Posted on 09/18/2003 9:09:05 AM PDT by knighthawk
The letter from Vaclav Havel, Arpad Göncz and Lech Walesa published on this page today is a particularly telling attack on the Cuban dictatorship. The signatories are former presidents, respectively, of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, and each played a determining role in freeing his country from the Soviet yoke. They believe that the Stalinist regime in Havana is running short of breath, and call on the United States, Europe and Latin America to step up diplomatic pressure on it. The Europeans, they argue, should establish a "Cuban Democracy Fund" to support the emergence of a civil society.
The occasion for their letter is the imprisonment six months ago of 75 members of the Cuban opposition, most of them involved in the Varela project. This produced a petition, signed by more than 11,000 people and presented to the National Assembly, demanding freedom of association, freedom of expression, the release of political prisoners, free enterprise and free elections. Those detained received sentences averaging 20 years. Subsequently, three men who had hijacked a ferry in an attempt to flee the island were executed by firing squad.
The crackdown was, predictably, condemned in Washington. But it also incensed European countries, which have long argued that constructive engagement is preferable to the 40-year American embargo. The EU reduced high-level government visits and participation in cultural events in Cuba, promised to forge closer contacts with dissidents and put on hold Havana's request to join the Cotonou Agreement, a preferential trade pact with 78 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Neither embargo nor engagement has broken Fidel Castro's hold over Cuba. During a period when Latin America's polity has changed dramatically, that should give both the US and the EU pause for thought. The difference between their views, though narrowed by fiercer oppression in Havana, has still to be bridged. But that should not stop them from combining in condemnation of dictatorship.
There is still a tendency in Europe to regard "Fidel" as the romantic hero of the Sierra Maestra. In fact, while posing as David to America's Goliath, he is a bully who has dismally failed his people. The east European provenance of our three correspondents suggests that a comparison with a Soviet leader such as Leonid Brezhnev would be more apt.
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