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Potomac Crossings
--By George Mason
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Elian's Life in Cuba
"This dispute is not just a custody matter but a case where
one of the options being considered is returning this child to one of the last prison nations in the world." - Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings,
March 1, 2000
Let us say a man named John is in prison. He has a son named Eddy. The boy's mother has just died. We would
not dispute the fact that John was Eddy's father. We would also not think for a moment that Eddy should go live
in jail just to be with his father. John is not, by definition, in a position to speak freely. Eddy, regardless
of age, has his own rights that are separate from John. We would make other arrangements to take care of Eddy until
John was released. That is to say, we would know the difference between legalisms and justice.
Seeing this analogy, our lefty friends, shout "Elian's father, Juan Miquel Gonzalez, is not a prisoner and
Cuba is not a prison!" So, in response to them, let's look at the new Clinton State Department's Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 1999.
(See: www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/cuba.html)
The State Department Report on Cuba
Cuba is a totalitarian state controlled by President Fidel Castro, who is Chief of State, Head of Government, First
Secretary of the Communist Party and commander in chief of the armed forces. The Ministry of Interior, led by Castro's
brother Raul, is the principal organ of state security. It investigates and actively suppresses opposition and
dissent. It maintains a pervasive system of vigilance through undercover agents, informers, rapid response brigades
and the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR's). The CDR's are used to mobilize citizens against dissenters,
impose ideological conformity and root out "counterrevolutionary" behavior in the citizen's daily activities
at home, work or school.
Cuba's human rights record further deteriorated over the past year, the report states. The Castro regime continues
to suppress opposition and dissent, and denies citizens the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and association.
Cuban authorities routinely harassed, threatened, arbitrarily arrested, detained, imprisoned, and defamed human
rights advocates and independent professionals, including journalists, economists, doctors and lawyers, often with
the goal of coercing them into leaving the country.
According to Harold Koh, an Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
Labor, the Castro regime subjected independent journalists to internal travel bans, arbitrary detentions, harassment,
seizures of office and photographic equipment, and repeated threats of prolonged imprisonment. The Government tightly
controls who gets information and computers, limiting access to the Internet to certain government offices, selected
institutes and foreigners.
The Government continues to subject those who disagree with it to "acts of repudiation." At government
instigation, members of state-controlled mass organizations, fellow workers, or neighbors of intended victims are
obliged to stage public protests against those who dissent from the Government's policies, shouting obscenities
and often causing damage to the homes of those targeted; physical attacks on the victims themselves sometimes occur.
Police and state security agents are often present but take no action to prevent or end such attacks. They may,
in fact, be there to take attendance since those who refuse to participate in these actions face disciplinary action,
including loss of employment.
The Cuban Constitution states that all legally recognized civil liberties can be denied to anyone who actively
opposes the "decision of the Cuban people to build socialism." Arbitrary arrest and detention continue
to be the most effective weapons used to harass opponents. Prison guards and state security officials subject human
rights and prodemocracy activists to threats of physical violence, systematic psychological intimidation, detention
or imprisonment in cells with common and violent criminals, sexually aggressive inmates and state security agents
posing as prisoners. Detainees and prisoners are subjected to repeated, vigorous interrogations designed to coerce
them into signing incriminating statements, to force collaboration with authorities or to intimidate victims.
The Cuban Penal Code includes the concept of "dangerousness," defined as " the special proclivity
of a person to commit crimes, demonstrated by his conduct in manifest contradiction of socialist norms." The
regulation, internationally criticized for its subjectivity, lack of legal safeguards and the implied political
considerations behind its application, allows the police to decide to bring the offender before the court or subject
him to "therapy" or "political reeducation."
Cuban law and trial practices do not meet international standards. There are no jury trials. Most cases take less
than a day. The sole evidence provided, particularly in political cases, is the defendant's confession obtained
under duress. The authorities typically deny defendants access to lawyers until the day of the trial. All attorneys
are members of the state-controlled lawyer's collective and the Government determines their livelihoods.
Although the Constitution provides for the inviolability of a citizen's home and correspondence, official surveillance
of private and family affairs by government-controlled organizations (such as CDR's) remains one of the most pervasive
and repressive features of Cuban life, the report continues. The State, it says, has assumed the right to interfere
in the lives of citizens, even those who do not actively oppose the Government and its practices. The ostensible
purpose is to "improve the citizenry," but in fact the goal is to discover and discourage nonconformity.
An intricate system of informants and block committees are used to monitor and control public opinion. They constantly
report on suspicious activities such as conspicuous consumption, unauthorized meetings and defiant attitudes. State
Security reads international correspondence, monitors overseas telephone calls and controls access to the Internet.
All media must operate under party guidelines and reflect government views. Print and electronic media are considered
the property of the State.
The Ministry of Education requires teachers to evaluate students and their parent's ideological character and note
it in school records that are carried throughout the education process and directly affect career prospects. Fidel
Castro has stated publicly that the universities are available only for those who share his revolutionary beliefs.
Although the Constitution grants limited rights of assembly and association, these rights are subject to the requirement
that they may not be "exercised against the existence and objectives of the Socialist State." The law
punishes any unauthorized assembly of more that three persons including those for private religious services meeting
in a private home." The authorities have never approved a public meeting by a human rights group.
The Government opposes any independent political activity on the grounds that the Cuban system provides a "perfected"
form of democracy. Citizens do not have the legal right to change their Government or to advocate change. No candidates
with views independent from or in opposition to the Government are allowed to run for office. No views contrary
to the Party are expressed in the government-controlled media. The last National Assembly election in 1998 saw
601 approved candidates approved to compete for 601 seats. Voters were urged to cast a "unified vote"
where marking one box automatically elected the entire slate.
While the Government prohibits forced and bonded labor by children, it requires children to work without compensation.
All students over the age of 11 are expected to devote 30-45 days to summer farm work. Adults work a 44-hour week
for a minimum wage that runs from $8-11 a month. The Government requires foreign companies with joint ventures
to hire and pay workers through the State. Foreign joint venture partners are required to pay in hard currencies
at the rate of $500-600 a month. Workers, in turn, receive about 5% of that amount in local soft pesos.
Updates
In Havana, on the day the State Department's report was made public, February 25th, 2000, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet,
a prominent activist who heads the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, was sentenced to three years in prison.
He was charged with dishonoring patriotic symbols for displaying the Cuban flag upside down in the front window
of his home. A universal signal of distress, the upside down flag is also an historic Cuban sign of civil disobedience.
His court-appointed lawyer was gratified with the verdict of the three-judge tribunal, saying that Dr. Biscet could
have gotten seven years.
After the four-hour trial was completed, the same courtroom was used for two Biscet associates, Fermin Scull Zulueta
and Eduardo Diaz Flietas. They were tried on charges of "public disorder" for attempting an anti-Castro
march last November 10th. In hopes of meeting with representatives of 15 heads of state attending the Ibero-American
Summit, a protest march was planned and announced on October 28th. This announcement triggered numerous brief arrests,
orders for activists to remain in their homes and pressure to not participate in the planned protest in a public
park in the Lawton section of Havana.
Zulueta was sentenced to one year in prison and Fleitas to one year under house detention. Another human rights
activist, Elizardo Sanchez, president of the independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation,
reported that the police had detained about 30 Biscet supporters and intercepted others in order to prevent them
from attending the trial. The government announced that Cuba holds no prisoners of conscience, only common criminals,
and that people like Dr. Biscet are considered "counterrevolutionaries."
In the late afternoon of February 25th, the U.S. Coast Guard
found a partially submerged raft near Key Biscayne. It carried four Cuban migrants, one in critical condition,
and the bodies of two others. The Coast Guard estimated the raft had been at sea for nine day without supplies.
Authorities count 59 rafter deaths in 1999.
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| George Mason, 1725-92, was known as the Sage of Gunston Hall.
His Virginia declaration of rights, written in 1776, was the model for the first section of the Declaration of
Independence. A friend of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, Mason was an original drafter of the Constitution
and the first ten amendments to the Bill of Rights. He refused, however, to sign the final version of the Constitution
because he thought it did too little for individuals and, without the Bill of Rights, gave too much power to the
government.This column honors his memory. |
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