A cry for help in The Washington Post
The U.S.-Cuba relationship is fraught with partisan politics. In the U.S., Cuban-American hardliners seek to hold the Castro government accountable for old grievances. Meanwhile, pro-engagement groups are ready to put the Cold War in the past. Hardliners want voting rights immediately, while the other side is willing to patiently walk with Cuba on a journey towards democracy. The list of differences goes on.
Amidst these clashing political views, there is one policy area where both sides tend to see eye-to-eye: human rights.
According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, "the Cuban government continues to repress and punish dissent and public criticism," holding over 100 political prisoners while denying independent human rights groups access to prisons. Protestors, artists, independent journalists and other government critics on the island are often imprisoned and "re-educated." And this is only what recent history looks like – the picture is often bleaker the farther you go back in time towards the Revolution.
This week, a prominent Cuban journalist loudly criticized the Cuban government in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. Reading it feels like hearing a cry for help. In what appears to be his first English-language op-ed in the Post (he has published extensively in Post Opinión), Abraham Jiménez Enoa warns readers that "If this is my last column here, it’s because I’ve been imprisoned in Cuba."
Jiménez claims that getting roughed up by Cuban intelligence is part of his job, but the harassment has escalated in recent months. After getting strip searched, handcuffed and forced into a car by agents wearing civilian attire, he was offered an ultimatum:
"...they warned me that if I wrote one more column — meaning this one — they would take me to prison."
Yes, Jiménez balked and wrote another column. And his new piece seems to be getting international attention. The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement this week:
"Cuban authorities must immediately cease harassing and threatening journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa, and allow him and all journalists in the country to work freely."
Although the two U.S. presidential candidates have not made a statement in relation to this particular article, they have both condemned Cuba for its human rights record in the past. Vice President Joe Biden tweeted earlier this year:
The Trump administration has repeatedly used human rights as a reason to expand the decades-old embargo. Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted out new sanctions:
But these are the same words we've heard from U.S. politicians since the Cuban Revolution. In response, Cuba has done little to change. It’s possible that things in Cuba are worse than usual right now, driven in part by enormous political and economic pressure on the Cuban government. The COVID-19 recession and a colder-than-usual relationship with the U.S. and its allies are likely making the Cuban government skittish and heavy-handed.
The U.S. and other countries flying the flag of human rights should do whatever they can to help Jiménez. I'm not sure, however, that the same, old rhetoric will do. A different approach is in order, and it should look less like unilateral sanctions and more like bilateral negotiation.