FreeMarketeros.com readers probably know that an important anniversary is upon us, but here’s a reminder. 

Wednesday, May 20th marks Cuba Solidarity Day, a time when people all over the world gather to commemorate the longtime suffering of Cubans at the hands of the brutal Castro dictatorship.  This is an inclusive observance anyone can be a part of – check the website for suggestions on how you and others can make a difference.

It’s still surprising how the Cuba regime can count on Latin American allies to lobby for its enfranchisement.  In advance of the fifth inconsequential Summit of the Americas, leftist Hugo Chavez was crying in his bubblegum-flavored soda over summit declaration language reinforcing the democratic ideal, saying such language excluded Cuba.  One might need to be guilty of undermining democracy, as Chavez is, to stoop so low as to argue for Cuba’s participation in the Americas summit, as reported The Miami Herald. 

Or, one might be a tad indecisive to have made such a fuss about Cuba’s exclusion before the summit, only to backpedal afterwards by calling the event “…close to perfection,” as Chavez was quoted in the Trinidad & Tobago Express.

Cuba is an anachronism compared to most Latin American democracies, but soon enough infamously-backward Cuba may have company.  Chavez, Rafael Correa and Evo Morales have all rewritten their constitutions to strengthen executive power and produce open-ended rule by personality.  Rather than use their authority to promote reform in Cuba, these revolutionaries are dragging their nations back into Cuba’s heyday when the presence of a communist state at least benefited from a Cold War context. 

FreeMarketeros.com says, Let’s not do that time warp again.  Instead, let’s hold tomorrow’s Cubas accountable for their rollback of democracy, human rights, trade and drug eradication—before we wake up and 50 years have passed.

Peruvian activist Yesenia Alvarez Temoche of the Political Institute for Liberty shows us what’s at stake for Cubans still living in the captive nation and Latin Americans caught in the grip of so-called 21st Century Socialism.  Yesenia is currently in the United States screening her 30-minute documentary, Cuba and the Elephants.  Covertly filmed in Cuba and secreted out of the country, the film debunks the myth of a Cuba where political expression flourishes, the population is well-educated and there is first-class universal healthcare.  Washington-area screenings and publicity were done in cooperation with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Hispanic American Center for Economic Research (HACER), The Fund for American Studies (TFAS), the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) and Instituto Accion, to name only a few organizations.

Don’t take Yesenia’s word for it, or that of FreeMarketeros.com.  See Cuba and the Elephants – subtitled in English – and witness Cuban activists painting a ghastly picture of “utopian” Cuba.   And set aside time to attend or host a Cuba Solidarity Day event in your community.  Cambio!