Article appeared in The Bulletin,
the Official Publication of the Dade County Bar Association,
October 2003
By: John H. (Jack) Hickey
Hickey Law Firm, P.A.
1401 Brickell Avenue
Suite 510
Miami, FL 33131
Toll Free: 866.523.5072
Fax: 305.371.3542
"Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think, and to speak without hypocrisy. Like bones to the human body, the axel to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.”
-José Martí, Cuban statesman, poet, and journalist (1853-1895)
The Stalinist dictator of Cuba, however, denies liberty to its citizens. Fidel Castro, the self proclaimed President of the Counsel of State of Cuba, has since 1959 repressed its people, discouraged the practice of religion and the freedom of speech and assembly, and has visited upon its people unspeakable deprivation and horrors. The London-based International Centre for Prison Studies estimates that the number of prisoners in jails in Cuba is at least 100,000, the largest per capita prison count in the world.
At least 300 political prisoners are incarcerated in those prisons. The situation is of course difficult to assess because the last formal visit to Cuban’s prison system was when the International Committee of the Red Cross visited in 1989. The International Committee of the Red Cross stopped those visits because they were not given complete access to the system and were not given the ability to speak privately with prisoners.
This should sound familiar; these are the exact same tactics Saddam Hussein used with weapons inspectors who came to inspect for weapons of mass destruction. Further, these prisoners include ordinary citizens who broke the law as a matter of life or death survival. According to The Miami Herald, Cuba’s monthly food rations last less than 2 weeks and the average wage is about $10 per month. (Miami Herald, The Americas, September 22, 2003, p. A8). The number of Cuban citizens assassinated in the name of communism numbers in the thousands. (See www.netforcuba.org/cubanassassinated.htm)
Castro also has engaged in violent actions resulting in multiple deaths of its citizens. For example, on July 13, 1994, three boats belonging to the Cuban state and equipped with water hoses attacked an aging wooden tug boat. The tug boat was about 55 feet long and powered only by its 300 horsepower engine with an estimated top speed of 10 mph. The boat on that day left port with 72 people who boarded the boat with the intention of emigrating from the island. The old tug boat was named the "13th of March”. The Cuban boat attacked the tug boat by ramming it and using water cannons to spray the women, children, and men on the deck, despite pleas to stop. The boat sank killing 31 people including 10 children.
Castro intends to terrorize nations and peoples outside his own borders as well. On May 10, 2001, Fidel Castro visited Tehran, Iran and said:
Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees. The U.S. regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this weakness from close-up.
Even more recently, in the last days of June of this year, Castro imprisoned 75 representatives of his opposition. Many of the 75 include members of the Varela Project (Proyecto Varela). Project Varela is a non-violent movement led by Cuban dissident, Oswaldo Payá, recent nominee for the Nobel peace prize. Mr. Payá and his Varela Project seek a referendum on five points, freedom of expression and association, freedom of enterprise, amnesty for political prisoners, a new electoral law and elections within a year. The project is taking advantage of Article 88G of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba which provides that a referendum will be held if more than 10,000 signatures are "gathered for such referendum”. Mr. Payá gathered 11,020 signatures last year, just before a visit to Cuba by a former President Jimmy Carter.
The response of Castro: He initiated a bogus petition drive for the approval of his regime and, following that, arrested the 75 dissidents including 42 members of the Varela Project. Mr. Payá’s response: He collected and presented to the National Assembly in Habana on October 3, 2003, an additional 14,384 signatures and said: "The Varela Project lives.”
Some of the "offenses” for which the 75 people are imprisoned were recited in the August 11, 2003 letter from the President of the ABA to Fidel Castro condemning his actions. In that letter, President Carlton cited examples of the people who were incarcerated. These included a lawyer who was imprisoned for writing articles as an independent journalist. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for writing articles on prison conditions, families of political prisoners, and other topics of the intention "of creating in disarray the conditions necessary for our country to be condemned in the [United Nations] Human Rights Commission, and consequently creating conditions favorable for a humanitarian intervention into our territory;” for demonstrating (Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva), a lawyer and President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, for demonstrating outside a hospital where an independent journalist was being treated. He was later charged with "disrespect towards President Fidel Castro”; for carrying out activities in meetings (Eduardo Diaz) was sentenced to 21 years in prison by a judgment that states in part "that he directs an opposition group of so called human rights, carrying out activities in meetings, using our national flag and showing posters asking for freedom of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, in a frank challenge to the judicial, political, and social system.”; for sending information to international organizations like Amnesty International (Marcelo Manuel Lopez Banobre) "sentenced to 15 years in prison in part for serving as spokesman and Secretary of the illegal Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, dedicating himself to sending information to international organizations like Amnesty International.”
Arguably, it is the duty of all lawyers to speak out against violations of international law and human rights. In the words of Lech Walesa (former President of Poland and outspoken Soviet dissident), Vaclav Havel (former President of the Czech Republic), and Alpod Goncz (former President of Hungary): "It is the responsibility of the Democratic world to support the Cuban opposition, regardless of how long the Cuban Stalinists cling to power.” (Miami Herald, September 21, 2003, Page 5).
Certainly, it is the right of the opposition in Cuba to take a stand against Castro and secure their inalienable rights. This is a concept expressed by our founding fathers when on July 4, 1776 they wrote the Declaration of Independence and said:
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariable the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide Guards for their future security.
(Capitalization in the original). Oswaldo Payá said in a letter to the Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon accompanying the 15,000 signatures:
The rights that we demand in the Varela Project are enunciated in the Constitution. But we also have them because we are human beings, sons of God, and because of that, we will continue demanding them for all Cubans, with the faith that we will achieve them.
It is only right that we in the United States and we in Miami speak up for the opposition. Cuba is within our hemisphere, and Cuba is close to our land. So many of the Cuban people reside here in the United States. The Varela Project, in fact, is named after Father Felix Varela (1788-1853). Father Varela was a Cuban priest, and a professor of philosophy at the Seminary of San Carlos and San Ambrosio of Habana. He advocated providing the same education for women as for men and the abolition of slavery. Father Varela lived in New York and served in the Archdiocese of New York for 25 years before he retired to Saint Augustine, Florida.
Jose Martí, Cuban statesman, poet, and journalist (1853-1895) also had close ties to the United States. He lived in New York for a total of 15 years before he left to join the war for Cuban independence from Spain.
If I had to outline the history of Cuba in just a few words, I would use seven words. First, we see the word "Indians”. The Taino Indians arrive in Cuba and the surrounding areas from the east in 1250 A.D. Later, on February 12, 1512, Hatuey is burned at the stake and most of the Indians that inhabit the island are wiped out.
The second word would be "Spanish”. Christopher Columbus on October 29, 1492 lands in Cuba and claims the island for Spain. Cuba remains under Spanish rule for the next 400 years.
Third, the word "Independence”. After an uprising of the Cuban people against the Spanish guard, the U.S. intervenes in the war for independence in 1898. In 1901, the first Cuban constitution is adopted.
The next word would be "sugar”. Sugar has been the leading export of Cuba and a major commodity grown on that island for hundreds of years.
Fifth, the word "constitution” is key. In 1930, Cuba adopted a constitution which ensured basic freedoms. The constitution is suspended by Batista and eventually by Castro. In 1976 a new constitution is adopted and revised again in 1992 and 2002.
The sixth word in this history would be "Castro”. This word stands for repression of rights, deprivations of food, property, and basic freedoms, and violence. The constitution of Cuba provides that it is a Leninist-Marxist regime.
The seventh word in this history has to be "liberty”. Jose Martí said it, the founding fathers of the United States said it, and now Oswaldo Payá says it. Americans and Europeans must, in the words of Lech Walesa, the famous Polish dissident and past president of Poland, "…concentrate on direct support for Cuban dissidence, prisoners of conscience and their families.”
John H. (Jack) Hickey is Board Certified by The Florida Bar as a Civil Trial Lawyer, Listed in Who’s Who in America and in American Law, and President of the Dade County Bar Association. Hickey graduated from Florida State University (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and from Duke Law School. He handles cases in the fields of personal injury and wrongful death, and admiralty and maritime. For more information, see www.hickeylawfirm.com.