Another Stripe for the Tiger / Angel Santiesteban

Angel Santiesteban, 17 May 2015 — The latest report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, confirmed the permanence of Cuba and Venezuela in the “black list” because of violations of those rights “has not changed”.

This violation situation has remained in Cuba for decades without any particular interest shown in resolving it, because to do so would mean respect for freedom, a matter that goes in the opposite direction to its totalitarian process, therefore they will continue to ignore the “blacklist “and as many penalties of that nature as are issued.

Instead, the regime does not want to stay on the US government list of terrorist countries or countries that support terrorism, and in this particular case, Raul Castro struggles and shows a remarkable interest in Cuba being removed from that category. But such aspiration it is not because of a sudden shame, but because it was indispensable to ensure his permanence and that of his heirs in power, as only by Cuba being removed from the list, and through trading with the United States in order to get the hard currency needed for the ailing national economy and thus ensure that continuity.

Murdered Cuban Dissident 

Both sanctions, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and the US State Department, are as serious as they can be for what they represent, but it is only the first one, because it does not carries penalties, it is bearable by the level of the Cuban government shamelessness; the second one, however, it has led to unbearable practical consequences today.

It should be added that the dictatorship was resentful in its core with the common position of the European Union, which together with the United States Department of State position, brought to its knees the challenging attitude, pride and arrogance of the Castro brothers after that extreme (human rights) violation such as the “Black Spring”, that sent to prison 75 dissidents with the malevolent idea — in the future — of exchanging them for five spies who were serving sentences in The United States, which the whole world rejected generally and categorically.

The strongest blows dealt to the Cuban dictatorship were, among others, the repudiation of the downing of the “Brothers to the Rescue” plane and the execution of innocent young people who attempted to reach Miami in a hijacked tugboat.

My question is: What has changed within the Castros’ dictatorship to no longer be considered a violator of human rights, nor a country that supports terrorism; we all know that if is not an (active) sponsor as it would want to be, it is precisely because of the economic sanctions.

As the proverb says in Cuba, “It would be a horse of another color” if the economy improved. It would re-awaken the hegemonic dreams that have never been forgotten but postponed until better times — in their precise, focused and not so foolish quest to legitimize their “anti-imperialist” front, and overtake the United States — their most powerful enemy ideologically — as the number one economy worldwide, if they have support from Russia, China and Venezuelan oil.

I am confident that President Obama and his team of advisers know it very well, and also that they know how to play the political “chess match” where the freedom of Cuba and its fate are decided and, why not, the fate of the United States by either sustaining or eradicating a “cancer” from its geographical hemisphere.

17 May, 2015

Border Control Prison.

Havana, Cuba

 Translated by Rafael