Frank Calzon. Published Wednesday, July 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald .
Cuban Americans aren't responsible for political prisoners and thousands of executions.
One does not have to support all of Raul de Velasco's assertions (July 16 Otherviews column, A new era of tolerance in Miami) to agree with him that "intolerance is inconsistent with the goal of a more democratic Cuba.'' Intolerance is reprehensible; it comes in many forms and from many
corners of the political landscape.
De Velasco errs when he denounces the misdeeds of a handful of Cuban Americans and then paints our community with a broad brush. Let me revisit the issues:
The assertion that the beliefs and behaviors of Miami Cubans "impede'' political reform and national reconciliation in Cuba. Not true. This is a recycled version of the discredited blame-America-first school of foreign policy; the one that blamed Stalinism on the "encirclement'' of
the Soviet Union by capitalist powers.
Cuban Americans aren't the ones responsible for political prisoners and thousands of executions. They didn't adopt Soviet methods of repression, dissident internment in mental hospitals or electroshock as torture. They didn't target U.S. cities -- including Miami -- for nuclear attack, nor ask
Moscow to do the unthinkable. Castro has done all of the above.
Cuban Americans support reforms and reconciliation, just like their brethren in the island. We reject the notion of a moral equivalency between Fidel Castro's unspeakable crimes and Cuban-American political obstinacy, however "narrow-minded'' the latter might be.
National reconciliation requires that Castro disband the rapid deployment brigades that beat up dissidents and their families and ransack their homes. Castro has to allow the International Red Cross to visit his prisons and grant Cubans the same rights that only foreign visitors and foreign
investors enjoy.
To De Velasco, those who disagree with him are intolerant. An intolerant position, wouldn't you say? He complains about "the leaders we have allowed to speak for us.'' Allowed? Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Robert Menendez are elected to Congress; it is their duty to
represent their constituents for which they are scrutinized by a free press and rated every two years in the ballot box.
These attacks are not new. A couple of years ago, I served as a panelist in a conference sponsored by the Center for International Policy (which vigorously opposes the U.S. embargo). Several speakers blasted Cuban Americans for the "climate of fear'' they said prevented a rational
discussion on Cuba. However, the speakers failed to note the absence of demonstrators or that the conference was being held in Miami!
And what about "Radio Progreso,'' a daily Miami broadcast that endorses Castro's agenda while criticizing Cuban Americans. The point isn't that there are no challenges to freedom of speech in South Florida. Of course Klu Klux Klan and Nazi events are protected by the Constitution (and by
the police), as it was the case when the Cuban musical group Los Van Van played in Miami. When was the last time those demonstrating against the Klan were stereotyped as intolerant and fostering a climate of fear?
De Velasco says that Cuban Americans tried "to manipulate'' the judicial system in the Elián González case. Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and other scholars disagree, upholding the right to due process and decrying the abuse of federal power. De Velasco's statement that "many
of us defied the U.S. government'' is incorrect. Federal orders -- even if they come from the attorney general -- are challenged in U.S. courts daily.
Political disagreement is not always intolerance. De Velasco wrongly charges that Cuban Americans try to intimidate their opponents. Like other victims of injustice, we have suffered much. Exercising the right to freedom of speech does not make us bigots.
One last point. "Many'' Cuban Americans did not burn the American flag. A handful did, and the community denounced those outbursts. I recommend a visit to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., where there are names of Cuban Americans who did not burn the flag, but gave their lives
defending it.
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