Is There Some Out There?

Carlos Alberto Montaner
Unión Liberal Cubana
Vice President, Liberal Internacional
54 Congreso
Marrakech, November 9, 2006

Translator: Frank Rodríguez

The Liberal International, an organization with which I have been involved since 1990, has asked me to reflect on the topic of how to achieve the goal of getting the voices of those silenced by dictatorial regimes to be heard in the world stage. I believe this to be an extremely important topic.

Allow me a brief personal note in order to establish my credentials in these matters. I left Cuba in 1961 under the protection of a Latin American embassy where I had sought political asylum after escaping prison. I was 18 at the time, and together with a group of students we were trying to prevent the establishment of a Communist dictatorship that was evidently taking hold of the country. Hundreds of my comrades and friends were left behind in jail. Many of them served many years in prison and later marched into exile. Others were assassinated.

From the time I found myself outside of Cuba, in September of 1961, I pledged myself to dedicate a good part of my life to denouncing the atrocities taking place in my country in order for liberty and democracy to return to my fellow Cubans. Committed to that goal, I have written thousands of articles in the press in many countries, I have published several books regarding the Cuban situation, I have participated in hundreds of radio and television programs, and I have even written a couple of film scripts in which the true face of the Cuban dictatorship is exposed. Simultaneously, I have taken part in dozens of seminars, such as this one, and in around thirty parliaments and legislative chambers in various countries seeking solidarity and assistance. Therefore, I have learned something in these forty-five years of constant struggle, and not all that I have learned is of a hopeful or exciting nature.

Three sorry lessons

• I have learned, for example, that the enemies of freedom, especially the Communists during the time of the USSR, defended their points of view and attacked their adversaries with a much greater efficacy and dedication than us. They designed, and through the years were able to perfect, a complete strategy of international solidarity for their cause, as well as dedicating themselves to propagating their opinions and doctrines. They created “Friendship with the Peoples Institutes,” “Peace Organizations”, publishing houses and academic institutions, useful as liaisons and sounding boards for the various Communist groups around the world. They recruited friends and agents of influence in the media, at times paying for them and at times out of genuine sympathy for the cause—and at times for a combination of the two—that set out to simultaneously promote (or suppress) news stories helpful (or damaging) to the group and to its ideology. The Communists, therefore, had at their disposal a huge propaganda machinery that could uplift (or criticize) writers and artists, or applaud (or destroy) politicians and public figures.
• We democrats, on the other hand, lacked anything comparable in defending freedom. There was no center whose international purpose was to make known the ideas of liberty, and much less to promote the market economy. No capital in the free world was in the business of defending the victims of totalitarianism from the left or from dictatorships on the right. There is not the least bit of international coordination in any of these efforts. Some German foundations, such as Naumann, for example, support certain initiatives, but they have very limited funding and confront many legal limitations to their freedom of action. It is true that in the Cold War Era Washington would assigned resources to radio stations such as Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty, and even today to Radio and TV Martí, but always amid a huge national and international controversy stoked by people that reject collaboration with the victims of totalitarianism, among other reasons, because the United States has not established a true and open relationship with democrats in other latitudes, relying instead on the use of their intelligence services, which inevitably taints the efforts as negative or shameful. Fortunately, in the last few years, the activities of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), both financed to a great extent by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), have alleviated some of these limitations.
• In Latin America the situation was even worse. The continent has lived convinced of the virtues of the doctrine of “nonintervention in the internal affairs of other nations,” and nobody seemed to care about the very long and bloody dictatorships of Juan Vicente Gómez (Venezuela), Rafael L. Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Anastasio Somoza (Nicaragua), Alfredo Stroessner (Paraguay) or Augusto Pinochet (Chile), to mention only five of the twenty tyrants that this region—this conflicted fragment of Western Civilization borned out of Europe— has endured in the 20^th century. As recently as last week, in Montevideo, Uruguay, the rulers of Iberian America, Portugal and Spain, included in their mist the Cuban Carlos Lage, a representative of the longest dictatorship in the history of the West—forty-eight consecutive years under the same tyrannical government—and yet nobody seemed to mind, nor did anyone show the least bit concern about the hundreds of political prisoners still lingering in jail. They did not even dare to mention the fact, brought up by democrat Cubans both inside and outside of the Island, that ten years ago in a similar summit that took place in Viña del Mar, Chile, and with Fidel Castro’s signature, the organization had committed itself to accept political pluralism and democratic ways.

The consequences

The conclusion that we reach upon viewing this melancholy, fearful and indolent state of affairs is inescapable: for democrats who fall victim to various forms of tyranny it is very difficult to make our voices heard, and even more difficult to have our denunciations turn into courses of action. However, there are several activities that can bear fruit.

• It is important to forge political links among like groups. My experience at the International Liberal has been very positive and I know that Cuban Christian Democrats have also received a great deal of solidarity from their colleagues in various countries, as well as from the International to which they belong. Liberals have supported us each time we have asked them. They awarded the Freedom Prize in 1992 to an outstanding Cuban writer that was in jail at the time, María Elena Cruz Varela, and in several instances they have invited us to make use of their turn at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, for which we are profoundly grateful. It has also recognized other liberals within Cuba, thus providing them with important political and moral support. Additionally, and due to these links, the liberal group inside the European Parliament, together with Christian Democrats and Conservatives, supported and obtained the Sajarov Prize for Oswaldo Payá—a valiant Cuban Christian Democrat dissident—and for the Damas de Blanco, (Ladies in White), the heroic group of wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of Cuban political prisoners that habitually protest in the streets of Havana in view of the situation their family members must endure. These awards mean a lot to the victims and in some measure are useful in protecting them.
• It is vital to provide trustworthy news about human rights violations to prestigious world-class organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. A single denunciation made directly by a victim will hardly make it to the stage of world public opinion. When made by one of these organizations the results have a much greater impact.
• The current growing trend to internationalize justice affords some possibility to fight for the victims of dictatorships. It is useful to explore this modality with local lawyers that may be in a position to support those democrats whose rights have been suppressed.

Lastly, it is proper to state that the purpose of this international struggle to conquer public opinion has two basic objectives: to have governments put pressure on dictatorships to induce changes towards democracy, and to alleviate the pressure placed upon the victims. The only consolation left for a person unjustly languishing behind bars in a jail cell is to know that his or her sacrifice has not been in vain. To know that outside someone is listening. That there is the hand of a friend extending just beyond the horizon.

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