I Call On The Canadian Government To Publicly Support Human Rights Defenders In Cuba
My presentation at a meeting with Global Affairs Canada on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 and the liberated Cuban Canadian and Venezuelan community in Canada.
My name is Michael Lima Cuadra. I lead an independent project call Democratic Spaces in support of human rights activists and civil society in Cuba. I take great pride in being part of a larger community of Cuban Canadians and other groups who are working together to become a political force in Canada and educate people about the peaceful struggle for human rights in Cuba.
I would like to thank Sebatstien Sigouin and the team at Global Affairs Canada for agreeing to listen to our concerns as Cuban Canadians, connected through our diversity but sharing a common goal: support for those that in Cuba are raising a voice in defense of human rights, inclusion, social justice, the rule of law and democracy. Through this meeting which we hope becomes the first of many other points of contact with the Canadian government we would like to express our deep concern for the plight of independent civil society in Cuba that is being systematically harassed and criminalized for their ideas. As Cubans in Canada who disagree with the official exclusionary policies of the dictatorship in the island, we seek to become a political force in alliance with other peer groups (namely key sectors in the Venezuelan diaspora in Canada) to get our voice represented in the Canadian government.
It is essential to debunk certain myths about Cuba and look at what is hidden below the surface of its political system. Cuba is a beautiful country and Cubans are a noble people but our compatriots in the island are ruled by a terrible and oppressive regime that in the name of a fraudulent social agenda has trampled on fundamental human rights, criminalized dissent and marginalized those who think differently. As a Cuban Canadian that take Canada’s example as both, a democratic and socially inclusive system, I believe nobody should be forced to live in a country where a power elite forces people to choose between a fabricated social agenda and individual liberties. No social agenda in Cuba or any other country justifies dictatorship, exclusion and suppression of independent voices.
I call on the Canadian government to recognize that Cuba is ruled by a dictatorship: the longest lasting dictatorship in Latin American history[i] and one of the longest lasting oppressive regimes in the world, only followed in duration by China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. In 1959 a dictatorship was overthrown in Cuba to make way for one that has lasted for 62 years. The initial ideals that brought the revolution to power: reestablishment of the 1940 constitution, holding free elections, a return to democracy and the rule of law were within the course of several months (from 1959 to 1961) betrayed by Fidel Castro who in turned persecuted, imprisoned and forced into exile fellow revolutionaries who stood up in defense of those goals. Since 1959, several generations of Cubans have been deprived of their right to elect their leaders and prevented from having a voice in the affairs of their nations.[ii] The political system that has prevailed in Cuba since 1959 falls in line with the elements that define dictatorship as a form of governance where power is exercised unilaterally by a single ruler, single party[iii] (Communist Party) and subsequently following Fidel Castro’s forced retirement due to health issues by a ruling family. A system that for six decades has not tolerated pluralism, opposition political parties or independent civil society of any form.
Dictatorships all share a common goal based on criminalization of ideas, exclusion and repression of dissent. In their most essential form, as Oswaldo Payá, Cuban pro-democracy leader, founder to the Christian Liberation Movement and Sakharov Prize laureate who died in a car accident under mysterious circumstances in 2012 said: “Dictatorships have no political colours.[iv] They are not from the left or the right, they are simply dictatorships.” In Cuba there are no separation of powers. The judicial and the legislative powers are branches at the service of the executive power and the ruling elites. Cubans are therefore left in a state defenselessness as an independent judiciary is non-existent and laws serve no other purpose that to perpetuate the prevailing political system. All possible means to channel dissident voices are closed as there is no independent press and the media is an exclusive monopoly of the state. The educational system indoctrinates ideological conformity and punishes all expressions of individuality. It is discriminatory in nature as it expels from the university all those who think different and dare to publicly criticize the official policies of the government and Communist Party. The human cost of 62 years of dictatorship in Cuba has left a repressive toll of more than a half million Cubans arrested for political reasons and thousands killed as documented by Archivo Cuba, an NGO documenting through primary sources the nature of repression in the island.[v]
The government of Canada has been aware of persecution and the dictatorial nature of the Cuban regime but has not publicly condemned it beyond institutional frameworks. In the “Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Cuba,” during the 39th Session of the Human Rights Council from September 10-21, 2018, the Canadian delegation recommended the Cuban dictatorship to: “[24.171] Immediately eliminate harassment and intimidation of activists, including arbitrary short-term and pretrial detentions as well as house arrest (Canada).”[vi]Recent events have shown that such recommendations made in good faith by Canada have been ignored by the dictatorship in Cuba.
In addition to the 138 political prisoners belonging to opposition groups, the NGO Cuban Prisoners Defenders has documented as of September 2020 that approximately 11,000 Cubans serve time for “pre-criminal social dangerousness. ¨[vii] The term is often used by the Cuban government to jail people who pose a risk to the status quo in the country, without having committed a crime. In 2020, repression in Cuba diversified beyond opposition groups targeting wide group of civil society organizations such as independent artists and journalists with repressive actions such as forcing rights defenders to house arrests. According to the Cuban Human Rights Observatory, in 2020 there were 1,647 home arrests carried out with the objective to prevent activists from exercising their fundamental human rights.[viii] The Observatory also reported 97 arrests of independent journalists charged of violating Decree-Law 370 which limits online freedom of expression and privacy and prohibits Cubans from “publishing through public networks of data transmissions information contrary to the social interests, good customs and integrity of the people.” During the months of March, April and June, 36 people in Cuba were given fines of $3,000 Cuban pesos in connection with law that in essence prohibits any Cuban from using a cell phone to record long food lines, police violence or the arbitrariness perpetrated by police and those in power.[ix] Decree-Law 370 stands contrary to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Trudeau government is erroneously approaching Cuba as a concept indistinguishable from its political regime and not as a diverse and complex society that transcend government. It is in that spirit that as a first step we would like to call on the Canadian government to publicly (not in private talks conducted behind doors between the Canadian Foreign Minister and the Cuban foreign minister) raise a voice and offer moral support to those inside Cuba that are protagonists in the struggle for the defense of human rights, inclusion and tolerance.
Taking this decisive action would be consistent with Canadian core values, defined as ethical and human values shared by Canadians: democracy, inclusion, fairness, diversity etc. It would be a first step following along the lines of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s words when he said during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit on September 24, 2018 that Canada “will always stand tall for democracy, the rule of law and human rights at home and abroad.”[x] Furthermore, by adopting this moral approach with regards to rights defenders and independent civil society in Cuba, the Canadian government would be following along the lines of similar public statements of solidarity made with those leading the peaceful struggle for democracy in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Hong Kong and other nations around the world.
Cuba is undergoing a crucial period of changes but not changes from above, imposed by official decrees and cosmetic reforms, I refer to changes from below. A new generation of human rights activists, independent journalists, intellectuals, rights defenders for the rights of women, LGBTI community and Cubans from a wide range of civil society organizations are conscious of their civic duty to be agents of democratic change. Artists and activists that created the San Isidro Movement in 2018 as a platform to mobilize society against Decree Law 349 (which codifies, formalizes and widens the scope of artistic censorship) are expanding the objectives of their movement and using art as a platform to foster a culture of dissent to encourage young people to stand up in defense of their fundamental human rights through public protests. They are creatively using limited access to Internet to mobilize, communicate with the larger Cuban society and in the words of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara bring Cuba into the 21st Century¨ in terms of changing mentalities about tolerance, social justice, human rights. They are publicly denouncing repression and reclaiming civic and cultural spaces in Cuban society that for decades have been the monopoly of those who support the government.[xi]
The San Isidro Movement has been at the forefront of public demonstrations in Cuba. In December 2020, of the 122 protests that took place in Cuba (as reported by the Cuban Observatory for Conflicts), 72 were generated by the San Isidro Movement. One of their most influential protest was the hunger strike they staged from November 18 to November 26 (in the case of some activists longer) to demand an end to the police repression and forced house arrests of dissident artists. They also called on the government to release Denis Solís a rapper and human rights activist arbitrarily sentenced to 8 months in prison. As a result of repressive actions led by the State Security when they violently broke into the San Isidro headquarters and arrested hunger strikers and protester, a public outcry led on November 27 to the biggest demonstration in recent decades in Cuba where more hundreds of people gathered outside the Ministry of Culture in Habana. Subsequent to the protest and meeting with the Deputy Vice Minister of Culture, the leaders and participants in the protests have been the targets of police harassment and virulent public campaigns of character assassination on national television, as it has been the case with any Cuban that raises a voice in support of human rights, in the past decades.[xii]
Unfortunately, Canada did not publicly issue statements of support of those leading the peaceful struggle for human rights in Cuba. This is the time for Canada to use its powerful voice as a global reference in inclusive and democratic governance, rise up to this historic moment and support independent civil society in Cuba. Without pressure from Canada and the international community the rights movement in Cuba is doomed to fail. History has proven that dictatorship only refrain from violating the human rights of civil society when they are held accountable and pressured by the international community.
Listen to the voices of freedom loving Cuban Canadians who want a democratic and plural Cuba. Let us work together to find ways to better help independent civil society and rights defenders in Cuba who are subjected to a state of defenseless amid a human rights’ predatory dictatorship. Canada as a moral reference for democracy around the world can make a difference if it sees Cuba not as an entity linked to a government, but as a diverse society.
Thank you, I look forward to your responses about my concerns and the concerns of the larger Cuban Canadian community who stands up in support of a democratic and inclusive Cuba.
Michael Lima
Researcher, historian and human rights activist.
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[i] John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2001), 280-292. In the history of authoritarianism in Latin America (with respect to populist and military dictatorships) there has not been a dictatorial regime in the hemisphere that has lasted 62 years.
[ii] Luis Boza Domínguez, La Situación Universitaria en Cuba (Santiago, Editorial del Pacifico, 1962), 9-106.
[iii] Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny: From Plato to Arendt (Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 455-472; Natasha Ezrow and Erica Frantz, Dictators and Dictatorships: Understanding Authoritarian Regimes and Their Leaders(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011). 17
[iv] “Discurso de Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas al Recibir el Premio Sajarov,” December 17, 2012, http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/sobre-oswaldo/premios-y-reconocimientos/premio-andrei-sajarov-a-los-derechos-humanos-2002-parlamento-europeo/discurso-de-oswaldo-paya-sardinas-al-recibir-el-premio-sajarov/
[v] “How Many Political Prisoners are There in Cuba?”
https://cubaarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/How-many-Cuban-political-prisoners.pdf
[vi] “Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review,” October 7, 2018, https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/39/16
[vii] “Report by Cuban Prisoners Defenders, October 1, 2020,” https://www.prisonersdefenders.org/2020/10/01/black-september-in-cuba-6-new-political-prisoners/
[viii] ¨Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos: 2020 Informe Anual de Derechos Humanos en Cuba “https://observacuba.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/InformeAnual2020__OCDH_compressed.pdf”
[ix] Ibid. ¨Human Rights Watch, Cuba Events of 2020,¨ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/cuba
[x] ¨Trudeau Speaks at the UN Nelson Mandela Peace Summit,¨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnRFQ_gocY8
[xi] “Alegato de Coco Fusco: En Cuba los Artistas Encabezan la Protesta,” https://www.clarin.com/revista-enie/ideas/cuba-artistas-encabezan-protesta_0_K4KBRq01d.html?fbclid=IwAR2uKxv3GeP6FgF-PIGhmENp0s0ZErlUa0cA8zyUqeQDnTFdn-gsodggGsQ
[xii] “On Social Media There are Thousands: In Cuba, Internet Fuels Rare Protests,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/world/americas/cuba-protest-san-isidro.html