"THE Revolution has abandoned its principles, if it ever had them, of
building a more just society, and has condemned Cubans to a fierce fight
for their lives at the most primitive level -- obtaining food."
--Vicente Botín, Los funerales de Castro (Castro's Funeral).
President Obama recently removed restrictions on travel and remittances
to Cuba by Cuban-Americans. U.S.- Cuba discussions have begun on other
issues such as immigration. Congressional initiatives to relax further
or to eliminate the U.S. embargo entirely have been announced for Fall
2009, including expanding the right to travel to Cuba by all U.S. citizens.
The business sector has long advocated an end to the embargo, and there
is considerable interest on the part of U.S. investors to begin
operations on the island, as well as offshore.
However, here's the rub: the current Cuban labor system is in violation
of internationally recognized human and labor rights. The Cuban
government believes that because of increasing domestic and
international pressures, the U.S. will be forced to lift the embargo
unilaterally, without concessions of any kind by Cuba.
At the very least, then, investors from the U.S. and other countries
will need to consider precedents such as the Unocal and Curaçao Drydock
ruling under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) of 1789, whereby federal
"district courts have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an
alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a
Treaty of the United States."
Courts hearing cases brought under ATCA have interpreted the statute to
grant U.S. courts jurisdiction over tortuous acts that occur anywhere in
the world, provided that those acts violate international law. The ATCA
is also called the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that,
"...allowed non-U.S. citizens to seek redress in American courts
for torts considered violations of the law of nations: piracy, attacks
on ambassadors and the right of safe passage."
In October 2008, a court entered the first corporate ATCA judgment --
$80 million to three Cuban workers trafficked to work in the nation of
Curaçao for a Dutch dry dock company.
According to the law firm, Grossman Roth, P.A., the landmark case was
"the first time a U.S. Court has held a company doing business with Cuba
liable for forced labor and human rights abuses committed in concert
with the Cuban state."
Alberto Rodriguez-Licea, one of the plaintiffs who spoke on behalf of
the three, said,
"We hope that today's historic judgment means that no Cuban worker
will ever have to suffer the same humiliation and inhumane treatment
that we experienced. We are overwhelmed by the generosity of so many
people who have worked very hard to help bring our oppressors to justice."
In Cuba, not only is the labor market a disaster (see the trailer above
for the new independent film "Under Cuban Skies"), the whole economy is
currently in the throes of a severe crisis. The national GDP, overly
reliant upon nickel, remittances, tourism and Venezuelan foreign aid,
has been battered by the worldwide financial recession. In addition, two
devastating hurricanes in 2008 wreaked widespread damage upon the island
nation.
However, in the midst of this crisis, if the Cuban government wishes to
take advantage of opportunities offered through the lifting of the
embargo, it will be forced to undertake profound reforms, at least
encompassing its labor practices.
At virtually the same time, changes in leadership in Cuba in 2008 and in
the United States in 2009, foretell a "new beginning" in U.S-Cuba
relations which could eventually lead to greater respect for human and
labor rights as well as to sustainable economic development in Cuba. In
addition, each year of late, Americans report diminishing domestic
support for the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
Two years ago this week, the "new leader" of Cuba, Raúl Castro, urged
Cuban citizens to debate openly their nation's problems. Hopeful Cubans
took him up on his offer. A growing number of journalists, labor
leaders, as well as founders of independent libraries, pressed their
demands for freedom and an end to the government's suffocating monopoly
over virtually every aspect of life.
The government ordered a token relaxation of its restrictions by
granting Cubans the right to purchase electric items such as microwaves,
cell phones, and computers, and for the first time the right to
patronize modern hotels. Until now, all of the above were inaccessible
to ordinary Cubans and reserved only for tourists.
The relaxation of limitations on computer and cell phone use has
resulted, predictably, in a rise in the number of dissident Cuban
bloggers. The world renowned Yoani Sánchez, who blogs as Generación Y,
has led the clarion call for labor reform and liberty in Cuba:
"I arrived at this medicine that would 'cure a horse' after
verifying that the Internet was the only opening through which an
alternative, critical and inconvenient opinion could 'jump the fence' of
censorship in Cuba. The examples around me of those thrown out,
isolated, and incarcerated warned me that differences of opinion
continue to be penalized. But the inquisitors grow older and their
methods do not develop at the same speed as technology. So, there was
the Internet, still without laws to prevent the posting of opinions,
like an unregulated zone, a crack that opened up in the wall."
Cuban dissidents have been calling attention to the problem since the
mid-1990s, but even now it seems to have gotten very little attention in
the business community or in the U.S. Congress.
On a trip to Cuba I took a few weeks ago, I witnessed the well-known
Cuban dissidents "Las Damas de Blanco" (The Ladies in White) marching
down Fifth Avenue in Havana after Sunday Mass. In what has traditionally
been a silent protest of the unjust incarceration of their loved ones
and the lack of fundamental freedoms in Cuba turned vocal.
"Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!" shouted the ladies in unison as they
stood abreast of one another with raised flowers and impassioned voices.
Other potential witnesses in any labor dispute are the Cuban doctors who
have defected from Cuba during their internationalist missions in
Venezuela and in other countries.
Awareness must be raised in the international community as to how the
expectations of thoughtful, courageous and "independent" Cubans can help
the U.S. and other countries arrive at a new, respectful relationship
with Cuba - a relationship based on greater freedom for the Cuban people
and on a realistic agenda for meaningful and sustainable development.
Today, the interests of international business, the U.S. government, and
the Cuban populace coalesce around a single ideal: labor reform in Cuba.
The Obama administration and the United Nations have a fleeting
opportunity to embrace and encourage greater awareness of human and
labor rights in Cuba and pave the way for meaningful change on the
island only ninety miles from our shores. They must seize that
opportunity now.
Luis Carlos Montalván is a member of the Council for Emerging National
Security Affairs (CENSA) and consulted on the forthcoming documentary
film, "Under Cuban Skies - Workers and their Rights."
Luis Carlos Montalván: 21st Century Slaves: Cuba and Obama's Hope (27
July 2009)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/luis-carlos-montalvan/21st-century-slaves-cuba_b_245559.html
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