Guest Column
The USA & Cuba: Promises and Neglect
- The USA & Cuba: Promises and Neglect
- By Alfredo M. Cepero.
- Ten American presidents of both political parties have promised to join us in the fight for freedom in our country but failed to provide support for the final blow. We claim the same rights to rebel against tyranny as those claimed by the men of Boston, Concord or Trenton. For the oppressed and beleaguered people of Cuba the time has come to be free. The time has come for a final account in the ledger of our 48 years of nightmares. The time has come for our American friends to show they have the character to deliver on everyone of those long overdue promises.
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- For information regarding the Democratic Nationalist Party of Cuba visit www.pndcuba.org.
- Contact the author at: alfredocepero@bellsouth.net
Throughout its over 231 year history, since its birth in 1776 until today, the United States of America has been a champion in the struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights both at home and abroad. From the Boston Tea Party to the present war in Iraq, the U.S. has not hesitated to use force and even armed confrontation in the defense of those values. All along the way, the U.S. and Cuba have shared the same values and work together toward the same goals. The Cuban-Spanish-American war in 1898 initiated a long lasting bond of cooperation between the two countries that was only broken by the communist revolution that came to power in 1959. A revolution that, with the financing and active support of the Soviet Union, undermined American influence in the Western Hemisphere and to this day planted its seeds of hatred among the underprivileged in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia and elsewhere. If left to its own design, and with the petrodollars provided by Chavez, much more might be coming along the way.
Unfortunately for Cuba, and most probably for the U.S., with the demise of the Communist Block, Washington transferred its priorities from supporting ideals for freedom in our hemisphere to promoting its interests elsewhere in the world. Long gone are the days of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs and the October 1962 Missile Crisis. The Cuban freedom fighters of yesteryear—once trained, supplied and supported by Washington—are now treated as enemies and indicted as terrorists. The refugees of the dictatorship-- once welcomed with open arms as part of a campaign to show the cruelty and failures of communism—are now sent back to the island and placed at the mercy of the jailers and executioners of the regime. Neither the fighters nor the refugees are any longer useful tools in Washington’s foreign policy. The stated main concern at this time is the prevention of a wage of refugees that might be triggered by a civil war in the island. A status quo leading to a political paralysis and a wasted opportunity to do away with a regimen that, like its leader, is dead for all practical purposes and without any probability of coming back to life.
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