Not In Our Name
On 17 December 2014, President Barack Obama announced a change in
U.S. Cuba policy and the Free Cuba Foundation feels the need to make its
position clear in the following statement:
The Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) was
founded at Florida International University in 1993.
Throughout its history, FCF has been a steadfast and independent voice
in favor of nonviolent resistance to injustice and tyranny.
We agree
with President Obama on one general observation from his December 17
statement: that one cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a
different result. Unfortunately, the efforts of the Clinton
Administration to engage the Castro dictatorship as well as
loosen sanctions before and
after 1996 went unmentioned in President Obama's comments. President Clinton began
joint military exercises with the
Castro regime in 1994 in pursuit of normalized relations. The
shootdown of two
Brothers to the Rescue planes
on February 24, 1996, by Castro regime MiGs -- which killed Armando
Alejandre Jr. (age 45), Carlos Alberto Costa (age 29), Mario Manuel de
la Peña (age 24) and Pablo Morales (age 29) -- led to the passage and
signing of The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act by
Congress as an alternative to military action in an election year.
The attack took place on a day that a
national gathering called Concilio Cubano was to
have started. A massive crackdown had been
underway for days attracting international press attention. Despite this act of state terrorism against Americans, President Bill Clinton
shook hands with Fidel Castro in 2000 and
loosened sanctions
that opened cash and carry exports from American corporations to the
Castro regime. This turned the United States into one of the
top five trading partners of the Castro regime.
Economic sanctions were
not designed to overthrow the dictatorship but were part of a
policy of containment to prevent the spread of its totalitarian model. The
rise of Hugo Chavez and the
spread of Cuban influence in Venezuela began during Bill Clinton's presidency and are now harming the entire region
undermining the democratic gains of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Despite this disaster, the Obama Administration
began in 2009
to loosen sanctions on the Cuban dictatorship. The Castro regime's
response was to take Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen, hostage. The Obama
administration remained very low key about Gross's arrest, and it was
25 days before U.S. diplomats
even saw this jailed American. FCF believes that this lack of concern
sent a message to the dictatorship that they could continue to
arbitrarily detain Gross and use him as a bargaining chip in their goals
to secure the release of five Cuban spies captured in 1998. These five
had not only engaged in spying on U.S.-military facilities but
planned terrorist acts on U.S. soil and were criminally involved in the February 24, 1996 shoot down.
As
was the case in 1996, this policy of appeasement had dire consequences
for the democratic opposition in Cuba, which suffered several setbacks
over the next four years. Prisoner-of-conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo
died on hunger strike under suspicious circumstances in 2010; Ladies in White founder Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died from a
suspicious illness in 2011; and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero
died in the summer of 2012, under circumstances that point to
a state security killing. Rising violence against opposition activists,
including machete attacks, is a new and disturbing phenomenon.
FCF is concerned that releasing the three remaining spies, including
Gerardo Hernandez
-- who was serving two life sentences, one of them for conspiracy to
murder four members of Brothers to the Rescue in exchange for Gross and
an unknown Cuban intelligence operative -- may lead to the Castro regime
murdering more innocents inside and outside of Cuba. We also know, as
does the regime, that due to short-term economic interests that economic
engagement with the dictatorship will not be seriously impacted by
whatever new atrocities are committed.
Additionally, the hostage
demand having been met by the United States government also sets a
dangerous precedent for Americans traveling abroad. Add to this the
normalization of diplomatic relations and the further loosening of
sanctions and the signal sent to the hardline elements within the regime
is clear: operating with criminal impunity delivers results. This was
the same message sent by President Clinton in 2000.
FCF and its members are disturbed by the President's
statement on December 19,2014 that the 1996 shoot down was not a premeditated move by Castro but a "
tragic circumstance." This statement was deficient on two basic points. First of all, two planes were shot down over
international airspace not one as he stated in the press conference. More importantly, the president's statement ignored
documented evidence as well as
court decisions and
investigations by international human rights bodies that have concluded that
the attack was indeed
a premeditated extrajudicial execution.
Every year since the week following the 1996 shoot-down, FCF members have joined together to hold a
silent vigil at Florida International University
on February 24th between 3:21pm and 3:27pm at the times both planes
were blown up by Castro's MiGs in remembrance of Armando, Carlos, Mario,
and Pablo who gave their lives in service to others in a continuing
demand for justice. This tradition has been maintained for the past 18
years and next year on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 3:21pm we will
gather with the families of the four martyrs.
We the present and former members of the
Free CubaFoundation
say to the United States government and the Castro regime that the
fruits that have emerged thus far from these negotiations point to the
impure means upon which they were founded and will only lead to more
grief. Therefore, with great respect we say, not in our name!
Signed by:
Brian Alonso
Grace Cuelez Droblas
Oscar Grau
Yosvani Oliva Iglesias
Robert Linares
Neri Ann Martinez
Augusto Monge
Susana Navajas
Cindy Rodriguez
Raisa Romaelle
Pedro M. Ross
Juan Carlos Sanchez
Harold Alexander Silva
John Suarez
César Vásquez
This post is part of a Huffington Post blog series called "90 Miles: Rethinking the Future of U.S.-Cuba Relations."
The series puts the spotlight on the emerging relations between two
long-standing Western Hemisphere foes and will feature pre-eminent
thought leaders from the public and private sectors, academia, the NGO
community, and prominent observers from both countries. Read all the
other posts in the series here.
If
you'd like to contribute your own blog on this topic, send a
500-850-word post to impactblogs@huffingtonpost.com (subject line: "90
Miles").
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