National Endowment for Democracy
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Statement of Christopher A. Sabatini
Senior Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean
National Endowment for Democracy 		House Committee on International Relations
Hearing on Human Rights in Cuba
April 16, 2003

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for inviting me to testify on the human rights situation in Cuba and the recent crackdown on democratic activists. I would also like to take this time to thank the Committee’s bi-partisan support for the National Endowment for Democracy which has allowed the Endowment to carry out its work.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a nonprofit, bipartisan grant-making organization created in 1983 to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts. With its annual Congressional appropriation, the Endowment makes hundreds of grants each year to support pro-democracy groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Middle East, and Latin America. Endowment programs in the areas of labor, free-market and political party development are conducted by the NED’s four core institutes: The American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). In addition to these areas, the NED has a discretionary grants program that assists pro-democracy organizations abroad doing work in areas such as: human rights, independent media and free flow of information, civic education, and participation particularly focused on women and youth.

The detention and sentencing of the 75 individuals to prison sentences ranging from six to twenty eight years is only the most recent, but shockingly bold, example of the Cuban government’s contempt for internationally recognized human rights and its desire to snuff out independent civic and political voices. In presenting the evidence in the trials, the Cuban government cited as proof of defendants’ treachery such innocuous possessions as a typewriter, articles published in the foreign press, laptops, fax machines and human rights materials. Only under a government scared of dissent could such items be considered subversive. There is no doubt that regardless of the timing of this crackdown, these acts are those of an intolerant government that has come to feel threatened by a growing, peaceful movement that it could not control, by a people that have overcome fear.

Just the sheer variety of the 75 individuals who have been sentenced demonstrates the broad popularity and roots of the independent movement. Included in the 75 individuals were 40 activists in the Varela Project, 25 independent journalists, and eight independent labor activists. Many of these individuals were also active doing other things such as collecting books and materials and making them available to the public in an informal library system and helping their communities. While these actions by the government represent a terrible setback in human terms, it is important to note that many of the organizations which these individuals lead or in which they participated continue. Ten or even five years ago a wave of repression of this sort would have decapitated the democratic movement. But today these groups are diverse enough and strong enough, and their commitment to the cause remains more powerful than ever that these expressions for peaceful change cannot be extinguished so easily. The expressions of support that they are receiving from international organizations and governments have also provided a source of inspiration to many of them, telling them that they are not alone or forgotten.

These expressions of protest to the government and solidarity with independent activists are one of the clearest signs of how far the democratic and human rights organizations have come after over 40 years of life under a totalitarian system. Letters to Fidel Castro protesting the detentions and the sentences have poured in from countries from around the world such as Spain, Sweden, France, and Canada and from dozens of human rights organizations.

Independent Labor Unions:

One of the groups affected by the crackdown was the growing independent labor movement in Cuba. Eight of the 75 dissidents detained came from the independent labor movement in Cuba that in recent years had grown to include three major independent unions and four independent libraries dedicated to labor and labor rights-related information. The Cuban government dismisses these unions as small groups of counterrevolutionaries that have no popular support. But the numbers tell otherwise.

In 1998 the Single Council of Cuban Workers (CUTC), one of the leading independent unions, gathered over 400 signatures of Cuban workers in a request for membership before the World Confederation of Labor. Today the CUTC boasts over 3,500 members in 14 states, and, as a result of its petition, is affiliated with the World Confederation of Labor. Another independent labor organization in Cuba, the National Independent Workers’ Confederation of Cuba (CONIC), has over 1,400 members throughout Cuba, including representatives from the chemical industry, education, and health sectors.

For the last three years, these groups have been preparing an annual report on labor rights violations under International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions to which the Cuban government is a signatory. Cuban law establishes the government union, the Cuban Workers’ Central (CTC), as the sole representative of the Cuban worker and gives the CTC sole discretion in the allocation of jobs. This monopoly over workers rights and labor representation stands in violation of two ILO conventions: convention 87 on the freedom of association and the right to form labor unions and convention 98 on the right of workers to collective bargaining.

Both of these internationally recognized rights are, by the very structure of the system, violated in Cuba. Workers are not allowed under Cuban law to organize themselves into any unions other than the CTC, and attempts to do so will lead to dismissal. Cuban workers also have no control over their own labor. Instead, wages are negotiated behind closed doors. In the case of international ventures, international investors pay the government directly for Cuba labor. The Cuban government then pays the Cuban workers on average less than 10 percent of the funds received for their labor. Such is the workers’ paradise in Cuba, and for the last three years independent unions have been documenting this and relaying it to the ILO.

It should not be surprising then that they were the target of the government’s wrath. In the trials of the dissidents, the government revealed that it had sent security agents to infiltrate the independent labor movement. Two of the supposed leaders were in fact Cuban state security agents sent to gather information on members and inform on their activities. (The trials revealed over four different state security agents who over the last ten years had worked undercover as independent journalists, human rights activists and labor leaders.) Long used as a tactic to gather information on opponents and to sow distrust among the population, the infiltration of an independent labor movement demonstrated again the Cuban government’s contempt for international labor conventions and workers’ rights.

As a result of their activities, eight of the leaders of the independent labor movement were detained and seven were sentenced. These included:

* Pedro Pablo Álvarez Ramos, Secretary General of the Single Council of Cuban Workers (CUTC);

* Iván Hernández Carrillo, member of the executive committee of the National Independent Workers’ Confederation of Cuba (CONIC);

* Carmelo Díaz Fernández, member of the executive committee of the CUTC

* Nelson Molinet Espino, Secretary General of the Confederation of Democratic Workers of Cuba (CTDC);

* Oscar Espinosa Chepe member of the CUTC; and

* Miguel Galvan and Víctor Manuel Domínguez García both of the National Center for Labor and Union Training.

The sentences handed down by the Cuban courts total 145 years in prison, with sentences ranging from 15 to 25 years in prison. Five of the labor leaders received sentences of 20 years in prison. Given their ages, for many of these people these sentences in effect amount to life sentences.

Yet despite the arrests leaders have already come forward to courageously continue the fight for the rights of Cuban workers. These groups are continuing to collect information for ILO reports, are gathering materials (and requesting support) to reestablish independent labor libraries, and organize efforts to train Cuban citizens in labor rights.

International support for these individuals and their situation has been impressive. All over the world, national and international labor unions and federations are voicing their opposition to the repression and their solidarity with independent labor leaders. As of yesterday, the following unions had added their voices to the cries of indignation over what has occurred in Cuba: the Union Confederation of Italian Workers of Italy; the French trade union federation; the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU); the Inter-American Regional Workers’ Organization (ORIT); the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers from Venezuela; the General Central of Guatemalan Workers (CGTC), and in the U.S. the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers.

Recommendations:

The U.S. must be very careful in deciding how to respond to these acts and the increased tension. Many observers have speculated that the Cuban government is attempting to provoke a reaction from the U.S. that could allow it to clamp down even further. Steps must be taken not to sacrifice the avenues and channels that have allowed U.S. and international organizations to develop contacts with the independent sectors within Cuba. At a time when the international community has demonstrated remarkable unity in denouncing these egregious acts of the regime and standing behind democratic activists, the U.S. should encourage foreign governments and international groups to continue their protest of the government, and avoid tactics that may undermine their support. At the same time, the U.S. should help ensure that condemnation of the repression and solidarity is maintained well after the shock of these arrests passes.

The U.S. should work in coordination with international groups to do two things:

1) provide help to those who have been sentenced in an attempt to gain their immediate release; and

2) explore new ways to demonstrate solidarity and internationally expand contacts for independent civil society groups and those in prison.

In short, any action should take as its primary purpose directly helping the democracy movement. Punishment of the regime or a unilateral confrontation that ignores the people inside and their struggle, will only, over the long term, weaken Cuba’s emerging democratic leadership.

To these ends, working with international partners and multilateral forums is essential. Active support by the U.S for a condemnation of Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) will help to bring international opprobrium to the regime. The ILO can also serve as another important forum. The ICFTU recently submitted a complaint to the ILO, citing the state infiltration of independent unions and the arrest of independent labor leaders. The U.S. and its partners should also explore other actions that can be taken in other organizations and processes in which Cuba is a participant, such as the IberoAmerican Summit process. In this case, conditions in Cuba and the recent crackdown are in flagrant violation of the Viña del Mar agreement which Cuba signed in November 1996.

Because the Cuban government prohibits independent news and information, most Cuban citizens live in a virtual informational vacuum. Citizens should be made aware of these actions and the international reactions to them so that they can realize how the international community supports their aspirations for freedom and will not stand idly by as the regime cracks down.

As we have seen, the Castro regime has attempted to justify its actions and undermine the credibility of these groups by arguing that they were supported by the U.S. But as the international community has recognized and demonstrated, these groups are a legitimate expression of Cubans and their demands for human rights and political freedom. With these egregious acts, Fidel Castro has managed to unite the international community in its condemnation of his regime. This is a rare opportunity for collective action that should be nurtured. The Castro government and those within his regime who may be waiting for change need to realize that, despite Iraq, the world is watching and it stands united in its solidarity with the democratic movement and desire for peaceful democratic change in Cuba.

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