“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”
——— Frederick Douglass.
The demise of communism and tyranny in Cuba can happen only if a mass movement rises up to resist and reject Fidel Castro and the monarchical transition to a dictatorship led by his brother, Raúl.
That mass movement in Cuba, where many people have cowered in fear and/or numbed themselves against hope for a better life, for more than 40 years, is far from certain. To the disappointment of many, news that Fidel is ill enough to cause him to temporarily hand over his dictator-in-chief powers to Raúl has not yet been the spark that might start a counter-revolution.
But there have been stirrings of rebellion, that with some momentum, and some inspiration, might be the beginning of something historic.
“Independent sources from different parts of the island of Cuba have confirmed and increase in civil actions by citizens in the past weeks,” the Cuban Democratic Directorate wrote in a news release this week. “Although strong operatives of the political police and other repressive paramilitary organizations have been present on the streets throughout the country, human rights activists continue in their struggle for liberty.”
The calls for such civic resistance are increasing from Cuban patriots, in and out of the Castro brothers’ gulag.
The courage and leadership of men like José Daniel Ferrer, Darsi Ferrer and Oscar Biscet mean the tyrannical succession now underway will not happen without the scrutiny of the oppressed.
Whether that succession happens, and the dictatorship continues, will depend on the Cuban people. Up to now, the protests have been random and scattered. The next step is for mass protests — although the larger the demonstrations, the more likely the regime will respond with repression. That’s what dictators do when their survival is at stake, but that only adds to the opposition’s just cause.
Darsi Ferrer, a physician under constant watch by state security as he treats his patients and advocates for liberty — including with regular correspondence with supporters in the United States, including Uncommon Sense — wants the dictatorship to seek the Cuban public’s consent right now in the form of a plebiscite to determine whether Raul Castro should succeed his brother.
“The hereditary succession to another old, sick military man to govern the destiny of Cuba is considered by many to perpetuate an unnatural, undemocratic and irrational dynasty,” Dr. Ferrer wrote in an e-mail this week.
(Ferrer’s e-mail is published, in Spanish, in its entirety below.)
The time for such a showdown is now, writes Jose Daniel Ferrer, a democracy activist and journalist arrested during the “black spring” crackdown of 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
“The future depends on what we do today,” Ferrer wrote in an article published by the Cuban Democratic Directorate.
Ferrer offered himself as an example of what more Cubans need to do for liberty to triumph.
“Those of us who are conscious of what the remedy is for the affliction of our country and who are willing to employ it without fear of daily reprisal must exhort our countrymen through example and solid arguments not to cooperate with him who causes such hardship and pain,” Ferrer wrote.
Another political prisoner, also serving 25 years after the “black spring,” is Dr. Biscet. Quoting, Frederick Douglass, Biscet recently wrote in a letter posted at Religión en Revolución that change cannot happen if Cubans do not act.
“We must accelerate the conquest of (our) basic human rights by means of civil disobedience, putting in practice all methods to obtain our humanitarian aim,” Biscet wrote.
If Cubans want freedom — to worship as they want, to associate with whom they want, to elect the leaders that they want — they must fight to be free, as Oscar Biscet, Darsi Ferrer, José Ferrer and other dissidents and political prisoners have done. The Castros won’t deliver it voluntarily, and the United States doesn’t have the capability to fight the fight for them.
The choice, and the need for action is theirs. In a totalitarian state, the sacrifices required to fight that fight freedom may be severe, but the inevitable rewards for individual Cubans, and for the nation, whether now or in the future, are priceless.
The time for the fight to begin is now.
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“Plebiscito por la Soberanía”
by Dr. Darsi Ferrer
La civilización ha progresado de modo tal que es imposible organizarla en torno al poder totalitario de un monarca. Lo prueba el estancamiento e involución de Cuba.
En el siglo XXI los países democráticos son los que ostentan mayor desarrollo y estabilidad. Sus gobernantes responden durante un plazo al mandato de sus electores, que los eligen por el voto de las mayorías.
El Sr. Fidel Castro, a los ochenta años de edad y con marcado deterioro de su salud, es incapaz por ley natural de volver a ejercer funciones como administrador absoluto del país.
La sucesión hereditaria en otro anciano militar enfermo para regir el destino de los cubanos muchos la consideran perpetuar una dinastía antinatural, antidemocrática e irracional.
Las decisiones que afectan a toda la sociedad deben ser consultadas y aprobadas por la nación, por mecanismos que le permitan ejercer libremente su soberanía.
Al pueblo de Cuba le asiste el derecho y es hora de que pueda decidir con garantías mediante el voto directo en Plebiscito la elección o no de quién asumirá como su máximo representante.
El Plebiscito demostraría que no hay nepotismo ni voluntarismo, pues sería un medio definitorio de legitimidad.
Por tanto, como ciudadanos Exigimos a los gobernantes se realice un Plebiscito que decida la Aceptación o No sobre el traspaso de poder al Sr. Raúl Castro.
Paso indispensable constituye la excarcelación inmediata y sin condiciones de todos los disidentes pacíficos presos políticos, y el cese de la persecución por expresión de ideas divergentes de la oficialidad.
Dr. Darsi Ferrer Ramírez
Dado en la Habana, a los 23 días de agosto de 2006.
Sign petition for release of Cuban political prisoners
