Frank Calzon. Published Tuesday, September 5, 2000, in the Miami Herald
What game is Fidel Castro playing now? As he dispatches Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's makeshift parliament, and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque to meet in New York with a "select group of exiles''? What could be happening inside Cuba to warrant such a meeting? Or
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's orchestrated tour for "private sector'' farmers and restaurant owners in Cuba? I don't know the answer, but I can tell you what the situation is for Castro's opposition inside Cuba:
Vladimiro Roca, one of the Havana Four, remains in prison serving a five-year sentence for co-writing The Homeland Belongs to Us All, a critique of the Castro regime that called for a national dialogue among the government, Catholic Church, dissidents and exiles.
Oscar Elías Biscet, president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, who sought a dialogue with the government, is in prison in the eastern province of Holguín, remote from his family in Havana. In isolation and denied water, he has lost more than 20 pounds. His Bible has been
confiscated, and authorities are pressuring him to leave the country.
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, bravely risks prison by continuing to write in the foreign press that honorable and informed Cubans are willing to sit at a negotiating table with the government.
The Cuban government holds frequent talks with foreigners and exiles, without making any move toward democratization. Even Pope John Paul II's call for liberalization fell on deaf ears. So what's the purpose of the government officials meeting with exiles in New York and tours, other than to
advance the anti-embargo agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Cuban government?
Freedom in Cuba will be determined by the outcome of events inside, not outside, the island. Exile leaders must not usurp the internal opposition's role. Instead of attending meetings in New York, exile leaders should be knocking at foreign offices, media outlets, and international and
nongovernmental organizations everywhere to speak about the horrors of Castro's dictatorship.
Even if the New York meetings never take place (Alarcón's request for a visa to arrive early for a United Nations's meeting has been turned down), their very convocation demonstrates the duplicity of a regime willing to talk with Cubans in exile but not with its gagged detractors at home.
TALK WITH DISSIDENTS
If the Cuban government wants to "build bridges,'' why not initiate some real changes? Why not free all political prisoners and disband the rapid-action brigades? Why not give the Cuban people the same rights and privileges enjoyed by foreign investors and tourists?
Why not make at least these few concessions? It's obvious that the government is unwilling to grant freedom of the press, independent labor unions, free elections or a national referendum.
If Castro wanted a real dialogue, he would send no emissaries to New York to meet with Cubans who reside abroad. Instead, he would open his prisons, release the gags imposed on dissent and initiate a dialogue with the very folks who have repeatedly requested it: the archbishop of Santiago, the
bishop of Pinar del Río and dissident leaders such as Vladimiro Roca, Oscar Elías Biscet, Marta Beatriz Roque, Osvaldo Payá, Raúl Rivero, Maritza Lugo, Dagoberto Valdés, Gustavo Arcos and Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz.
It is that kind of meeting (not a scripted spectacle) that exile leaders should attend.
Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.
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