[News] Cuba & the Ladies in White
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Apr 7 16:20:12 EDT 2010
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaritta-alarcon/ladies-in-white_b_527517.html>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaritta-alarcon/ladies-in-white_b_527517.html
Ladies in White
Margarita Alarcon
April 7, 2010
People, in general, have to be entitled to
protest, disagree, and feel at liberty to
complain. Whether these individuals, with
something to complain about, wear one particular
form of garb or another, and whether they carry
daisies, signs, or gladiolas is of no difference.
This said, it is my humble opinion that the self
proclaimed Ladies in White, of the Cuban counter
revolution, should be allowed a space where they
may complain about whatever and whomever they
deem appropriate. Just as long as they, and the
people they encounter along the way abide by rules of civility.
Protests have been common place for ages. All
over the world, groups of people and
organizations go through a standard process
before staging any kind of march, protest or
manifestation. Usually, the process includes
applying for permits or licenses by which city or
town governments, or the police, issue
authorization. After authorization, these groups
or individuals are allotted a date, a timetable,
and a space where in they may do all the protesting they desire.
In the early 1990s I recall ultra right wing
Cuban Americans from the New Jersey area
protesting my father's presence in New York City,
Cuba's role at the Security Council in the UN,
and our nation's rational view (pretty much
unique in those days), regarding President Bush
Sr.'s invasion of Kuwait. Those protestors
organized themselves and marched from one end of
Lexington Avenue, starting a little below 38th
street, all the way up towards East Harlem. They
stopped short of reaching the upper East Side
because it is a known fact in NYC that the Cuban
American community of NJ takes the Dominican
community of Washington Heights, the Boricuas of
Spanish Harlem, and the African Americans of
Harlem very seriously. Those social groups would
always organize a counter march in favor of the Cubans.
In a previous post I mentioned that Cuba has more
than enough to protest about and more than enough
to get out in the media. The husbands of these
Ladies in White have been accused of being
sponsored by a foreign government by using the
funds allotted to Cubans on the island. These
funds are intended to create a "social
opposition" within the so called "independent
civil society," and to "identify the adequate
means in order to put a quick end to the Cuban
regime and organize the transition."
Funds during the Bush Jr. administration rose
from 3.5 million yearly to 20 million and
continue at that level today. These ladies, whose
husbands have been sentenced to prison terms for
being accused of acting on behalf of the
interests of a foreign government logically have
as much right as the next person to be annoyed.
They will of course want to make their feelings
known, even when members of their families were
caught red handed. They have the same right to
protest as the Cuban government does. They have
the right to take punitive action against
nationals working at the bequest of the United
States- which coincidentally is gravely punished
and prohibited by the US itself.
So, let the protests begin. Let the Cuban
government allow for them to take place, by
granting these ladies a permit to do so. Of
course, with proper police security to warn off
any onlookers who deem it appropriate to heckle,
push, shove, or whatever aggressive lime lighting attitude may play about.
I then would request that the foreign press,
Amnesty International, and the rest of the
political and non political organizations out
there, cover the much less publicized protests of
the thousands of Cubans on the island who want an
end to 50 years of economic, political, cultural
and scientific punishment. Or end the acts of
sabotage and terrorism that the island and all of
the people outside of the island have been
subject to for the past 50 years. This is
including but not exclusive to acts such as the
murder of Carlos Muñíz Varela, a 26 year old
Cuban American shot and killed in San Juan Puerto
Rico. Or multiple bombings in the city of Miami,
against the places of work of individual's hoping
to reconcile with the government on the island.
Or acts of sabotage, like the downing of a Cuban
civilian aircraft with 73 passengers on board.
More to the point, these Ladies in White protest
their husband's incarceration and they want them
home. There is a lesser known group of ladies in
Cuba, not because they have less reason or
passion, but simply because they get less coverage and demand less attention.
This other group of ladies is smaller in size and
they too have reason to protest. They do not wear
white and they do not carry flowers. They carry
the conviction of their truths and the truths of
their husbands. More importantly, the truth of an
entire nation - including that of the infamous Ladies in White.
These are the wives, mothers, and daughters of
the Cuban Five. Five men imprisoned for the past
decade in the United States for fighting the same
acts of hatred which the Cuban nation has been
dealing with for the past 50 years. They did not
act on behalf of a foreign government. They were
not in the United States to topple the government
there, or "take steps directed at training,
developing and strengthening of the opposition
and civil society." They were there to help
protect both the people of Cuba and the people in
the US who believe that a better reality across the straights is possible.
Follow Margarita Alarcon on Twitter:
<http://www.twitter.com/Maggichu>www.twitter.com/Maggichu
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