On July 11 and 12, more than 187,000 citizens demonstrated peacefully across the island to demand freedom and democracy in Cuba.
If we, as Canadians, are friends of the Cuban people, then we should listen to their voices. It is time for Canada to lead an international initiative to publicly condemn and take action against the serious human rights violations perpetrated by the Cuban regime against peaceful protesters.
It is unacceptable that the Trudeau government has not taken a firm stand against the arbitrary detentions, terrible police surveillance, torture and politically motivated imprisonment perpetrated against dissident artists, journalists and activists in Cuba. .
In 2016, a year after taking office, Justin Trudeau said he reaffirmed “our commitment – as individuals and as a country – to the protection and promotion of human rights around the world.”
However, the Trudeau government’s record has not matched its rhetoric. Canada must live up to this historic moment and rethink its foreign policy towards Cuba, understanding that Cubans deserve to live in democracy.
I recently met a group of Cuban-Canadians in Parliament. They expressed to me the need for an urgent change in Canadian foreign policy because Canadian tourism and investment help consolidate the one-party state of Cuba, as well as the entire repressive apparatus.
Their perspectives have given me a better understanding of the role Canada should play at a time when the Cuban people demand freedom and democracy. During our discussions, they asked me a question worthy of reflection: “If you knew that your vacation in Cuba helps to strengthen the system that persecutes and sends innocent artists and journalists to prison, would you still go to Cuba?” “?
Canada, the main source of tourism and a key investor on the island, should think about how it is helping to strengthen the Cuban regime. Canadians should be aware that there is no possible way to spend or invest money in Cuba without enriching and supporting the Cuban government.
The Cuban army, through its GAESA holding company, controls an important part of the Cuban tourist economy: hotels, financial institutions, import / export companies, transport, etc. According to Bloomberg, it is estimated that in 2015, GAESA dominated between 50% and 80% of commercial revenue in Cuba.
Contrary to what the Cuban regime claims, the money Canadians spend in Cuba does not help improve the lives of Cubans, but rather funds the regime’s crackdown.
Global Fire Power says Cuba has the sixth largest paramilitary force in the world, which is mobilized to monitor and suppress human rights activists, journalists, artists and critics. Meanwhile, an island doctor with two specialties earns CA $ 310 per month, a salary far lower than the CA $ 357 per month earned by a correctional non-commissioned officer without a high school diploma.
In addition, Cuban tourism revenues are disproportionately invested in building businesses and hotels, and not in education, public health or social assistance programs.
As the Cuban military plans to invest in building 90,000 hotel rooms by 2030, people are suffering from a lack of food, medicine and oxygen in hospitals, and Cuba is going through the worst wave of COVID-19 to date.
At the same time, people are suffering from lack of ambulances, supposedly due to lack of fuel; However, the regime has sufficient resources to mobilize its paramilitary forces in caravans of trucks, vans and buses, used for the arbitrary arrests of thousands of peaceful protesters after the July 11 protests.
With the above in mind, I urge Canadians to ask why we should be spending our money in a country whose government is using it not to improve the lives of its people, but to suppress them and retain power for a while. decades.
Canadians are known around the world as human rights defenders.
Como senador que defiende la libertad y la democracia en todo el mundo, me he compromised a crear conciencia entre mis compatriotas sobre las implicaciones morales y éticas de gastar nuestro dinero en Cuba, que es una hermosa isla gobernada por un regimen político depredador de los derechos People.
Here in Canada, the Conservatives publicly support the pro-democracy movement in Cuba and condemn the regime’s brutal crackdown on its people.
A conservative government: “I would support the Cuban people in their struggle for the democracy and the freedom they deserve”, as its platform says. We understand that for a democratic and peaceful movement to triumph in Cuba, Canadian solidarity and assistance are necessary. The Cuban people deserve our support and I think we must be ready to give it to them.
“Coffeeaholic. Lifelong alcohol fanatic. Typical travel expert. Prone to fits of apathy. Internet trailblazer.”