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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Wake Up, America

Wake Up, America / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 11 August 2016 — Latin American
governments who are closing their borders to the crossing of Cubans
seeking to leave Cuba's state slavery to reach the United States are
complicit in the genocide that is increasing in the Straits of Florida,
the only escape route left to the island's new escaped slaves.

Don't they know that the border closures are forcing Cubans to risk
their lives at sea? Don't they realize, doesn't it pain them, don't they
feel remorse?

First was the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, unconditional
ally of the Castro regime, which was then was followed by other Central
American governments and joined by Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, the
latter of which is now deporting Cubans.

These are countries with millions of its citizens in the United States,
a good part of them illegally, whose governments systematically condemn
our northern neighbor for its policy of closing its borders with Mexico
to try to prevent the arrival of Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Central
Americans, Colombians, Ecuadorians and other nationalities.

They scream about the, but now close they close their borders so that
Cubans cannot pass. This is called the politics of a double standard.

Where is the solidarity with Cuba? Or do they understand that this
should be addressed to the government responsible for this genocide and
not the Cuban people, its victim?

How long are they going to look away before the Cuban government's
repression against its own people, its guilt for the exodus because of
the absence of democracy and freedoms of every kind imposed on the
island in the name of a socialism that doesn't exist and whose mission
is to piteously and arbitrarily exploit the workers, who are paid
poverty level wages by the state that decides everything and is the
principal employer, for the primary benefit of an elite and corrupt elite?

Are they still afraid that the Castro regime will send them guerillas?
Do they know that one of the most famous Latin Americans of all time,
José Martí, called state socialism, later imposed on Cuba by the Castro
regime, "future slavery"?

Every day the international press agencies report on dozens of Cubans
intercepted on the high seas by the US Coast Guard and returned to Cuba,
or that dozens of others reach the coasts of Florida, but almost never
reported are those who leave and never arrive, who are not news because
their corpses never appear and their families in Cuba keep a desperate
silence, imaging that some day they will get a call from the United States.

Do they have any idea of how many thousands of Cubans have lost their
lives facing the waves, the Gulf Stream and the sharks, trying to escape
to the north? Latin Americans trying to do the same run other dangers in
the jungles, with the coyotes, whose existence is the responsibility of
those governments, precisely for making the passage through their
territories forbidden when it should be normal.

These governments should show solidarity with the Cuban people, open
their doors and allow them to continue their journey to the United
States in a safe way. This is their responsibility and I hope they
rectify their position.

There is already a certain resentment, a deep rejection among many
Cubans toward these governments for their attitude toward our fellow
citizens, who have been mistreated for the simple desire to get to the
United States, something very common among Latin Americans tired of the
misery and repression in their countries.

We Cubans have always shown solidarity with the just causes and
misfortunes of our Latin American brothers, we have always opened our
doors to Latin American victims of repression. Do the Cuban people
deserve this treatment from their governments.

It is well-known that many Latin Americans who arrive in the United
States have received broad support and collaboration from Cubans who
live there; Artists, businesspeople, media workers, simple employees. We
also know that Cubans are a wealthy and influential nationality in the
United States.

The demands made by some nations to end the US laws that favor the
emigration and settlement in the United States of Cubans, seem motived
more by the desire to have the same advantages conferred on their
citizens. Then fight for this and not for it to be taken away from the
suffering Cuban people.

Wake up, America.

***

Editor's Note: The author of this article is a former Cuban diplomat and
was in charge of consular affairs of the Embassy of Cuba in Mexico.

Source: Wake Up, America / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/wakeupamerica14ymediopedrocampos/

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