We can't let the dissidents down

CUBA
We can't let the dissidents down
Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
BY FRANCISCO 'PEPE' HERNANDEZ
www.canf.org

U.S. funding targeted for the promotion of democracy in Cuba is not
reaching Cuba's dissidents. The Cuban American National Foundation's
findings in a recently concluded study, which reviewed the expenditures
of four of the Cuba Democracy Program's largest recipients, demonstrates
that 83 percent of the funds intended for helping democracy activists in
Cuba bring about a transition in their country were spent in Miami or
abroad.

In the coming months, $45 million in new funding for Cuba democracy
programs will be allocated. It is with this in mind that the CANF
undertook a report that we are releasing today. Based on a thorough
one-year examination of the facts and numbers, it studies the program's
effectiveness in providing support to Cuban civil society and offers
recommendations to ensure that Cuba's brave opposition get critical
resources it so desperately needs.

In 1995, Jorge Mas Canosa and I sat in the office of then-Rep. Bob
Menendez, D-New Jersey, discussing the drafting of the Cuban Liberty and
Democratic Solidarity Act, commonly referred to now as the Helms-Burton
bill.

In addition to stepping up economic and international pressure on the
Castro regime, we recognized the importance of including measures to
assist Cuba's internal opposition. We felt that the United States had a
critical role to play in bolstering their efforts.

We hoped that the U.S. government could extend the same level of support
and commitment to the Cuban people that it extended to Solidarity in
Poland during the Cold War. Years later, the resulting Cuba Democracy
program at the U.S. Agency for International Development, has, sadly,
fallen drastically short of that which we envisioned and goes against
the spirit and letter of the law that led to its creation. Documented in
a 2001 independent Price Waterhouse audit and later in the 2006 General
Accountability Office report, the program has been plagued by
significant flaws that have yet to be appropriately addressed.

Throughout the program's history, arbitrary, misguided and often
prejudiced internal policy decisions have crippled its effectiveness.
This has created a culture of dependence on government funds without
spurring competitiveness for ingenuity and new ideas among grantees. The
program continues to ban cash remittances to dissidents and families of
political prisoners despite its creators' intent, even as opposition
leaders throughout the island struggle to meet the most basic needs.

It is at this critical juncture for the Cuban people, when the program
is poised to distribute an additional $45 million, that we must refuse
to remain passive observers and speak clearly and determinedly. The
failure to address these problems, by successive administrations, has
allowed the mismanagement to continue undeterred through lack of
political will or, worse yet, because it appeases local political
interests. The prevailing wisdom in Washington circles is that the right
rhetoric on Cuba will suffice in Miami, and throwing a few million
dollars at a program that benefits groups within that key constituency
and, in turn, helps to support particular political careers will pacify
the Cuban exile community at large.

Nevertheless, our study was not meant to attack well-intentioned
organizations or those who have inherited these issues at the government
agency level, but to ensure that drastic changes are implemented.

Section 109(a) of the Helms-Burton Act clearly states its fundamental
objectives to provide: ''humanitarian assistance to victims of political
repression, and their families'' and ''support for democratic and human
rights groups in Cuba.'' To achieve full compliance is CANF's only
objective and motivation.

We recommend five straightforward measures:

• Permit direct cash aid to dissidents and families of political
prisoners in Cuba.

• Impose a cost-share requirement on those applying for funds under the
program.

• Allow sub-granting to Cuba-based independent civil-society organizations.

• Require grantees to spend a minimum of 75 percent of government funds
in direct aid to Cuban civil society.

• Assign USAID staff to monitor the program at the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana.

In a recent meeting at the State Department with officials involved in
the supervision of the assistance program, we were reassured by their
sense of commitment to the true goals of the program and assured of
their serious consideration of our recommendations. We hope that,
finally, real change may be forthcoming.

Otherwise, to allow new funding allocated for this program to be
utilized in much the same way it has been for the past 13 years would be
unacceptable. To allow this important issue to be turned into an
electoral campaign quarrel by those seeking to skirt responsibility for
their inaction and avoid enacting changes to the program that would
truly help hasten a democratic transition in Cuba is inexcusable.

Anyone familiar with CANF's three-decade-long struggle on behalf of the
Cuban people knows that we will not be deterred or intimidated in our
pursuit of effective changes in the management and distribution of Cuba
democracy funding because the Cuban people deserve better.

Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez is president of the Cuban American National
Foundation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other_views/story/533765.html