"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never
will." -- Frederick Douglass
December marks the 60th anniversary of the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Crafted in the
aftermath of World War II, the document (the world's most
translated) represented the first global expression of rights to
which all human beings are inherently entitled.
The Declaration's anniversary comes at a propitious time. January
1, 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of what Cubans call
"La Revolución," which culminated in the overthrow of the regime
of Fulgencio Batista by Marxist guerrillas led by Fidel Castro.
The near concurrence of these historic anniversaries provides an
opportunity to consider how far the Cuban government has to go in
upholding the most basic rights of its citizens.
When discussing the island nation located just 90 miles from
America's border, the Western news media almost invariably focus
on the 200 to 300 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Often
overlooked, however, are the 200 to 300 Cuban prisoners scattered
across the island, imprisoned not as terrorist suspects but as
nonviolent political prisoners whose only "crime" is that of
promoting human rights in a nation in which two generations have
grown up without them. Arrested and given lengthy, often
decades-long sentences for offenses like "dangerousness" and
"pre-criminal activity," they are Cuba's prisoners of conscience.
Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is a leading figure in Cuba's democracy
movement. A physician and founder and president of the Lawton Foundation for Human
Rights, Biscet has been confined to a prison cell for all but
36 days since 1999. He first drew the ire of the communist regime
by exposing its use of infanticide and forced abortion. (Cuba has
one of the world's highest abortion rates.) In 1999, after
hanging a Cuban flag upside down in protest, Biscet was given a
three-year sentence for the crime of "disrespecting patriotic
symbols."
In 2003, following a month of freedom, Biscet was re-arrested
just days before the government's "Black Spring" crackdown on
dissent, during which some 90 pro-democracy Cuban journalists and
activists were imprisoned. (Cuba has imprisoned more journalists
than any other country except China, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists, Biscet is now serving a
25-year sentence for "counter-revolutionary activities" for his
peaceful promotion of democracy in Cuba.
Held captive in a tiny, windowless cell at the Combinado del Este
prison outside Havana, Biscet is denied most family visits as
well as essential medicine and food. He suffers from a variety of
chronic ailments and reportedly is losing his eyesight. But
Biscet, an epitome of fortitude, endures in prison, praying for
freedom and justice while writing letters of encouragement to his
supporters and continuing to defy his captors. All of which makes
Biscet almost as much of a menace to his captors in prison as he
would be on the outside. In 2007, President Bush presented
Biscet, in absentia, with the presidential Medal of Freedom, our
nation's highest civil award.
To better understand how Biscet and the hundreds of others
unjustly imprisoned in Cuba persist, we spoke with Ernesto Diaz,
a former prisoner in Castro's gulag now living in the United
States. Diaz was imprisoned for more than 22 years for standing
up for liberty in Cuba. While enduring torture, and what Diaz
calls "inhuman and degrading experiences," he was "able to
discover the enormous potential of the human spirit to resist and
survive with valor and dignity when fighting for a noble cause."
Diaz believes he had, and will always have, "a moral obligation
not to accept the Cuban dictatorship."
Diaz and other Cuban dissidents don't hold out much hope for UN
intervention. Last February, just days after Raul Castro was
officially sworn in as the new president, Cuba became a signatory
to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. But then
again, Cuba is currently serving its seventh consecutive
three-year term on the UN Human Rights commission. If change is
to come to Cuba, it will have to come mainly from within and with
some help from the United States.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged not to lift the U.S.
trade embargo with Cuba until it releases all its political
prisoners. Obama has also vowed to launch a review of the files
of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay in an effort to close down the
American military prison. We hope Mr. Obama abides by the former
promise with the same fidelity many expect him to abide by the
latter. For it is only when Cuba's prisoners of conscience are
free that Cubans will be able to find anything more than bitter
irony in their government's thus far empty embrace of the
Declaration of Human Rights.
Until then, on the island that Columbus, upon his arrival in
1492, called, "the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever
seen," Cubans will take solace in the enduring example of their
hidden heroes. And in the haunting words of Dr. Biscet: "Here, in
this dark jail where they force me to live, I will be resisting
until the freedom of my people is obtained."
topics:
Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights
