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I
won't visit Cuba again until Castro sets
it free
By Norm Coleman, www.coleman.senate.gov.
Posted on Mon, Oct. 20, 2003 in The
Miami Herald.
The future of U.S. policy toward Cuba is
bound in two tides of change:
o First is the momentum building in the
United States to engage with Cuba. U.S.
policy toward Cuba over the last 40 years
has not brought change. Fidel Castro has
outlasted eight U.S. presidents, and in
the post-Cold War world, Cuba no longer
poses a strategic threat to us.
Americans have recognized Cuba as a potential
market for our agricultural goods, which
under a 2000 law can be exported to the
island. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has introduced
a bill in the Senate that would lift the
restrictions against Americans traveling
to Cuba, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has
introduced legislation that would end the
U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
o Second is the demand for human rights
for the people of Cuba. Cuba is no paradise.
Cubans lack the right to free speech, free
association and free enterprise. The sheer
numbers of Cubans leaving for our shores
speak to the disastrous state of human rights
in Cuba.
Last year, at great personal risk, more
than 30,000 Cubans signed a petition, the
Varela Project, calling for a referendum
on democracy and human rights in Cuba. The
Cuban government responded with a wave of
repression, arresting more than 75 leading
dissidents. This crackdown drew harsh criticism
from even those who had been most tolerant
of the Castro government.
Like many other Americans, I believed that
the best way to promote change in Cuba was
through increased trade and travel -- a
position that put me at odds with the administration.
With this view in mind -- and with great
concern over the crackdown that began this
spring -- I recently traveled to Cuba.
I met with Cuban officials and had satisfactory
discussions about the opportunities for
agricultural sales from my state of Minnesota.
During these meetings, I also raised my
concerns about human rights.
I spent time with the other face of Cuba,
too. I met some of the few leading dissidents
who are not in prison -- Oswaldo Payá
of the Varela Project, and Elizardo Sánchez
and Vladimiro Roca of Todos Unidos, an umbrella
group for various human-rights organizations.
I also met with the wives of some of Cuba's
political prisoners.
I also learned about several dissidents,
among them:
o Roberto de Miranda, who was sentenced
to 20 years for organizing a teachers' union
and for signing the Varela Project petition.
o Pedro Alvarez Ramos, a labor organizer,
who was sentenced to 25 years in a prison
some 265 miles from his family's home in
Havana.
o Oscar Espinosa Chepe, an independent
economist and journalist, who was sentenced
to 20 years and is suffering from chronic
liver disease.
For women, trying to remain in contact
with their imprisoned husbands is another
source of heartache. After traveling hundreds
of miles for scheduled meetings with their
husbands (in a country where few people
own automobiles), the women arrive at the
prisons only to find out that the appointments
have been canceled for no apparent reason.
Scheduled telephone calls are similarly
called off.
I continue to believe that both tides of
change are inevitable. Thanks to the brave
efforts of people such as Payá and
others, Cuba will change someday. And I
am equally certain that the United States
one day will lift its embargo and travel
restrictions.
I want to go back to Cuba. I want to enjoy
its beautiful beaches and to engage its
welcoming people. I want two million Americans
tourists to spend money in Cuba and lift
up its economy -- but not while Chepe, de
Miranda and many others serve unjust prison
sentences for seeking freedom.
The United States should end its embargo
on Cuba when the Cuban government ends its
embargo on its own people.
Castro, let your imprisoned dissidents
go -- and when you do, I will gladly join
the chorus of people seeking to end the
travel ban and trade embargo.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., is chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee
on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Narcotics
Affairs and a member of the Senate Agriculture
Committee.
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