January 12, 2004

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

I wish to commend you and your administration for the courageous and honorable position you have taken in relation to the Cuban trade embargo and the lifting of the travel ban. I also want to commend those Senators and members of the House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, who have voted against the lifting of the travel ban to Communist Cuba.

I like to mention that on September 15, 2002 from a Cuban prison, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a blind lawyer and human rights activist sent a letter where he says: "I ask the embargo not be lifted, as it would mean oxygen for a criminal tyranny and the continuation of the misery of the people."

Eight months later, on May 27, 2003 from Prison in Holguin, Cuba, Juan Carlos wrote again saying: "State Security is isolating me. I am prohibited from sending letters or communicating with some members of my family. I am aware that giving publicity to this document will create serious problems for my wife, my family and myself. But no one, no man can change my opinion about liberty, human rights and other beautiful things God gave us when He created us."

He continues: "I was a healthy man, today I am a sick person, growing worse with time. The world must know of the numerous cells with cement beds resembling tombs where men are placed for two or three months until they become mentally insane. I have heard two or three of them, crying at night, asking for help and psychotropic medication. The only answers given by prison authorities: ‘Why did you look for trouble?’"

From his isolated, humid and horrendous dungeon, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva is right. The lifting of the embargo would give Castro the resources, he so urgently needs to continue his infamous totalitarian regime of 45 years. I believe that any measure such as the lifting of the embargo that would reward the forces of evil Castro represents, without respect of human rights and the freedom of all political prisoners, would be nothing short but a treason of the West’s most cherished democratic traditions.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, believed that the political and economic conditions that produced their revolution existed in Latin America and that anti-American revolution would occur throughout the continent. Cuban agents and diplomats established contact with revolutionaries, terrorists and guerrilla groups in the area and began distributing propaganda, weapons and aid. Many Latin Americans were brought to Cuba for training and then returned to their countries." (Castro and Terrorism: A Chronology," by Eugene Pons.)

Forty three years later, Castro’s virulent anti-Americanism, commitment to violence, support of worldwide terrorist organizations and cooperation with rogue States continues strong. "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees, the United States regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this weakness from close up." Fidel Castro, during his tour of Iran, Syria and Libya. (Agency France Press. May 10, 2001.)

Enclosed please find studies and articles in relation to Castro’s totalitarian rule of Cuba

Excerpts from:  "Castro and Terrorism: A Chronology," by Eugene Pons, at the University of Miami.
Excerpts from:  "Seven bad reasons in support of the Cuban trade embargo and how to refute them,"  by Franz E. Wagner, Ph.D.
Selections from: "CUBA: The Human Cost of Social Revolution: The black book of Cuban communism."  MANUSCRIPT / WORK-IN-PROGRESS, by Armando M.Lago, Ph.D.
Excerpts from: Report No. 86/99, Case II.589 of September 29,1999 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the "Downing of two U.S. civilian aircrafts by Cuban Air Force MiGs-29 in International Airspace."
"I won’t visit Cuba again until Castro Sets it free," by US Senator Norm Coleman, R-MN. 10/20/03.
"TWO PATHS? From prisoner of conscience in Cuba, Dr. Oscar E. Biscet, who sends a message from the Provincial Prison of Pinar del Rio to his fellow countrymen, through his wife, Elsa Morejon.

Castro’s megalomania and obduracy in following a failed system has led the Cuban people to total ruin. Whether every Cuban starves and every building crumbles, doesn’t concern him. He is totally out of touch with the Cuban reality. The wrongs inflicted on the Cuban people by the Castro regime cannot be remotely linked to the current economic relations of Cuba with the rest of the world.

Castro’s terrorism in Cuba is fearsome and brutal. There is no concept of individual rights or due process. He has built a privileged ruling class based on top government officials, the security apparatus and the military. Several inmates, including Victor Rolando Arroyo and Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez, continue to protest human rights injustices from within prison walls, despite retaliatory transfers to tiny punishment cells. On April 11, 2003, after a 3-year hiatus in executions, the regime, in the course of a week, citing "serious provocations" and an alleged migrations crisis -summarily tried, convicted, and executed three young Cubans involved in an unsuccessful and bloodless hijacking.
 
In a book unpublished as of this letter, entitled "Cuba: The Human Cost of Social Revolution," Armando M. Lago (Ph.D. in Economics, Harvard University) documents a partial list of deaths caused by the Castro regime for political and military reasons.

Firing squad executions: 5,150; extra-judicial assassinations: 1,215; missing and disappeared: 205; deaths in prison of prisoners of conscience or dissidents due to brutality, lack of medical attention, suicides, and natural causes: 967; anti-Castro guerrillas killed in combat (including Escambray uprising): 1,082; Bay of Pigs combatants (invading force): 107; Cuban soldiers killed in international missions, mostly Africa: est. 12,992; perished or disappeared in illegal exit attempts, mostly rafters ("balseros"): est. 85,800; Total: 107,518. Dr. Lago points out that just alone in the exodus of 1994 by sea, more than 4,000 Cubans drowned while trying to cross the Florida straits in search of freedom.

Other researches such as Agustin Blazquez and Jaums Sutton, refer to the United Nations involvement in such documentation in "Against All Hope: The Struggle goes On." "Newsmax.com, March 21, 2002. They write: it wasn’t until that a group of United Nations Ambassadors was able to visit Cuba for 11 days and documented  "137 cases of torture, 7 disappearances, political assassinations and thousands of human rights violations." The trip was summarized in a 400-page report, which was the longest ever to appear on the agenda of the United Nations.

This 1988 report included "locking up political prisoners in refrigerated rooms; blindfolded immersions in pools; intimidation by dogs; firing squad simulations; beatings, forced labor, confinement for years in dungeons called gavetas (drawers); the use of loudspeakers with deafening sounds during hunger strikes; degradation of prisoners by forced nudity in punishment cells; withholding water during hunger strikes; forcing prisoners to present themselves in the nude before their families (to force them to accept plans for political rehabilitation); denial of medical assistance for the sick: and forcing those condemned to die to carry their own coffins and dig their own grave prior to being shot.

All this talk that the American trade embargo is "strangling" Cuba’s standard of living, is pure nonsense. The fact is that the Cuba’s economy has been devastated by Castro’s failed experiments. Frank Calzon (Miami Herald, March 14, 2002) has pointed out that one of the best kept secrets is that the trade embargo has saved U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. Because of the trade embargo, he goes on to say, American banks aren’t among the consortium of European and Canadian creditors (known as the Paris Club) which lent $11,200 millions to Castro and have been waiting for years to be paid. According to the Miami Herald (April 8, 2002) Cuba suspended payment of its debt to the Paris Club in 1986.

According to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Cuba’s foreign debt stands at $19.9 billion, not including the $24 billion owed to the defunct Soviet Union, a debt that Castro has said he will not service because the Soviet Union no longer exists. Fidel Castro has stashed more than $1.4 billion in offshore accounts (Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, 5/17/02, p. A11).

As Bert Corzo points out in his highly informative article "Si al embargo" (Cuba Net Debates, March 11, 2001) that only 10% of the commerce of Cuba with the world has been embargoed. Corzo reminds us, that it is not the embargo that concerns so much the Cuban dictator, but the inability to obtain subsidies and credits from the United States which would ultimately be footed by the American people, due to no payments or endlessly delayed payments.

Professor Jaime Suchlicki, Director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, has summarized below the consequences if the embargo is lifted:

Guarantee the continuation of the current totalitarian structures.

Strengthen state enterprises, since money will flow into businesses owned by the Cuban regime.

Lead to greater repression and control since Castro and the leadership will fear that United States influence will subvert the revolution.

Delay instead of accelerate a transition to democracy on the island.

Allow Castro to borrow from international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank. Since Cuba owes billions of dollars and has refused in the past to acknowledge or pay these debts, new loans will be wasted by Castro’s inefficient system and will be uncollectable.

Perpetuate the control that the military holds over the economy and foster the further development of mafia-type groups.

Negate the basic tenets of U.S. policy in Latin America, which emphasize democracy, human rights and market economies.

Send the wrong message to the enemies of the United States that a foreign leader can seize U.S. properties without compensation, allow the use of his territory for the introduction of nuclear missiles aimed at the U.S., espouse terrorism and anti-US causes throughout the world; and eventually the U.S. will "forget and forgive," and reward him with tourism, investments and economic aid.

In today’s Cuba, we can sadly observe the destruction of lives and wealth, as well as of a nation, simply because people lack the freedom to think, speak, and create for themselves. Cuba suffers under the rule of an aging tyrant, oblivious to an almost half a century of suffering and agony of the Cuban people. Castro will lie, betray, torture and murder to remain in power. He and his accomplices are pervasive and gross violators of human rights. 

Speaking of Castro and worldwide terrorism, allow me Mr. President to remind you that on February 24, 1996 two American civilian airplanes, belonging to Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), were ambushed and downed by missiles fired from Castro’s MiGs, murdering their crews: three U.S. citizens and a Florida resident.

This premeditated attack took place in international airspace, twenty miles north of Cuba, while these volunteers for BTTR were conducting a humanitarian search and rescue mission, to save the lives of Cuban rafters seeking freedom.

The Clinton-Gore Administration refused to initiate criminal proceedings against Castro or his accomplices, despite the fact that this crime was fully investigated and well documented by U.S. authorities and by the United Nations (ICAO). A United States Civil Court in Florida has tried the case of the shoot-down and has ruled against the Government of Cuba. Additionally, Castro himself has taken full responsibility in authorizing the attack.

Mr. President, I respectfully request from you to issue the necessary orders for the Justice Department to follow the rule of law, proceeding with the indictment of Fidel Castro, so that this unfortunate human tragedy comes to a dignified and just closure.

Respectfully yours,

Francisco Navarro
Project Director

Enclosures

Copies to: Vice President Dick Cheney
           United States Senators
           Pat Cox, President
           European Parliament

Top ^