.
One of the benefits of a nonviolent moral stand is that it is a positive example that inspires others and leaves a positive impact that often times cannot be measured or predicted.
What: Vigil with Berta Soler to honor memory of Laura Pollan and other Cuban Martyrs When: Saturday, April 27 at 5:30pm
Where: George Merrick Park at City Hall
400 Biltmore Way, Coral Gables, FL 33134
across the street from Coral Gables City Hall, at the intersection of Le Jeune Road and Coral Way (Miracle Mile).
From 836: exit Le Jeune Road, travel south to Miracle Mile.
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