U.S. Cold War against Cuba Still Alive and Well

Cuba certainly has many problems, but it respects human rights. Western criticism of this socialist island nation is often far too simplistic.

We know that there are hundreds of people in prison in Cuba, despite international criticism and the objections of human rights organizations. There is proof that some of them have been tortured, and almost all were incarcerated under ominous circumstances. Many have since been set free, but nearly 300 remain behind bars – in Guantanamo, in U.S. government cages, where they are guarded and tortured by U.S. military and intelligence personnel. This continues despite the objections of the Cuban government, the owner of that coastal area, stolen by the United States, colonial style, in 1902; America claims it was “leased.”

This action is one example of how the United States is trying to force the “Red Island” into “regime change.” In addition to the stick, Cuba’s superpower neighbor uses the carrot approach: Cubans who enter U.S. territory are automatically granted not only immigration rights, but also green cards and financial support. If America’s other neighbors had these same privileges, Mexico would be deserted within two days. Instead, Mexico gets a border with high-tech protections that cause the deaths of hundreds of people every year.

The duration and the intensity of the U.S. blockade are historically unique and their negative consequences immense, but those aspects are mentioned in the Western media only as an aside. Instead, the media depicts Cuba as being on the brink of attacking the United States. That is why Western reporters immediately flocked like vultures to dead meat when Fidel Castro reportedly said during a lengthy interview with an American journalist that the Cuban model was no longer working for them. Castro later said he had been misunderstood, but the Western media immediately began celebrating the “Supreme Leader’s” supposed declaration of bankruptcy.

Another example of America’s questionable attitude toward Cuba is the judicial policy farce concerning five Cubans who went to the United States in the wake of terrorist attacks on Cuban soil that had reached a high point in the mid-1990s. They were sent to Florida to observe right-wing exile groups operating there, with the aim of preventing future attacks. Cuba turned over dozens of intelligence files to the FBI, but instead of penalizing the terrorist groups, the five Cubans were arrested and locked up, some in solitary confinement, and denied visitation privileges.

Cuba’s system can be properly understood only in the context of the cold war being waged against it. Its often-criticized lack of democracy deserves a detailed examination. From the perspective of West German school texts, the Cuban one-party system and its electoral processes definitely show deficiencies. From a real world perspective, however, things are not so clearly black and white. Cuba is relatively free of capitalist logic, free of hyper-consumerism and free of the exploitation of both human and natural resources. It is also free of expansionism, including the waging of wars.

Nevertheless, it does have numerous problems, but they are being exhaustively debated and solutions are being sought. This process goes on in countless neighborhood and factory assemblies, as U.S. Council of Foreign Relations member Julia Sweig recently described, saying, “The Cuban regime is undertaking a massive pulse-taking, or temperature-taking, of the population.”

Cuban Self-determination

Cuba’s democracy has a unique system of checks and balances. Their respective assemblies nominate candidates and party members may not run at these lower levels. Everyone aged 16 or older is eligible to vote. The leading personalities are grass roots candidates, aware of the challenges Cuba faces as well as the need for reform, but also mindful of external threats. The Cuban people – not the CIA, the Adenauer Foundation or Western neo-liberals – should therefore determine Cuba’s course.

Finally, Cuba’s human rights record comes off well when compared to those of its regional neighbors. Reports issued by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the CIA show that Cuba has no capital punishment. It does not torture prisoners nor does it kidnap people and execute them illegally as many of its neighbors do. Journalists and labor union members are not murdered; Cuba does not massacre government protesters nor does it assassinate political opponents. It also does not persecute homosexuals.

The Left’s Guilty Conscience

Cuba’s independent socialist path is not seen as a model just by the people in the region, but also by foreign experts. The Global Footprint Network has classified Cuba as the only country there with a real future because it has achieved a great deal socially and ecologically – even more than many capitalist nations. The United Nations recognizes Cuba’s social, ecological, cultural and political achievements. Yet the West ignores that and still calls for Cuba to change its form of government. That is where the subject of human rights becomes a convenient attack tool. Who can possibly be against human rights? That is how the neo-liberals discard their guilty consciences.

It’s no surprise that another campaign is being waged against Cuba: leftists are gaining strength in Latin America; there’s a genuine chance for improvement in U.S. – Cuban relations with the Obama administration; and within the European Union, the “united position” on Cuba that has heretofore prevented improvement of Cuban-European relations is about to change. To circumvent this, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are sending representatives from the United States to Cuba to distribute high-tech devices to opponents of the Castro regime. Criminals jailed for normal offenses will be built into opposition heroes for television and cell phone pictures. The “ladies in white” will cease to be wives of common criminals and instead be stylized as freedom fighters. A blogger critical of the regime, supported by the West, will be celebrated as a shining beacon.

The point is not to glorify Cuba. The point is to give the country a fair chance to develop and end the subversive activities directed against it. However, Western hardliners are dead set against that, and all the while, they shed their crocodile tears.