Delia Fiallo's -Fair well to Cuba-

It filled me with pain and sadness to read Delia Fiallo's article "Farewell to Cuba". Cuban Americans, and Cubans on the Island, been betrayed, in my view, by the lifting of the embargo by Obama without the demand for respect for human rights and ending the imprisonment of dissidents.  Delia, a script and writer of love novels, escaped Cuba and, like many Cubans, first stopped in Venezuela where she lived for a short while until moving to the United States.  Like Delia we are all in awe by the visits of many political leaders to Fidel Castro, one of the Latin American most despicable dictators, as though he has done a Super Human task for Cuba, when we all know that he has terrorized its people and destroyed the nation.  The Castro brother's destruction has not been contained to Cuba. Their poison tentacles have spread all over Latin America under the cover up known as " Socialism".  Venezuela is the most recent example of Castro's damage.  We Venezuelan's realized too late that Fidel's hateful agenda against Venezuela became materialized with the "election" of megalomaniac Hugo Chavez. Chavez gave away Oil to Cuba in exchange for ego lifting by Fidel. This evil man convinced Chavez that  he was the Simon Bolivar of the 21st Century. My recent documentary work, Celebrating Life in Union, included interviewing former Cuban political prisoners. I heard nightmarish stories, horrible, inhumane stories of torture and killing, where people lost their families and everything that was important to them. Cubans like Dalia are angry and heart broken because there is now no accountability for the atrocities committed by the Castro regime against the Cuban people. There aren't words to console Delia and the thousands of Cubans that lost their families and everything they owned.  I feel that the last Cuban chapter has not been written yet. That story will remember the Castro brothers as murderers. There remain those who are riding the wave of Hypocrisy and ignoring the pain and suffering that the Cuban people have and continue to endure - they must understand that there is a price to pay for covering up for Dictators and human right Violators. History tends to repeats itself.

Pope Francis and Raul Castro

I was disturbed by the welcoming treatment from Pope Francis to Raul Castro.  The Cuban regime has been in power for more than half century and has killed and jailed thousands, and is still in control of Cuba.  Opening the doors to a murder is insulting to the Cuban people that has suffered and continue suffering the brutality of this dictatorship.

The world is trying to forget that the Cuban regime under Fidel Castro and now under his brother has caused a lot of damages not only to Cuba but their neighboring countries as well.

I had the opportunity to meet a group of Cuban former political prisoners from the 60's, for my recent documentary entitled Celebrating Life in Union.  Their stories of abuses tortures, imprisonment, and death are heartbreaking. Somebody like the Pope should be more sensitive toward the Cuban people. They are the real heroes of this tragic Cuban story.

Celebrating Life in Union: A Cuban Story

Celebrating Life in Union is a story of human resilience, community, and brotherhood.  It follows a group of former Cuban political prisoners through their memory of imprisonment and their half century fight with the aging Castro regime.  Having developed a strong community for themselves that now crosses three generations in Union City, NJ they struggle with the realization that their own mortality may come before they can return to their homeland.  The movie is currently under distribution.

View the Trailer:

Purchase it here.

Response: "With Cuba, Nothing Can Be Simple"

I recently read an article called "With Cuba nothing can be simple" http://time.com/3646803/cuba-decision/ written by Jean-Paul Renaud  which I found fascinating, even though his personal journey is very different from that of many of my other Cuban friends'. These men and women fought the Castro regime, and paid with their freedom.  For them, the U.S. negotiations with a brutal dictator is  not an option. 

There is a dilemma on both sides of the embargo lift - each completely justified.  For those who oppose lifting the embargo their argument is: How can you move forward without forgetting the pain and anguish, the humiliation, the torture and death that the Cubans have gone through, and are still going through under the Castro regime? 

For those who support lifting the embargo: Why not to move forward and put and end to this nightmare created by the Castro regime?  As the author said, "with Cuba nothing can be simple”  is very true, but I think that the duty of the Cuban people is to make sure that the Cuban Holocaust is NEVER forgotten.

New relations with Cuba, but what about human rights?

Everyone brace yourself for a new era in Cuban-American relations. Obama’s action, to lift the embargo, has shocked his critics and his followers, but things in Cuba will not change as drastically as we may think.

President Obama, who has been openly against this American policy since he was a Senator, had promised to eliminate the embargo. Perhaps because nothing has changed since sanctions on Cuba,  or perhaps because the Obama administration realizes that the only way to get a handle on Cuba is through business and trading.

"These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. It's time for a new approach." - President Obama

While people often talk about the embargo, they don't always know all the facts. Despite the embargo, the United States is currently the fifth largest exporter to Cuba (6.6% of Cuba's imports are from the US). However, unlike democratic countries, Cuba must pay cash for all imports as credit is not allowed. 

A big question we should consider right now, will lift the embargo help alleviate human rights violations in Cuba? Violations are still happening in Cuba and will not disappear in the near future - embargo or not. Steps need to be taken by the Cuban government to change its abusive policies towards its people, and the U.S. should make sure that we're not supporting oppressive policies and behavior. 

The end of the Cuban’s falling socialist system might mean the end of the infiltration and manipulation in Latin America. But there is a lot of work to do to get there.