Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado, Translator: Unstated
"Between individuals as between nations, respect for the rights of
others is peace."
Benito Juarez
From the pages of Granma we learned, on April 9: "The United States
confiscated more than $493,000,000 from 2010 to date," and in addition
that this was, "a part of the economic blockade imposed on our country
for more than half a century."
They allege that the information was confirmed in a communication from
the Office of Assets Control under the Department of the Treasury, a
Federal agency that lists Cuba as a "nation sponsoring terrorism."
Under the same concept, Washington has frozen 223,700,000 dollars
intended for our country in 2009. They add that the document was quoted
by Prensa Latina and in a side note published on the first page of the
official 8-page tabloid, they mentioned that U.S. authorities also
maintain similar blockades against six properties owned by the Cuban
State in New York and Washington.
A week later, this Monday the 16th, in an extensive article published on
page 3 of the same daily, under the title "The Truth About The Stolen
Funds," in the third paragraph, they declare that the "the Cuban funds
frozen in the United States, in virtue of the economic, commercial and
financial blockade," total 245 million dollars, not the 493 million
asserted in the earlier note.
What is not mentioned in either of these articles, is that it was the
Cuban authorities who first confiscated American property on our soil as
a part of their multiple outrages on the way to their total seizure of
power. Never — that I know of — have they mentioned the amount of these
appropriations from American citizens, nor from Cubans themselves.
How can they protest, then, when they do the same thing? They address
the issue casually, as if here the government would have allowed, not
only the American government, but any citizen from there, to own
property in our territory in the last five decades.
It's not that I'm in favor of the old law of retaliation or any kind of
reprisal, simply that I question the facts, as do many people within
Cuba. According to the logic of power, they can rob others — although
they call it "nationalizing" — whenever they want, but others cannot do
the same to them. I'm surprised that the leaders of the Greater
Antilles, which so often accuse the U.S. administrations of wanting to
impose its laws and vision on the world, act in a pattern similar to
that they criticize.
It seems that, contrary to what the historic Cuban leadership suggests,
arrogant attitudes are not only a trait of the leaders of the rich
countries. It is unethical to hide behind the prerogatives of a
Revolution to justify violations of elemental rights — individual and
group — such as respect for private property. It is necessary to renew
the political model from which so many national disasters originated in
order to erect a truly just, humane and enduring work.
April 17 2012
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