In this morally bankrupt world the problem is not the fact that Cubans have lived under the iron rule of a tyrant for 51 years, the problem is not the human rights abuses, or the tortures and executions suffered by the Cuban people, no, the problem is that the dissidents tarnish the desired image for EU engagement with the dictatorship. No need to really shake things up, and risk losing all those $$$$$ deals by demanding freedom for Cubans.
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy said it hoped Cuba would make “concrete gestures” in favour of jailed dissidents after talks between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
In a meeting with Cuba’s ambassador to Italy Rodney Lopez Clemente, Italy’s undersecretary for foreign affairs Vincenzo Scotti “underscored the great expectations aroused among Italian public opinion and its politicians by the beginning of dialogue between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church.”
A gesture, Scotti said, would trigger “an improvement of the island’s image at the international level, giving vigour and concreteness to the dialogue that the European Union wants to pursue with Cuba.”
The only meaningful “concrete gestures” from Cuba, would be for the elimination of the Cuban Mafia regime.
“Gestures” is Italian for anything, no matter how paltry or purely cosmetic, that can be used as a way to do business with Castro, Inc. without looking totally immoral and heartless. That’s what they all want: a dispensation to deal with the devil.
And yes, there will be “gestures,” as there have been before, which (as before) will change nothing, as they will only be “gestures” that the regime knows it can afford to make and can gain from making. The world will never force the dictatorship’s hand as it did with South Africa’s apartheid regime, and Castro, Inc. is counting on that. It always has.
I have a “gesture” for Italy……..
Gestures are, by definition, symbolic, not concrete. Now what we really need is “dialogue”. That will get us somewhere.