EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid/Miami, April 3, 2024 — The U.S. Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, said on Tuesday that he believes Cuba is at “a key moment” and that there are reasons for hope because “people are protesting bravely in the streets.” During an official visit to Spain, Nichols stated, “Cubans are expressing themselves in favor of profound changes in the country despite the fact that the government continues to respond with repression.”
He described what he believes is a “key moment” for the island nation. “[Cuba] needs light, food and jobs, and the solution is democracy,” he stated. “People are demonstrating by protesting in the streets and making brave statements despite the fact that there are more than a thousand political prisoners in Cuban jails.”
“People are demonstrating by protesting in the streets and making brave statements despite the fact that there are more than a thousand political prisoners in Cuban jails”
Similarly, he highlighted the important contributions small businesses and entrepreneurs are making to the Cuban economy, “providing people with what the government cannot give them.”
“We have reasons for hope and we will continue to support these businesses, which provide Cubans with jobs, supplies and food,” the American diplomat said.
Meanwhile, a group of Cuban exiles in Miami called upon the international community to cut off financing to the Cuban regime, one of the main pillars of support that has allowed it to survive for sixty-five years. In a forum entitled “What Can We Do for the People of Cuba?” more than a dozen exiled government opponents agreed on the urgency for the international community, especially the twenty-seven countries of the European Union and Canada, to end subsidies to the Cuban government.
“It is essential that we join together to end the subsidies from these democracies,” said Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC). He stressed the need for all exile groups to form a common front in order to take advantage of recent protests on the island. “An organic, decentralized, autonomous movement is taking shape, an expression of Cuba’s desire for freedom,” he noted.
“We want a capitalist Cuba, one in which Cuban individuals are owners of their own means of production and distribution. One based on fundamental civil liberties,” he said at the Miami forum.
He alluded to the Accord for Democracy, which sets out ten key points for the transition to democracy and which was signed by opponents of the Cuban government both on the island and overseas. Along these lines, Javier Larrondo, head of Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders, also advocated for consensus among Cuban opposition groups, urging them to come up with a “joint alternative program.”
At the international level, he believes is that it is necessary to “dismantle the regime’s narrative,” a strategy that he says requires “making formal complaints, not just statements to the media.” In other words, bringing legal proceedings in a court of law. “The regime is on the brink,” says Larrondo, who laments that all the island’s residents can do about the current situation is complain or die. “And both are happening right now,” he says, which is why he would not be surprised to see an increase in “state terrorism.”
Larrondo believes it is necessary to “dismantle the regime’s narrative,” a strategy that he says requires making formal complaints, not just statements to the media. In other words, bringing legal proceedings in a court of law
“Cuba currently has 1,092 political prisoners. It’s impoverished, which has caused 600,000 people to leave the island in recent years,” says Larrondo. Cuban human rights activist José Luis García Pérez (aka Antúnez) has called for making the release of political prisoners a principal objective in the fight for change on the island. He has also asked the exile community to take “the Cuban option” and engage in the battle from Cuba itself.
“We have to de-Americanize the struggle and not allow the White House, no matter which party holds the presidency, to lead us into partisan entanglements,” Antúnez said. He also warned it would be “delusional” to believe that the U.S. or the U.N. would free Cuba by military force.
“It is a painful truth that Cuba is not a strategic priority for the United States but a truth nonetheless. And not recognizing that is as risky as it is naive,” he said, adding, “We matter very little to almost nothing,”
As for the role of the Americans, Marcell Felipe, head of the Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, indicated that the United States is the only country that can ensure that Cubans have an unfiltered internet. He also defended cutting off funds to the Island and giving financial support to the people instead.
Felipe emphasized the importance of offering Cubans a vision for the future in the form of a plan for reconstruction. In his mind, this would involve restoring the 1940 constitution and allocating funds to revive private industry on the Island.
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