Cuban-American lawmakers are beginning an offensive to persuade foreign
governments to take a hard line on Cuba.
Posted on Fri, Aug. 31, 2007
By PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
After beating back efforts to ease U.S. sanctions on Cuba in Congress,
Cuban-American lawmakers are embarking on a major push to isolate the
Castro government on the international stage.
Miami Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and New Jersey
Democrat Albio Sires are today wrapping up a three-day trip to the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Poland. The trip will be followed by another to
Latin America in the coming weeks, according to members of the delegation.
The trip's organizers say the idea is to raise the international profile
of dissidents on the island, call on countries to settle for nothing
less than free elections in Cuba after Fidel Castro dies and present a
united front of major dissident and exile groups before the world community.
But it will likely be an uphill battle. While the former Soviet-bloc
nations are generally receptive, other European and Latin American
nations are more skeptical, believing that U.S. sanctions have not
worked and more engagement with Havana stands a better chance of
bringing democratic change.
''One of the reasons why the regime has lasted so long is the lack of
international solidarity, especially in Latin America,'' Lincoln
Díaz-Balart told The Miami Herald by phone from Budapest. ``And so the
role of Europe, and especially East and Central Europe, is
extraordinarily important.''
He said the effort in Latin America will be ''intensified'' because
''the timing is propitious and necessary.'' He declined to say which
Latin American countries would be visited.
In a gesture thick with historical symbolism, the group is to travel
today with Polish President Lech Kaczynski to Lublin in southeastern
Poland to commemorate the 1982 deaths of three anti-communist protesters.
Two dissident leaders in Cuba -- Martha Beatriz Roque and Jorge García
Pérez, known as ''Antúnez'' -- are expected to call in during the
ceremonies. Several Miami exile activists, including Sylvia Iriondo of
Mothers and Women Against Repression and Javier de Céspedes of the
Directorio Democrático Cubano, traveled to Poland for the event.
The group will also reaffirm the Agreement for Democracy in Cuba.
Originally drafted in 1998 ahead of Pope John Paul II's trip to Cuba,
the 10-point document calls for, among other things, free elections on
the island and the release of political prisoners. Organizers said more
than 120 organizations, both in Cuba and abroad, have signed it.
Camila Gallardo, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National
Foundation, said her group did not sign the document in 1998 but would
do so now if asked.
The emphasis on the international front marks a shift of priorities for
Cuban-American lawmakers, who focused their efforts in the first part of
the year in fighting back congressional initiatives to ease some
sanctions against the island. Opponents of President Bush's tough line
against Castro had predicted that the new Democratic majority in
Congress would be more receptive to the relaxations.
Instead, amendments that would have allowed more agricultural trade with
the island and cut aid to Cuban pro-democracy groups on the island and
in Miami were defeated in the House.
Cuban-American lawmakers said international pressure on Havana will play
a critical role after the death of Fidel Castro, who has been suffering
from an undisclosed intestinal ailment since last summer. Spain in
particular angered many dissidents and the Bush administration when
foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited Cuba in April and then
campaigned to ease European Union sanctions against the island.
''When the issue of Spain arises, my comment is we are at the same
crossroads as Spain was after 45 years of the dictator [Francisco]
Franco,'' said Sires, who led the delegation. He said the European Union
at the time pressed Madrid to take a democratic path.
Spain's efforts have failed so far, in part because of opposition from
former Soviet-bloc countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary.
This is not the first time Eastern European nations have expressed
support for exile groups, and Cuban officials have attacked Prague as a
stooge of U.S. interests. In October last year, several top officials
from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania took part in a
seminar on Cuba's post-Castro transition held in Miami.
This week, the congressional delegation met with top government
officials and nongovernmental groups in Prague. In Budapest, they met
with the five main parties, all of whom expressed their support for
democracy in Cuba.
The delegation thanked Hungary for taking in 29 Cuban refugees held at
the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba. The decision prompted Cuba to
call Hungary an ''imperial accomplice'' of Washington and ''servile'' to
its ''powerful and aggressive master,'' according to The Associated Press.
''You know what's very refreshing? Here they get it,'' Mario Díaz-Balart
said. ``They're not swayed or impressed by the lies of the dictatorship.''
Lincoln Díaz-Balart says the Eastern Europeans should ''increase their
leadership'' in the European Union and European Parliament because of
their ``knowledge of transitions and their moral authority and experience.''
But the international campaign also faces difficult challenges,
especially in Latin America, where U.S. sanctions on Cuba are unpopular.
When the embargo against Cuba is brought up, Mario Díaz-Balart said, the
group urges their foreign counterparts to think of ways they can help
that does not involve sanctions.
Beyond the Eastern Europeans, only a handful of governments like Costa
Rica and El Salvador have spoken out. Cuban officials are well-received
in many nations and Havana receives dozens of delegations, from Kuwait
to China.
Nations like Spain, Brazil and Canada believe publicly attacking the
Castro government will only anger it more rather than spur it to give
Cubans more freedoms.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/220979.html
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