Human Rights in Cuba vs. Non-interventionism
By Vicente Morin Aguado
Havana Times
October 26, 2016

Arrest on Human Rights Day of Agustin López, a rights activist and independent reporter

This time history won’t absolve them

HAVANA TIMES — The recent arrests of a group of young reporters from the Periodismo de Barrio project – who were traveling to Baracoa, which had been affected by Hurricane Matthew – combined with the confiscation of their work equipment, leans towards the reasons of those who are pessimistic when it comes to considering the White House’s possible influence on national events in Cuba.

Meanwhile, turning a deaf ear to his critics, President Barack Obama has signed a Presidential Decision Directive which, according to what the majority of analysts on Cuba believe, “is giving the regime a green light: increased repression will not derail his policy.” (Gualdo Hidalgo, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions)

There are many repressive measures, including beatings, arrests without any legal cause, discreet warnings, blocking digital magazines which are considered more “aggressive” to the system and even the explicit ban on travelling to other countries when Cubans are invited to participate at congresses where subjects include those considered “subversive” to the regime, such as Human Rights, are discussed.

The argument that has been repeated to death by the Cuban government’s highest-ranking officials is that the US and its accomplices are meddling in the country’s internal affairs, including the repeated concept of a strange, but never duly explained interpretation about Universal Human Rights.

In our country’s case, the rights which are subject to the most amount of controversy are freedom of expression and association, because they determine the recognized legal activity of opponents to the Stalinist authoritarian regime that has been established in our country founded on the political ties to the now-disappeared Soviet superpower, the result of a tenacious resistance to the other persistent superpower’s ideology, the US.

The thawing of relations between Cuba and its powerful neighbor in the North has been made clear, Obama has reached out and, although US agression remains in economic terms, which are dictated by the peculiarities in the US Constitution, there hasn’t been a truce regarding any protests that go against the ruling party in Revolution Square.

The proposal of this ulterior motive policy reveals the complexity of the situation: the so-called “blockade-embargo” was unilaterally imposed by Washington, therefore, there’s no need to lift it in exchange for “concessions” from Havana. The domestic reality is considered by Havana a whole other story and should now be considered by those who govern our country.

It’s not about giving in to external pressures; it’s about taking into account the Cuban people’s desires, complaints and lives. Up until today, the only two leaders with any real power to take action, Fidel and Raul, 90 and 86 years old respectively, haven’t openly expressed any kind of recognition of the obvious failure of their system which has produced their government administration; even though they’ve let some phrases slip that refer to this.

Arguing the sovereignty of our nation as a shield against the fair demand for the government to respect freedom of speech and association, is like accepting a violent father in the family, who is abusive, who abuses his wife and children, based on the non-intervention of their neighbors in their home life when they call him out on his actions.

Laws are universal as well as human rights and they’re inviolable too, they can’t even be denied to a convicted murderer who has confessed to his crimes. How can they then accept the repeated statements from the Ambassador with a wide smile, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, when he says that “We have great discrepancies with the US and its interpretation and application of Human Rights”?

If it’s worth reporting policemen who brutally treat people of a darker skin color in some states in the powerful US Empire, this doesn’t justify the violence of equivalent authorities in our archipelago against women carrying a flower as their only real weapon.

Every minute that passes is another one against these great repressors’ unacceptable arguments, especially of their superiors. There is no justification for it whatsoever and this time History will be responsible for never absolving them.