"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Cuba has been under a dictatorship for 72 years. On March 10, 1952, Fulgencio Batista brought an end to Cuban democracy. Carlos Prio, the last democratic president, and his first lady were forced into exile. An increasingly unpopular authoritarian and corrupt regime ruled Cuba for the following seven years.
The hope for the restoration of democratic governance came to an end when Batista refused to cede power nonviolently through a dialogue process, opening a path for Fidel and Raul Castro to take it by force. Although they had repeatedly pledged to restore the 1940 Constitution, and Cuban democracy they imposed a communist dictatorship.
Cuba's official motto was
changed from Homeland and Liberty (Patria y Libertad) to Homeland or
Death, We Shall Triumph (¡Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!).
Presidents of Cuba from 1902 to 1952 and dictator Batista
Since the beginning of their struggle on July 26, 1953, the Castro brothers
promised a democratic restoration, but all along planned a
Marxist-Leninist takeover. They imposed a totalitarian communist
dictatorship, killing tens of thousands of Cubans. The Castro regime systematically denied human rights to all Cubans while exporting their repressive model to Africa and Latin America, creating misery for millions more.
From 1959 till now, generations of Cubans have resisted this communist regime.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans risked everything in July 2021, taking to the streets in nonviolent protests demanding an end to the dictatorship. The Castro regime responded
by firing on unarmed protesters, imprisoning over a thousand, and condemning
many of them to 20 and 30 year prison sentences for exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
Remembering this sad past, we resolve to work even harder to bring democracy back to Cuba, replacing Homeland or Death (¡Patria o Muerte!) with Homeland, Life, and Liberty (Patria, Vida y Libertad).
Both petitions are addressed to members of the international community.
On the streets of Cuba on July 11, 2021
Wishing
you all a happy new year in 2024, and through the continuing work and
struggle for a free Cuba may freedom be restored that will finally fulfill Cuban exiles goal of "this year in Havana!"
Totalitarian regimes have a track record of effectively using tourism, athletic events, and academic exchanges to present their regimes in a manner that legitimizes them
and covers up their hostile objectives.
An excellent accounting of these practices and their impacts on
national and international politics is found in Paul Hollander's book Political Pilgrims that should be required reading for anyone traveling to Cuba, China, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela, or Vietnam.
There is much to address, and it will be broken up into a series of blog entries.
These blog entries will review a number of the claims Mr. Offenburger makes in chronological order, and provide documented sources to test them.
They will also highlight some of the errors made by the United States in dealing with the Cuban revolution (1953 - 1959) and the Communist dictatorship (1959 - present).
Mr. Offenburger begins his blog entry with the claim that "religious and church life in Cuba is thriving, and has been since the 1990s." He then goes on to cite as a source for this claim Reverend Raúl Suárez.
This blog entry will explore who is Reverend Raúl Suárez and his claims about Fidel Castro "fixing" the error of banning religion.
Reverend Raúl Suárez was expelled in 1986 from the Baptist Convention in Cuba for "apostasy and heresy" for his unconditional support for the regime. He had created within the Baptist Church an Association of Churches with that political purpose. Suárez, far from complying, robbed the Baptist Convention of the Temple, the house and its bank account of 25,000 pesos, and with the support of the Government - which did not pursue the accusation of theft presented by the Baptist Convention - he registered the new convention."
Cuba grants the Department of Attention to Religious
Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Departamento de
Atención a los Asuntos Religiosos del Comité Central del Partido Comunista)
a prominent role in overseeing religious institutions. Not
surprisingly, religious leaders who support the government face fewer impediments
to their activities than do believers who find themselves at odds with
the ruling party.
At the 1991 Communist Party Fourth Congress, the party
decided that religious belief would no longer pose an obstacleto membership.84
In the wake of this decision, some religious figures are now members of
the Communist Party or even political leaders themselves, such as Pablo
Odén Marichal, the president of the Cuban Council of Churches (Consejo
Cubano de Iglesias), who is a deputy in Cuba's National Assembly. Baptist
Minister Raúl Suárez Ramos, with the Cuban Council of Churches, also
is a deputy in Cuba's National Assembly, and heads the Martin Luther King
Memorial Center, a nongovernmental group with close ties to the government.85
Suárez Ramos earned government acclaim in 1990 when he lauded the revolution
as "a blessing for our poor people" and criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba
as an "economic, political, radio, and television aggression."86
Both deputies often travel internationally and participate in conferences
on religion in Cuba. But the party treats distinctly those who do not share
its political views. The current head of the party's religious affairs
office, Caridad Diego, criticized an American Catholic priest who had worked
in the Villa Clara area for supporting "counterrevolutionary groups."87
The priest, Patrick Sullivan, had posted copies of the Universal Declaration
on Human Rights in his church and had urged his parishioners to defend
those rights. In April 1998, facing increasing government pressure, Sullivan
chose to leave Cuba. Although Cuba and the Vatican had agreed that the
pope would visit Cuba in 1989, the Catholic church's failure to condemn
the U.S. embargo at that time apparently contributed to the several-year
delay in finalizing the visit.88 When the pope
did travel to Cuba in early 1998, the Cuban government trumpeted his criticisms
of the U.S. embargo.
Let us briefly review the steps taken by the Castro regime to crush religion in Cuba, and those measures that remain in place.
In September 1961, the Castro regime at gunpoint collected 131 priests,
brothers and a bishop, placing them on board the Spanish ship Covadonga
and deported them from Cuba. Many of the remaining priests were sent to forced labor camps. Over 300 priests, brothers, and nuns were expelled from Cuba in 1961 alone.
The communist dictatorship declared itself an atheist state in 1962, and openly hostile to religion. Christmas ended as a holiday in Cuba in 1969.
The collapse of the Eastern European communist block in 1989, and the
Soviet Union in 1992 led Havana to seek bankrolling from the West, and
necessitated a limited opening on the religous front in 1992. The
restoration of Christmas in 1997 was a concession granted to the Vatican
to obtain a state visit by Pope John Paul II, in which he called for
the World to open to Cuha, and for Cuba to open to the World..
Today, the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), an arm of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, still oversees religious affairs in Cuba, and exists to monitor, hinder and restrict religious activities. They also continue to demolish churches with bulldozers and organize mobs to harass Christians in acts of repudiation coordinated with the Ministry of the Interior.
On April 9, 2015 on the eve of the Summit of the Americas in Panama, agents of the Castro regime carried out various acts of repudiation against Cuban and Venezuelan members of civil society that they deemed unacceptable due to their dissent or opposition with either Havana or Caracas.
In a meeting that recently took place at the Ministry of Culture, where the attitude of the Cuban delegation in Panama was recognized, you said that you had never been closer to God in those days. Why?
I said it for two reasons. Because when I am among people who do not have religious beliefs, I like to place the topic of faith in an attractive way, so that there is the highest level of understanding and empathy among everyone. On the other hand, in churches there is sometimes the opinion that a Christian's participation in politics is a mistake, some even say that it is a sin. That is not right. I am not interested in politics that has to do with political campaigns, fundraising, fights between politicians... The politics that interests me is that which starts from the etymology of the term, referring to the people, the polis, which is the organization of the people for the common good, in this case, the quality of life of the Cuban people. That is why I felt that presence of God in Panama, when I opposed in a fair fight against those who wanted to turn the “house of prayers into a den of thieves”, against those who want to bias the right of Cubans to choose their own system.
In 2015 the dictatorship ordered that five churches in the Abel Santa Maria neighbourhood of the city of Santiago de Cuba be demolished. According to Christianity Today the order was issued on November 27, 2015 and pastors and their families, living on Church grounds, were evicted.
Homeschooling, to avoid anti-Christian indoctrination taught in the schools, is prohibited in Cuba. Two Christian pastors were jailed for homeschooling their children, and an independent journalist was beaten
and jailed for covering their trial in April 2019. Pastor Ayda Expósito was released from prison nearly a year later on April 3, 2020, and her husband Pastor Ramón Rigal was released three months later on July 1, 2020. Independent journalist Roberto Quiñones Haces was released on September 4, 2020 in an emaciated state, compared to when he entered prison on September 11, 2019.
Unable to destroy religion, the Castro dictatorship now manipulates it, similar to Communist China. There is
an official Church, and the underground Church that continues to be persecuted. Reverend Raúl Suárez is part of the official church, that uses the name of Martin Luther King Jr. while celebrating violence against pro-democracy activists, remaining silent before the demolition of Churches on the island,.and denying ongoing religious persecution.
Mr. Offenburger should reach out to other religious figures on the island who bear witness for the persecuted Church.
Cuba is a totalitarian communist dictatorship that also successfully oversaw the dismantlement of democracies in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and continues to sponsor and support international terrorism through alliances with Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
Now there are those who claim that the world is a less stable place without the Soviet Union, and Mikhail Gorbachev claims that it could have been reformed. Academic Stephen F. Cohen goes further and quotes approvingly both Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky with the adage:
"Anyone who does not regret the breakup of the Soviet Union has no
heart. And anyone who thinks it can be reconstructed has no head." Vaclav Havel,
a man who had both head and heart, understood why this kind of regime
was so profoundly inhuman: "As soon as man began considering himself the
source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of
everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began
to lose control of it."
The optimism expressed by Gorbachev and the nostalgia of Cohen fails to
take into account the human cost of the USSR. The Soviet Union took the
lives of an estimated 61 million human beings. It was a brutal and evil system that allied with Nazi Germany to start WW2 in 1939, and afterwards spawned other brutal regimes around the globe that claimed over 100 million lives. Their lives mattered. Vaclav Havel, in his 1990 New Years Speech, called on his countrymen not to forget:
"The rivers of blood that have flowed in Hungary, Poland, Germany and
recently in such a horrific manner in Romania, as well as the sea of
blood shed by the nations of the Soviet Union, must not be forgotten.
First of all because all human suffering concerns every other human
being. But more than this, they must also not be forgotten because it is
these great sacrifices that form the tragic background of today's
freedom or the gradual emancipation of the nations of the Soviet Bloc,
and thus the background of our own newfound freedom."
The
number of lives lost is only the material accounting and does not take
into account the spiritual ruin visited upon billions and its aftermath
to the present day. The late Czech president explained it in the very same address.
"The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We
fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different
from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore
one another, to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as love,
friendship, compassion, humility or forgiveness lost their depth and
dimension, and for many of us they represented only psychological
peculiarities, or they resembled gone-astray greetings from ancient
times, a little ridiculous in the era of computers and spaceships."
The
destruction, both material and spiritual, generated by the Soviet Union
over seventy years will take centuries to repair and transcend. That
hard truth may not be cause for celebration, but the end of the system
that wreaked so much damage is cause for celebration, not regret. To do
otherwise is to be heartless. The fact that it happened without violence
on Christmas Day in 1991 is also cause for joy.
Sadly, Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022 expanded his war into Ukraine in what some view as an attempt to resurrect the Soviet empire and the rivers of blood are flowing again, and we do not know how it will end. Gorbachev passed away on August 30, 2022 a respected figure abroad, but reviled in Russia. He was in many ways the polar opposite of Vladimir Putin.
Secondly, the largest remaining communist regime, the Peoples Republic of
China, remains in power and with
the aid of smaller communist powers (Cuba, Laos, Nicaragua, North Korea,
Venezuela, Vietnam, and their networks) is backing Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The Chinese Communist Party
celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2021. It is a
tragedy that they did not go the same way as the Soviet Union in 1991.
People of goodwill must continue to work for and pray for
the day that a second miracle can be celebrated with the the end of
communism in China, and a third miracle with the defeat of the Russian invaders in Ukraine.
"We
have not chosen the path of peace as a tactic, but because it is
inseparable from the goal for which our people are striving." - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas
Ceremony for Mr Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, 2002 Sakharov laureate with EU's Pat Cox
Twenty one years ago this week on December 17, 2002 in Strasbourg, France while receiving the Sakharov Prize from the European Union Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas explained what motivated his movement's choice to embark on a nonviolent struggle:
"We
have not chosen the path of peace as a tactic, but because it is
inseparable from the goal for which our people are striving. Experience
teaches us that violence begets more violence and that when political
change is brought about by such means, new forms of oppression and
injustice arise."
Oswaldo's full written speech is available online, and required reading, and video of the speech is also available online.
He ended this speech affirming the Christian foundation of the movement he founded and led: the Christian Liberation Movement.
"We dedicate this prize and our hopes to the Lord Jesus, born in a lowly manger. Thank you and Merry Christmas."
Oswaldo paid the ultimate price for freedom. Let us remember and honor him by sharing the truth about the circumstances surrounding his murder and the murder of MCL youth leader Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012.
Their murders demonstrate that Nonviolent resistance to a brutal dictatorship is not without risk, and after 64 years in power even more so.
Nonviolent scholar Michael N. Nagler in his book, "The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action" in the following passage provides a description and analysis relevant to what is taking place in Cuba, and may be useful in understanding where things stand in the struggle today:
"Conflicts escalate when they are not resolved, and if they are left
untended they can rapidly get out of control." From the nonviolence
point of view, the
intensity of a conflict is not necessarily a question of how many guns
or how many people are involved (the same metric would work for a
quarrel between lovers as between nations); it is primarily about how
far dehumanization has proceeded. If someone no longer listens to you,
is calling you names or is labeling you, it’s probably too late for
petitions. In terms of knowing how to respond, we can
conveniently think of this escalation in three stages that call for
distinct sets of responses. Let’s call these three stages Conflict
Resolution, Satyagraha (active nonviolent resistance), and—hopefully
this is rare, but it helps to know it exists—Ultimate Sacrifice.
The Christian Liberation Movement released the following statement that has been translated below from the original Spanish.
Christmas Message from the Christian Liberation Movement
We are very close to celebrating the Nativity of the Lord and we want to unite in good wishes with our people.
Just as the people of God walked through the desert, in the midst of tribulations and in the diaspora, they never stopped looking with their hearts towards Jerusalem, so our people walk in the midst of oppression and exile, looking towards Cuba with hope in their soul.and in every thought.The hope that the faith and determination of a people who want to be free and seek happiness in their own country gives us.
Those imprisoned for political causes have also marked the year.They have been kidnapped and with dignity they bear the full weight of repression for the freedom of our people.Their faces are also that of hope.
The Letter to the Hebrews in chapter 13 tells us “Remember those who are in prison as if you were in prison with them.”
Extreme poverty rates are increasing and the difficulties of putting bread on the table has become a true miracle.While the caste that has kidnapped the rights of Cubans lives in the midst of luxuries and privileges, segregating citizens.
But injustice will not prevail because our hope comes from above, it comes on Christmas from Jesus Christ, a defenseless child cold in the middle of the night in his poor manger.
That next year we can all meet in our homeland, our fraternal Cuban National Home so that our lives can be reborn in freedom, the spiritual life of the Cuban soul and we can find happiness in the land that God gave us and the Virgin of Charity, Mother ofall Cubans bless.
Let us celebrate this birth with joy and hope, so that God continues with us on this long journey.
Let us return our hearts to God, because the freedom of Cuba will necessarily pass through faith and values.
Merry Christmas!God bless our beloved Cuba!
All Cubans, All Brothers and Now Freedom!
Christian Liberation Movement
December 24, 2023
Mensaje de Navidad del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación
Estamos muy cerca de celebrar la Natividad del Señor y queremos unirnos en buenos deseos con nuestro pueblo.
Así como el pueblo de Dios caminó por el desierto, en medio
tribulaciones y en la diáspora nunca dejo de mirar con el corazón hacia
Jerusalén, así camina nuestro pueblo en medio de la opresión y el
exilio mirando mira hacia Cuba con la esperanza en él alma y en cada
pensamiento. La esperanza que nos da la fe y la determinación de un
pueblo que quiere ser libre y buscar la felicidad en su propia patria.
Los presos por causas políticas han marcado también el año. Han sido
secuestrados y con dignidad asumen todo el peso de la represión por la
libertad de nuestro pueblo. Sus rostros son también el de la esperanza.
La Carta a los Hebreos en su capítulo 13 nos dice “ acuérdense de los presos como si también ustedes lo estuvieran”
Los índices de pobreza extrema aumentan y las dificultades para
llevar el pan a la mesa se ha convertido en un verdadero milagro.
Mientras la casta que ha secuestrado los derechos a los cubanos vive en
medio de los lujos y privilegios segregando a los ciudadanos.
Pero la injusticia no prevalecerá porque nuestra esperanza viene de
lo alto, viene en Navidad de Jesucristo, un niño indefenso con frío en
medio de la noche en su pobre pesebre.
Que el próximo año nos podamos encontrar todos en nuestra patria,
nuestro Hogar Nacional Cubano fraterno para que renazcan nuestras vidas
en libertad, la vida espiritual del alma cubana y encontremos la
felicidad en la tierra que Dios nos entregó y la Virgen de la Caridad
Madre de todos los cubanos bendice.
Celebremos este nacimiento con alegría y esperanza, para que Dios continúe junto a nosotros en este largo caminar.
Volvamos nuestros corazones a Dios, porque la libertad de Cuba pasará necesariamente por la fe y los valores.
¡Feliz Navidad! Dios bendiga a nuestra amada Cuba!
Todos Cubanos, Todos Hermanos y Ahora la Libertad!
"A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences." - Jacques Maritain
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and President Václav Havel in Prague (2002)
Twenty one years ago on December 17, 2002 Oswaldo Paya
addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg at a ceremony awarding
him the the Sakharov Prize where he outlined his nonviolent vision for
change in Cuba.
The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred.
Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You
are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me
by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose
yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together.’
Václav
Havel passed away twelve years ago today, on December 18, 2011, and his nonviolent
resistance and dedication to truth in successfully resisting
totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia remain powerful legacies and
examples that are relevant today. In 2002, President Vaclav Havel addressed the Cuban people and offered words that should be heeded now:
"Our world, as a whole, is not in the best of shape and the direction it
is headed in may well be quite ambivalent. But this does not mean that
we are permitted to give up on free and cultivated thinking and to
replace it with a set of utopian clichés. That would not make the world a
better place, it would only make it worse. On the contrary, it means
that we must do more for our own freedom, and that of others."
Nonviolence requires recognizing these extreme injustices and the justifiable anger
that it generates but at the same time channeling it into creative and
productive means to end the injustices. Some would argue that one must
remove their anger, as one takes off a back pack, but that is profoundly
mistaken. Martin Luther King Jr. offered a different approach that has proven far more powerful:
"The supreme task [of a leader] is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force."
Mohandas Gandhi spoke in 1920 of learning "through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to
conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even
so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move
the world."
This is not hating but harnessing a powerful spiritual energy and channeling it productively.
Blowing up and screaming at someone is a waste of that energy that can
be channeled into creative solutions to end the injustice. Nonviolence theoretician Gene Sharp also recognizes that there is a moral dimension
that cannot be ignored without dire consequences (as the recent drive
to normalize relations with the Castro regime in Cuba demonstrated): "It
is unreasonable to aim for a 'win- win' resolution. Brutal dictators
and perpetrators of genocide do not deserve to win anything."
Nonviolent
thought can be divided into two general categories: strategic
nonviolence and principled nonviolence but although emphasizing
different perspectives they need not be in conflict. Strategic nonviolence takes a pragmatic approach that is based on being more effective then violence.
Non-violent resistance is an armed struggle but its weapons are not deployed to do violence or kill. These arms are psychological, social, economic and political weapons. Gene Sharpargues with much evidence
"that this is ultimately more powerful against oppression, injustice
and tyranny then violence. Historical studies are cited that demonstrate
the higher success rates
of nonviolent movements when compared against violent ones:
University Academics Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth in their 2008 study "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic on Nonviolent Conflict"
compared the outcomes of 323 nonviolent and violent resistance
campaigns from 1900 to 2006. They found that major nonviolent campaigns
have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with just under
half that at 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns. Finally there
study also suggests “that nonviolent campaigns are more likely than
violent campaigns to succeed in the face of brutal repression.”
Principled nonviolence looks at the spiritual dimension, and the power
of an individual to change and in doing so impact the world. Mohandas
Gandhi described it as follows on September 8, 1913 in Indian Opinion:
"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world
are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves,
the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own
nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is
the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of
our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do."
The advantage of principled non-violence and taking it up as a daily
practice in ones life is that it gives one the strength to resist
provocations and builds up the character of the practitioner that assists in carrying out a strategic nonviolent plan.
Critics
of nonviolence often argue that nonviolence works well against
democracies but not brutal regimes, often citing the Nazis. Nevertheless in 1943 in Germany on Rosenstrasse
street German wives married to Jewish men, who had been taken to
concentration camps, organized a series of strikes and protests that
forced the Nazis to return their Jewish husbands back from the death camps.
Those men survived the Holocaust thanks to their wives courageous and
nonviolent action.
The disturbing questions that should arise are: What would have
happened if instead of the violent Antifa movement, that fought the Nazis in street battles throughout the 1930s that escalated violence, opponents of the Nazis had followed Gandhi's advice
at the time and resisted them nonviolently? What would have happened if
the Weimar Republic instead of attempting to silence the Nazis by
repeatedly prosecuting them for violating hate speech laws had
challenged their evil ideas in the court of public opinion?
Since the founding of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights
in 1976 there has existed in overall terms a general strategy of change
that can be summed up as: " Carrying out a nonviolent struggle in
defense of human rights for the freedom of Cuba."
Looking at another definition of strategy that divides it into three
parts gives a better idea of the challenges facing the democratic
opposition in Cuba:
1. Diagnostic: A totalitarian dictatorship with dynastic elements with the political will to hang on to power.
2. Guiding policy: nonviolence
3. Action plan: There exist different areas of emphasis by the
opposition and civil society that is also something found in nonviolent
struggles.
Strategic nonviolence takes a pragmatic approach that is based on being more effective then violence:
Non-violent resistance is an armed struggle but its weapons are not deployed to do violence or kill. These arms are psychological, social, economic and political weapons. Gene Sharpargues with much evidence "that this is ultimately more powerful against oppression, injustice and tyranny then violence."
The
reason for the greater success rate of nonviolent resistance is that it
is easier to mobilize large numbers of people to take nonviolent action
than to engage in violent action. Success is not only defined by
overthrowing the existing regime, but having a transition that ends in a
democratic regime. The methods used in nonviolent struggle translate
better to democratic practices then violent resistance because they
involve nonviolent discipline, the mobilization of large numbers and the
encouragement of civic virtue.
Vaclav Havel talks about the Communist regime in Cuba and the position he is in to promote free thinking and other freedoms that Cubans are deprived of in their own country. ( Recorded 2007) https://t.co/EuwaqttG7E#Cuba#CzechRepublic#Havel
Furthermore the use of humor is not to be underestimated. Václav Havel in an address to the Central European University on June 24, 1999 at a difficult moment on the international scene made the case for laughter.
"The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an
ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to
laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything
that calls out for parody in this world."
Following his death in 2011, every year on the anniversary of his passing admirers of Václav Havel the world over wear short trousers in his memory.
On December 18th roll up your trousers to honor Vaclav Havel
The “Short Trousers for Václav Havel” initiative started in 2012 to
honor the memory of Václav Havel with a gesture that was unique,
memorable and easily achieved by supporters of this exceptional person
in modern Czech and European history. Short Trousers is a reference to
Havel stepping into political life in 1989 and his inauguration to the
presidency in visibly short trousers. He explained vainly that rather
than a tailor’s mistake it was his habit to pull his pants up at every
dramatic situation. To this, one might say global mythology of his short
trousers, he added with a smile: "I must say that I am glad of it, more
or less. From my point of view it’s a pretty gentle way of mocking
myself." An effort to honor such a respectable person by a gesture that
points to this humorous episode might appear, at first sight, as a
contradictory act. But the opposite is true. We believe that rolled up
trousers on the anniversary of the death of Václav Havel is a gesture
which is Czech, slightly satirical and which can be easily joined by
anyone who wants to honor the memory of the last Czechoslovak and the
first Czech president Havel in a cheerful way.
Ben Rhodes with Rodolfo Dávalos León, a Cuban oligarch living in South Florida. When protests erupted in Cuba in July 2021, Mr. Dávalos León tweeted: "If the revolution falls you will find me in Cuba, with my father, knee on ground, rifle in hand, defending the work of Fidel. Long live Cuba, long live Raul, & long live Fidel!"
Calder Walton, of the Harvard Kennedy School, in his article "A US ambassador working for Cuba? Charges against former diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha spotlight Havana's importance in the world of spying" published in The Conversation on December 15, 2023 reviews the Russian and Chinese presence in Cuba.
"Putin’s government reopened a massive old Soviet signals intelligence facility in Cuba, near Havana. This facility had been the Soviet Union's largest foreign signals intelligence station in the world, with aerials and antennae pointed at Florida shores just 100 miles away. Soviet records reveal that Moscow obtained valuable information from U.S. military bases in Florida. Russia may well still be trying to try to eavesdrop on U.S. targets today from Cuba, although the U.S. government is doubtless alert to such efforts and is likely undertaking countermeasures. Cuban intelligence today is also collaborating with China, which reportedly plans to open its own eavesdropping station in Cuba. Beijing has significant influence over Cuba as its largest creditor and, following in Soviet footsteps, views the island as a valuable intelligence collection base and a “bridgehead” — the KGB’s old code name for Cuba — for influence in Latin America."
Beginning in November 2016, U.S. and Canadian diplomats stationed in Havana began suffering brain injuries, and on January 2, 2017, Raúl Castro presided over a military parade in which Cuban soldiers chanted: “Obama! Obama! With what fervor we’d like to confront your clumsiness, give you a cleansing with rebels and mortar, and make you a hat out of bullets to the head.”
This was a failed policy that did not understand what motivates Havana. The Communist regime in Cuba is anti-American and over the past 64 years it has sought to end the post-1945 U.S. led world order by seeking out alliances with regimes hostile to the United States, and coordinating efforts to undermine it. This is the strategic context that too many have ignored.
Proponents of constructive engagement with the Cuban dictatorship are
asking policy makers to do three things: disregard the past, dismiss
current actions by Havana, and get ready for their own country's
taxpayers to foot the tab.
Richard Nixon met Fidel Castro in April 1959 and sought a detente with him in 1974
1. Disregard the past Multilateral sanctions against Havana worked to contain communist expansion in the Western Hemisphere until Kissinger lifted them.
The Ford administration provided Havana with a number of inducements without expecting anything in return, believing that they could restore relations with the Castros. Initially, the United States supported the OAS resolution on July 29, 1975, which essentially put an end to the multilateral economic and diplomatic sanctions against Cuba. On August 19, President Ford went further loosening the US embargo, removing the sanctions against foreign aid to nations that conducted business with the regime in Cuba and enabling ships traveling to the island to refuel in the US. This was an initiative led by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Rather than the "easing of tensions" that was anticipated, the Ford Administration found itself looking foolish. Havana’s response was to send thousands of Cuban troops to Africa, first to Angola. Secretary Kissinger was so angered by the Cuban intervention in Angola, and the failure of detente that he entertained the idea of air strikes on Cuba. Multilateral sanctions were not reimposed and Communist Cuba's influence would expand in the region. Subsequent administrations ( Carter 1977, Clinton 1993 and 2000), Obama (2009-2017) attempted rapprochements with Havana, and endured the same cycle. Carter's opening coincided with plunging Central America into civil war, with the establishment of communist rule in Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega in 1979 and a mass exodus in 1980 which Fidel Castro personally seeded with murderers, rapists, and psychiatric patients. The Clinton Administration's normalization efforts coincided with massacres of Cubans, the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, another exodus, the expansion of Cuban influence in Venezuela and the take over of Hugo Chavez in 1999.
"One of the best-kept secrets of our 40-year-old trade embargo with Cuba is that it has saved millions of dollars for U.S. taxpayers. Due to the embargo, there are no U.S. banks in the ``Paris Club'', a consortium of Cuba creditors. (The Paris Club is currently owed between $10 and $15 billion in debt from Cuba.) Otherwise, U.S. banks now would be hitting U.S. taxpayers to cover their losses in Cuba. If the U.S. begins to subsidize trade with Cuba--estimated at $100 million a year--five years from now, U.S. taxpayers could be holding, or paying off a $500 million tab." - Senator George Allen, May 21, 2002, Hearing on U.S. Trade Policy with Cuba
Cuba scholar Jaime Suchlicki at the Cuban Studies Institute on April 10, 2023 published an important analysis titled “The Folly of Investing in Cuba” that outlines a number of pitfalls both economic and moral to doing business with the Castro dictatorship that is a must read.
Existing U.S. sanctions have protected American taxpayers from having to shell out billions of dollars to subsidize the Castro dictatorship.
China canceled $6 billion dollars in Cuban debt in 2011, On November 1, 2013 the government of Mexico announced that it was ready to waive 70 percent of a debt worth nearly $500 million that Cuba owes it. The former president of Mexico Vicente Fox protested the move stating: “Let the Cubans get to work and generate their own money…They’re normally like chupacabras. The only thing they’re looking for is someone to give them money for free.” In December 2015 it was announced that Spain would forgive $1.7 billion that the Castro regime owes it. In December of 2013, Russia and Cuba quietly signed an agreement to write off $32 billion of Cuba's debt to the former superpower. Western governments pursued Cuban maritime debts seizing Cuban vessels and negotiating payment through Canadian courts.
The 2015 debt restructuring accord between Cuba and the Paris Club, according to Reuters, "forgave $8.5 billion of $11.1 billion, representing debt Cuba defaulted on in 1986, plus charges."
The Paris Club is made up of the following permanent members: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thanks to existing U.S. sanctions, none of the $11.084 billion in debt has been left for U.S. taxpayers to pay off.
Carmelo Mesa-Lago is Distinguished Service Professor emeritus of economics and Latin American studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and in his work CUBA’S ECONOMY IN TIMES OF CRISIS: 2020–2022 AND PROSPECTS FOR 2023 provided the following table which lists debt forgiven, and remaining debt owed by the Cuban dictatorship.
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