"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)
Seventy five years ago on December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly. In 2008 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of this important milestone, Mary Ann Glendon, the United States Ambassador to the Holy See, highlighted Latin American and Catholic contributions to human rights, and made special mention of the contribution made by Cuba that was documented in a diplomatic cable.
“The principal leader of the Latin American group in 1948 was a charismatic young Cuban representative named Guy Perez Cisneros. His son, Pablo Perez-Cisneros, attended the conference and recounted his father's contributions to the UDHR, noting the gap between the Cuba of his father's day and the deplorable state of human rights under the present regime. The work of Guy Perez-Cisneros and other delegates was captured in a 12-minute video presentation featuring archival footage of Eleanor Roosevelt and Guy Perez-Cisneros' UN speech in support of the UDHR.”
However, Perez Cisneros was not the architect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and until The Washington Post journalist David Hoffman explored this chapter of Cuban history in his 2022 book, Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and his Daring Quest for a Free Cuba, this information was only available in some archives, and obscure blogs.
Hoffman found that the 1940 Cuban Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 88g of the 1992 Cuban Constitution that made the Varela Project possible were largely the result of one talented Cuban who over the course of his career had been a diplomat, jurist, and scholar, but you’ve never heard of him. In fact, he has been called the “forgotten man”.
Gustavo Gutierrez Sanchez (1895 - 1959)
His name was Gustavo Gutierrez Sanchez and he was born in Camajuani, in the Province of Santa Clara, Cuba on September 20, 1895, and he died in exile in Miami on July 17, 1959 at age 63. In 1916, at just 21 years of age he had obtained doctorates in Civil and Public Law, and became Assistant Professor of International Public Law in the University of Havana, and in 1919 became the department head at age 24.
Carlos Márquez Sterling, a Cuban historian and statesman who led the drafting of the country’s 1940 Constitution, in 1976 wrote an article in Diario de las Americas where he highlighted Gustavo Gutierrez’s role in the drafting of the 1940 Constitution.
"Gustavo had formed part of the Bicameral Commission which drafted the project of the Constitution and I can assure you that many of the institutions that later found expression in our original document were based on previous works created by Gustavo Gutierrez."
Hoffman in “Give Me Liberty” reported that the 1940 Constitution had a provision that had been drafted years earlier by Gustavo Gutierrez, and became “Article 135, Section F, which provided that laws could be proposed by congressmen and senators, government officials, courts, - and by citizens. ‘In this case,' the constitution declared, ‘it will be an indispensable prerequisite that the initiative be exercised by at least ten thousand citizens having the same status of voters.”
The Cuban jurist believed that this clause would have given Cuban citizens a voice in public affairs that could have acted as a brake on Machado’s slide into dictatorship, or led to an earlier repeal of the Platt Amendment, or prevented Batista becoming a strong man. This provision somehow was recycled into the 1992 Cuban Constitution, and was the basis for the Project Varela that challenged totalitarian rule in Cuba beginning in 2002.
Chapultapec Castle in Mexico City
Less than five years later in February 1945, with World War Two still underway, at the Chapultapec Castle in Mexico City twenty Latin American countries and a large delegation from the United States participated in the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace. Dr. Gustavo Gutierrez presented on behalf of Cuba “two detailed proposals for consideration, a Draft Declaration of the International Rights and Duties of the Individual and a "Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Nations." These two drafts were written by Dr. Gustavo Gutierrez in his book La Carta Magna de la Comunidad de Naciones. Later that year the Cuban delegation in San Francisco would present his draft for consideration in the creation of a universal declaration of human rights.
French jurist René Cassin and Guy Perez-Cisneros argued strongly in the discussion over the drafting of the declaration that the right of individuals to petition “for redress of alleged human rights abuses to ‘the public authorities of the State of which he is a national or in which he resides, or with the United Nations.” was an essential human right that should be included. This was objected to by the Soviet Union, and Mexico that argued that it “violated the principle of national sovereignty and violate provisions of non-interference.” It would not end up in the declaration, but be recognized later by some states. The spirit of this clause that individuals could petition to have injustices committed against them all the way to the UN is consonant with Gutierrez’s advocacy for giving citizens a voice in public affairs.
“I was no Thomas Jefferson and, although a lawyer, I had had practically no experience drafting documents. But since the Secretariat had collected a score of drafts, I had some models on which to work. One of them had been prepared by Gustavo Gutierrez (Sanchez) and had probably inspired the draft Declaration of the International Duties and Rights of the Individual which Cuba had sponsored at the San Francisco Conference.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was an initiative by Latin American nations, in which Cuba played an important role proposing it, assisting to draft the document, and successfully lobbying for it.
The Cuban diplomats that played this historic role in bringing into existence this “Magna Carta of the Community of Nations” have been erased to make way for one of the great lies of the Castro dictatorship that the political concepts of liberty, equality, and justice are not universal but differ based on geography. This is also why the communist dictatorship in Havana views the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as enemy propaganda.
This is why Cubans across the island risked everything to be heard by the international community in 2002, 2004, and 2021 in their demands for freedom and an end to dictatorship. In 2002 and 2004 this demand was made in the Project Varela petition by tens of thousands of Cubans, and in July 2021 by hundreds of thousands of Cubans across the island shouting for it at the top of their lungs. Currently there are over 1,000 political prisoners in Cuba, and on international human rights day 2023, the 75th anniversary of the signing of the declaration we call for their freedom, and the freedom of all Cubans.
In 1952 the young Republic issued commemorative coins to celebrate 50 years of liberty and independence of the Cuban Republic. Sadly, democracy was attacked and destroyed on March 10, 1952 by Fulgencio Batista, one of the architects of that system, with both lights and shadows, and the half century mark was not reached. 49 years, 9 months and 20 days of democracy in Cuba, but yet much was accomplished that is worth remembering.
Cuba’s Old Republic Outshines Colonialism and Castroism
The island’s democratic period (1902-1952) saw impressive achievements.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s review
of “Cuba: An American History” by Ada Ferrer (Bookshelf, Sept. 4)
offers insights into Cuba’s history under colonialism and Castroism, but
it does a disservice to Cuba’s democratic period (1902-1952). During
the Cuban Republic, the island’s leaders negotiated the return of the
Isle of Pines and reduced the U.S. military presence from four bases to
two and then to one. The Platt Amendment was the price for ending the
four-year American occupation following the Spanish-American War, and
ending Platt in 1934 ended formal U.S. interference in Cuban affairs.
Over 50 years, Cuba developed a
multiparty system, competitive elections, a free press, a modern public
health system and a strong labor movement. This translated to social
achievements placing pre-1959 Cuba at the top of Latin American indexes,
outperforming Castro’s Cuba.
Cuba even led in proposing, drafting and lobbying for the
passage of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Language in
the declaration was selected from Cuba’s 1940 constitution. Cuban
diplomats presented nine proposals, five of which are in the UDHR.
The Cuban Republic wasn’t perfect, but its achievements over a
half-century delivered for all Cubans. It offers a powerful contrast to
Cuba today.
U.S. Flag lowered and Cuban Flag raised in Havana on May 20, 1902
Read the book review by Felipe Fernández-Armesto titled ‘Cuba: An American History’ Review: That Infernal Little Republic published in The Wall Street Journal on September 4, 2021. He was reviewing the 576 page book Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer which is a best seller in Amazon. Hopefully, the book review by Mr. Fernández-Armesto does not reflect the content of what Professor Ferre wrote in her book on the Cuban Republic. Here is what he wrote:
The jaws stayed menacingly open. The U.S. kept its Guantánamo base
and imposed a settlement that conferred a right—formally, an
obligation—to intervene, in effect, at will. This was a prerogative, as
Ms. Ferrer says, “to exercise permanent, indirect rule.” Foreigners took
over most rural property and almost the entire sugar industry. The
arrangement favored corrupt and sometimes criminal elites.
This was most glaring in the 1950s, the era of Mambo italiano,
when the Mafia ran the island. While U.S. settlers held “church bake
sales and youth dances,” Ms. Ferrer tells us, there were 338 brothels in
Havana. In 1952 Fulgencio Batista seized Cuba in a coup and ruled it as
a fief. Seven years later, in revulsion from U.S. tutelage, Cubans
welcomed Fidel Castro from the “mountain kingdom,” where he ruled as
theatrically as the Bandolero.
This historical shorthand does a disservice to the actual history of the Cuban Republic (1902- 1952), its democratic character, and its achievements for Cubans over a half century that overshadow the failures of Castroism. This is the reason that the Castro regime has sought to erase it, and replace it with a series of myths to justify its totalitarian rule.
Mr. Fernández-Armesto in his review recognized that Hugh Thomas has written the best history of the island, called Cuba : The Pursuit of Freedom (1971) that was updated in a paperback edition in 1998 titled Cuba Or The Pursuit Of Freedom that recognizes both the lights and shadows of the Cuban Republic.
Cuban Presidents: 1902 to 1952 and dictator Batista 1952-1959
Hugh Thomas is not alone in his assessment of the Cuban Republic.
Ms. Speck found that Cuba during the Republican period had competitive democratic elections, and achieved social progress for all Cubans.
Pre-1959 social indicators place Cuba among the top tier of Latin America. The infant mortality rate in Cuba in the mid-1950s (33 per 1,000 live births) was roughly equal to rates in Europe and a third of the Latin American average (105 deaths per 1,000). Life expectancy at birth in Cuba (64) was also far higher than in Latin America as a whole (50).51 James W. McGuire and Laura B. Frankel have shown that between 1900 and 1959 Cuba outperformed other Latin American countries at raising longevity and reducing infant mortality.52 That may reflect the strength of Cuba’s health care system. The island had 10 doctors per 10,000 people (10), nearly as many as Europe (11) and the United States (13). Latin America lagged far behind with only 4 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.53
A review of the historical record finds Cuban political leadership that did not permit the United States to exercise indirect rule in Cuba, but rather found ways to exploit the American presence for their own interests while reducing it over the short, medium, and long term when and where possible.
Unlike the Castro regime the Cuban Republic achieved concrete successes in reducing U.S. influence in Cuba while improving living standards for Cubans, and made a positive mark on the international stage following WW2. Cuba's healthcare system was world class throughout the Cuban Republic with two Cuban physicians nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
America Arias Maternity Hospital Building (Havana, Cuba 1930s)
Despite U.S. occupation of Cuba the Cuban Republic obtained independence through protracted diplomatic efforts.
Cubans through political intrigue managed to avoid the fate of Puerto Rico and the Philippines during the Spanish - American War. The United States military had occupied Cuba from 1898 to 1902, and the bitter price of independence was accepting the Platt Amendment, which permitted U.S. interference in Cuban internal affairs to preserve order and protect American interests, put into question the status of Cuba's Isle of Pines as a possible U.S. possession.
Cuban nationalists elected in 1900 during U.S. occupation
Cuba's first elections were held in June 1900 under the U.S. occupation for local officials, and pro-U.S. candidates did not fare well losing to nationalist candidates, and the pattern was repeated again in August 1900 to elect candidates to the constitutional convention. The majority elected were war veterans, Mambises, who fiercely opposed the U.S. occupation, and Juan Gualberto Gómez, a black intellectual, he had been a close ally of José Martí in the war of independence, who spent the rest of his life opposing the Platt Amendment, and advocating for racial equality representing his constituency in Havana. In 1892 the black Cuban journalist and future statesman founded the Central Directory of Societies of Color, a network that would spend the next sixty seven years pushing for Black advancement in Cuba.
Reclaiming Cuban territory, and reducing American military presence.
The Cuban Republic formally came into existence on May 20, 1902 and it began to achieve concrete results. American speculators had bought up land on what was then called the Isle of Pines, and renamed the Isle of Youth during the Castro regime, following the U.S. occupation of Cuba and the island had been settled by American settlers, and its status as a U.S. territory a political question, according to American courts.
Isle of Youth ( used to be Isle of Pines)
Cubans successfully negotiated the maintenance of the Isle of Pines as part of Cuba on July 2, 1903 in the Hay-Quesada Treaty that was negotiated between U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and Gonzalo de Quesada, the Cuban Ambassador to the United States, and the treaty was finally ratified on March 13, 1925 following years of pressure from economic and political interests wishing otherwise.
The United States had wanted to build four military bases in Cuba, but the Cuban government successfully negotiated this down to two in 1903, those being Guantanamo and Bahia Honda. Bahia was given back to Cuba in 1912 for more land for the Guantanamo military base. By 1912 there was only one U.S. military base operating in the island.
President Ramón Grau San Martín waves to crowd in 1933.
Platt Amendment ended in 1934
On September 12, 1933 The Madera Tribune carried an editorial titled "America Will Never Consent to Removal Of Platt Amendment." Cuba was in the midst of a crisis caused by President Gerardo Machado. He was democratically elected, but had made changes the constitution to perpetuate his presidency, and along with the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, a period of political and economic crisis led to the end of Machado's presidency in a revolutionary environment in 1933. On September 10, 1933 Ramón Grau San Martín, assumed the presidency of Cuba, but due to his opposition to the Platt Amendment, refused to take the oath of office before the Supreme Court or to the Cuban Constitution of 1901 but pledged his fidelity to the Cuban people. His government lasted for 127 days, but the Platt Amendment was abrogated on May 29, 1934 when the United States and Cuba signed a new treaty of relations that canceled the treaties that enforced the Platt Amendment. There was no Platt Amendment in the 1940 Constitution.
Republican Cuba makes it mark on the international stage.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was an initiative led by Latin Americans, and Cubans in particular. Some of the language placed in the Declaration was taken from the 1940 Cuban Constitution.
Cuba's
last democratic president, Carlos Prio Socarras, was elected by Cubans
in free and fair elections on July 1, 1948 and assumed office on October
10, 1948. He was a democrat who respected civil liberties and presided
over years of prosperity and freedom for Cubans.
President Carlos Prio Socarras (l) and President Harry S. Truman (r) December 8, 1948
President
Prio belonged to the Autentico Party and was succeeding Ramon Grau San
Martin, another member of the same political party, in the Cuban
presidency who had completed his four year term (1944-48). Both men respected
human rights, and this was reflected by the actions taken by their
diplomats at the founding of the United Nations, and in the Organization of American States.
Beginning in 1945 Cuba took part in lobbying for and participating in the drafting of the declaration and submitted nine proposals
of which five made it into the final document. The first meetings of
the General Assembly and the Security Council took place in London
starting on January 10, 1946.
Cuban Ambassador Willy De Blanc in December 1945 hosts former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a lunch in the Cuban Embassy in London with other Cuban diplomats
(including delegates to the U.N. Preparatory Commission Dr. Guy
Pérez-Cisneros y Bonnel and Cuban jurist Dr. Ernesto Dihigo y López
Trigo) where they requested his assistance in the creation of a human
rights commission for the United Nations. Churchill recommended that the
Cubans lobby Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, and they followed his advice.
Eventually the former First Lady was selected as chairwoman to the Human
Rights Commission.
Sir Winston Churchill visited Cuba in February 1946. He had been invited to visit Cuba as a private citizen by President Ramon Grau San
Martin who received the former British Prime Minister together with Cuba's next president, Carlos Prio.
Cuba, Panama, and Chile were the first three countries
to submit full drafts of human rights charters to the Commission. The
Cuban draft contained references to rights to education, food, and
health care, and other social security. Latin American delegations,
especially Mexico, Cuba, and Chile inserted language about the right to justice into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in what would become Article 8.
Guy Pérez-Cisneros and Ernesto Dihigo
Cuban delegate Guy Pérez-Cisneros in his speech
on December 10, 1948 proposing to vote for the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights before the third General Assembly of the United Nations in
addition to highlighting the importance of the Declaration of the Rights
and Duties of Man and how it inspired the Third Committee’s work on this document also addressed the importance of the rule of law:
My
delegation had the honor of inspiring the final text, which finds it
essential that the rights of man be protected by the rule of law, so
that man will not be compelled to exercise the extreme recourse of
rebellion against tyranny and oppression.
The Cuban delegate also celebrated that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights condemned racism and sexism.
"My
country and my people are highly satisfied to see that the odious
racial discrimination and the unfair differences between men and women
have been condemned forever."
Thanks to the legacy of Juan Gualberto Gómez and the Central Directory of Societies of Color he had created black civil society in Cuba advanced through out the years of the Republic, and their efforts were made manifest in the 1940 Constitution in a democratic Cuba.
End of the first period of democracy in the Cuban Republic
This
democratic Cuba was overthrown on March 10, 1952, by a relatively bloodless military coup led
by Fulgencio Batista because he did not have a chance to win the presidential elections that were taking place in a few weeks time. The last democratic president Carlos Prio and his first lady
went into exile.
Guy Pérez-Cisneros died suddenly of natural causes in 1953 trying to establish a Christian Democrat Party in Cuba in the early years of the Batista regime.
Over the next seven years a corrupt and
authoritarian dictatorship ruled Cuba becoming increasingly unpopular.
The refusal of Batista to peacefully give up power through a process of dialogue opened the path to Fidel and Raul Castro to violently seize it.
Ernesto Dihigo, like Pérez-Cisneros, left the diplomatic corps following the 1952 coup, but returned in 1959 as Cuba’s Ambassador to the United States in January of 1959
but retired in 1960. No longer a diplomat or a college professor, he
dedicated the next forty years of his life to private study focused on
philology. He left Cuba, with his wife Caridad Larrondo in 1989 and died in Miami in 1991.
Cuba is suffering under sixty nine years of dictatorship.
The Castro brothers had pledged a democratic restoration since the
start of their struggle in 1953, but had planned a
Marxist-Leninist takeover and the imposition of a communist
dictatorship killing tens of thousands of Cubans. They systematically denied human rights to all Cubans while exporting their repressive model to Africa and Latin America helping to create misery for millions more.
The continuing question of the Guantanamo Naval Base
If Cuba had returned to democracy in 1959 would the United States have a military base in Guantanamo today? Recall that the US wanted to have four military bases in Cuba, and had a claim to the Isle of Pines in 1903, but a democratic Cuba had been able through diplomacy to reduce the number of bases down to one, and gain sovereignty over the Isle of Pines.
The Castro regime despite its violent rhetoric has not been able to get the United States to leave the military base in Guantanamo.
At the same time, although still a colony, Puerto Rico through nonviolent means has been able to shut down all the U.S. military basis on its territory. The highest profile example of this was the campaign to demilitarize the U.S. military base in Vieques that was successfully carried out between 1999 and 2003.
Would an independent and democratic Cuba have been less successful than their Puerto Rican brethren?
The legacy of Cuba's Republic and its democratic period are worth remembering and defending.
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