Intellectuals Criticize Repression in Cuba

In Cuba, President Raúl Castro said his government would not be blackmailed by international pressure nor by the threats of hunger strikes.

This time the protests began in Spain in mid-May. A group of Spanish and Latin American intellectuals gathered to criticize Spain’s socialist government and the European community’s passivity as dissidents in Cuba died, were jailed, and beaten, simply for demanding freedom and democracy.

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and famed movie Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar, were among those who signed the document that denounced the “ferocious and painful” dictatorship that governs Cuba. Their protest came shortly after a Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata died of a hunger strike demanding freedom for jailed Cuban dissidents.

Rosa Montero, another famous Spanish writer said: “Because of our relations with Cuba and because of our shared historical experience as a country that has also suffered the brutality of a dictatorship, we are obliged to put our weight and support (behind these dissidents). ”

Vargas Llosa blamed the Spanish Government and said its policies towards the Cuban Government “were mistaken” and that it has not brought about “any results that move Cuba closer to democracy.” He added that Spain’s “silent diplomacy” makes it just as guilty of the abuses committed by the Cuban regime, “a brutal, ferocious, repressive and the longest (totalitarian dictatorship) in the history of Latin America.”

The intellectual’s comments came a few days before the European Union’s (EU) meeting in Madrid and helped in preventing the European organization from lifting its sanctions against the Cuban government . At present the EU links dialogue with the island’s government to freedom and human rights.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos again criticised the EU’s position.

“If the common position had been effective I would be the first to back it, but to maintain a position which yields no results is a bit sadomasochistic,” he said.

All to no avail. The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn Cuba for Zapata Tamayo’s death and the lack of human rights in the island. This in part came after the Spanish artists and intellectuals including Almodovar signed and circulated a petition criticizing the Cuban government’s actions.

On Tuesday, the human rights group Amnesty International called for the release of all political prisoners in the island.

Cuba lashed out at the European Union’s policy of linking dialogue with the communist government to human rights on the island, saying the EU does not have “any moral authority” over Havana.

“As long the common (EU) position continues, full normalization of relations between Cuba and the EU will not be possible,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told Spain’s Telecinco television channel.

The EU suspended ties with Cuba after a major roundup of 75 dissidents in March 2003, but resumed aid cooperation in 2008. Spain and Cuba renewed ties in 2007.

In Cuba, President Raúl Castro said his government would not be blackmailed by international pressure nor by the threats of hunger strikes. After Zapata Tamayo died, Orlando Fariñas another dissident began his own hunger strike demanding that all dissidents in frail health be released.

At first the Cuban government reacted violently. After years of allow the Ladies in White to march peacefully after Sunday mass at Santa Rita’s church, the government prohibited the marches and bands of hooligans appeared to beat them up and intimidate them.

This went on until Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega Jaramillo and President Castro met. After the meeting the Cuban government again allowed the Ladies in White to resume their peaceful marches.

This is not the first time that Cuba reacts to international repudiation by prominent intellectuals from around the world. In 1971, Vargas Llosa, a well-known leftist intellectual until then, broke his contacts with the Cuban regime because it had jailed one of the island’s most prestigious poets. The government said Heberto Padilla was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent.

The Padilla case became internationally famous, because his incarceration and later his forced public confession led many leftist intellectuals throughout the world to break ties with the Cuban government. Ironically Padilla was arrested only a few days after the Cuban government itself had awarded his book a prize for the best poetry of the year.

Immediately the government went out and confiscated all copies of the book and jailed Padilla. Eventually the intellectuals prevailed and Padilla was released and allowed to travel to the United States to live until his death.

Padilla’s poetry were particularly poignant. On simple one warned poets who live or write history to always be on the lookout because no matter what they do, there is always a dangerous poem lurking within them. .