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Cuba's asterisk
The
Globe and Mail,
Canada, October 8, 2005.
Felipe Perez Roque was all vim and gusto
as he set out this week to convince Canadian
investors of Cuba's advantages. The Cuban
Foreign Minister told the Economic Club
of Toronto of the hundreds of thousands
of Canadian visitors who seek the sun in
his country each year, and said he hoped
for more, but what he really wanted was
corporate investment. He spoke of tax holidays
for investors willing to place their capital
at the disposal of the country's trained
work force. He painted a picture in which,
despite the continuing U.S. embargo on Cuba,
his nation's annual growth rate might rise
to 7 per cent from the rate of 4 to 5 per
cent of past years.
If only it weren't for that pesky question
of human rights. People keep talking about
the way the Cuban government clamps down
on dissent and locks away those who dare
speak or associate in ways the government
finds anathema. Take Foreign Minister Pierre
Pettigrew, who told Mr. Perez Roque that
the matter is a "preoccupation"
in Ottawa. It's all overblown, Mr. Perez
Roque insisted. Those 75 people arrested
and thrown in jail in 2003 deserved what
they got, because they were in cahoots with
the United States. "We have a right
to defend ourselves against this foreign
aggression." And what about the human-rights
abuses in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay? "We think it is possible for all
countries to improve their situation,"
he said, "but we feel really that there
is no massive violation of human rights
in Cuba."
Rewind, please. The 75 people he referred
to have been well noted by Amnesty International.
They were among many dissidents rounded
up in 2003. They were given summary trials
-- the courts in Cuba are not independent,
being subordinate to the National Assembly
and the Council of State -- and were thrown
into prison with sentences ranging from
26 months to 28 years. Cuba may find it
convenient to brand them as foreign agents,
but Amnesty pointed out that their non-violent
offences had to do with freedom of expression,
association and assembly, and declared the
detainees -- most of whom remain in jail
-- prisoners of conscience. Among their
crimes: giving interviews critical of Cuba's
economy or human rights; communicating with
human-rights groups; and consorting with
unofficial trade unions and press associations
not officially recognized by Cuba as groups
it is safe for its citizens to talk to.
Amnesty says there have been reports of
beatings by guards.
It is fair for Mr. Perez Roque to point
to the human-rights abuses at Guantanamo,
as Amnesty itself has scathingly done, but
that does not diminish Cuba's responsibility
for its own house. And the environment in
that house may be inferred from a line in
Amnesty's report last March. The human-rights
group said Cuba's 2003 crackdown was surprising
because it had been thought Cuba was becoming
more open and tolerant. And what was the
measure of that tolerance? "The number
of prisoners of conscience had declined
and had been superseded by short-term detentions,
interrogations, summonses, threats, intimidation,
eviction, loss of employment, restrictions
on travel, house searches or physical or
verbal acts of aggression."
"Massive violation of human rights"?
You might say.
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