CUBA: Dissidents Reject Bush’s Offer of Financial Aid

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 21 2002 (IPS) - Dissident organisations in Cuba say they do not want the financial aid offered Monday by United States President George W. Bush, who at the same time ruled out an easing of the embargo imposed on this socialist island nation four decades ago.

“We see any aid coming from governments, and especially the U.S. government, which has terrible relations with Cuba, as unacceptable,” said the president of the Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sánchez.

Economic backing like that offered by Bush would only provide fuel for the Cuban government’s argument that Cuba’s illegal internal opposition groups are “on Washington’s payroll,” said Sánchez, after watching, with other dissident leaders, the live broadcast of Bush’s White House speech in the Havana offices of the U.S. CNN cable news network.

A similar position was taken by Vladimiro Roca, leader of the now dismantled “Group of Four” activists, who was released from prison two weeks ago, just two months before the end of a five- year sentence he was serving on “sedition” charges.

Roca said any aid should come from human rights or other non- governmental organisations, and never from the U.S. government. “On that point, we disagree with Bush’s speech,” he said.

The U.S. president launched his “initiative for a new Cuba” in a White House ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of Cuba’s independence from Spanish rule and U.S. occupation.

“This initiative is going to benefit the Cuban people and give them greater control over their economic and political destiny,” said Bush, who added that his government would help build “civil society” in Cuba.

To do that, Washington plans to provide direct assistance to church groups and non-governmental organisations “that serve the Cuban people,” which could be used for humanitarian or business purposes.

The offer includes scholarships for Cuban students and professionals “who are trying to build independent organisations in Cuba,” as well as for the family members of political prisoners.

Bush conditioned the lifting of the commercial and economic embargo on a series of reforms in Cuba, including the holding of elections in which the opposition would be allowed to participate, and which would be monitored by foreign observers.

“If Cuba’s government takes all the necessary steps to ensure that the 2003 elections are certifiably free and fair, and if Cuba also begins to adopt meaningful market-based reforms, then – and only then – I will work with the United States Congress to ease the ban on trade and travel between our two countries,” said Bush.

The members of Cuba’s national assembly come up for election next year. The lawmakers serve five-year terms, and are elected in “free, direct and secret elections by voters,” according to articles 71 and 72 of the constitution, which went into effect after being approved by referendum in 1976, and was amended in 1992.

But according to Bush, Cuba has held no elections that come close to the constitution’s definition since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, which overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

Free and open trade will only be possible when Cuba has a “fully democratic” government which respects the human rights of all citizens, said the U.S. president.

Dissidents interviewed by the press concurred with Bush’s references to the human rights question, and praised his mention of the Varela Project, a petition drive that in accordance with the Cuban constitution collected 11,000 signatures calling for a referendum on political and economic freedoms.

Bush’s reference to the Varela Project is “a welcome form of moral and political support,” said Sánchez, who, however, added that in other aspects, the Bush administration has fallen far short of the efforts of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1977- 81) aimed at warming up ties with Cuba.

On his visit to Cuba last week, Carter said the United States, as “the more powerful nation,” should take the first step towards normalising relations.

It is time to change the ties between our two countries, and the way we think and talk about each other, Carter said in a speech broadcast live by Cuba’s state-controlled television and radio networks on May 14.

Shortly before flying home last Friday, Carter said he would submit a detailed report on his visit to Bush and the Department of State.

Sánchez said Bush’s “Cold War-style rhetoric” would merely bring a “habitually annoyed response” from the Castro administration.

Meanwhile, the Moderate Reflection Panel, which groups five dissident organisations in Cuba, issued a communique criticising Washington’s “increasingly visible” attempt to isolate the Cuban government by stiffening the economic blockade.

According to the coalition, that position “only strengthens the rhetorical capacity and control that (the Castro government) exercises over society, and weakens Cuban opposition groups’ efforts at communication and social legitimation within Cuba.”

From the Reflection Panel’s point of view, the ban on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens “does not favour the circulation of ideas that are indispensable to a democratic opening” by the socialist regime.

The coalition also rejected the “projected financial aid” that the U.S. government offered Cuban civil society, and described it as “inadmissible meddling in Cuba’s internal political processes.”

Bush’s announced aid “introduces a contaminating factor in the complex and difficult work” carried out by illegal political and human rights groups in Cuba with the aim of bringing about a “calm, gradual, agreed on transition through a broad political and social dialogue,” said the Moderate Reflection Panel.