Key West should not fete Castro regime

Posted on Saturday, 10.19.13

Key West should not fete Castro regime
BY RAFAEL PEÑALVER AND SAN CARLOS INSTITUTE BOARD MEMBERS

Key West officials dropped plans last week to invite Cuban officials to
the Conch Republic and hold events at the historic San Carlos Institute
after a controversy erupted about the political implications of such an
event. Here is the open letter to the Key West community sent by San
Carlos board members:

We, a broad group of members of the Cuban community in Key West and the
Keys, firsthand victims of the totalitarian Cuban regime, feel deeply
hurt by myopic plans by business interests to welcome and fete in Key
West the de-facto ambassador and deputy ambassador of the Castro regime
as part of a covert campaign to promote business with the regime. We
rely on the people of Key West, known for their unwavering defense of
freedom and democracy, to act in accordance with their conscience to
instead empower the Cuban people in the island and reject the fallacies
of a regime that continues to repress human rights advocates and the
most basic civil rights we enjoy in this country.

We, the undersigned, are members of the Board of Directors of the
historic San Carlos Institute, an educational and patriotic center
founded in 1871.

The San Carlos' board is mostly composed of persons of Cuban descent who
were either born in Key West or have been long-time residents of the
Conch Republic. Many of us have families in Cuba and all of us care
deeply about the welfare of the Cuban people. This letter is an appeal
to the conscience of the people of Key West and the Florida Keys who
value principle over profit and who take pride in the city's history as
a defender of human rights and as a beacon of freedom and hope for the
Cuban people.

The Key West community is being bombarded with a propaganda campaign led
by the Cuban regime and a few powerful local business interests that
advocate for an "Open Cuba" policy with the Castro regime. As a part of
this campaign, the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington,
D.C., Jose Rodriguez Cabanas, and the First Secretary of said mission,
Raul Sanchez Cordovi, will be visiting Key West this coming week to meet
with local business leaders and attend receptions and cocktail parties
in their honor. It is shameful that anyone in the Key West business
community would extend a welcome mat or shake the bloody hands of
Castro's representatives.

The objective of the Cuban officials coming to Key West is to attract US
investment in Cuba without making significant political reforms. The
Castro elite wants to hold on to power in Cuba while making what appears
to be economic reforms, which are already failing, to attract US
investors. They want US investors to grease the repressive apparatus
that keeps them in power.

To paraphrase the words of Baptist pastor and dissident Cuban blogger
Mario Felix Lleonart Barrosol, who came from Cuba this week, the same
communist elite who caused all the suffering, who took away Cubans'
freedoms and who led the economy to ruin now want to project themselves
as its capitalist saviors. "They are the same people and the same
communist party," he said.

It hurts us deeply that those calling for an "Open Cuba" don't seem to
care about the suffering of the Cuban people under the Castro regime.
They are calling for an "Open Cuba" where they can do business – not a
Free Cuba where the Cuban people can enjoy the freedoms we can easily
take for granted.

The proponents of an "Open Cuba" point to the virtues of free enterprise
and argue that the policy of isolation has failed to open up Cuban
society. On the surface, their argument sounds persuasive. But beware.
Cuba has always been open to foreign investors from throughout the world
who have profited from Cuba's cheap and captive labor force. The foreign
investment allowed in Cuba has only served to fill the coffers of
Castro's inner circle and help pay for the repressive apparatus that
keeps them in power. There is no such thing as free enterprise in Cuba.
Cubans are not allowed to freely pursue business opportunities with
foreign investors nor share in the proceeds of those investments. All
commercial activity in Cuba is strictly controlled by the regime. The
Cuban regime uses the award of business licenses as a means to exert
political control over its people. To qualify for a business license,
foreigners are usually required to take as partner an operative of the
Castro regime. Dissidents need not apply. The isolation of the Cuban
people and the stagnation of Cuba's economy come primarily from the
embargo that the Cuban regime keeps on its own people.

For 54 years, Fidel and Raul Castro have held on to power in Cuba
through a brutal and repressive military apparatus that denies the Cuban
people the most elemental human and civil rights. Tens of thousands of
Cubans have been executed by firing squads or suffered long political
imprisonment. The once-proud and prosperous Cuban nation is destroyed.
Over 2 Million of its citizens have fled to exile, often leaving their
loved ones and all of their worldly possessions behind. Cuba has become
the personal fiefdom of the Castro brothers. There have not been free
elections Cuba for over half a century and any political dissent is
violently suppressed. There is no freedom of speech, nor freedom of
assembly, nor a free press. There is neither independent judiciary nor
independent radio or television stations. Even access to the Internet is
highly restricted. The totalitarian regime controls every aspect of
Cuban society. The Castro brothers have no ideology other than doing
whatever it takes to remain in power.

Key West holds a special place in Cuba's history. Just 90 miles from
Cuba, the city is a symbol of freedom and hope for the Cuban people. Key
West's San Carlos Institute, founded in 1871, served as cradle of Cuba's
independence movement. In recent years, thousands of Cuban rafters
seeking to escape from Castro's repression have perished at sea trying
to reach Key West's shores. Some of those rafters are buried in the Key
West Cemetery.

The Castro regime, in need of foreign capital to maintain the repressive
apparatus that keeps it in power, is trying to lure
politically-influential US businessmen to partner with members of
Castro's elite to develop and exploit selected segments of Cuba's
economy – most notably tourism.

To project the appearance of reform for visiting tourists, the Cuban
regime restored a section of Old Havana and allowed limited private
enterprises to develop in that zone. Gullible tourists and prospective
investors were given the false impression that things were changing in
Cuba. True to its nature, however, the regime is again crushing the
entrepreneurial spirit of Cubans through its economic "reforms" that do
not allow Cubans to achieve economic independence and has forced many to
close their small businesses. Behind the restored facades of Old Havana,
Cuban dissidents are crushed and totalitarianism prevails.

The Castro regime offers foreign investors a cheap, enslaved labor force
and controlled markets. Sweet deals that would not be possible in an
open and democratic society. The same privileged investment
opportunities that are now being offered to American businesses have
been previously enjoyed by influential investors from throughout the
world, most notably from Spain, Canada and Brazil. History shows that
once foreign investors get their licenses to operate in Cuba, they exert
their influence to make sure that there are no political changes in Cuba
that could threaten their privileged positions.

It is a proven formula that has produced quick profits for foreign
investors, kept the Castro brothers in power for 54 years and the Cuban
people enslaved. The record shows that an "Open Cuba" for profiteers
does not lead to a "Free Cuba" for the Cuban people. All the contrary.

Foreign investors are not free to choose any Cuban as a business
partner. The regime tightly controls business licenses and its most
valuable asset: the cheap and enslaved labor force. Cuban workers are
forbidden from forming labor unions or demanding improved working
conditions. Investors pay the regime in US Dollars but Cuban laborers
and are paid in worthless "pesos" for their work.

Due to its geographic proximity and historical ties to Cuba, Key West
would provide the perfect beachhead for the Castro regime to launch a
charm offensive to lure American capital and perpetuate itself in power
without providing the Cuban people the most sensible basic human and
political rights.

We believe it is shortsighted for Key West business interests to jump in
bed with dying dictators. Change is at hand in Cuba, with more Cubans
taking to the streets and speaking out against the regime's abuse of
power, arbitrary arrests, and violence against its people. A new dawn of
freedom is coming to Cuba. Once the Castro brothers are gone and the
atrocities committed by the regime are fully revealed, foreign investors
will be viewed as opportunists who sought to take advantage of a captive
people.

It would be unfortunate for Key West to be on the side of the oppressors
rather than the oppressed when that change comes.

We are appalled by the insensitivity of some of the proponents of the
"Open Cuba" policy who sought to bring Castro's representatives to the
San Carlos Institute and to lay a wreath in the Cuban Martyrs' plot at
the Key West Cemetery. In no uncertain terms, the San Carlos board
stated that Cuba's representatives would not be welcomed at the San
Carlos or the Cuban Martyrs' Plot. Their visit would be an affront to
the memory of the founders of the San Carlos, the tens of thousands
killed at the hands of Castro's thugs, to those who perished while
escaping Cuba's island prison, and to countless others in our community
who still suffer as a result of atrocities perpetrated against them and
their families.

The Castro regime still imprisons U.S. humanitarian aid worker Alan
Gross for the "crime" of helping connect Cuba's small Jewish community
to the Internet, and continues to viciously oppress the Cuban people.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
reports that in 2012, there were a documented 6,602 political arrests,
which is markedly up from 4,123 arrests in 2011 and 2,074 in 2010.
Furthermore, the 2013 Human Rights Watch World Report states, "Cuba
remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all
forms of political dissent. In 2012, the Raul Castro's regime continued
to enforce political conformity using short-term detentions, beatings,
public acts of repudiation, travel restrictions, and forced exile." The
deaths of pro-democracy activists Orlando Zapata Tamayo (d. February 23,
2010), Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (d. May 8, 2011), Laura Pollan (d.
October 14, 2011), Oswaldo Paya (d. July 22, 2012) and Harold Cepero (d.
July 22, 2012) demonstrate the regime's callous brutality against
activists in the pro-democracy movement.

Over one hundred years ago the noble people of Key West forged a legacy
with the Cuban people. The Key West community should be proud of its
legacy for standing on the side of the Cuban people rather than a tyrant.

Let Key West be again on the right side of history. Let us reject myopic
opportunism and instead let us concentrate on ways of empowering the
Cuban people and positioning Key West for a post-Castro Cuba.

Sincerely,

Rafael A. Peñalver, President, Miami

Javier Garrido, Vice-President, Key West

Monica Faraldo Hill, Secretary / Treasurer, Key West

Diana Arteaga, Miami Beach

Julio Barroso, Key West

Barbara Edgar, Islamorada

Julio Estorino, Miami

Irving Eyster, Islamorada

Norma Faraldo, Key West

George Galvan, Key West

Joe Garrido, Key West

Gilda Niles, Key West

Alex Pascual, Key West

Elena Spottswood, Key West

Rosa Leonor Whitmarsh, Miami

Source: "Key West should not fete Castro regime - From Our Inbox -
MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/19/v-fullstory/3697711/key-west-should-not-fete-castro.html