Cuban American National Foundation: Wrong message at the wrong moment
Today,
Dec. 10, 2008, 60th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the regime
of the Castro brothers reaffirms its commitment to the continued
violation, after almost half a century, of each one of the articles
of the aforementioned Declaration. Nothing has changed since the
beginning of the Castroite revolution. While Raul and Fidel Castro
maintain their absolute control over the people of Cuba, those who
hope that a modification in U.S. policy will obligate the regime to
effectuate internal changes are mistaken. This is a sad truth that
can only be changed by the people of Cuba themselves.
Unfortunately,
today the Cuba Study Group, an organization with which CANF has been
in agreement with in diverse past opportunities, decided to unite
with efforts of those who blame the U.S. first, calling for a
unilateral lifting of all restrictions of flights to Cuba by U.S.
citizens and residents.
It
is a wrong message at the wrong moment. What the U.S. and the new
President Obama Administration need are recommendations that will
bring hope to the Cuban people inside the island so that they may not
risk lives in search of that same hope on the other side of the
Florida Strait; and recommendations that provide the Cuban people the
possibility of freeing them from the regime’s chains and create
independence instead of propositions that consolidate the regime’s
power by way of the sending of U.S. tourists who will accomplish not
much more than spend convertible dollars in government-owned hotels
and tourist destinations.
The
Castro regime and its allies will see these unilateral concessions
clearly for what they are: the unconditional surrender of a weak
presidential Administration. CANF has reiterated on numerous
occasions that it is time for the United States to defy the Cuban
government to “make a move” as was said by ex Spanish President
Jose Maria Aznar — in other words, demonstrate its wishes to better
bilateral relations with the U.S. behaving in a form that is not
contrary with the preoccupations and interests of the United States.
At the same time, the United States would be committing a grave
mistake, as much for itself as for the people of Cuba, if from the
beginning they concede their only “move.”
We
exhort the Cuba Study Group, the Brookings Institute and all who are
genuinely interested in bettering the Cuban reality and promoting the
interests of the U.S. to take notice that in spite of the definite
errors of successive U.S. presidents, the true victims here are the
people of Cuba and the real guilty party is the regime of the Castro
brothers.
