South Africa and Cuba - A Similar Struggle, A Drastically Different Response

South Africa and Cuba: A Similar Struggle, A Drastically Different Response
By Rudy MayorPublished July 03, 2013Fox News Latino

The sudden decline in health of former South African president and
anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has prompted many around the world
to reminisce on his legacy and the historical significance of his
movement. While serving harsh prison sentences, often in solitary
confinement, Mandela took part in hunger strikes and used every
opportunity to draw global attention and solidarity for the
anti-apartheid cause.

While speaking to a crowd of South African University students last
week, President Barack Obama also recalled Mandela's struggle and his
personal frustration with how little the United States was doing to help
those freedom fighters an ocean away.

Against all odds, Mandela's efforts worked. The international community
imposed sweeping economic sanctions on South Africa, isolating the
country and making it increasingly difficult for the government to fund
its oppressive tactics. The United Nations condemned the government's
policies and urged member states to sever all political and economic
ties to the country. The Catholic Church voiced strong opposition to
apartheid, culminating in an impassioned speech at the International
Court of Justice and a symbolic pilgrimage to bordering African states
by Pope John Paul II.

Mandela's efforts to build international solidarity against his
oppressors have been emulated by others similarly oppressed. In our own
hemisphere, Cuban political prisoners engage in hunger strikes, take
beatings, and struggle to survive in the country's dilapidated prisons.
Yet, many of the same countries that once took a stand against Mandela's
oppressors are unwilling to take a similar stand against Castro.

Cuba's oppressors, they think, ought to be "confronted" by cutting deals
with their state-run agencies to build new tourist destinations and
allowing more of their citizens to visit the island. Meanwhile, Cuban
prisoners who look up to Mandela rot in prisons as the international
community does more to fund their government's repression rather than
bankrupt it.

Even some interest groups in the U.S. have made strong but unsuccessful
efforts to unilaterally lift sanctions and thus pretend like there is
nothing wrong in Cuba. They claim sanctions hurt Cubans more than help them.

But this is not true. Economic sanctions won't hurt Cubans more than
unceasing communist repression will, just like sanctions did not hurt
blacks more than apartheid did. Unfortunately, Cuba has always had its
sympathizers and subsidizers. To countries that have always had normal
relations with Cuba, an unprovoked change of course might seem too
sudden or too abrupt of a change in policy.

However unlikely it is that these countries will impose sanctions on
Cuba overnight, the U.S. must be open to the idea of pushing
internationally backed sanctions when the time is right. In today's
world, timing is everything. This is especially so because the national,
and even international, conversation is driven by impulsive social media.

International support for the Cuban people will have to come at some
point and the most effective day will probably be when it appears that
Cuba has reached an important fork in the road between new freedom or
more of the same repression.

Until then, we must live with the fact that Cubans continue to look up
to Mandela and continue to sacrifice everything with little
international support. They continue seeking the help of those who once
helped South Africa to rid itself of its own heavy chains, but these
countries continue to turn a deaf ear.

No one will know exactly why the world was able to unite behind Mandela
but continued to do so little for dissident leaders like Dr. Oscar Elias
Biscet or Berta Soler. However, the U.S. should not let the fact that
few countries have stood resiliently against Castro persuade them to
change course now.

Just as we look back and reminisce at the strength of Mandela and the
support we gave his movement, the U.S. will be able to look back at how
they always supported the Cuban people over its oppressors – and that
too is worth reminiscing about.


Rudy Mayor, a human rights activist, is a co-director of the U.S.-Cuba
Democracy PAC's Young Leaders Group.

Source: "South Africa and Cuba: A Similar Struggle, A Drastically
Different Response | Fox News Latino" -
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2013/07/03/parallels-south-africa-and-cuba-similar-struggle-drastically-different-response/