In January 1999, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, leading Cuban dissident, Elizardo Sanchez, was interviewed by Patricia Grogg of IPS. She wrote:
In his assessment of the last four decades, Elizardo acknowledged the existence of positive elements that should be preserved, and which have led ''the majority of the Cuban people to support the Revolution''....
Among the positive things, he mentioned literacy, agrarian and urban reforms, universal education and health care, and ''above all, the cultivation of a sense of solidarity among people'' and ''a reinforcement of the feelings of independence and national dignity that still endure".
While his praise is far from unqualified, this public support for the Revolution must be frustrating for dissidents in their up-hill struggle for the hearts and minds of the Cuban people who, it seems, have much to lose. They have only to look around at their Caribbean and Latin American neighbours to see this.
According to the April 12, 2000 NBC News Report, "CIA: Most Cubans loyal to homeland," the internal opposition movement there is very small and has almost no public support. It reports:
There is no indication, U.S. officials say, of any nascent rebellion about to spill into the streets, no great outpouring of support for human rights activists in prison. In fact, there are fewer than 100 activists on the island and a support group of perhaps 1,000 more, according to U.S. officials.
Also, according to an article, "Dissidents Wage Lonely Battle in Castro's Cuba," in the Washington Post, July 16, 2000:
In a dozen interviews, political dissidents, other Cubans estranged from the state system and diplomats said they believe that as many as three-quarters of those who join opposition organizations are government agents or opportunists looking for a quick arrest so they can obtain refugee status from the United States as a "persecuted" person. According to one long-term dissident leader, there may be no more than 500 genuine opposition activists.
The so-called dissident movement, to the extent that it is noticed at all, is often seen in Cuba as paid agents of US imperialism. That this is the case, is confirmed by none other than former head of the US Interest Section in Havana, Wayne Smith (1):
We [in the USA] aren't really interested in democracy and human rights. We just use those words to hide our true reasons....
Since 1985, we have stated publicly that we will encourage and openly finance dissident and human rights groups in Cuba; this, too, is in our interests. The United States isn't financing all those groups--only the ones that are best known internationally.
Those dissidents and human rights groups in Cuba--that are nothing but a few people--are only important to the extent that they serve us in a single cause: that of destabilizing Fidel Castro's regime.
More recently, in January 2007, Patricia Grogg of IPS reported that, "Splintered and voiceless, Cuba's dissident movement has failed to unyoke itself from U.S. policy towards this socialist country." Eight years later, she quotes a still very frustrated Elizardo Sanchez (see above):
Most people in the movement for human rights and democracy [sic] see the United States, the great republic to the North, as an ally, a friend, a force that backs us now and must surely back us later.
This "great republic" of his that, for over four decades, has inflicted comprehensive trade sanctions on the Cuban people that can even be seen as a form of genocide! It is little wonder then that, as he was forced to concede:
To speak of 'opposition' in this country might be a rather grandiose term, because there are very few of us.
1. Hernando Calvo and Katlijn Declercq, The Cuban Exile Movment, Dissidents or Mercenaries, p. 156, Ocean Press, 2000