The latest on Latin American affairs, U.S.-Latin American ties, U.S. Hispanics and immigration
posted by Andres Oppenheimer at 10:22 AM
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Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer, author of five best-sellers on Latin American affairs and whose syndicated column appears in 55 major U.S. and Latin American newspapers, comments on the latest events in Latin America and U.S.- Latin American affairs. He is a member of The Miami Herald team that won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He also won the 1999 Maria Moors Cabot Award, the 2001 King of Spain prize, and the 2005 Emmy Suncoast award. He is the author of Castro's Final Hour; Bordering on Chaos, on Mexico's crisis; Cronicas de heroes y bandidos and Ojos vendados, and most recently of "Cuentos Chinos" (Plaza & Janes, Mexico.) A new Oppenheimer Report appears every Sunday and Thursday.
Email Andres at aoppenheimer@herald.com
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7 Comments:
from: Paul Thørsen
PThorsen240@aol.com
åndèrš, Geroge Bush embarasses me. I am ashamed to have him as Presidente. He has no business interferring in the internal affairs of any sovereign, independent country. It has got to be another country, possibly beloved mother Spain or Russia, to take the lead in criticizing Cuba for any suppossed "human rights violations", not the USA. The USA has no status in Latin America. Larin America does not look up to and follow the USA as the rest of the world does. What Latin Americans see in the USA is not a country that has done so much for them and for the world. Nor do they see the USA as the people who took them out of poverty and provided good lives for them. What they see in the USA is a country they see as an extension of the UK, the hated historic rivals of their beloved, beloved Spaniards, and Latin Americans are absolutely livid and incensed that the USA/Anglos have whipped Hispanicks in every conceivable way to the point that Hispanicks pay their life savings and risk their lives to make all-out desperate attempts to sneak into and then force their way into Anglolandia, and that humiliation will never be forgotten.
Andres,
I find it amazing that the question is even raised. Free men have a moral duty, an obligation, to support those who are not. It is morally reprehensible to witness tyranny, abuse, exploitation and apartheid and keep silent for fear of offending the oppressors.
I'm not a fan of President Bush, but this speech should be a stump speech of Republicans and Democrats alike. It is what every head of state of every free, democratic country in the world should be saying. It is the least a free man can do for one who is not.
The shame is on those who keep silent. For history will judge them harshly and will someday call them for what they are - collaborators, aiders and abetters, unworthy of the freedoms their ancestors bequeathed them.
Interestingly, what's happening in Cuba today is not new. The pain and suffering of exiles from Communism was loud and clear from the very start of the Bolshevik revolution. Tragically, the world then, like today, chose to accept the lies of communist propaganda and largely ignore the first hand accounts of exiles.
During the 30's and 40's history repeated itself. First hand accounts of exiles from Nazism and Stalinism were considered untrustworthy or tainted, while government propaganda was largely accepted and/or widely reported (is there a difference?).
This tragic flaw of western journalism continued right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, through to today.
The lessons of 1945 and 1989 have been largely forgotten - that totalitarian communist systems, and even the people involuntarily trapped within those systems, are not reliable sources of accurate information. For the journalistic community memory loss is more palatable that admitting mistakes.
When the Cuban Iron Curtain falls, and the utter devastation of its society, infrastructure, environment, health and educational systems is finally exposed - like all previously exposed communist economies before them --- what will the tourists, and the companies, and the governments that profited from Cuban slavery and misery have to say for themselves?
I suspect the world will soon forget once again.
I am certain however, that the Cuban people will not.
from: Paul Thørsen
PThorsen240@aol.com
Hey anonymous, please tell me how Cuba is not free. Are you aware that I can't say certain things in the USA? If one dares say anything bad about a minority group, regardless if it is true or not, that's the end of your career. You call that being "free"?!
Are you aware that most Cubans adore Fidel Castro and are all for Communism? Democracy is not for everyone.
Bush speech has no repercussion neither in Cuba, nor in Venezuela. Another thing will have been if he announced a BAN IN ALL OIL IMPORTS from Venezuela. Then, everybody will be paying attention.
Dear Mr. Oppenheimer, Your newspaper article entitled " Next American president should
listen to today's Cubans, not yesterday's" fails to state why Cuba did not become a representative
democracy after sixty years as an American colony. It also fails to state why Fidel Castro and his
government are considered "enemies" of the United States.
Have you ever read a federal publication entitled " Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the
United States" ? May I suggest that you read the 1897 edition of this publication ? The U.S.
government lied to the government of Spain, the Cubans fighting for their independence, and
the people of the United States regarding their intentions toward the situation in Cuba prior to the
so-called Spanish-American War, which really wasn't much of a "war" !!
I think the time is long past due when the people of the United States were told the truth about
Cuba and the efforts of this government to destroy the economic and political institutions of Cuba.
Furthermore, why is there an American military base in Cuba ? Cuba is an independent nation.
Did the Cuban people have a voice in allowing this military base in their country ??
How often has U.S. meddling in the internal affairs of another country led to the "desired" results?
Respectfully, Antonio F. Sánchez San José, California
Sanchez, if you do not like the USA, go to your native country and do not litter ours with your filthy presence. You probably are un ellegal alien enjoying USA free goodies!
It is, indeed, a duty of all free men to stand for those who live in bondage. But the widest spread commodity in the world today is societal polarization (as in going to penalty kicks in our own presidential election seven years ago).
The declamation of our values -Democracy, the Rule of Law, Free Trade- is fine (when sincere, as seems to be the case with our President), but it is totally inefective unless we acknowledge said polarization and try -at least TRY- to reach out to those who do not share those values. We will not change their minds unless they first understand the importance and the benefits (for themselves) those values carry, and in order do that, we need to understand where they -the unbelievers- are coming from, which we can only do by interacting with them.
That is why the restrictive and coercive measures against Cuba our President adamantly insists on are so patently absurd and have proven ineffective, over and over again. We should engage Cuba -its government and its people- without fear, knowing that our values, when effectively explained beyond the usual round of dogmatic preaching to the choir exercises we are so prone to, should prevail. And they will because they are atuned to human nature, which makes them trully universal. But we need to learn to read this different choir, the one who signs praises to the Evos, Hugos and Fideles of this world. It is not enough to brand them as idiots: you might as well throw the towel on our cause. We need to capture their minds and hearts, or else, we might as well disown democracy as our form of government of choice.
As to the way the world has read "Bush's Speech", the UN General Assembly was able, yet again, to avoid the scourge of polarization. Are these 180 + nations idiotic? Will history judge them harshly, and someday call them collaborators, aiders and abetters? Maybe, but only if you agree with the Cuban "Canciller" when he says that the recent voting was orchestrated by "il morto chi parla" (buying votes with Hugos's petro-bolivares, I guess). I may stand alone among my fellow Cuban-Americans, but I don't buy that story. It gives too much credit to the singular moral strenght of incorruptible Palau and the Marshall Islands.
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