Email that I sent to President Obama

on March 8, 2015

 

‘Selma is now’ and Cuba

 

Manuel Castro Rodríguez

 

President Obama:

 

According to The Guardian,

 

“‘Selma is now’ says Obama ahead of visit to highlight abusive justice system

Barack Obama is using a symbolic visit to Selma, Alabama, to condemn the ‘oppressive and abusive’ criminal justice system he believes continues to afflict predominantly African American enclaves such as Ferguson, Missouri.”

 

Historically, the human rights has always tested if United States is serious about democracy. Fifty years ago, in a time when America needs to make some major changes in society, especially when it comes to the rights of Afro-Americans, occurred the three Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, that were part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement and led to the passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.

 

Eight years ago, an up-and-coming black politician from Chicago talked about how he owed his career to bloodshed on a bridge in Selma. “I’m here because somebody marched,” then-senator Barack Obama said in Selma that day. “I’m here because you all sacrificed for me.” Now the first Afro-American president of the United States, President Obama, returns to Selma along with thousands of others who have led very different lives because of what happened there 50 years ago. Yesterday you commemorated the 50th anniversary of Selma protest that exceeded police repression to demand voting rights for Afro-Americans.

 

United States is the only country that helps Cuban democrats. What do you think of the tragedy suffered by the Cuban people since more than half century ago?

 

You know that Castro’s Cuba is the alone dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere. As you know, Cuba is the only Western country without any free elections in 66 years. It is also the only Western country where it has been illegal to be a member of the opposition since 1960, that is, for more than half century!

 

As you know, Cuba is a totalitarian communist state headed by General Raúl Castro. Its characteristics are:

 

1- Elaborate guiding ideology.

 

2- Single mass party, led by a dictator. Eight years ago Raúl Castro assumed power inherited from his brother Fidel. The Castro brothers have tyrannized over Cuba for 56 years.

 

3- System of terror, using such instruments as violence and secret police.

 

4- Monopoly on weapons.

 

5- Monopoly on the means of communication.

 

6- Monopoly on education. The brainwashing begins in kindergarten.

 

7- Central direction and control of the economy through state planning.

 

8- A system of terror that transcends borders Cuban. Warranting special mention are the outstanding U.S. indictments against Cuban Air Force pilots Lorenzo Alberto Pérez Pérez, Francisco Pérez Pérez and General Rubén Martínez Puente, the head of the Cuban Air Force, who in 1996 shot down two unarmed civilian American aircraft over international waters in the Florida Straits. That act of terrorism, ordered by Fidel and Raúl Castro, killed four men, three of them American citizens. The Castro brothers personally accepted responsibility for the shot-down.

 

Cuba Archive has documented 166 deaths and disappearances from 7/31/2006 to 12/15/2013, that is, since Raúl Castro assumed power inherited from his brother.

 

On October 5, 2014, Catalina Botero finalized her mandate as Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commssion on Human Rights (IACHR). Botero declared (in Spanish): en Cuba “no existe la libertad de expresión, no está garantizada en ninguna forma.”

 

On December 22, 2014, Committee to Protect Journalists wrote,

 

Cuba remains one of the most restrictive nations for the press. An independent writer and blogger, Ángel Santiesteban Prats, has been jailed since February 2013 and is serving a five-year prison sentence in retaliation for his criticism of the government. All domestic media outlets are controlled by the Communist Party, which recognizes freedom of the press “only in keeping with the goals of the Socialist society.” All independent journalists and bloggers write for websites that are hosted abroad and are updated through costly hotel connections or public computers at foreign embassies in Havana.

 

Changes won’t happen overnight. Putting an end to such a restrictive and archaic system will require Cuba’s unavoidable commitment to ratifying and implementing the international human rights agreements that it has signed in order to guarantee freedom of expression and information, including Internet access, the unconditional release of all imprisoned journalists, and the dismantling of an obsolete legal framework that punishes any kind of independent journalism with penalties including prison terms.

 

Although in December you announced an opening of relations with Castro’s Cuba, the Cuban Government continues to deny its citizens their most fundamental political and human rights, and criminalizes all forms of free expression, free association, and dissent in the country. For example, two months ago Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera, who lives and works primarily in Europe, atempt to stage a performance related to free speech in Havana’s Revolution Square so she has being detained on multiple occasions. It also led to the detention of various other cultural figures and activists. The thwarted piece, titled Tatlin’s Whisper #6, consists of a podium and a microphone which members of the public are allowed to use to express themselves for one minute each — under the hashtag #YoTambienExijo (I Also Demand) — but was denied permission to do so. Even so, she persisted, and announced that the performance would continue as planned. Hours before it was scheduled to happen, however, she was picked up by state security agents.

 

These incidents generated a condemnation from the U.S. State Department. I invite you to read “Cuba’s detentions of performance artist Tania Bruguera condemned.”

 

On January 23, 2015, Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson said that isn’t sure her team can eliminate obstacles to normalized ties with Cuba because the communist nation refuses to move toward democracy. Jacobson told:

 

“When we talk about profound differences on human rights I don’t know that I see that as an issue that gets fixed, certainly not in the near term. We have no illusions about this government. We would certainly like to see a major improvement in human rights, but we don’t necessarily expect that will happen right away.”

 

Although six years ago, in April 2009, you ordered his administration to lift some restrictions on family travel and money transfers to Cuba and allow U.S. telecommunications companies to provide more cellular and satellite service, Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world, with less than 5% of the island’s 11 million people connected according. Only a privileged few have access to private internet connections.

 

Although six years ago began his efforts in to unilaterally ease sanctions and engage Castro’s regime, did not improve human rights in Cuba.

 

Castro’s Cuba has the most restrictive laws on free speech and press freedom in West. The constitution prohibits private ownership of media outlets and allows speech and journalism only if they “conform to the aims of a socialist society.”

 

I invite you to read the articles 5, 39, 53 and 62 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. Would you accept that the Constitution of United States had similar articles? Of course that not, I believe there is not a American who accepts.

 

I would agree that the U.S. will lift the embargo on Cuba if previously the Cuban government would make the following changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba:

 

- To eliminate the Articles 5, 39, 53, and 62.

 

- To include appropriate Articles provididng the right to strike and the freedom to create independent trade unions that could negotiate the contracts with employers on payment and other conditions.

 

Children across the country begin each school day with the chant “Pioneers for Communism, We will be like Che!” I invite you to watch the videos that show the children primary target in Cuba brainwashing.

 

Cuba’s legal and institutional structures are firmly under the control of the Castro brothers. Laws criminalizing “enemy propaganda” and the dissemination of “unauthorized news” are used to restrict freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. Insult laws carry penalties of three months to one year in prison, with sentences of up to three years if the president or members of the Council of State or National Assembly are the objects of criticism.

 

To provide further perspective, since that Obama Administration began its efforts in 2009 to unilaterally ease sanctions and engage Castro’s dictatorship, political arrests have quadruple. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHRNR) documented 8,900 in 2014, 6,424 in 2013, 6,602 in 2012, 4,123 in 2011 and 2,074 in 2010.

 

Oswaldo Payá, a Cuban dissident and founder of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), died on 22 July 2012, when the car he was traveling suffered an automobile accident, the cause of which has not yet been determined. According to The Washington Post, “Oswaldo Payá’s death in Cuba two years ago still awaits a proper investigation.”

 

President Obama, the circumstances surrounding Payá’s death have many questioning if it was a targeted killing: “Oswaldo Payá crossed red lines with the Cuban government before his death.” Why the Government of United States not call on the Castro’s regime to authorize an international investigation of the deaths of Payá and Cepero?

 

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHRNR) reported Tuesday that it had recorded at least 492 politically motivated arrests in February 2015. That brings the total number of arrests since right before that you, President Obama, announced the rapprochement with Castro’s Cuba on 17 Dec. 2014, to at least 1,159 political arrests.

 

The American government has changed its approach toward the Cuban government, willing to give to Castro’s dictatorship almost whatever it wants with no desire to demand anything in return — especially anything having to do with human rights. Why President Obama?

 

As the numbers show, it’s clear the Cuban government has not changed its approach to the Cuban people. In fact, it has been emboldened to resume the tactics — such as the targeting of peaceful activists walking to Sunday Mass — that made 2014 a record year for repression in Cuba: 8,900 political arrests.

 

Besides, Cuba’s Castro is a immense danger for the National Security of the Western Hemisphere. For example, I remind to you that on 28 July 2014, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Ocean Maritime Management Company, Ltd., the operator of the North Korean ship known as the Chong Chon Gang that was interdicted by Panama on 10 July 2013, with illicit arms shipment from Cuba, that violate the U.N. ban on the trading of arms with North Korea. The Castro brothers’ regime initially described the intercepted cargo as nothing more than aid in the form of sugar. When weapons were discovered under the bags of sugar, the authorities in Havana then attempted to dismiss the cache as “obsolete” items that were en route to North Korea for repairs (the UN prohibits all arms transfers to North Korea).

 

But the inspection showed that the Government of Cuba lied. The vessel was carrying 25 shipping containers with military equipment inside. The cargo included two Mig-21 jet fighters. The jet fuel inside their tanks, along with maintenance logs, indicated that they had recently been flown. Ammunition and 15 apparently new MiG engines were also discovered.

 

 

Besides, the white bags of brown sugar that hid the armament were themselves unusual. Sugar of that sort is usually shipped in bulk, not bagged, because it is almost always refined after it arrives at its destination.

 

Shortly after the ship’s interception, General Kim Kyok Sik, the army chief who had met Raúl Castro in August, was dismissed. “North Korea announced on December 13, 2013, that it had executed the uncle of its leader Kim Jong”. In its unprecedented character assassination of Mr. Jang before his summary execution, North Korea said, among other things, that he “stretched his tentacles” into areas where he should not have been interfering. Whether the arms deal with Castro’s Cuba was an example of that may never be known.

 

In March 2014, the U.N.’s Panel of Experts published its official report on North Korea’s illegal trafficking of weapons, in conjunction with the Castro’s regime. The official UN Report revealed “a comprehensive, planned strategy to conceal the existence and nature of the cargo.” The Report concluded, contrary to Cuba’s allegations, that “some, if not all, of the consignment was not expected to be returned to Cuba.”

 

President Obama, this muggling of weapons could endanger  the lives of the habitants of the cities of Colon and Panama. These are modern shipments of dangerous military gear passing through a vital piece of infrastructure to every economy in the hemisphere that Castro’s Cuba isn't properly registering or securing as is required by Panamanian law.

 

Last week a Chinese-flagged vessel was intercepted in Colombia with a clandestine shipment of war materiels destined for Cuba’s military (via a shadow company called TecnoImport). This illegal arms shipment was disguised in containers marked as grain products. These include 99 rockets, 3,000 cannon shells, 100 tons of military-grade dynamite and 2.6 million detonators. What does the Government of Cuba need 2.6 million detonators for?

 

Two big shipments of weapons confiscated in 20 months means that this is probably a regular occurrence.

 

I invite to you to read Cuba missile crisis: When nuclear war seemed inevitable.

 

Russia has always used the Castro’s regime to extend its influence in the region. The Guardian said:

 

“Russia to reopen spy base in Cuba as relations with US continue to sour

Decision to reopen signals intelligence facility south of Havana follows Russia forgiving 90% of Cuba's unpaid Soviet-era debts

“Russia-US relations have plummeted over the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Besides, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela have developed a close and cooperative relationship against the U.S. and in support of terrorist groups and states.”

 

Castro’s Cuba is a danger for the democracy in the region: for example, in Venezuela that is practically a colony of the Castro brothers, “Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights condemns arbitrary detention in Venezuela, demands release of all political prisoners”

 

As well, the influence of Castro’s Cuba is eroding the principles of the rule of law in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

 

Besides, the Castro brothers continue to support terrorism. Castro’s Cuba remains the main sanctuary of terrorists in the Western Hemisphere. For example, the Castro regime refusal to extradite FBI most wanted terrorist Joanne Cheismard.

 

Castro’s Cuba continues to provide a safe haven for convicted terrorists like William Morales, of separatist Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), bomb maker who was implicated in a string of bombings in the United States in the late 1970s that resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Morales escaped U.S. custody after his initial imprisonment and has apparently been provided safe harbor by the government of Cuba since the 1980s. Morales is just one of many fugitives who have left a wake of murders and bereaved families in their path.

 

Other terrorists fugitive of the U.S. living in Cuba include Ishmael LaBeet, one of the five men convicted of the infamous Fountain Valley Massacre, a racially tinged 1972 armed robbery in the Virgin Islands that turned into mass murder, with eight dead. Victor Gerena, an armed robber working for another Puerto Rican separatist group, who is believed to have taken the proceeds of a $7 million heist to Cuba with him. Charles Hill who in 1971 hijacked a civilian plane carrying 49 passengers and fled to Cuba. Hill is also wanted for the 1971 murder of New Mexico State Police officer Robert Rosenbloom. Frank Terpil, a former CIA officer and convicted arms trafficker who is wanted for providing more than 20 tons of plastic explosives to the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

 

There are currently 70 American fugitives living in Cuba.

 

Chilean opposition accuses Cuba and Argentina to protect murderers of the Senator Jaime Guzmán. “Others which are proven in Cuba despite the denial of that country in respect of that reality”, said Senator Juan Antonio Coloma of the Independent Democratic Union party (Unión Democrática Independiente, UDI).

 

On January 22, 2013, a United Press International (UPI) report said Chile to confront Cuba over terrorists, because a judicial investigation determined that Galvarino Apablaza, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena and Juan Gutiérrez Fischmann organized the Guzman assassination. The terrorist Juan Gutierrez Fischmann — alias “El Chele”, “Diego” or “Commander Gabriel” — was married six years with the Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro Espín, with whom he had a daughter named Gabriela Gutiérrez Castro, who is 26 years old. Everything indicates that Juan Gutiérrez Fischmann continues living in Cuba.

 

Castro’s Cuba provides support and safe harbor to members of terrorist groups like the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) — killed some 830 people —, by refusing to extradite terrorists José Ángel Urtiaga and José Ignacio Etxarte. They have been wanted since 2010 in a probe into alleged links between Venezuela, ETA and the Colombian group FARC.

 

In 2014 the Castro government decreed that it would now begin to freeze bank assets affiliated to Al-Qaeda in Cuba. Castro’s Cuba thus tacitly admitted that they had been facilitating financing of terrorism.

 

President Obama, what has changed in the Castro regime?

 

This amply confirmed that the Castro dictatorship hasn’t interest in making changes that lead to a process of national reconciliation and a free society. I remind you The Leopard, written by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa: “Everything must change, so that everything can remain the same”. The Economist published ‘Rekindling old friendships: “Cuba is once again resorting to geopolitics to support a failing economy”.

 

Castro’s Cuba signed the Viña del Mar Declaration. In that document, signed by Fidel Castro and the presidents of all other Iberoamerican countries during Sixth Ibero-American Summit, which was held in Viña del Mar, Chile, in November 1996, the Cuban dictator promised to respect democracy and civil and political rights. However:

 

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), “on March 18, 2003, Cuban authorities began a week-long crackdown on human rights activists and independent journalists that culminated in the arrest of about 100 activists. They were all taken to the offices of the Department of State Security and subjected to long interrogations and other types of psychological torture… The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Cuba filed motions with the Court requesting sentences that ranged from 15 years in prison to the death penalty in some cases. Summary trials took place starting April 3, 2003, without allowing any time for the defendants’ families to mount a proper defense… None of the accused was acquitted (although during the hasty trial it was not possible to demonstrate the guilt of any of them with the evidence presented by the prosecution). The 75 persons were sentenced to prison terms of between 6 and 28 years… the IACHR learned that in the early hours of April 11, 2003, the Cuban State executed Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García, and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac, convicted of hijacking a launch in Havana Bay and taking its passengers hostage.”

 

I remind to you that the type of espionage carried out by Ana Belén Montes, the senior U.S. defense intelligence analyst who spied for Cuba during some 16 years until her arrest in 2001, has enabled the Castro regime to amass a wealth of intelligence on U.S. vulnerabilities as well as a keen understanding of the inner-workings of the U.S. security system.

 

Panama invited the Castro dictatorship to 2015 Summit of the Americas. President Obama you know that the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Declaration of Quebec City explicitly state that non-democratic states can not participate in the Summit of the Americas.

 

The information that I have is that behind of the invitation to the Cuban dictatorship there are powerful economic interests, because the absence of basic liberties such as free association and free contract is a great attraction for entrepreneurs like Alfonso Fanjul — known as “Alfy”, is a prominent figure of Cuba Study Group and a major Democratic donor and fundraiser and is close with Bill Clinton. I invite you to watch the movie — narrated by Paul Newman — that show the exploitation of Haitian cane cutters in the farms of Fanjul:

 

Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition.

 

I invite you to read Esclavos en el paraíso (Slaves in Paradise)

 

Alfonso Fanjul traveled to Cuba in April 2012, then another in Feb 2013.

 

Cuba has to presumably satisfy the requirements that investors need, which are primarily a return on investment and security of the investment, so they feel comfortable with what they’re doing,” he said. “I personally would look at that in the same framework as any investor would.”

 

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) statement:

 

“At a time when the democracy activists on the island are facing even harsher reprisals from the brutal Cuban regime, it's pathetic that a Cuban-American tycoon feels inspired to trample on the backs of those activists in order to give the communist thugs more money with which to repress. The only little old thing that is standing in Alfy's way of realizing these sleazy business deals with the devil is U.S. law. He doesn't talk about the arbitrary arrests of pro-freedom leaders in Cuba or the continual beatings endured by the peaceful Damas de Blanco. Oh no, for Alfy, the only hindrance to turning a profit off the suffering of the Cuban people is pesky U.S. laws and he is working with groups to undo those laws. It is sickening to read that he brings up the separation of the Cuban family when he is doing all he can to exacerbate that problem. Shame on him. And while Alfy was massaging his future profit deals with Castro's Foreign Minister, there were over one thousand political arrests last month.”

 

President Obama, who will benefit from the opening to Castro’s Cuba? The union of Alfonso Fanjul with the Castro brothers will be a highly lethal combination for the Cuban people.

 

I remind to you these words of Martin Luther King,

 

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

 

I tried to explain to you why Castro’s Cuba can not participate in the Summit of the Americas. Why do you think that the dynastic dictatorship that is the greatest violator of human rights in West must be present at a meeting of democratically elected governments?

 

If you participate in the 2015 Summit of the Americas will be legitimizing to the dictator who heads the bloodiest and destructive regime on record in the region. I invite you to watch the videos that show the killing of children by Cuban dictatorship.

 

If you participate in the 2015 Summit of the Americas would throw overboard the human rights in the region. You know that the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Declaration of Quebec City explicitly state that non-democratic states can not participate in the Summit of the Americas.

 

President Obama, “Selma is now,” you told students. “Selma is about the courage of ordinary people doing extraordinary things because they believe they can change the country, that they can shape our nation’s destiny. Selma is about each of us asking ourselves what we can do to make America better.” I believe to get it will have to disappear dictatorship in Cuba, but the measures announced by you on December 17, 2014, go in the opposite direction.

 

I just want you to answer my questions. Can you answer my requests please?

 

Thanking you in advance for your attention,

 

 

Manuel Castro Rodríguez