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It's still Castro's Cuba
The
Globe and Mail,
Canada, December 28, 2004.
The Cuban government is providing plenty
of fodder for Canadian snowbirds to chew
on during the holidays as they flock to
the tropical island's popular beach resorts.
Lurking behind the sun and the sand and
the smiles that greet those fleeing the
icy blasts of winter is a repressive, increasingly
paranoid police state that does not grow
gentler as Fidel Castro, the 78-year-old
autocratic ruler, ages.
Cuba last week completed its biggest military
exercises in nearly 20 years, calling up
tens of thousands of students and older
civilians to join more than 100,000 regular
soldiers in what officials billed as a warning
to Washington that the nation stands ready
to defend itself against invasion. The island-wide
manoeuvres lasted six days and included
state-run enterprises, hotels and tourist
organizations, which were required to practise
their emergency invasion measures.
The Cuban government has been active on
other fronts, too. Most of its recent moves
have been designed to refurbish the country's
tattered international image and distract
Cubans from the inescapable fact that Mr.
Castro has no intention in his later years
of easing his grip on power, of improving
a poor human-rights record or of fixing
a dilapidated economy and crumbling social
welfare system.
Besides raising the old bugaboo of a U.S.
invasion (when Washington has far more serious
foreign-policy concerns on its plate), Cuban
officials have railed against the efforts
of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana
to encourage democratic dissent. The Cuban
government recently ordered the diplomats
to remove a brightly lit number as part
of the mission's Christmas decorations,
which happen to face a high-traffic seaside
avenue filled with tourists. The number,
75, pointedly refers to the number of journalists,
academics, lawyers and other advocates of
political or economic reform who were arrested
in March, 2003, as part of yet another major
crackdown on peaceful dissent. Most received
lengthy prison sentences after one-day trials,
often conducted without access to adequate
defence lawyers.
Cuba has made much of its decision to release
14 of those political prisoners for health
reasons, seven of them this month. But even
in this small gesture of compassion, the
government has reserved the right to reverse
their paroles if they speak to foreign journalists
or make negative comments about the regime
or their treatment. Hundreds of other peaceful
activists remain imprisoned in deplorable
conditions, often because they dared criticize
Cuba's version of socialism or called for
basic rights long denied them.
There is no tolerance for dissent in Mr.
Castro's Cuba, nor any means of proposing
possible alternatives to inept government
policies. The national assembly meets exactly
twice a year. It has not rejected or modified
a government measure since the revolution
that brought Mr. Castro to power in 1959.
Economically, the country has been a basket
case for years, particularly after Russia
cut off a generous aid program in the early
1990s and the sugar industry declined sharply.
But the situation has worsened dramatically
in recent months, partly because of higher
oil costs and the need for greater food
imports after two hurricanes and a major
drought severely damaged crops. Mr. Castro
prohibited the circulation of U.S. currency
last month and asked Cubans to exchange
their U.S. dollars for Cuban pesos.
The European Union reacted harshly to the
political crackdown, but now indicates it
wants to repair relations. EU member states,
led by Spain, have shamefully reduced contact
with reform activists -- not to protect
the individuals but to thaw the frosty relationship
with the Castro regime.
Canadians looking for a winter break should
not necessarily avoid the island, as Americans
are told to do. The U.S. embargo on trade,
tourism and investment has been a failure.
But Canadian visitors should at least be
aware of the country's plight under Mr.
Castro and go with their eyes open.
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