Adrian Karatnycky. Published Thursday, January 25, 2001, in
the Miami Herald
The sensational arrest and detention by Cuba of two leading Czech political
figures -- former Finance Minister Ivan Filip and former student leader Jan
Bubenik -- has set off a major diplomatic crisis that has strained relations
between the two countries. It also has brought harsh condemnation of Cuba's
action by the governments of Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the United
States. Yet it is only the latest example of a growing trend: Fidel Castro is
lashing out at an ever-widening array of the world's democracies and refocusing
attention on Cuba's repressive policies.
In the last year, the Cuban government has stepped up rhetorical attacks not
only against the traditional "villain,'' the United States, but it has
denounced the Polish and Czech authorities and international news media.
With the end of the Cold War, Castro suggested it was time for a new
beginning and for the acceptance of Cuba by the international community. As part
of his diplomatic offensive, he claimed that the United States was out of step
with the rest of the world in its condemnations of Cuba.
But one of the outcomes of the Cold War was the creation of a more-open and
more-democratic world. The defeat of communism in Central and Eastern Europe,
and the spread of democracy to most of the Ibero-American world, underscores the
anomaly of Cuba's repressive dictatorship. The wave of peaceful democratic
change that has swept the world since the mid-1970s has created a generation of
former opposition activists turned government officials and parliamentarians.
Increasingly, these pro-democracy leaders are focusing attention on Cuba and
reaching out to their real counterparts: the independent pro-democracy
activists.
During the 1999 Ibero-American Summit in Havana, the leaders of Spain,
Portugal and several Latin American countries reached out to Cuba's
pro-democracy movement. Mexico's leaders have held meetings with leaders of the
Cuban-exile community, including Carlos Alberto Montaner.
Typically, the detention of travelers engaging in meetings with Cuba's
pro-democracy forces doesn't generate headlines beyond their home countries. But
increasingly these contacts involve some of the world's leading political
figures. The results of such detentions are predictable and for the Castro
regime highly damaging: They focus attention on Cuban human-rights violations
and isolate Cuba internationally.
In this instance Castro may well have bit off more than he can chew. The
Czech Republic may be a small country, but it has an effective diplomatic
service and is highly regarded in the international community. Moreover, through
President Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic has links that extend well beyond the
governmental sphere into the literary, cultural and artistic communities of
liberals whom the Cuban leader has tried to woo over the years.
The harsh treatment of Pilip and Bubenik not only provokes tension between
Cuba and other na- tions, but the message of their detention cannot be lost on
the Cuban people. They must wonder why high-level officials want to meet with an
opposition that Castro claims to be insignificant. The answer is that democratic
leaders respect Cuba's independent voices as the voices of Cuba's future.
The longer Castro persists in his counter-productive harassment of foreign
visitors exercising international rights of travel and association, the more
countries he will antagonize, and the more he will contribute to his own
isolation, underscoring that he is a figure of the discredited past, at the apex
of a fragile system that will not endure.
Adrian Karatnycky (fhpres@aol.com) is president of Freedom House, which
monitors political rights and civil liberties worldwide.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 