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Below is the text of the letter from CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos to President Carter: 


The Honorable Jimmy Carter
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
Atlanta, Georgia 30307

May 2, 2002

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of the men and women of the Cuban American National Foundation, I wish to thank you for receiving our delegation today to discuss your upcoming trip to Cuba.

As you know, many in our community have criticized us for coming to this meeting. There is great concern that your visit will hurt, rather than help, the people of Cuba. Frankly, we share some of this concern. It is deeply troubling that you have entered into discussions with the Cuban regime, thereby giving a measure of legitimacy to a small group that rules through fear rather than the consent of the governed. We also have very different views on the fundamental question of whether unrestricted trade and tourism serves to bolster or undermine a totalitarian system.

Nevertheless, we come today because we are prepared to take any risk that might speed the day when Cuba is again free. We come because we know of, and greatly respect, your deep commitment to human rights and democracy. We come because there is a chance your visit will mean more to the oppressed than to the oppressors.

YOUR VISIT:

Mr. President, one of the more pernicious arguments made by the regime is that the Cuban people support the present system. Nothing could be further from the truth. All across Cuba the sparks of freedom are bursting forth. This can be seen in the flowering of the independent library movement, the surge of support for the Varela Project, the multiplication of human rights groups, and the volume of reports from the independent journalists. The Cuban people will be listening carefully to your remarks, watching where you go and with whom you meet, hungry for encouragement and hope. As you develop your program, I respectfully ask that you consider the following:

  • For over forty years Cuba has suffered self-inflicted shortages of food, consumer goods, and energy but there has never been a shortage of one thing - Cubans who believe enough in freedom to risk their lives to fight tyranny. Four decades after the revolution, the political prisons are still full. Attached is a list of just a few of the hundreds of prisoners of conscience. Castro has said you can go where you want. Why not go unannounced to the cells of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Francisco Chaviano, Vladimiro Roca, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez", Juan Carlos Leyva, and others? Castro will use your presence in Cuba to claim legitimacy for his failed revolution. What better way to balance this than to legitimize the testament of men and women of faith and conviction who are suffering for their beliefs?
  • It is highly likely that Castro will "give" you the freedom of one or more political prisoners. He often makes "gifts" of prisoners to visiting dignitaries as a tactic to obtain international publicity and to deflect criticism of Cuba’s rampant human rights abuses. Any release from prison is a cause for celebration, but I urge you to insist that political prisoners be released unconditionally and given the right to choose whether to stay and work in Cuba or to leave.
  • Cuban law calls for criminal action against any citizen who publicly criticizes the regime’s policies. (Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Cuban Economy). Other vaguely defined laws such as those against "dangerousness" and "anti-revolutionary activity" shred the concept of the rule of law and civil protection. Such laws form the foundation of a repressive state. I strongly urge you to publicly call for the repeal of such laws, as you have successfully spoken out about similar objectionable laws in South Africa and elsewhere.
  • Not all activists are in prison at any given moment. You will have the opportunity to meet with a variety of opposition leaders. When President Fox met with many of the same individuals you will meet with, a number of them were arrested and harassed on their departure. I urge you to get explicit assurances that the Cuban security forces will not punish those you meet with. I am attaching a partial list of political opposition leaders and a letter to you from one of the most prominent dissidents, Marta Beatriz Roque.
  • You might also want to ask the opposition leaders for the names of some hospitals and schools that average Cubans go to, to complement the Potemkim Village visits sure to be on the regime’s program.
  • I know you are aware of Oswaldo Paya and his work on the Varela Project. There is healthy debate both on and off island as to whether the formulation of the Varela Project meets all of the many needs for a political opening in Cuba. It is, however, inarguably the most developed and advanced political expression of free thought extant. The more than 10,000 individuals who have signed the Varela petition have done so at great risk. No one is better positioned than you, Mr. President, to give international recognition and support to this movement. Moreover, should you have an opportunity to discuss the Varela project on a live broadcast over Cuban TV or before a large gathering, you could literally raise the free speech and human rights movement to a higher level.
  • A free press is the corner stone of democracy. There are now a significant number of independent professional journalists in Cuba who report the news despite harassment, beatings, and imprisonment. The regime seeks to limit their effectiveness by banning them from all official events. I urge that you invite the independent journalists to all your press functions on an equal basis with all other domestic and foreign press. A list of journalists is attached.
  • Few grassroots movements in Cuba today are as exciting as the growth of the independent libraries. Most libraries are simple rooms in people’s homes, where any Cuban can find books and magazines otherwise unavailable. We strongly urge everyone who travels to Cuba to take a box or two of Spanish language books and periodicals with them to give to one or more of the independent libraries. As I understand you will have your own plane, perhaps you can take several boxes! I have attached a list of independent libraries.
  • I am unaware of any tourist industry in the world built on as sordid a base as Cuba’s. When you stay in a government owned hotel you directly contribute to a tourist system build on racial discrimination, worker abuse, the exploitation of women, and "tourist apartheid." I am attaching a recent report by the Dutch religious group Pax Christi that provides exhaustive details of these abuses. Mr. President, I know you would never stay in a hotel in the United States that condoned even one of these practices. Nor, I believe, would you stay in such a hotel in Europe, South America, or Asia. The question is, will you or your delegation legitimize such abuses in Cuba? There is, fortunately, an alternative. There are an increasing number of rooms available in private homes or "casas particulares." By staying is such establishments, you not only register your rejection of the practices above, but you send an invaluable message of support for Cuba’s nascent private sector.
  • Specifically along these lines, few practices are as inherently insulting as the restrictions against Cubans entering the tourist hotels and resort areas. Perhaps you could invite a dozen or two random Cubans to go with you to one of the tourist hotels to visit poolside for a while. The security forces would not dare stop your guests, and for a moment at least, you will have given some Cubans a taste of what freedom is.
  • You may well have an opportunity to discuss foreign investment in Cuba with representatives of third countries operating on the island. I hope you will ask them if they believe their operations have led to any democratic reforms in Cuba. As the Pax Christi report noted, "Cuban society is not opening up as advocates of foreign investment in Cuba claim. On the contrary, unrestricted direct foreign investment in Cuba fuels the repressive regime and the profits generated from it relieves the need for political and economic reform." Some may tell you of under the table payments that improve the lives of their workers. This may be true, but giving a slave a chicken on Sunday does not address the fact that he is still in chains. A society where doctors become bellboys to feed their families is doing something wrong.

THE EMBARGO:

You are certain to hear that our trade sanctions are the cause of Cuba’s economic and political woes. The truth, of course, is that it is the regime’s calculated policy of keeping the Cuban people impoverished and dependent on the State that has caused so much misery. Nothing has ever prevented a resolution of the impasse between the United States and Cuba – nothing except Castro’s unwillingness to act in the Cuban people’s best interests, rather than his own. The embargo is a policy tool that can and should be used to pry open Cuba’s closed system.

 

Let me be very clear on our position. We will support an immediate lifting of the embargo if the Cuban regime undertakes the following: Free all political prisoners and allow international human rights groups into the country. Allow the free flow of information into and out of the island. And announce free and fair elections within twelve months, contested by multiple political parties that can campaign and have access to the media, monitored by groups such as the Carter Center, the United Nations, and the OAS.

AN APPEAL:

Mr. President, Fidel Castro needs your visit much more than you do. He is betting that he can control your movements and your impressions. Just by meeting with him, you give him much of what he wants – the legitimacy that comes from being treated as a head of state by a former President of the United States. Should you then call for a unilateral lifting of the embargo, so much the better from his perspective.

We also are betting on you. We are confident you will choose to identify more with the prisoners of conscience than with their wardens. We are confident you will hold to the same uncompromising standards you have maintained everywhere else in the world. We are confident you will not limit yourself to your official program, but will seek out average citizens and freely discuss with them if they would rather live in a Cuba that respects human rights and permits individual initiative or continue under a bankrupt dictatorship. Mr. President, you go to Cuba with the hopes and prayers of two million Cuban Americans and eleven million Cubans on island. We are excited by the prospects and possibilities of your trip. We stand ready to be of assistance in any way we can.

 

Sincerely,

Jorge Mas Santos

 

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