Letter to Barack Obama - Forum for Rights and Freedoms and Resistance Assembly

Letter to Barack Obama: Forum for Rights and Freedoms and Resistance
Assembly
Posted on March 16, 2016

March 16, 2016

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President:
There is an immense concern about the fate of our nation that is
affecting millions of Cubans. If the current plans of the regime to
transfer power to its heirs and political henchmen are materialized, we
Cubans will simply confront a new incarnation of this ruthless
dictatorship. Corruption, nepotism, lack of values, violations and
blatant indifference to the pain of the people are just a few among the
many illnesses of this government.

The new policies towards Cuba spearheaded by your administration pose
the risk of legitimizing the deeply entrenched Cuban regime. Moreover,
it would do so without receiving anything in return. The friendly
gestures, formal recognition and official negotiations bestowed on the
Castros by the United States government have actually yielded a
significant increase in violence against the opposition, especially
against women activists. It is no wonder then, why a record number of
Cubans are currently fleeing the island.

The Castro Regime will not generate its own change. It has remained in
power for nearly six decades by carrying out horrific human rights
violations. In Cuba, human rights violations are systemic; they are an
institutional part of the Regime's so-called judiciary system.

We would never imagine that the democratic world would legitimize the
Castros. These individuals have destroyed the well-being of our nation.
From firing squads and political assassinations to political
imprisonment, thousands of Cubans inside and outside the island have had
their lives taken by the Regime because of their advocacy of a Free Cuba.

The most relevant issues about the adverse effects of Castro's
dictatorship on the Cuban people will not be part of the agenda of your
visit. The presidential delegation includes CEOs from top American
corporations as well as members of Congress who are eager to trade with
the regime, including the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, as well
as the SBA Administrator. Why there are not human rights advocates among
them? Sadly, it's more than obvious that the main objective of this
visit is to eagerly solidify business deals.

If the quest for commerce continues to be placed above the support of
the pro-democracy and civil rights movement in Cuba, the legacy left by
your administration will be one where the suffering of the Cuban people
was prolonged. Yet, your best contribution would be to act as a
facilitator of a true democratic transition in Cuba.

When members of the international community turn their backs on our
demands and proposals, they actually facilitate the regime's escalation
in violence, as well as the further fracture of the Cuban society. To
those who visit Cuba as if it were some type of exotic zoo of sorts
without acknowledging the crude reality that the Cuban society is going
through, we remind them what Edmund Burke once said: "The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

We respectfully remind you, sir, of your own words in February 1981,
when as a student leader speaking against the South African apartheid
regime and those corporations investing there, you said:

"There's a struggle going on. It's happening an ocean away. But it's a
struggle that touches each and every one of us. Whether we know it or
not. A struggle that demands that we choose sides. Not between black and
white. Not between rich and poor. No. it's a harder choice than that.
It's a choice between dignity and servitude. Between fairness and
injustice. Between commitment and indifference. A choice between right
and wrong."

In spite of all the odds appearing to be stacked up against us, the
oppressed, we have full confidence in our victory. History teaches us
of the plight of those seeking civil justice and freedom. We know that
seemingly impossible roads will miraculously open up for us, as if life
itself stepped in to make things, as they should be.

Source: Letter to Barack Obama: Forum for Rights and Freedoms and
Resistance Assembly | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/letter-to-barack-obama-foro-por-los-derechos-y-libertades-and-la-asamblea-de-la-resistencia/