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Another
victim of the Castro regime
Oswaldo Paya. Posted on Fri, Aug.
22, 2003 in The
Miami Herald.
HAVANA -- The subconscious betrays them. When
all the lies and slander fail, when all the means
of communication -- newspapers, radio, television,
movies, books even -- are not enough to confuse
the Cuban people, then come the desperate acts.
The offensive measures stop, and some perversely
sincere individual tells the government: "We're
going to say the worst that can be said about
a person, so that he will be rejected by every
decent person. We're going to say that he's one
of our agents.''
The slanders hurled at our brother Elizardo
Sánchez Santacruz do not deserve an analysis,
not even a reply. But he deserves -- and enjoys
-- our solidarity and support in the face of infamy.
At least we, his colleagues, won't fall into the
trap.
I caution that, when it comes to infamy, anyone
can fall victim. To act beyond every moral standard
is the rule of those who now give advice and counsel
(mediocre, to be sure) about intelligence. Some
might say that the effect is to bury what little
credibility the regime has.
What the regime's loudmouths cannot talk about
is the future, because the future surely will
be one of freedom -- and freedom is incompatible
with the current system.
What the wretched spokespeople who now write
libelous books cannot talk about is the institutionalized
corruption and the privileges and riches of the
unpopular group in power, while the majority of
the people live in anguish, poverty and oppression.
What they don't dare talk about is human rights.
They don't even publish the U.N. Universal Declaration
of Human Rights because the regime considers subversive
the rights that Sánchez and others have
defended for years.
''No second parts were ever good,'' goes the
Spanish saying. Their first effort went badly
and their second will go worse.
I know that it won't be the last try, and that
a third edition of the lie is near -- this time
perhaps against me. Arrogance blinds them, it
seems.
If the saying ''No second parts were ever good''
is not enough, I remind them of the saying that
goes: ''Third time is the winner.'' The loser
will be the tyranny. The victory will belong to
the Cuban people, as they achieve their liberation.
Oswaldo Payá heads the Liberation Christian
Movement, which launched the Varela Project for
human rights and democracy in Cuba.
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