Cuba Trip Report

April 12, 2011


From: ABIP USA


Open Letter to former President Jimmy Carter


I was hoping that before you end your time in this world and in this great country that gave you such rights and privileges that you would in fact truly promote democracy in Cuba. You again visited Cuba, at the invitation of a dictator, without even one representative of the Cuban-American community that for five decades has sought democracy in Cuba. Emory University and your funders have given you great opportunities and I urge you, and Emory, to think about the rights of all peoples, not just yours, to elect and challenge their leaders.

I was sickened to read your Cuba trip report that not once, but twice, blames the program for democracy promotion under the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. Democracy comes first Mr. President and is not negotiable. As a former President you should be the first to promote it.

After 50 years of the totalitarian regime 90 miles south of this country, it is clear that, without political freedoms, the Cuban people will never have the economic freedoms to allow them to feed themselves and their families. The day that non-government private businesses can trade with a US business, we will be right behind you to end the embargo. Don’t you understand that is why the Cuban people are suffering—because the government prohibits individuals from producing and trading with the rest of the world? Not even in China is there such economic repression.

It was also sickening to hear you belittle the work of Alan Gross saying that the Jewish people had had no substantive contact with Alan Gross and that they have “adequate” internet communications. If in fact they have such adequate communications why would Mr. Gross have risked his life trying to bring equipment to improve internet communications? Why would this be a crime even if his attempt failed where he “had no substantive contact with the Jewish People?” Do you really believe that the Jewish people, or any people in Cuba, have the freedom to tell you the truth? Isn’t a conviction and 15 year sentence for having a simple piece of communications equipment sufficient proof?

You then state that “American citizens are deprived of the right to visit Cuba?” You make that statement without even mentioning one of the endless rights that Cuban citizens are deprived of. It makes it all the more apparent that your efforts in Cuba had little to do with the rights of the Cuban people, as you fail to mention even the very basic human rights that Cuban people are denied. How dare you report the Gross was convicted for “acts against the independence of the state” and then report that the trial of the Cuban Five, in the fairest courts in the world, “were considered to be biased by a U.S. appellate court.”

Alas, you brag that Raul told the press that he ‘agreed with everything that President Carter said.’ Really? I am fearful for Cuba and this country on what you might have said Mr. President but let me assure you that the minority of Cuban-Americans will not “fade” until Cuba is free.

Elena Merino

Alpharetta, Georgia