Democracies from the world owe concrete actions to the Cuban nation

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The peaceful demonstrations that started on 11 July of 2021 asking for freedom, have shown the extraordinary courage and decision of the Cuban people and have revealed the dictatorship’s crimes against humanity, but they also have shown the apathy, fear, and weakness of democratic leaders and an international system that does not work. The world has seen, in real time, the fight for freedom of a nation that has been oppressed for over 62 years, the regime’s criminal response and the ambiguity and cowardice of freedom’s leaders. Democracies from throughout the world owe the Cuban people concrete actions so they can recover their freedom.

The Cuban people, out in the streets asking for freedom, have left the regime and its group of usurpers of the government terrified. The regime and its henchmen turned Cuba into a jail, the center of extreme and institutionalized violation of human rights, and the focus of exportation of violence and organized crime that affects the Americas and the whole world.

The cry of the Cuban people is “DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP”, “FREEDOM” and “HOMELAND AND LIFE”. It erupted on 11 July, it continues and will continue resonating until the dictatorship is ended and Cubans regain control of their lives and their future. This is an irreversible process, with no going back, in which failure is not an option because it is the Cuban youth that lead it, they are the artists, the intellectual and cultural leaders, they are the millions who had been indoctrinated to defend the Castroist system and who now demonstrate that “the Cuban revolution is worthless”.

The processes for political and social change are always internal and that is what is now happening in Cuba but, with the support of democratic governments and leaders, these changes can be hastened for the benefit of freedom and to mitigate the people’s suffering, even more so at a time where there is an international system, globalization, and communications technology.

The world is watching in real-time the courage and desperation of the Cuban people, it has seen and sees the crimes against humanity the Cuban dictator and his criminal organization commit red-handed, but it is also witnessing the astonishing inaction -limited to tardy and lukewarm declarations- of democratic leaders and governments in the face of facts that deal with human rights, with freedom. This is not an ideological issue because it affects the essence of this society’s survival. No person who lives in freedom in any place of the world, would tolerate to be subjected to the conditions the Cuban people endure and those that it now suffers from the repression.

Let us remember that the international system now in-being exists as a result of the Second World War in which -with millions killed- the “democracies of the world defeat fascism” birthing a “United Nations Organization” and its whole system with the objective of “maintaining international peace and security” and “the proclamation of human rights”. This system is comprised by regional organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and by specialized institutions such as the one responsible for the Defense of Human Rights. In the case of the Cuban people since the 11th of July, no one has done anything effective thus shirking the objectives for which they were created.

Beyond the assassinations, massacres, undue arrests, torture, coactions, extortion, kidnapping, uncommunication throughout the country, and generalized terrorism against the Cuban people, the Cuban dictatorship shows that it is applying: 1. Its methodology for the “implantation of a narrative” that is the counterfeiting of the facts to present them “attributing its own crimes to the victims”. 2. An active campaign to “neutralize democratic leaders and governments” using threats and fear. 3. Actions to “assassinate the reputation” of freedom-fighters and of those who back them. 4. The “stoppage of international organizations” through the union of dictatorial regimes with international representation. 5. Campaigns to counterfeit “the popular will that does not have”, and more.

Democracies from throughout the world owe concrete actions to the Cuban people and it urges these to act in their own best interest. The Cuban dictatorship not only oppresses Cubans, it has expanded and controls Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the governments of Argentina and Mexico and threatens the entire region and the world. Cuba’s dictatorship, the chief narco-state, is the one who turned Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua into narco-states. It is the one that has installed, maintains and protects guerrillas such as the FARC, ELN, Shining Path, MRTA and more. It is the one who turns criminals into political actors and leaders. It is the one who practices human trafficking with slaved physicians, and more.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators Association, ATA # 234680.