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Walter Lippmann : (Comprehensive interview in which the Cuban ambassador to Guatemala takes easy and difficult questions. Spanish posted on website.) ===================================================================== Cuban Vice Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez, came to Guatemala to take part in the Caribbean States' Organization Summit. He compared Cuba, Guatemala and Latin America. However, he scarcely addressed the issue of Fidel Castro's health. =================================================== A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1127.html =================================================== The Sunday edition of El Periodico February 11, 2007 on Cuba's eternal dilemma. Juan Luis Font: What benefits will Cuba's resumption of diplomatic relations with Guatemala bring? Bruno Rodriguez: Normal diplomatic relations allows better communication between the two governments, although the profound relations between the two peoples were never lost, as was the dialog with the country's foremost political forces. JLF: What areas were not addressed during that time? BR: We had little trade (with Guatemala) although that has the possibility to grow with a wide range of products. Moreover, there's an important relationship in the fields of medicine, sports and education. I see opportunities to benefit from the Latin American and Caribbean integration process. JLF: Is Cuba pleased with the work of the (Cuban) medical brigades in Guatemala? BF: We are extremely pleased. I had the honor of heading a large Cuban medical mission to Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake. It spent six months there and left thirty-two hospitals and 1,500 doctors. Among the 1,500 were doctors who had been in Guatemala to help the victims of (Hurricane) Stan. JLF: How is it that a poor nation like Cuba can offer this assistance? BF: Cuba has developed a large amount in human capital. We have trained more than seventy thousand doctors and our country only required thirty thousand. We don't limit the number of those who want to be doctors and we don't give charity. This is embedded in the principle of helping others who have a need in something as valuable as saving lives and health. JLF: How does Cuba pay for all of this? BF: We have centralized planning and our budget derives from taxes. Our GNP grows at a rate of twelve percent annually. JLF: How has the Socialist model varied in Cuba? Does the (Cuban) government allow small business? BF: Some workers do have their own private businesses, but they must remain a small enterprise. This has proved a good experience. However, the government does not provide credit or participate in the venture. JLF: What does an annual twelve percent growth in the GNP do for the Cuba people? BF: As opposed to the rest of Latin America, when we speak of growth we say that you get half a chicken per person vs someone getting two chickens while someone else goes hungry. In other countries with a three percent annual GNP, the greater part of this goes into two or three pockets. Our economic growth does not mean that we have a buoyant economy. We have emerged from a crisis in which we lost thirty-five percent of our GNP in three years. We had enormous financial problems, above all caused by the North American blockade and the rising price of oil. JLF: Will the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (ALBA) survive when the U.S. has signed free-trade agreements with several Latin American nations? BF: We live in difficult times. We have emerged from a decade of savage neo-liberalism. The United States imposes its power and domination today, while our (Latin American) peoples have practically nothing. We don't even have a common understanding regarding the debt that has been repaid many times over. We are separated, isolated in negotiations with very powerful counterparts, above all, the United States that has no compassion, the least sense of justice and sees us with a racist and colonialist view. At the same time I see an opportunity: the United States is going through its own leadership crisis. JLF: What points to that crisis? BF: The role of the United States has never been questioned, not even during the war in Vietnam, as it carries out neo-fascist policies. It engages in brutal deception, publicly admits to torture, eliminates the right of habeas corpus, spies on its citizens, maintains an illegal prison on a small piece of usurped Cuban territory, and is experiencing growing social differences and pockets of poverty. It is a country that in the face of hurricane Katrina told the people of New Orleans, 'Get out of there'. We were so very moved to see the suffering of Louisiana's poorest that I suggested that in the name of the Cuban government we send doctors there. It distresses me to realize that that many of those who died there could have been saved. These are the reasons that indicate the United States' (Government) is facing a profound crisis of leadership. JLF: How does this offer hope? BR: Its scheme of neo-liberalism has failed. For any politician in Latin America to win an election, he must disassociate himself from the policy of neo-liberalism. Moreover, is see progress in Latin America, governments more oriented to social issues, such as the Bolivarian revolution or the vindication of the indigenous peoples in Bolivia, or a president like Rafael Correa in Ecuador. The Latin American Free Trade Area exploited the people and failed. It's true that the United States has made some bilateral trade agreements, but ALBA has greater possibilities. JLF: Do the Cuban people hold such a negative view of the United States? BR: Our people have a profound understanding that the North American people are not the enemy. We don't harbor the least anti-North American feelings. It's the policies of the U.S. government that we reject. There have even been moments when dialog was possible. Fidel Castro has always maintained his willingness to hold talks without conditions. This was reiterated by Raul and some papers picked it up as a change in (Cuban) policy. That's not the case. We are willing to discuss anything, even compensation for (expropriated) United States property in Cuba. What is not up for discussion with Washington or anyone else is Cuba's independence and sovereignty. JLF: Your government is not willing to discuss internal affairs and that includes imprisoned journalists. BR: Who says there are imprisoned journalists? JLF: Reporters Without Borders. BR: Are you familiar with Reporters Without Borders? Do you believe them? JLF: They've defended many (journalists) in Guatemala in similar circumstances. BR: And what has Reporters Without Borders done about journalists in Iraq? This organization has done nothing. JLF: The point is 'why are there journalists in jail in Cuba?' BR: Journalism has become a very risky business. Many have died in Iraq. Have you ever heard of a journalist being killed in Cuba? Have you ever heard of a journalist being tortured in Cuba? JLF: I have heard that there are journalists in Cuban jails. BR: There is not a single journalist in prison in Cuba for expressing his opinion. JLF: Who are the ones in jail, then? Who are the ones who disagree with the system and want to express their opinions? BR: Not them, either. There is a large campaign against Cuba. There are groups in my country whom you cannot call journalist or dissidents. They are paid. They are United States mercenaries, organized and financed by the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. Is it normal for a journalist to freely come and go in a foreign embassy? These people do. They can come and go as they please. Cuba is a nation living under a U.S. blockade in extreme conditions. Posada Carriles placed a bomb in Havana and that country (U.S.) is protecting him. Cuba is living with aggression against it and has the right to protect itself. JLF: Does that protection necessitate not allowing publication of a Cuban daily newspaper with notes or articles that reflect criticism of the system? BR: While I was editor of the daily Juventud Rebelde, we published many critical pieces. JLF: Criticisms that called for the regime change? BR: No, I never received anything like that. But if I had I would not have published it, just like El Nuevo Herald (Miami) won't publish anything favorable to Cuba, and just as your paper decides what it will and will not print. There is no paper in the world that is as free as you paint it. JLF: But we're speaking of your country. BR: I'm not a partisan of an unrestricted press. There is no such paper anywhere. Throughout the Iraq war, there has been shameful press coverage. JLF: Why is it that a government like Cuba's finds it inadmissible that some, even though they don't applaud what the United States is doing, question the lack of freedom on the Island? BR: That is legitimate. JLF: But that's what they do in Europe, and Cuba considers it a wrong. They (the EU) call for freedom for the opposition. BR: We must be more precise here. To begin with, there are criticisms published in Cuba. For example, there is the case of Saramago (Portuguese Nobel Prize winning author). In my humble opinion, your position toward Cuba reflects a lack of information concerning the situation in the country. In my country there is no opposition that seeks to achieve power the usual way. Cuba has always lived the dramatic dilemma since Marti's time: Annexation or Independence. That's all. JLF: So that sums it up? BR: What would happen in Guatemala if one day the United States should blockade you and the GNP drops thirty-five percent? Cuba survived it without the army taking to the streets aiming their weapons at the people. There's an enormous consensus for our independence and the people understand that the dilemma is either support the revolution or the United States. Having said that, if you say that you don't like the Cuban press, I can also say that I don't particularly like yours. To understand Cuba, you have to read a book. JLF: What book? BR: Guillermo Rodriguez's 'Los caminos de la Mar Oceana'. [Paths of the Oceana Sea] It offers an extraordinary view of the Cuban soul. 'He says that Cubans won't follow a fool; Cubans will only follow someone who they trust'. How can you explain, then, Fidel's leadership? The people remained united throughout the 'Special Period', when the daily caloric intake was severely reduced and public transportation collapsed. JLF: Perhaps it is explained by good police work. BR: Let's see your evidence. Show me one tank in the streets, a single policeman beating someone, riot police. JLF: People spy on their neighbors in their communities. [He's referring to the CDR's, the block committees.] BR: Of the eleven million Cubans (you're saying that) six spy on five? I'm not saying that there aren't those who are critical, but the vast majority if asked to vote between Bush and Fidel would elect Fidel. (In an election between) a restricted independence and annexation, they would choose independence. They clearly understand that a future for their children is linked to the future of the revolution. That's why Cuba can send thirty thousand doctors to work in other countries and they choose to return home at the end of their mission. JLF: But there are many Cubans who come to Guatemala and don't return. [Tr: An aside: There was an article on the number of those doctors who defected and the percentage was 0.017 percent who did not return. WOW. Yeah, it's a big problem.] BR: There are very few. Do you know how many Cubans have come through here? There is a migratory potential in Cuba, but of the professionals who leave on special missions, fewer than one percent stay behind. JLF: Is this dilemma between independence and annexation valid for the rest of Latin America? BR: Every people must find its own path. I just believe that Latin America will not be able to solve their problems without independence. We'll have to see if they can develop within the capitalist system, but up to this point I see no positive example of that. JLF: Chile and Costa Rica? BR: Costa Rica is faced with serious problems. There is great social exclusion. They call Chile a miracle, but that's not so. Its economy grows while poverty also grows. JLF: Chile has been very efficient in reducing poverty. BR: According to my statistics, that's not true. Chile also suffers from a great deal of social exclusion and one of the most ineffective distributions of wealth. Guatemala, Sunday, February 11, 2007 Copyright 2007 Aldea Global, S.A. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
