“They killed a dreamer, thinking that it would make us stop dreaming.
But for Berta, there will be no moment of silence, rather a whole life
dedicated to the struggle.”
-Reverend Raúl Suárez
On March 3, 2016, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center
(CMMLK) of La Habana, Cuba was filled with international
solidarity partners of all ages responding to the urgent call to action following
the assassination of Berta Cáceres, Honduran activist and indigenous leader. Pictures
of Cáceres were hung around the crowded room, where over 50 people gathered to
pay homage to the founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous
Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). One
by one, community activists, popular educators and religious leaders shared
their memories of Cáceres, of the work they had undertaken with her and of the
tremendous impact that she left on the CMMLK.
Cáceres first came to the CMMLK in 2001 to receive training
in popular education. “The Center has worked for a long time to support
COPINH…and [we] joined Berta in her struggle to protect the Lenca people,”
recalled Lisette Govín, member of the Solidarity Department of the CMMLK. “They
were always after her,” said Govín, referring to the years
of death threats that Caceres received from the Honduran government as well
as her placement at the top
of the Honduran army’s hitlist.
“[Cáceres] was advised many times to come to Cuba or to go
to another country, to protect herself,” stated Raúl Suárez, Reverend of the
Ebenezer Baptist Church and member of National Assembly in Cuba, “But she
preferred to be in the struggle with her people even if it meant giving up her
life.” Despite the numerous protective measures that Cáceres took, her
dedication to fight for human rights in Honduras ultimately led to her murder.
Human rights abuses, such as Cáceres’ assassination and the illegal
appropriation of indigenous lands, in U.S. supported post-coup
Honduras highlight the hypocrisy of U.S. policy towards Cuba. At this
historical moment when Cuba and the U.S. are beginning the long process of
reestablishing relations, the U.S. continues to cite Cuba for flagrant human
rights violations. Raul
Castro, in his encounter with Barack Obama, admitted that Cuba does not
meet all of the articles laid out in the International Declaration of Human Rights.
However, Castro added, no country meets all of these conditions.
The U.S. maintains that the main reason for keeping the half
a century long blockade against Cuba in place is due to human rights violations
on the island. However, Honduras continues to enjoy normal relations with the
U.S. and even financial support despite a
longstanding history of human rights abuses in the area. While the Cuban
people continue to endure the effects of an unjust U.S. blockade that imposes
punitive economic sanctions on the island, the U.S. government is providing
$750 million in assistance to Honduras, among other Central American
countries, to “address the violence, lack of opportunities and weak governance
driving migration from the region.” Furthermore, the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) has funded DESA-Agua Zarca, the private
corporation that is building a hydroelectric dam on Lenca territory.
With Cuba accruing over $1
trillion in accumulated economic damages as a result of half a century of
the imposition of the blockade, the unequal approach towards Cuba not only carries
grave financial implications. Since the passing of the Cuban Adjustment Act in
1966, any Cuban who migrates to the U.S. is immediately granted permanent
residence. World
Policy Blog cites Silvia Welhelm, former director of Puentes Cubanos, as
stating that, “The Cuban Adjustment law is providing Cubans with an economic
escape hatch that is unfair compared to our policy to other potential immigrants.”
This is evidenced by the fact that, while Cuban migration is used by U.S. media
as proof of human rights abuses on the island, Central
Americans fleeing both institutional, governmental and social violence are
criminalized and denied access to legal status in the U.S. Under current U.S. policy, people like Cáceres
who flee grave human rights abuses are highly likely to be turned away at the
border, while any Cuban who reaches U.S. soil is granted legal entry,
regardless of their lived experiences.
These ironies are not lost on the Cuban people. “Obama comes
to Cuba and says that in his country, human rights are respected,” argues Yaima
Palacio, Popular Educator at the CMMLK. “What about the human rights of the
many immigrants who arrive to the United States and are deeply disrespected
after having been sold the American dream? Where is the respect for those human
rights?”
While nearly all Cubans recognize the numerous benefits that
lifting the inhumane blockade will have in Cuba, there are many who
simultaneously fear that increased U.S. involvement in Cuba will result in the human
rights abuses that in neighboring Latin American and Caribbean countries are
manifested as extreme violence and lack of access to education and healthcare. “Part
of the reason why there is more safety [in Cuba] in comparison with
Honduras…has to do with the fact that…Cuba decides what happens in Cuba,” Palacios
remarks. She points out that in Cuba, in
contrast to Honduras, “the fact that transnational companies and the U.S.
haven’t been intervening has allowed for the possibility to have less struggles
in that regard. The Cuban people demand that the U.S. lift the blockade, as
this is one of the ways that the U.S. destabilizes and erodes the morale of the
Cuban people so that they will revolt against the revolutionary government; and
the costs have been high. But living this way has also given us the slight
advantage of freeing us in many ways from neoliberal domination that is placed
at the center of the capitalist market.”
As the Witness for Peace International Team (IT) in Honduras
points out, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras is cooperating with the Honduran government
led investigation, despite the call for the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights to take over. Our IT in Honduras cites
COPINH as stating that “the same government that criminalized Berta Cáceres….the same government that persecuted her, threatened her, and is
responsible for her murder cannot possibly investigate itself.”
This raises the question: if the U.S. can cooperate with and
financially support the Honduran government despite the atrocities committed
against Cáceres and so many others like her, why is Cuba continuously punished
and isolated?
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