04/07/2003
U.S. Official Outlines Emergence of Activists in Cuba
Says recent government repression a setback, but change inevitable
Faced with economic hardship and repression, a growing number of Cuban activists have emerged over the last twelve years and are actively advocating reform and the return of Cuban sovereignty to the Cuban people, says James Cason, chief of mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
In April 7 remarks at the University of Miami, Cason noted the growing number of Cubans committed to change.
"There have always been a few Cubans who have actively expressed their desire for change," Cason said. "I am fortunate to be living in Cuba at a time when that number is growing, and their voices are being raised to levels never before heard."
Cason outlined the continued economic hardship and repression in Cuba and noted that numerous independent organizations have emerged in the last twelve years clamoring for change.
Whereas there were practically no activists in the 1980s and only a few hundred in the 1990s, Cason said that there are several thousand Cubans actively calling for change today-- citing the minimum of 11,200 Cubans who recently signed a petition advocating reform.
Growing from a few scattered human rights activists, he said these organizations now include a range of civil society proponents, including political activists, as well as professional groups like independent journalists, independent librarians and labor organizers.
Cason acknowledged there is a great diversity of opinion among these activists on how best to bring about change, but said "they are united in their fundamental objective to return Cuba's sovereignty to the Cuban people."
As the United States' goal is a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba, it has not been a passive observer of these developments, Cason said. However, he emphasized that the nascent independent groups who are the most effective advocates for such a transition in Cuba do not represent the United States, but the desires of the Cuban people. "They represent the thousands unable to speak for themselves," he said.
Cason rejected the Cuban government's claim that the U.S. pays the Cuban opposition. Instead, he said that the United States meets with all sectors of civil society, provides materials on democratic values and open markets, supplies radios and books otherwise unavailable in Cuba, operates a news clippings service and offers access to the internet.
Though the Cuban government refers to these U.S. activities as subversive, Cason defended them as consistent with U.S. policy. Furthermore, Cason added "we refuse to allow the Government of Cuba to define the boundaries of our contacts with Cuban citizens whom we see as individuals simply attempting to exercise rights due unto them as established in, and agreed to by the Government of Cuba in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Cason condemned the Cuban government's recent clampdown on opposition activities, including the arrest of over 75 democracy and human rights activists and the series of summary trials that began the previous week. "The government's crackdown is clearly a setback," he said. "However, the inevitability of change in Cuba is just as clear."
Cason said that it is clear that democratic reform will come from the people, not the regime in Cuba. He said, "Cubans will decide how the Cuba of tomorrow takes shapes, and more importantly, the role that each and every Cuban will have in it." He pledged the United States will continue to stand ready to assist the Cuban people.
Following is the text of Cason's remarks:
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James C. Cason
Chief of Mission
U.S. Interests Section, Havana, Cuba
Presentation to the Cuba Transition Project
University of Miami
April 7, 2003
Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here in Miami with you today. I wish to thank the University of Miami, the Cuba Transition Project and Dr. Jaime Suchlicki for their kind invitation to speak with you on a subject that occupies most of my waking moments, the struggle for the respect of human rights in Cuba and the transition towards a participatory form of government. These, along with continued successful implementation of the 1994/1995 Migration Accords, remain our primary objectives in Cuba.
I'm a career Foreign Service Officer with more than 33 years of experience, mostly in Latin America and southern Europe. For the last eight months, I have been serving as the Chief of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. It is a unique place and the experience has so far provided me with some of the most interesting tales I will have to tell about my service to my country.
But a month ago, I would have started this speech by drawing attention to the fact that the Cuban people had managed to preserve their fundamental dignity in the face of more than four decades of repressive rule. Today, I must say that dignity is being stretched very thin. With its recent crackdown against human rights activists and the country's nascent civil society, the Castro regime has shown that it is willing to risk even the ire of the international community to maintain its central role. I say the government is repressive because no one I deal with on a regular basis in Cuba says otherwise. And in fact, all of our allies agree that their policy goal in Cuba is, ultimately, the same as ours; the rapid and peaceful transition to a democratic government characterized by strong support for human rights and an open market economy.
Before I get to the heart of my remarks, I'd like to discuss recent events that have a direct impact on our efforts to support safe, orderly and legal migration.
As you are aware, there have been six hijackings in the last six months, three of which occurring over the last three weeks. I want to take this opportunity to reiterate:
Any individual of any nationality -- including Cuban -- who hijacks an aircraft or vessel to the United States will be prosecuted with the full force of the U.S. legal system. Individuals convicted of such offenses can expect to serve lengthy sentences in federal penitentiaries. Once convicted of such an offense, any individual -- including a Cuban -- would be rendered permanently ineligible for lawful permanent residence in the United States. I want to reaffirm the U.S. Government's commitment that only safe, legal and orderly migration take place from Cuba to the United States.
In addition to the migration-related events of the last month, there have also been important political developments that have a direct bearing on the people of Cuba and U.S. policy:
President Castro returned from his Asian tour and declared his intention to remain in power for the rest of his life;
During the same speech, Castro signaled his desire to clamp down on the activities of the Cuban opposition and of the U.S. Interests Section;
True to his word, on March 18 Castro launched the biggest crackdown in over a decade against human rights activists and independent journalists.
As of this date, at least 75 democracy advocates have been added to the rolls of hundreds of political prisoners already in Cuban jails.
In a series of summary trials last week, the Government of Cuba has convicted economists for being economists, civil rights activists for being civil rights activists, journalists for being journalists and librarians for being librarians.
I say this not to make light of their situations, but to highlight the fact that in Cuba today, activities considered normal in any other country will result in life in prison in Cuba.
The arrests and convictions, coldly calculated to take place while the world's attention was focused elsewhere, were aimed at dismantling the independent journalist movement, crippling Project Varela, and decapitating the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. This latest group of detainees includes leading civil society figures such as Martha Beatriz Roque, Raul Rivero, Hector Palacios, and Oscar Espinoza Chepe. Many members of Oswaldo Paya's Christian Liberation Movement, including Antonio Diaz, Jose Daniel Ferrer, and Efren Fernandez, were also jailed. The Cuban Government has tried these so-called "traitors" on serious charges, with penalties of up to life in prison.
I will discuss this issue further within the context of my remarks. This morning, I wish to share with you what I have learned from my discussions with long term observers of the Cuban scene, third-country diplomats based in Cuba, my own observations gleaned from travels throughout the country -- having traveled more than six thousand miles -- and, most importantly, my extensive conversations with Cuban citizens.
I will tell you about what we are seeing in Cuba today, the current socioeconomic and political conditions in Cuba and the efforts of Cuban citizens to improve conditions in both areas. I will tell you about our efforts to help foster the growth of civil society in Cuba -- though it is imperative to note that only Cubans themselves will be able to determine their future. I will discuss the transition that is already well under way, and I will tell you why it is important for the United States and the Cuban people for that transition to lead to the formation of a stable, democratic form of government. Finally I will discuss the recent crackdown, placing it into the broader context of the transition that is now underway in Cuba.
What you should understand from the beginning is that Cuba is not a monolithic society; several different Cubas are emerging from the ashes of the revolution. The Government of Cuba would have you believe that the population remains committed to the preservation of the socialist state. There are, in fact, those who continue to believe in Fidel Castro's leadership. There are many more that believe in the ideals of the revolution in spite of Fidel Castro's leadership. However, most of Cuba's exhausted citizens appear to simply be waiting for change with a mixture of hope and trepidation.
There have always been a few Cubans who have actively expressed their desire for change. I am fortunate to be living in Cuba at a time when that number is growing, and their voices are being raised to levels never before heard. Events of the last month in Cuba clearly indicate how the Castro regime responds to calls for democratic reform.
I have made it a point to meet with as broad a spectrum of Cubans as possible -- just as any Chief of a U.S. Mission would do in any country in the world. Cuba, of course, is not just any country, and the Government of Cuba considers my interactions with Cuban citizens as subversive and provocative. They are neither. They are in fact appropriate and routine contacts with legitimate political actors who enjoy international contacts far beyond the U.S. Interests Section.
I could spend this entire speech reciting statistics about the Government of Cuba's growing inability to meet the needs of its people. Or about the Government of Cuba's misguided decision to seek out rough equality over broad-based economic growth. However, Professor Carmelo Mesa Lago of the University of Pittsburgh, as part of the Cuba Transition Project, has done a better job than I could do today. I urge those of you who haven't had the opportunity yet, to read his report as soon as possible.
However, even Professor Mesa Lago's study does not tell the full story of how the Government's policies continue to degrade the life of all Cubans. It is a country where doctors and physicists are taxi drivers, where those who maintain public order earn twice the salary of those who maintain public health, and where Cubans are jailed every day for so-called "economic" crimes.
Despite claims of an egalitarian social structure supposedly providing superior medical services and educational opportunities, the reality is that Cuba suffers from the worst aspects of both a centrally planned system, and, more surprisingly, a state-controlled, capital-generating system. A system in which the Government provides the lowest cost input -- Cuban labor -- and retains 95 percent of the profits for itself.
In Cuba's paternalistic political system, the Government assumes the responsibility of allocating all of the country's resources. As the Government's ability to provide these resources declines, the average Cuban is forced to either do without or break the law to acquire basic goods. This is the real tragedy, that most Cubans are forced to do the latter, turning themselves into criminals against their will. Indeed, we are finding that the most significant impact of the sugar mill closures is that former employees no longer have access to goods to pilfer for sale on the black market. For most Cubans, the black market has become the only market.
Yes, there are many heroes inside Cuba whose motivations are to support their own people and who hate the need to resort to antisocial behavior to survive and provide for their families. I've met several doctors and medical professionals who, for pennies an hour provide the highest quality care possible given the lack of medicines and equipment. The Government of Cuba continues to tell its people that the lack of supplies is due to the U.S. embargo, yet most Cubans are well aware that foreigners paying top dollar for medical care face no lack of resources. The fact is that Cuban doctors are forced to make do with less than 25 dollars a month -- about half of what a state security agent earns. This disparity tells you something about the true priorities of the Government of Cuba. Perhaps the greatest tragedy in today's Cuba is the erosion of its most precious resource, its human capital.
So what are Cubans to do? Faced with this reality, most are forced to live on the edge of the system (por la izquierda). Every Cuban who does so, risks what little they have. In the case of Cuba's youth, what they lose is their future. I have learned in my travels that many young Cubans are arrested for minor economic crimes before they reach the age of 21 branding them "socially dangerous," and even more importantly, anti-revolutionary. For those tarred with that title, there is essentially no hope for upward mobility -- access to higher education, training and employment disappear, and their only recourse is to leave Cuba.
This gets to the heart of U.S. policy towards Cuba. We support a rapid and peaceful transition to democracy so that the Cuban people may define their own destiny, finding a better life within their own country. Unfortunately, as a neighbor, Cuba's problems can become our problems, too. Apart from the moral imperative driving our support for democracy in Cuba, we have a strategic interest as well. The continued disintegration of Cuban society generates instability throughout the region and creates the threat of a mass migration to the United States. This undermines our security and the long-term potential for the Cuban nation. For this reason, we remain fully committed to the implementation of the 1994/1995 Migration Accords that provide a framework for safe, legal and orderly migration to the United States.
Instability is obviously high on Castro's mind as well, but for different reasons. One must wonder why the Government of Cuba has not taken the many opportunities to reverse the degradation of Cuban society, instead rejecting numerous chances to normalize its economic policies. The Cuban economy remains in survival mode, both for the State and the people themselves who are mostly concerned with the problems of daily life. The Cuban State is most interested in obtaining access to short term, high interest lines of credit. Essentially they are trading away Cuba's future productivity in order to survive another day. Of course, the same is true for the average Cuban citizen, who can never hope to see past their next meal.
I met one nurse who after a year of service was earning 220 pesos a month -- the equivalent of seven dollars. I asked her when she could expect her next raise. She laughed as she explained that her salary would receive ten additional pesos - that is about 38 cents a month -- after ten years service. She followed this up with the Cuban mantra, "No es facil." More than "Patria o Muerte" or even "Venceremos," this is the real slogan of today's Cuba.
For these, and many other reasons -- I'm sure that any of you who have family or friends on the island can cite their stories -- there is tremendous frustration with the government. A government that does not seem to be facing the challenges it has before it with any level of creativity or hope for solutions that may one day provide the Cuban people with relief from the oppression of their poverty.
So one might ask if they are so tired of suffering, if they so long for change, why don't they rise up and openly demand change? It is difficult for us here who are raised in an open society, a culture that values individualism and personal responsibility, to understand the internal and external barriers to change in Cuba. I say internal because I have learned in my first half year on the island, that many Cubans carry a policeman inside their head. That is, Cubans have learned to survive on different levels. The phenomenon known as "el doble moral" allows Cubans to maintain public support for the Revolution, while their private activities undermine the values of that same revolution.
The Government of Cuba allows such informal activity because it realizes that it is a safety valve -- that as long as people know they can live another day, they will not actively pursue fundamental change. The corollary to this is that any effort to openly question the status quo and pursue fundamental reforms will result in immediate repercussions. That is, the loss of the little they have.
Witness the campaign against illegalities. In which the Government's objective was to emphasize its ability to manage any situation, mete out "justice" on its own terms and arbitrarily manipulate the laws of the land -- all in the guise of protecting the "revolution."
However, there are some Cubans who have looked beyond day-to-day struggles. They have articulated a positive vision for the future that the Government of Cuba has interpreted as a challenge. In a sense, the Government is correct, as history shows that without subsidies, the Regime's economic model can only promise continued hardship and sacrifice by the people. That message is made clear daily by the Government media. In essence, it is the people of Cuba who continually bear the cost of the rigid application of a failed system.
Into this have stepped several courageous reformers. As you might suspect -- and has been amply proven over four decades, and the last three weeks -- there can be no debate within the Government of Cuba, so the discussion of any alternatives must take place within Cuba's growing civil society. Over the last twelve years, numerous independent organizations have sprung up, growing from a few scattered human rights activists, to a range of civil society proponents, including political activists, as well as professional groups like independent journalists, independent librarians and labor organizers. The Government's crackdown is clearly a setback. However, the inevitability of change in Cuba is just as clear.
I should clarify right now that I am speaking about a relatively small, but growing and diversified number of people. Where there were practically none in the 1980s, and only a few hundred in the 1990s, there are now several thousand -- recall that at a minimum, the 11,020 signatories of the Varela Petition publicly signaled their desire for reform.
This growth reflects a shift in Cuban society at large. The Government is well aware that this shift has already taken place, and fears that quiet support will soon transform into open endorsement for those with an alternative vision for Cuba's future.
I know you've heard of the main personalities in Cuba's opposition movements: Oscar Elias Biscet, Marta Beatriz Roque, Oswaldo Paya, Vladimiro Roca and Elizardo Sanchez. I've had the good fortune to meet with these courageous Cuban patriots, and can attest to their determination to press for a better future. In my travels throughout the island, I've had the opportunity to meet hundreds of less known, but equally brave members of Cuban civil society. There is a great diversity of opinion among these activists as to the best way to bring about reform. However, they are united in their fundamental objective to return Cuba's sovereignty to the Cuban people.
They are tired of the notion that Cuban sovereignty is the purview of a single individual. As Oswaldo Paya so eloquently put it during his recent trip outside of Cuba, the world should be disavowed of the idea that to discuss human rights issues with the Government of Cuba somehow infringes upon its sovereignty. In addition -- and I continue to paraphrase Paya -- what the world needs to see when it looks at Cuba is more than a leader with whom they are sympathetic, and see 11 million human beings who are entitled to their rights.
These civil society advocates are all struggling towards a Cuba unburdened by the weight of a centrally planned state looking to make all of the choices for its people. They seek a country rich with the bounty of opportunities that only an open and agile society can provide. They want a society based on law, not arbitrary legalism. They want the right to educate their children as they see fit, without being subject to continual indoctrination. They want the right to benefit from their own labor, without a 95 percent tax imposed by the state. In short, they want the right to lead normal lives.
What are they actually doing to promote democratic reform? The best-known activists are human rights monitors and political party leaders. This category includes people such as Elizardo Sanchez, Oswaldo Paya and Oscar Elias Biscet. Human rights monitors and political activists have very different approaches. Human rights monitors collect information about violations of international human rights norms, about prison conditions and about impediments the Government of Cuba places on free speech and other fundamental human rights. Often this information is provided to international NGOs, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. Their essential role is to document the reality faced by most Cubans today.
Political organizations have a very different role. They actively pursue change in Cuba's political culture to address the many problems cited by human rights monitors. There are a variety of parties in Cuba covering the ideological spectrum. But they do have common denominators. They are all committed to a nonviolent approach to reform. They all foresee the creation of a representative political system. Most advocate retaining free access to medical care and education -- though with significant improvements to both institutions. In other words, these are the organizations that would dispute the Castro regime's contention that the existing political structure is first supported by all Cubans, and second is irrevocable.
Beyond these organizations are a full range of nascent civil institutions, including independent journalists, independent librarians and independent professionals. Before her arrest and conviction, independent economist Marta Beatriz Roque united over 300 such organizations in the "Assembly to Promote Civil Society." Her crime was a desire to unify and coordinate the efforts of these institutions to provide ordinary Cubans an alternative to state provided resources.
The work of the independent journalists had matured rapidly over the last two years. What began as a few voices in the wilderness occasionally telephoning and faxing reports to contacts on the outside, burgeoned into associations of journalists with established contacts -- including some with regular columns in U.S. and international newspapers -- and in the case of one association, their own magazine. Several of these associations had even begun their own training programs.
The independent library movement has become one of the most pervasive and important elements of civil society in Cuba today. Several years ago, Fidel Castro said there were no banned books in Cuba, rather a lack of funding for some and unwillingness on the Government's part to purchase others. He clarified this by adding, "Nowadays they will print just about anything" -- I'll let you interpret what he meant by that. Since then, brave souls have taken this message to heart, and begun to open their homes and book collections to their neighbors. At the time of the crackdown, there were almost two hundred independent libraries throughout the country. Many remain. Some are a mere bookshelf. Others contain thousands of titles. Many are organized into associations, sharing their stocks as well as information and news.
The independent professional organizations, as well as the independent labor organizers provide dual services. First, they seek to provide an alternative to mass organizations that purport to represent both management and labor. Second, they document the serious labor violations committed by the Government against workers. Though his activities have been curtailed by his arrest in the latest crackdown, Labor leader Pedro Pablo Alvarez, president of the Unitary Council of Cuban Workers, was one of the most active in this field.
The United States has not been a passive observer of these developments; after all, our goal is a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy. These independent organizations are the most effective advocates for such a transition. They are not our representatives; they represent the desire of the Cuban people to reclaim Cuba's sovereignty for themselves. They represent the thousands unable to speak out for themselves.
We should be clear, the opposition is not a shadow cabinet waiting to move into power, they are simply among the few who openly say what so many others believe -- that it is time for change. For this reason, we and others in the international community support their efforts. Because they have become such effective advocates, the Government attacks them, labeling them subversive traitors.
Contrary to the Government's continued claims, we do not pay the opposition. This is what we do:
As with any other U.S. diplomatic mission, we meet with all sectors of civil society.
We invite civil society representatives, as legitimate political actors, to participate in representational events.
We provide information materials on U.S. Society, democratic values, open market systems, and the development of civil institutions.
We also provide material support in the form of radios and books that are unavailable in Cuba.
We provide a news clipping service to those who request it. In fact we now have more than 300 Email subscribers to this service, including human rights activists, other members of civil society, third-country diplomats and international NGOs. So popular is this service, that even personnel from Government media outlets have requested this service.
In addition to this, through our multimedia center, we provide access to the Internet.
The Government of Cuba refers to all of these activities as "subversion of the established order," and expects the international community to believe that.
In fact, these actions are fully consistent with U.S. policy and with diplomatic protocol. I would point out that Cuban diplomats in the U.S. enjoy full access to the breadth of U.S. society. And a quick review of their travel and meetings would reveal a level of access to U.S. citizens that the Cuban Government would never accept on the part of U.S. diplomats in Cuba.
We refuse to allow the Government of Cuba to define the boundaries of our contacts with Cuban citizens whom we see as individuals simply attempting to exercise rights due unto them as established in, and agreed to by the Government of Cuba in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As recently as March 20th at this year's session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Cuban Foreign Minister Perez Roque, described the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and I quote him here -- "as a landmark in the collective aspiration to build a world of freedom, justice and peace." -- End quote.
On the very day that the Foreign Minister made these remarks, Cuban State Security agents were rounding up dozens of human rights activists and -- not incidentally - seizing thousands of copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Despite the Foreign Minister's recognition of the importance of the Declaration, the Government of Cuba has previously cited it as a subversive document.
This juxtaposition of rhetoric and reality is the very mechanism Fidel Castro has used for four decades to distract international attention from what truly ails Cuba: Its fundamental disregard for the rights of its own citizens. For too long, Fidel Castro has obscured Cuba's problems in the veil of national sovereignty, and his fractious relationship with the United States. The substantial and continued international reaction to Castro's latest crackdown demonstrates that this chicanery no longer fools anyone.
However, while Cubans welcome international recognition of their plight under the present government, it is the Cuban legal system itself that provides the strongest indictment of the Regime -- a regime based on maintaining political control at any cost to its citizens. This is not U.S. rhetoric; it is Cuban reality as defined by the Government itself in the Cuban Penal Code which begins:
"This code has as its objectives to protect society, people and the social, economic and political order, and the State regime ... To promote strict observance by the citizens of their rights and duties ... To contribute to the formation in all citizens of respect for socialist legality and compliance with the duties and the correct observation of the norms of socialist life."
The Penal Code then codifies laws against "dangerousness," "contempt for authority," "illegal assembly," "illegal printing," and creates broad categories of crime such as "enemy propaganda" and "propagation of false news."
I highly recommend that students of Cuban affairs study both the Penal Code and the 1976 Cuban Constitution. These are the best tools for understanding the role of the Cuban State, and the liberties it takes in arbitrarily defining offenses against it. We in the U.S. are hard-wired to live in an open society; the authors of these documents clearly mistrust their own people and are hard-wired against a free society.
This explains the Government of Cuba's incessant claim to be engaged in a battle of ideas. Recent events show that they are, in fact, engaged in a battle against ideas. As State security interrogators said to one detainee, "Ideas have a price, which you are going to have to pay. And if you continue your activities, that price will be seven to ten years imprisonment..."
As you know, there is an ongoing debate in Congress over U.S. policy towards Cuba. That is good. That is healthy. That is the democratic way. I hope that the information I have shared with you about today's Cuba will help you understand why the Administration's top priority is to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy respecting human rights in Cuba. The President made clear last May 20th that the United States fully respects the sovereignty of the Cuban people and their right to chart their own future. He has also made clear the fact that the United States will stand with the Cuban people as they move towards exercising the people's sovereignty and making the tough choices about their own future.
Dissidents have told me on many occasions that the most critical issue in Cuba today is the Government of Cuba's blockade against its own people. That blockade simply will not go away if the U.S. unilaterally removes travel restrictions and/or the trade embargo.
As I said at the beginning, the Cuban people have retained their fundamental dignity. However, it is tested every day by the ordeals imposed by a government that values ideology over reality, rhetoric over food dogma over compassion. There is always hope for change. After all, in the year before Castro announced millions of dollars in food purchases from U.S. suppliers, the official mantra had been that Cuba would not buy, "A single grain of rice...not a single aspirin," from those same U.S. suppliers.
I wish I could tell you that I believed the Government of Cuba would make the same about face on political reforms. President Bush stated unequivocally last May 20 that the United States would work to begin dismantling U.S. sanctions if the Government took concrete steps towards reform; sanctions are a means to an end, not an end to themselves.
However, during my brief tenure, it has become clear that democratic reform will come from the people, not the regime. As it has over the last 43 years, the Government of Cuba continues, without hesitation or pause to make it crystal clear to not just the United States, but to the world, that it will not change its political system.
Change will come to Cuba; in fact, it is already underway. Cubans will decide how the Cuba of tomorrow takes shapes, and more importantly, the role that each and every Cuban will have in it.
I can pledge that the United States stands ready to assist the Cuban people when asked, and will continue do so in the future. Thank you for your time. I'll be happy to answer your questions.
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
