Kerry, Cuba, and
the truth
By Jeff Jacoby. The
Boston Globe, march 21, 2004.
It comes as no surprise to learn that John
Kerry, who hates to take one position on
an issue when he can take two or three,
has come down strongly in favor -- and strongly
against -- US policy in Cuba.
As Peter Wallsten reports in the Miami
Herald, when Kerry was asked during a Florida
campaign stop where he stands on Fidel Castro's
repressive regime, he answered, "I'm
pretty tough on Castro, because I think
he's running one of the last vestiges of
a Stalinist, secret-police government in
the world." To make it clear that this
bristling stance was no election-year sham,
he added: "I voted for the Helms-Burton
legislation to be tough on companies that
deal with him."
Well, let's see. Congress passed Helms-Burton
in March 1996, just days after Castro's
air force murdered four unarmed civilians
by blowing their planes out of the sky.
Helms-Burton codified the longstanding US
embargo, but its most significant provision
was arguably Title III, which for the first
time authorized Americans whose property
was stolen by the Cuban government to file
suit against any foreign company that acquires
the stolen assets. The Senate vote on final
passage was a lopsided 74-22 -- with Kerry
voting no.
When Wallsten asked why Kerry said he voted
for Helms-Burton when in fact he voted against
it, he was told that the senator opposed
the bill "because he disagreed with
some of the final technical aspects."
And what were those "technical aspects?"
Oh, only the bill's most important new sanction:
Title III. The yes vote that Kerry trumpeted
in Florida had come five months earlier,
on a weaker version of Helms-Burton that
never became law.
The truth is that Kerry is "pretty
tough on Castro" and "tough on
companies that deal with him" only
when seeking votes in Florida. When he campaigns
elsewhere -- in Massachusetts, say -- he
strikes a different pose. During his reelection
campaign in 1996, he told The Boston Globe
that he opposed Helms-Burton and would support
dropping the whole embargo if Castro would
accept certain reforms. "He insisted,"
the Globe reported, "that the embargo
only strengthens Castro by excluding American
culture."
By 2000, Kerry was even more adamant. A
reappraisal of the embargo was "way
overdue," he said, claiming that "the
only reason" Cuba is treated differently
from China and Russia "is the politics
of Florida."
So once again Kerry manages to come down
on all sides of a controversial issue: for
and against Helms-Burton, for and against
the embargo, for and against "the politics
of Florida." His bristling anti-Castro
stance, it seems, is just an election-year
sham after all.
He's right about one thing, though: Castro
is running a "Stalinist, secret-police
government." To Kerry, that may be
just a throwaway campaign sound bite. To
dissidents rotting in the dictator's jails,
it is a grim reality.
It was just one year ago that Castro launched
a vicious crackdown on Cuba's peaceful opposition.
In the space of three weeks, 75 democracy
advocates, human-rights monitors, librarians,
and independent journalists were rounded
up, tried on phony charges, and sentenced
to as much as 28 years in prison. Today,
many are suffering from illness and inhumane
treatment. Among them:
Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a 52-year-old
independent journalist, has lost 35 pounds
since being imprisoned. He is afflicted
with heart problems, high blood pressure,
and frequent headaches. Last June, after
protesting the abuse of another inmate,
he was locked in solitary confinement. On
Dec. 31, he was dragged from his cell by
three prison guards, who brutally beat him
about the face and body.
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, 63, is an economist
who was convicted of "undermining national
independence" by criticizing the regime.
He is sick with cirrhosis of the liver and
bleeding from his digestive tract. According
to Miriam Leiva, his wife and fellow dissident,
he is in a cell at a Havana military hospital,
with no windows or clean drinking water.
The light in his cell burns 24 hours a day,
he has lost 40 pounds, and a fungal infection
is eating his legs. He is not allowed to
use the telephone or receive letters, and
his wife is permitted to visit him just
one hour per month.
Nelson Aguiar Ramirez went on a hunger
strike in August to protest intolerable
prison conditions. He has arteriosclerosis,
which causes his legs to swell, and suffers
from an enlarged prostate and a urinary
infection. His wife, meanwhile, has repeatedly
been warned to stop praying at the Church
of St. Rita, a gathering place for the families
of jailed dissidents. When she brought medicine
and vitamins to the prison where Aguiar
Ramirez is being held, she was told he couldn't
have them until she stops going to church.
Unlike John Kerry, Cuba's brave democrats
don't bob and weave and dissemble. They
speak plainly and face up to the consequences.
Their courage and dignity should inspire
us all.
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe
Newspaper Company.
|