Raul Castro Feels the Silk of Obama’s White Gloves

Raul Castro Feels the Silk of Obama's White Gloves / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on December 27, 2013

I'm sure that it must have been embarrassing for U.S. president Barack
Obama to have greeted the Cuban dictator, but I can't but admit that it
was a brave act: the delicate cross of the white gloves in the face of
the adversary. The alternative would have left much to desire and been
childish; in addition, the message then delivered in the words of
President Obama, when he said that some leaders pay tribute to Mandela
and reject the dissidence in their own countries, was the finishing
touch, and a brutal one, to the delicate sequence of his greeting.

The event appears to me like a move in the diplomatic chess game, and
history will remember the gesture positively. I recall a person who had
an anthology about "the white gloved slap," and certainly this will be
added to his collection. And it reaffirms that there is contact between
the two governments to solve some of the particular conflicts, such as
the imprisonment of Alan Gross.

These are times of dialog; watching what is happening in Iran, Syria,
and recently in Ukraine is imposing another logical order on these
times. Hopefully the Cuban leader is included in President Obama's
invitation. It is a unique opportunity for a phone call, and then
actions that determine a democratic will, like the ending of aggressions
against the Ladies in White, the arrests and beatings of members of
UNPACU (Cuban Democratic Union), and the free determination of
programming without assaults for the activities of Estado de Sats. It
should be followed by the release of Sonia Garro and her husband Ramón
Muñoz, and the hundreds of opponents that await in Raul's jails. The
dictator Raul Castro can accomplish everything with single gesture of
picking up his phone.

It is a unique moment that we can be sure he will not take advantage of,
because the stubbornness of his brother, and now him, has not been in
vain: a society has lost its values and the love of belonging to this
country. However, the person who shone at that meeting was the man from
the American side. There is no need to ask for a vote of confidence for
him, his actions precede him.

Although circumstances sometimes inspire us to be extremists, we must
pause, think with cool heads, and not let ourselves be carried away by
emotions. More than a handshake, it was the iron fist in a velvet glove.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Prison Settlement of Lawton, December 2013

23 December 2013

Source: Raul Castro Feels the Silk of Obama's White Gloves / Angel
Santiesteban | Translating Cuba -
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