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.
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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.
