On July 31st, 2006, the world was shocked by probably one of the weirdest announcements in history: Fidel Castro, loved by many and hated by more perhaps, but never confronted, had given up power provisionally to his brother, Raul, after 47 years since the revolution started in Cuba. After this news hit the international
community, different reactions took place.In Cuba, the largest island of the Caribbean, people were surprised and everything remained the same. Perhaps you would have heard a “gajiro” tuning a sad melody and maybe some might have be cheering underground. but very underground.
A few kilometers from this island, in Miami, Florida, the capital of Cuban exile, the reactions were very different. Cubans threw themselves into the streets cheering and celebrating this moment and making plans for the future of Cuba, free from socialism. To the unison of “Viva Cuba Libre!” (Long Live Free Cuba!), hundreds of Cubans celebrated in Little Havana and other neighborhoods. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said that this act meant that “we’re close to the end of tyranny”.
Many Cubans living on the island, though,
were upset by the celebration happening in
Miami. Some people expressed that they did
not have the right to do this, to celebrate the illness of their leader. “They demonstrate the type of heart they have”, said Maria Antonia Figueroa to the Associated Press. “What’s to be expected from this type of people that live in the US and don’t feel a thing for this country?” said Oralis Delgado, a Cuban housewife. “It’s a blood call. Is another reason why to be firm” said Rogelio Polanco, leader of the newspaper “Rebellious Youth”.
Hence, what is for us the international
community to support? The cry of despair of
the Cubans on the exile, who, as their icon
Gloria Estefan says on her hit “Mi Tierra”
(My Land), “You can’t forget your homeland,
because it has your roots and what you’ve
left behind” are eager to get their “Tierra” back from the “evil hands of Fidel”. Or the cry of justice that the majority of the Cuban people want foreigners to respect, regardless of their thoughts about the regime where they live?
I am not able to give you an answer. Nevertheless, I do believe in the self determination of peoples and their rights
to promote change or continue living in
status-quo. Some might say that Fidel’s
regime isn’t a place where someone has the right of self-determination, but isn’t this
arguable? Aren’t there “democratic” regimes
where self-determination is also diminished, as some people like to say about Cuba?Wouldn’t it be fair also to respect the thoughts of the Cubans living in Cuba, instead of always hearing the side of the story a group of people want us to believe? If Fidel’s health continues to fade away and new changes are to be made in Cuba, I would have in mind a part of the speech Fidel once gave “There are others, much more radical than me, behind me.”. Hence, it is not for us, the international impartial community, to judge over a piece of land and its future. It should be its inhabitants who choose a path.If that idea is considered communist or socialist, it should be nice to ask ourselves,are we being DEMOCRATIC by denying self determination to a group of people just because they think differently than the majority of us?