Franklin Brito: A Martyr for Liberty and Human Rights in Venezuela

 "I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter

 

(Above) Franklin Brito before and after engaging in 8 hunger strikes

Hunger strikes are the ultimate recourse in the arsenal of non-violent resistance, and over the years around the world it has succeeded at times but in places like Cuba, Ireland, and now in Venezuela human beings have died on hunger strikes.

In Cuba the names of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are remembered as is Bobby Sands of Northern Ireland (who the Castro dictatorship built a memorial to in Cuba) and Venezuela's Franklin Brito is part of this select grouping that demonstrates the ultimate price when engaging in a hunger strike.

Franklin Brito was a farmer and a biologist whose land was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2000 according to CNN. Other news agencies place the date of expropriation anywhere between 2003 and 2004. He exhausted every recourse and was driven to the final option: the hunger strike in 2005.El Universal out of Caracas offers a chronology of Brito's odyssey. In the video below published on October 28, 2009 after over 90 days on hunger strike Franklin was carrying out, he explains how all of this began.

The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations both recognize the right to private property, despite the fact that it is frequently violated. It is a human right that is acknowledged on a global scale and is expressly stated.

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article XXIII of the American Declaration states: "Every person has a right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home."

When Franklin Brito's family said that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom," they were simply stating the facts of the matter. Franklin Brito states in the video below, which was shot on November 19, 2009, that he is defending human dignity.

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

 The Venezuelan tyranny* said that Franklin Brito was mentally unstable and took him to a military hospital, and placed him under an armed guard.. The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.

The tactics Mr. Chavez is using in questioning the mental stability of his adversaries, and smearing them, even in death, is straight out of his Cuban mentor's repertoire. Friends and family of Franklin Brito had best organize the facts and evidence surrounding his case protect it and duplicate it so that it cannot be seized and destroyed. They should engage in speaking out anywhere and everywhere to counter the avalanche of slander and libel from regime apologists against a man who can no longer defend himself.

Hugo Chávez has nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, has exacerbated food shortages in Venezuela with Chavez forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate just like Cuba did years ago.

It is not madness to take extremes in the defense of liberty and justice, but it is madness to repeat the same failed policies that have bankrupted and destroyed nations the world over and expect a different outcome in your own homeland.

Franklin Brito was a sane man confronting an evil system, and through his protest embarrassed the Venezuelan dictatorship that sought to disappear him and drove him to his death.

Three years later Hugo Chavez was dead, and his successor Nicolas Maduro was a former bus driver who had gotten training in Cuba before embracing Chavismo. 

14 years have now passed, and Franklin Brito is not forgotten, and the evil of the regime in Caracas is now recognized around the world.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

*Use of the term tyranny is not a rhetorical exercise but defines what Hugo Chavez's democratically elected government has descended into a tyranny. There are two dictionary definitions of tyranny which are often related to each other. For example in the case of Cuba with Fidel Castro it is the state ruled by an absolute ruler but in the case of Venezuela it is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority" that applies.

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Some of the forgotten Cubans

 When human rights defenders are silenced, who will stand up for the rights of all?  - Amnesty International

 

Today, August 30th, is International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, but you won't hear much about the disappeared in Cuba. The Cuban dictatorship has been successful in concealing its traces and terrorizing most families from speaking out, but not all.

Roberto Amelio Franco Alfaro (Beto), born on January 23, 1947, disappeared in Havana on May 20, 2009 at age 62; He was a member of the 30th of November Frank País Party and the 20th of May Human Rights Movement. He left behind a wife and son. His wife holds the Cuban government responsible for his disappearance. He lived in San Miguel del Padrón.

 

There is the case of Omar Darío Pérez Hernández, a Cuban independent journalist who went missing in Cuba in December 2003. He was just 39 years old at the time of his disappearance. They said that the secret police were threatening him with prison and that he and three others had set out to leave the country on December 7, 2003 but they were never heard from again.

There have been others that stretch back decades.  

Andrew de Graux Villafana was just 19 years old when he went missing on September 18, 1962.  Andrew had fought in the Escambray hills against the Castro dictatorship, and was wounded and captured.

Andrew had a successful surgery carried out by Dr. Miguel Rodriguez Marcoleta. However when the surgeon went to visit his patient, he could not find him. He went to the morgue to try to see the body, but it was not there. Days later State Security came and asked Dr. Rodriguez Marcoleta to sign the death certificate of Graux Villafana, but he refused.  Decades later Andrew's sister, Mary de Louise de Graux Villafaña, continues to search for her brother and expresses concern for other missing youth who took up arms against the Castro dictatorship.

Less than five years later Adolfo Chamiso Sayas went missing, relatives believe he tried to leave Cuba illegally on March 5, 1967 and was gunned down by government agents.

There are other cases such as opposition activist Enrique Mustelier Turro, who was jailed for his opposition activities.  The wife of the jailed activist went to prison to visit him, she was told by prison officials that Enrique Mustelier Turro had escaped. No one has seen or heard from him since 2013. 

According to his son, Enrique Mustelier Sosa, he believes that his father died in the prison.  

He has received threats from State Security in an effort to silence him, as have others dealing with other missing loved ones. 

Lawyers have warned him that if he tries to open an investigation that he could be the next to go missing.

This is not an idle threat.

 

Francisco Chaviano: Jailed 13 years for documenting the missing. 

 

The cautionary tale of Francisco Chaviano

There is not much documentation on the disappeared in Cuba because human rights defenders that have attempted to investigate these kind of cases have paid a high price. Francisco Chaviano González, a former mathematics teacher, and human rights defender was the president of the National Council for Civil Rights in Cuba (Consejo Nacional por los Derechos Civiles en Cuba - CNDCC), an organization that was trying to investigate the cases of a number of Cubans who had gone missing.

Francisco was  warned by state security to stop his human rights work and leave Cuba or he would be arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He refused to leave, continued to investigate cases of missing Cubans and was detained on May 7, 1994, drugged and subjected to a military trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison of which he served 13 years in terrible conditions suffering numerous beatings and the denial of healthcare which led to a wholesale decline in his health. Amnesty International recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. He was released in August of 2007, and went into exile in 2012.

A partial accounting of the forcibly disappeared

Partial estimates place the number of disappeared in Cuba for political reasons at 123, but that number needs to be placed in the context of a dictatorship that does not tolerate investigations into Cubans that have gone missing for political reasons.

Venezuela is a Cuban Colony, and Maduro is its viceroy selected by Havana

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto tweeted on July 23rd message & photo from Cuban agent in Venezuela:
"Dear Graciela Ramírez sends us this photo with a message: 'Our troops with Atilio in Caracas." They will not be able to snatch victory from the people of Bolívar and Chávez!'" https://t.co/jYFgGEQStc

— Center for a Free Cuba (@cubacenter) August 25, 2024

Cubans were present on the ground in Venezuela prior to election day, and at least four unscheduled flights took off from Havana and arrived in Caracas on July 30,2024 reported Diario Las Américas, citing a source from the island.

“I cannot confirm whether they were carrying passengers or not, nor what they were carrying and what the purpose of these flights would be,” the source explained at the time.

The first plane, the Conviasa A340 executive plane, which President Miguel Díaz-Canel normally flies on, left Havana and landed in Caracas on the morning of Tuesday the 30th. The second, rented from Turkish Airline, also left the Cuban capital for Caracas, where it arrived at midday. The third aircraft, from Cubana de Aviación, left Havana after one in the afternoon.

According to the source, at the time of sharing this information, a fourth aircraft would have been preparing to leave Cuba for Venezuela.

In an interview published on August 17,2024, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado acknowledged Cuba's ongoing involvement in Venezuela's internal affairs. 

"National and international human rights organizations have issued severe objections...Several Venezuelan opposition victims have recounted atrocities [by Cuban captors]. We have long known that Cuba has had a negative impact in a variety of areas, including repression, persecution, espionage, and torture. And we have witnessed some callous acts in recent days."

The Castro regime spent four decades attempting to overthrow Venezuela's democracy before finally succeeding in 1999 when Hugo Chavez took power, and consolidated their control under his successor Nicolas Maduro in 2013.

Raul and Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, at Fidel Castro's 90th birthday

Bertrand de la Grange, a two-decade reporter for Le Monde in America, first for Canada and subsequently for Mexico and Central America, was born in Tangier to a French family and educated in Grenoble. 

He is one of the world's top Latin America experts, and in a one hour interview published by The Objective on August 25, 2024 gave his analysis of the role played by Havana in the Venezuelan crisis. Basically, Venezuela is a Cuban Colony, and Nicolas Maduro is its viceroy selected by Havana. Here is a rough English translation of an excerpt of the full transcript available in Spanish.

Now, Latin America is once again, or not necessarily once again, but it is still experiencing upheavals that have been displaced in a certain way, particularly in Venezuela, which was a country that had been fairly peaceful despite Fidel Castro's various attempts to send guerrillas of all kinds with Cubans, with Venezuelans and with other guerrillas and that had always failed. Now Venezuela is experiencing a very, very complex moment, and I would say that I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic, because it is very difficult to know what is going to happen.

We know what Maduro wants, but he does not represent anything, because Maduro is an instrument of Cuba, an instrument of Havana and has no capacity to make his own decisions. And I am fascinated to see that everyone is talking about Venezuela, about the actors within Venezuela, but very little about the main actor that is not seen, which is Cuba. 

Cuba tries not to make too many statements, even in its own press it gives little space to what is happening in Venezuela, for a very simple reason: it does not want to attract attention and to start a real debate about the importance of Cuba in the search for a solution or, in reality, about Cuba's participation in the problem.

Cuba has made Venezuela a colony, it is exploiting it, it is using its oil for its own needs. It is the very exceptional phenomenon, let us say, of a small island that has taken over the world's leading oil power. Because we must not forget that Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, even though it has lower quality oil than that found in the Persian Gulf countries.

That said, for the moment, the debate is limited to within the Venezuelan political class. Or rather, I would say the political class, which is the opposition, and the mafia that is in power, because we must not confuse: those in power are not ordinary politicians, they are really a gang that has been consolidated since the death of Hugo Chavez.

We can say many things about Chavez, but it was an attempt at a nationalist revolution supposedly controlled from Cuba, because that is what it is from the beginning, Venezuela is controlled by Cuba. Chavez's heir is an heir chosen by Havana. It is the Cuban Communist Party itself that chose him. We must not forget that Maduro was trained in the School of Cadres of the Communist Party of Cuba, he had training there, he is a person who is not very bright, as everyone knows.

What is happening now is an attempt from outside to solve the problem. There we clearly see the groups in struggle. We have the Puebla Group, which is the group of the continental left, also adding Spanish elements that participate, in particular the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has a nefarious role.

That group has already split, curiously, between those who do not want to negotiate anything, that we must continue, that Maduro has won, and the others who say that at least we have to save face, present the minutes, although in the end if they are presented they will be false minutes, but at least pretend to be within the rules of the Venezuelan electoral system.

There are three countries that are the most important, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico – Mexico has distanced itself a bit lately – they have taken a slightly different position. What they really want is to confirm the victory, the supposed victory of Maduro, but they are willing to sacrifice Maduro, because Maduro is not convenient for them. He is such a nefarious character that they are looking for an alternative. Either through a coalition government, as Lula and Petro themselves have proposed, or to hold new elections, which is totally ridiculous.

Even the Chavistas do not want new elections because they say "if we have won, why hold new elections?" We are in this dilemma, with these three countries, now especially Colombia and Brazil, which are very clear allies of Chavismo and Cuba, who are trying, through supposed moderation, to help in the search for a solution.

 

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Solidarity and the Baltic Way: How nonviolence buried the last vestiges of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

 "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

History weighs heavily in August of 2014: the 110th observance of the start of World War 1; eighty fifth anniversary of the signing of Molotov Ribbentrop, the treaty that triggered World War 2 by splitting Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; 44 years on the 31 of August 1980 the Polish Solidarity union came into existence; and Cubans observed the 30th anniversary of a mass uprising in Havana known as the Maleconazo that sparked another huge exodus of tens of thousands of Cubans fleeing to freedom.

Within this somber month of needed reflection on what not to do there is an incident that took place that needs to be remembered on what needs to be done. In addition to dismembering Poland, the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact placed the Baltic States under Soviet control. A nonviolent moment thirty five years ago that ended up liberating Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia brought an end to this part of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact and it was called the Baltic Way.

Today we gathered in Washington DC to mark 35 years since the #BalticWay. This peaceful demonstration in 1989 linked 2M 🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪 people in protest the Soviet occupation & is now a symbol for the fight for freedom across the 🌎.@JBANCchatter @VoCommunism @Latvia_USA @Estonia_in_US pic.twitter.com/YEaknwZrZZ

— Embassy of Lithuania in DC | #StandWithUkraine (@LTembassyUS) August 23, 2024

On June 4, 1989 the Solidarity labor movement won in free elections and the Polish people finally regained their sovereignty after nearly 50 years under totalitarian oppression. They did it nonviolently. So did the people of the Baltic states when two million Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians joined hands together in a giant human chain stretching 370 miles on August 23, 1994. Fifty years to the day after the treaty that brought them so much grief had been signed. 

A number of excellent and well sourced websites describe and show with images and videos what happened on August 23, 1989. This is how the UNESCO website described it:

On 23 August 1939 foreign ministers of the USSR and Germany - Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, as ordered by their superiors Stalin and Hitler, signed a treaty which affected the fate of Europe and the entire world. This pact, and the secret clauses it contained, divided the spheres of influence of the USSR and Germany and led to World War II, and to the occupation of the three Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 

50 years later, on 23 August 1989, the three nations living by the Baltic Sea surprised the world by taking hold of each other's hands and jointly demanding recognition of the secret clauses in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the re-establishment of the independence of the Baltic States. More than a million people joined hands to create a 600 km long human chain from the foot of Toompea in Tallinn to the foot of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, crossing Riga and the River Daugava on its way, creating a synergy in the drive for freedom that united the three countries.The Baltic Way was organized by the national movements of each of the Baltic States: the Popular Front of Estonia Rahvarinne, the Popular Front of Latvia and the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis.

The Baltic Way brought important changes to the history of the world. This was achieved through social unity and through the joint commitment and confidence manifested by every individual in pursuing the common goal. This impressive act of non-violent protest and solidarity whilst keeping sovereignty was a living example of the culture of peace, opening up access to information and leading to the acknowledgement of the secret treaty and its hideous consequences for the whole world. It increased the opportunity for the national self-determination of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and encouraged democratic movements throughout the Soviet Union. The three Baltic States succeeded in gaining their freedom in a peaceful way, creating a precedent that was, and hopefully will be, followed by a number of countries all over- the triumph of humanity over totalitarianism.

Its a powerful testament that the liberation of Poland and the Baltic states from totalitarian occupation was achieved after fifty years through nonviolent resistance. Now in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia August 23rd has a double significance.

Today we gathered in Washington DC to remember and celebrate this enduring nonviolent victory, and its continuing lessons.

Celebrating 35 years since the Baltic Way. 🇪🇪-🇱🇻- 🇱🇹 This nonviolent demonstration in 1989 linked 2M people to protest the Soviet occupation & is now a symbol for the fight for liberty. Gathered in Washington DC today to mark the #BalticWay anniversary. https://t.co/dwHG9pPH1D pic.twitter.com/IqZ3CopVPT

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) August 24, 2024

Black Ribbon Day 2024: The Hitler-Stalin Pact that started WW2 which communists want to erase.

 "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." - Milan Kundera

On August 23, 1939, the world learnt that Communist Russia and Nazi Germany had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a "non-aggression" agreement that was in reality an alliance to wage war on Poland, and divide up the spoils. It was named after Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the respective foreign ministers eighty five years ago today.

However it went far beyond Poland. 

Observers would have been even more horrified had they known of the secret protocols that divided Eastern Europe between the two totalitarian regimes. In actuality, what they dubbed a "peace treaty" was the treaty that plunged the planet into a general war for six years.

Nine days later on September 1, 1939 at 4:45am Nazi Germany invaded Poland, launching World War II.

Today, we commemorate #BlackRibbonDay.

It was set on the anniversary of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact signing, which tore apart Central and Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

We honour those who died under Soviet and Nazi German terror. pic.twitter.com/6FMuZcJq5E

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs 🇵🇱 (@PolandMFA) August 23, 2024

Sixteen days later the Soviet Union exercising its secret agreement with the Nazis invaded Poland from the East and met their German allies in the middle of Poland. 

Rolling Soviet tanks and Nazi motorcyclists in Poland (September 1939).

On September 22, 1939 the German Nazi army joined with the Soviet Communist army in a military parade in Brest-Litovsk where the two sides celebrated together.

Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

 Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov in a October 31, 1939  speech spoke candidly about the Nazi-Communist alliance, and ridiculed its victims.

"The ruling circles of Poland boasted quite a lot about the ‘stability’ of their state and the ‘might’ of their army. However, one swift blow to Poland, first by the German Army and then by the Red Army, and nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Versailles Treaty which had existed by oppressing non-Polish nationalities."

Approximately 230,000 Polish soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Russians. 

 

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

On March 5, 1940, seven members of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) authorities signed a resolution to shoot the prisoners: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin, and Lazar Kaganovich.

Thousands of Polish Army officers and intellectual leaders were taken into the Katyn Forest near Smolensk in the Soviet Union, shot in the back of the head or in the neck and buried in mass graves.

Secret protocols of the Hitler-Stalin Pact not only partitioned Poland but also divided up Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Romania into Nazi and Soviet "spheres of influence." The Soviet Union invaded and annexed the Baltic States in June 1940.  

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov meets with Adolf Hitler (1940)

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov in a speech delivered on August 1, 1940 while the Soviet Union was then still allied with Nazi Germany continued to describe their military alliance as a "non-aggression pact."   

 "A radical change for the better in the relations between the Soviet Union and Germany found its expression in the non-aggression pact signed last August. These new, good relations between the USSR and Germany have been tested in practice in connection with events in former Poland, and their strength has been sufficiently proved."

Another sign of Nazi-Soviet cooperation was the Soviet Union’s deportation of hundreds of refugees to Nazi authorities. Most of them were German anti-fascists, communists, and Jews who had sought asylum in the Soviet Union. 

Soviet and Nazi soldiers fraternize in Poland. Their alliance began 85 years ago today

This alliance ended on June 22, 1941 when Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, betraying his ally Josef Stalin.

"Stalin was shocked; he had received a plethora of warnings of an imminent invasion – notably from Winston Churchill, informed by British intelligence briefings. The communist dictator had refused to believe them," reported Agence France Press. Stalin preferred to rely on Hitler's assurances.  

Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, Joseph Stalin, and Soviet foreign minister, Molotov

Today, communist apologists will defend Stalin and try to hide the Soviet Union's complicity with Nazi Germany. It may also explain why there have been attacks on Winston Churchill's legacy. His book The Second World War, Volume 1, The Gathering Storm (1948) has a devastating and realistic assessment of the link between the Communists and the Nazis. 

"Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism… As Fascism sprang from Communism, so Nazism developed from Fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred movements which were destined soon to plunge the world into more hideous strife, which none can say has ended with their destruction." 

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the reckless strategy pursued by Stalin and the Communist International cost 22 to 28 million Russian lives alone in World War Two, and nearly led to the Nazi conquest and occupation of the Soviet Union.

We owe it both to the dead and the living not to forget, and also to share this memory with others to ensure it is not repeated.

23rd August is the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. What was its significance? Is it properly understood in the West? What was Stalin's long-term strategy? pic.twitter.com/jeZt1A9iPj

— Foundation for the History of Totalitarianism (@HofTotalitarian) August 22, 2024

The pledge is to remember, and share this memory with others.

Elections in Venezuela are not a guarantee, but an opportunity

The Power of the powerless.

On four occasions in 2012,  in 2015, in 2018, and now in 2024, this blog has offered reflections on elections in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, and later Nicolas Maduro. Each time the question that the vote on election day would decide who would remain in power was discarded.  What mattered was not the vote on election day, but what the opposition would do afterwards to hold the dictatorship accountable for stealing the election, and use the moment to mobilize the populace, and non-violently challenge the regime.

In 2015, this blog concluded with a quote by Maria Corina Machado that proved prophetic in 2024. The Venezuelan opposition leader over twitter on December 5, 2015 explained the stakes in this election: "Win by a landslide or a monumental fraud will be done that we will not accept." 

#6D: Arrasamos o se hará un fraude monumental que no aceptaremos https://t.co/475yN11Lml

— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) December 5, 2015

It is true that "free and fair elections are not possible in totalitarian police states such as Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua."  Gene Sharp, the late strategic nonviolence scholar,  explained why in his 1993 work,  FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY: A conceptual framework for liberation, published on the website of the Cuban NGO Brothers to the Rescue. 

"Elections are not available under dictatorships as an instrument of significant political change. Some dictatorial regimes, such as those of the former Soviet-dominated Eastern bloc, went through the motions in order to appear democratic. Those elections, however, were merely rigidly controlled plebiscites to get public endorsement of candidates already hand picked by the dictators. Dictators under pressure may at times agree to new elections, but then rig them to place civilian puppets in government offices. If opposition candidates have been allowed to run and were actually elected, as occurred in Burma in 1990 and Nigeria in 1993, results may simply be ignored and the "victors" subjected to intimidation, arrest, or even execution. Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones."

Elections are not an instrument of political change, but they can be used as a tool of political mobilization in a nonviolent struggle, and this is what I believe is taking place in Venezuela today. Sharp offers a hard truth, but one that reveals that the power to change resides, not in foreign powers, but in the people themselves. An important excerpt is reproduced below.

Facing the hard truth

The conclusion is a hard one. When one wants to bring down a dictatorship most effectively and with the least cost then one has four immediate tasks:

•  One must strengthen the oppressed population themselves in their determination, self-confidence, and resistance skills;
•  One must strengthen the independent social groups and institutions of the oppressed people;
•  One must create a powerful internal resistance force; and
•  One must develop a wise grand strategic plan for liberation and implement it skillfully.

A liberation struggle is a time for self-reliance and internal strengthening of the struggle group. As Charles Stewart Parnell called out during the Irish rent strike campaign in 1879 and 1880:

It is no use relying on the Government . . . . You must only rely upon your own determination . . . . [H]elp yourselves by standing together . . . strengthen those amongst yourselves who are weak . . . , band yourselves together, organize yourselves . . . and you must win . . . .

When you have made this question ripe for settlement, then and not till then will it be settled.(4)

Against a strong self-reliant force, given wise strategy, disciplined and courageous action, and genuine strength, the dictatorship will eventually crumble. Minimally, however, the above four requirements must be fulfilled.

As the above discussion indicates, liberation from dictatorships ultimately depends on the people's ability to liberate themselves.

Imagine what would Cuba and the world be like today if Fidel Castro had never been born.

 Today, supporters of totalitarianism celebrate Fidel Castro's birth, and the cult of personality that the dictatorship claims does not exist is on display in Revolutionary Square this year.

Some commemorating Fidel Castro's birthday, such as the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the United Kingdom, assert that "For more than 65 years the Cuban Revolution has been an inspiration to people around the world for its achievements in health, education, internationalism and more. Hasta Siempre, Comandante." Debated one of their leaders in 2017, and exposed his totalitarian orientation when he claimed North Korea was also a democracy.

 
This brings up a thought-provoking exercise. What would have happened if the 65-year old communist dictatorship in Cuba had never come to be? If Fidel Castro had never been born? Let us look at Cuba's pre-1959 and post-1959 and imagine "what might have been?"

The economy

 

 

In 1959 in terms of per-capita GDP Cuba was second to Chile and was doing better than Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. Under communism. Cuba lagged well behind the other four countries. It would be fair to say that in economic terms, despite billions in Soviet and Venezuelan subsidies that the past six and a half decades have been a disaster for Cuba.  

Death count in Cuba

 

Firing squad in Cuba.

 

Tens of thousands of Cubans would still be alive today if Fidel Castro had never been born. In 1987, historian R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii reported that credible estimates of the Castro regime's death toll ran from 35,000 to 141,000, with a median of 73,000." Rummel made a career out of studying what he termed "democide," the killing of people by their own government.

Democracy restored in a post-Batista Cuba

 

  Cuban diplomats pushed for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948

 

Many of the July 26th movement's leaders, who put in a lot of hard work fighting in the field and persuading Washington to impose an arms embargo on Fulgencio Batista in the spring of 1958, really desired the restoration of democracy in Cuba. Much like the vast majority of Cubans did. For this reason, Fidel Castro lied systematically throughout the 1950s and into 1960, insisting he respected democracy and civil freedoms while denying being a communist.

Fidel Castro carried out the consolidation of power and established a communist totalitarian dictatorship as he paid lip service to civil rights and imprisoned his fellow countrymen who had warned that communists were infiltrating the revolution as traitors. 

 

Without Fidel Castro, the old democratic regime that had pioneered work on international human rights would have been restored and the democratic transition in a post-Batista Cuba would not have been sidelined.

Killing Americans through the drug trade and terrorism

 

In an attempt to strike at the sensitive underbelly of the United States, Fidel Castro teamed up with drug traffickers, hired Nazis to train his repressive apparatus in the middle of the 1960s, and converted Cuba's diplomatic corps into a tool of violence and subversion.

The Castro dictatorship early on began, with the assistance of the KGB, assisting drug trafficking networks improve their ability to get more drugs into the United States to strike at American youth. The Havana Cartel documentary provides an overview of these practices to the present day.

Havana hosted terrorists from Africa, the Americas, and Asia at the Tri-Continental Conference on January 3rd through 16th in 1966.At the Conference, Fidel “Castro insisted that ‘bullets not ballots’ was the way to achieve power.”  He maintained “‘conditions exist[ed] for an armed revolutionary struggle.’

The Cuban dictatorship created the Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAL) to coordinate terrorist groups worldwide. 

Havana then established terrorist training facilities in Algeria, Libya, and Cuba.
 

This had devastating effects on Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America; the United States was not immune.

Terrorists attack on U.S. soil killing Americans

The Puerto Rican terrorist group, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña, (FALN), from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, carried out more than 130 bombings, including in the United States. 

This group was started in the mid-1960s and received advanced training in Cuba. This information is taken from Zach Dorfman’s article “How Fidel Castro Supported Terrorism in America: ‘FALN was started in the mid-1960’s with a nucleus . . . that received advanced training in Cuba,’” published in The Wall Street Journal on June 8, 2017.

The FALN was responsible for the January 24, 1975 bombing of the historic Fraunces Tavern in New York City which killed Alejandro Berger (28), James Gezork (32), Frank Connor (33), Harold H. Sherburne (66) and wounded 63 others.

The same Puerto Rican terrorists were also responsible for a bombing spree in New York City in August 1977 that killed Charles Steinberg, (age 26), injured six, and forced the evacuation of 100,000 office workers; and the purposeful targeting and maiming of four police officers, among many other crimes. 

Without Fidel Castro this terrorism international most likely would not have been brought into existence.

Installing  and maintaining tyranny in Venezuela

 

Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro

If Fidel Castro had never been born then Hugo Chavez would not have had a mentor and the assistance of the Cuban secret police to take over Venezuela and turn it into the dictatorship it is today with Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro, a Cuban mole, and tens of thousands of Cuban "advisers" torturing, jailing, and killing Venezuelans who want to live in freedom, and the ongoing crisis threatening the region.

 

Human rights in Cuba

 

If Fidel Castro had never been born then Cubans would not be going to prison for not sufficiently mourning the dictator's death in 2016, or worse yet providing a negative assessment of the regime he created. Thousands of men and women would not have spent decades in Cuban prisons for their political beliefs, and over 1,100 today.

 

Opposition leaders such as Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante would not have been assassinated on July 22, 2012 by Castro's state security agents. Nor the games played by Castro to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in order to get positive media coverage but then not follow through. There would not have been the massacre of refugees by Castro regime agents slaughtered for trying to flee Cuba.

 

 

Education politicized and degraded

Students entering the University of Havana

 

Cuba in 1953 had the fourth lowest illiteracy rate in Latin America with an illiteracy rate that was 23.6%. Costa Rica's at the time was 20.6%, Chile's was 19.6%. and Argentina's was the lowest at 13.6%.  The rest of Latin America showed similar or greater gains without sacrificing civil liberties. 

There are also great concerns about the Cuban educational system today. First the issue of a system of education being transformed by the Castro dictatorship into a system of indoctrination and secondly following the collapse of Soviet subsidies the material decline of the entire system along with shortages of teachers. 

Without Fidel Castro intervention Cuba was on track to having a first class education system without sacrificing civil liberties. Now it has neither.

 

Healthcare

The Castro regime in the past failed to report Dengue (1997) and Cholera (2012) outbreaks in Cuba. Jailing those who warned the world of the threat.  In 2017 the Cuban dictatorship failed to report thousands of Zika virus cases.

On November 29, 2018 The New York Times reported that the  Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO) "made about $75 million off the work of up to 10,000 Cuban doctors who earned substandard wages in Brazil." A group of these Cuban medical doctors are now suing PAHO for the organization's alleged role in human trafficking.

 

Cuba's Covid-19 pandemic response was one of the worse, in the Americas, even the United States carried out a better response.

This also raised questions on the relationship between PAHO, Cuba and reporting not only on outbreaks but the healthcare statistics that present the regime in a positive light.

Without Fidel Castro, Cuba would be another normal country that would be reporting health statistics that were accurate because there would be both an independent press and civil society to keep the government honest. Both were destroyed by Fidel Castro and his regime.

 

Cholera patients in Cuba (CNN)