Cuban opposition from 1959

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The Cuban opposition to the Castro regime from 1959 tried to achieve a transformation in Cuba against the dictatorial power elite around Fidel and Raúl Castro . In addition to educational work against the ubiquitous state propaganda, the main means of doing this are actions such as (unauthorized) demonstrations, collections of citizen interviews, collections of signatures for (later unapproved) referendums and (rejected) offers to the government for joint dialogue. These actions are not without danger for the participants, as they naturally involve a public admission of the anti-government attitude. There are also small, independent unions or libraries. Historically, there have also been violent forms of resistance, including terrorist attacks on civilian targets.

An organized opposition to the state and the party is not provided for in the Cuban political system. Political parties or civil society organizations that do not conform to the state are illegal. The task of holding down internal opposition groups and working against troublemakers falls to the police and special secret service groups . There are also specially trained paramilitary units.

There are several hundred organizations and parties, mostly consisting of only a few members, that are part of umbrella organizations such as the Asamblea Para Promover la Sociedad Civil ( Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society ), Todos Unidos ( All Together ), Convergencia Liberal Cubana ( Liberal Cuban Convergence ) or of the Frente de Unidad Nacional ( Front of National Unity ) work together, but are sometimes at odds with one another.

Opposition group women in white (2012)

Important groups are the Partido Solidaridad Democrática ( Party of Democratic Solidarity ), the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL, Christian Liberation Movement , founder: Oswaldo Payá ) or the Arco Progresista ( Spectrum of Progress ) and the Asamblea Para Promover la Sociedad led by Martha Beatriz Roque Civil en Cuba , the latter working closely with right-wing Cuban organizations in Miami, which is viewed very critically by the other large opposition groups. This difference became clear in the attitude towards the first public meeting, which was tolerated by the Cuban government, to promote Cuban civil society on May 20, 2005, chaired by Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Vladimiro Roca in Havana: the first-mentioned organizations and half of the 75 victims of the last mass arrests declared their non-participation or rejection of the political goals represented there.

Outside of Cuba, there is an active opposition among the 2 million Cuban emigrants in Miami, the most important organization of which is the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which wants to build a free democracy in Cuba in place of the dictatorship established by Fidel Castro. In addition to awareness-raising and lobbying work, some Cuban exile organizations also operated regular flight services over the Caribbean to fish Cuban refugees from the sea and bring them safely onto land. Some even flew as far as Cuba in small planes and dropped government-critical leaflets there. In February 1996, after two warnings ignored by the pilot, the government had two of these planes shot down by the Air Force over international waters, significantly worsening relations between the US and Cuba.

For the Cuban government, in principle, all opposition groups and activities are the work of US imperialism . In fact, some Cuban exile organizations in particular are close to the USA and its political system; their critics call this open or covert annexationism. The US government has earmarked US $ 15 million in the budget for 2006 alone to support Cuban opposition groups and Cuban exile organizations in Miami. In some cases, they were paid out directly to the target organizations by the US interest group in Havana or distributed through the exile organizations in Miami. These funds were increased to US $ 20 million by 2012.

On the basis of original documents from the CIA, the White House, the US State Department and the investigative committees of the US Congress, Horst Schäfer proves in his book Im Fadhreuz: Kuba , published in 2004 , that Cuba has been exposed to attacks by US governments that are in part contrary to international law since 1961 with economic sanctions, traffic and trade blockades, robberies, acts of sabotage, murder operations and other acts of terrorism tried to destabilize the political system in Cuba and bring about a "regime change" in your favor. A US agency created in 2005 in the White House, the Commission on Assistance to a Free Cuba, is supposed to coordinate the work of the various ministries against the Cuban government. Washington’s relationship with some established opposition groups is now distant, as shown by some critical US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010 : they are at odds with one another and are instead looking to secure their own standard of living through support payments from the USA. The majority of the dissidents are also over 60 years old and hardly known in the Cuban population, as a survey of Cubans applying for a US visa showed. Chief diplomat Jonathan Farrar therefore recommends that the US government rely more on the young, especially within the Communist Party , when it comes to change in Cuba .

Various Cuban members of the opposition and opposition movements have received international human rights awards. The Sakharov Prize has been awarded three times: in 2002 to Oswaldo Payá , in 2005 to the women in white and in 2010 to Guillermo Fariñas .

In April 2015, two opposition candidates ran for the first time in the local elections in constituencies in Havana, but neither received a mandate.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Insel der Extremes - Kuba im 20. Jahrhundert , 2nd edition (2004), page 331.
  2. ↑ USAID Cuba Program
  3. ↑ Top 10 reasons why USAID's Cuba programs are controversial. In: Along the Malecón . March 4, 2011, accessed May 10, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Horst Schäfer: In the crosshairs: KUBA. The long war against the pearl of the Antilles. (= Edition Contemporary History. Volume 18). Kai Homilius Verlag , Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89706-876-1 .
  5. ↑ US Embassy: Opposition mainly wants money. In: The Standard . December 17, 2010, accessed January 24, 2011 .
  6. ↑ EE UU apuesta por la juventud cubana frente a la vieja disidencia. In: El País . December 16, 2010, Retrieved December 18, 2010 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Cable en el que EE UU apuesta por la disidencia juvenil. In: El País . April 15, 2009, accessed December 18, 2010 .
  8. ↑ Havana: Oppositionists fail in local elections in Cuba. In: Spiegel Online . April 20, 2015, accessed December 31, 2015 .