Cuba
Remarks by USAID Assistant Administrator, Adolfo A. Franco
Seminar on Cuba in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 7, 2005
Distinguished Guests, Ambassador Gutierrez, Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have had a full day of meetings today, with many excellent
presentations by Argentine and U.S. scholars who are experts
on matters pertaining to Cuba.
I want to thank the Universidad de Belgrano, the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation, and the University of Miami Cuba Transition Project
for organizing this seminar. The seminar has laid out a number
of issues that Cuba faces today and others it will soon face
after Fidel Castro has left the scene.
In the near future, I hope we will be able to meet in a free
and democratic Cuba to discuss these issues with the Cuban
people.
I speak to you today as a Cuban American, born in Cardenas,
Matanzas, forced to leave Cuba with my family at the beginning
of Fidel Castro’s dictatorial rule, educated in the
U.S. Midwest, in the states of Iowa and Nebraska, and privileged
to serve the United States Congress for several years as staff
to the House International Relations Committee.
My current position, as Assistant Administrator for Latin
America and the Caribbean of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) provides me with the opportunity
and high honor of helping to implement the foreign policy
of President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice. And I can assure you that both the President and Dr.
Rice are absolutely determined to help bring about a rapid,
peaceful, transition to democracy in Cuba.
The Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, Andrew Natsios, a distinguished scholar in his
own right, is actively engaged with Cuba issues. The USAID
Cuba Program enjoys his full support.
A year ago, the USAID Administrator addressed a seminar in
Washington that dealt with issues of delivering humanitarian
aid during a post-Castro Cuban transition. The proceedings
of that seminar are available from the University of Miami
Cuba Transition Project and I highly recommend you read them.
The USAID Administrator identified specific problems that
are likely to affect the provision of massive humanitarian
aid during a post-Castro transition. We believe the international
community should begin planning now for a coordinated program
of not only humanitarian assistance but the full range of
developmental assistance once the Castro brothers have left
power.
Last year, a Commission established by President Bush under
the chairmanship of Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez, issued a 400
page report detailing the specific plans the U.S. government
is developing in order to hasten an end to the dictatorship
and to be able to respond rapidly and comprehensively to requests
from a post-Castro transition government in Cuba. I want to
make clear that the latter portion of the report explains
what we would be prepared to do if requested by a democratic
transition government. I urge you to read at least a summary
of that report which is available in Spanish as well as in
English on the website of the U.S. Department of State (www.state.gov
“search CAFC, Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.)
Under the USAID Program, the United States Government funds
seminars such as this one and also actively supports U.S.
universities and other non-governmental organizations that
are effectively working to help build independent civil society
inside Cuba, through the provision of information and non-financial
material assistance.
We strongly believe in the role that an authentically independent
Cuban civil society has begun to play in exposing the atrocities
of the Castro regime and in educating the Cuban people concerning
their fundamental human rights – those enshrined in
the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
Outside observers often underestimate the importance of Cuba’s
internal opposition. Foreign journals and newspapers sometimes
characterize the movement as “tiny, divided, and isolated.”
I believe the events of the last few years clearly prove that
assessment is wrong.
Three years ago, the organizers of Project Varela gathered
more than 30,000 signatures from Cuban citizens all over the
island, demanding a referendum on fundamental political and
economic reform. Those Cuban citizens not only signed the
petition, they also provided their personal identification
numbers, so there was nothing anonymous about that petition.
Of course, the Cuban government has punished many of those
who dared to sign the petition, depriving them of employment
and social services. Cuban government repression is an old
story, but increasingly the international community has begun
to hold the Cuban government accountable for its actions.
Two years ago, when Castro brutally cracked down on the opposition,
throwing into prison 75 of its peaceful librarians, journalists,
and human rights activists, the entire world stood up and
took notice. The United Nations Commission for Human Rights
condemned the Cuban government actions, as did Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch, Pax Christi of the Netherlands, and many
other non-governmental organizations around the world.
Last month, the wives of Cuban political prisoners took the
unprecedented initiative of carrying out peaceful, public
demonstrations in the streets of Havana. Dressed in white,
they walked in silent procession along Quinta Avenida in Miramar
and through the city and presented a petition to the Office
of Fidel Castro on “Revolutionary Square” demanding
amnesty for all Cuban political prisoners. They are repeating
these processions every week.
Next month, on May 20, Cuban activists have called for representatives
of all the Cuban opposition groups to participate in a public
conference to discuss fundamental political and economic reforms
and the protection of human rights and democratic principles.
The great Cuban patriot, Jose Marti, once wrote: “Un
principio justo, desde el fondo de una cueva, puede mas que
un ejercito.”
Today we are seeing the Cuban people beginning to emerge,
without fear, from the dark cave of totalitarian repression.
They have heeded the words of Pope John Paul II, who seven
years ago, addressed the Cuban people during his visit to
the island, and who repeated over and over again: “No
Temais!” “Do not be afraid!”
The celebrated North American social scientist, Margaret
Mead, once said: “We should not be surprised when a
small but brave and determined group of people bring about
great historical changes. Because, in reality, that is the
way in which great historical changes have usually come about.”
Today in Cuba, a small but brave and determined group of
human rights activists, independent journalists, and independent
librarians have begun to initiate a great historical change.
Their efforts may not immediately achieve their objective,
but they will ultimately win out. Through their peaceful,
non-violent protest, the Cuban people will awake, and will
themselves bring about an end to dictatorship, injustice,
and the abuse of human rights.
It is our rare privilege in the international community not
only to witness this rebirth of freedom, but to participate
in it – to build solidarity with Cuba’s human
rights activists, to give voice to Cuba’s independent
journalists, to help develop independent Cuban non-governmental
organizations, and to reach out directly to the Cuban people
with a message of hope, material support, and with accurate
information on democratic governance and the protection of
human rights.
I call on the people of Argentina and other countries of
Latin America who have experienced their own rebirth of freedom,
to reach out to the Cuban people with that message of hope,
material support, and information, to help sustain the Cuban
people in their historic quest.
Please find ways to provide the people of Cuba with uncensored
books, newspapers, videos, dvds, laptop computers and other
informational materials. Small portable short wave radios
with rechargeable batteries can help them listen to international
broadcasts from around the world – the BBC, Radio Netherlands,
Radio Deutsche-Welle, Voice of America, and Radio Marti.
If every Latin American embassy in Havana provided a well-stocked
library and internet services to the Cuban people, that would
exponentially expand their access to accurate news, insightful
opinion, and useful information.
The Catholic Church in Cuba is one of the few truly independent
organizations with national scope. The Church does not always
agree with all aspects of U.S. policy toward Cuba. For example,
it favors a lifting of the U.S. travel ban and an end to the
embargo on U.S. investment in Cuba, among other things. I
respect the position of the Church, because I know that the
Catholic Church is a staunch defender of human rights everywhere
in the world, including in Cuba.
Many of the Protestant evangelical communities in Cuba are
independent of the Cuban people. These communities are spreading
like wildfire throughout Cuba, as people turn to religious
faith to replace the empty Marxist atheism that Fidel Castro
has so long espoused.
I call on people of good will everywhere to support the independent
social work of the Catholic Church, the independent Protestant
evangelical movement, and the Jewish community in Cuba. I
believe that faith-based organizations, independent of the
Cuban government and independent of the U.S. government for
that matter, hold the key to unlock the hearts of all Cubans
in a post-Castro transition to democracy – a transition
that will restore justice with mercy and that will result
in national and international reconciliation.
Fidel Castro’s dictatorship has kept the Cuban people
isolated and afraid for more than 45 years. But as the international
community and people of good will everywhere begin to break
down that isolation, by providing faith, and hope, and unfiltered
information, the Cuban people will begun to realize that the
world cares about them, is watching them and listening to
them and will bear any cost to support their valiant struggle
for freedom.
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