IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 45

retaliations have occurred? Not long
ago, many former assets of the Castro
regime were spotted in Florida, for
example: a torturer nurse from the
Castellanos Ward at the psychiatric
hospital Mazorra. That ward was a
reservoir to heal —in KGB style— the
opponents of the regimen. Also a couple
of Cuban prisons guards, punishers of
political prisoners, are quietly spending
their last days in Florida. None of them
has received even a slap in the face by
the victims that have identified them.
The American justice system took
charge of settling the cases.
From all the above we can deduce that,
at least, the living image of that fear of
reprisals is fed by the Castroist ruling
elite as a safeguard against a potential
unexpected great change.
The end: disarming the bomb is the
task of all
Does the peaceful opposition rely on a
significant popular majority to promote
a change that really benefits the Cuban
people or to gain massively support for
a transition project? Accepting no as the
answer, for whatever reasons, is to take
a step toward realism in this dark
cloudy present. It does not mean that the
people do not want to change the course
of life in Cuba or that nothing could be
done. Disregarding such actions as the
constant runaways and the population
bloodletting through an unstoppable
flow of emigrants, it´s enough the
growing misery in most of the country
and the fear and sadness that appear
after a hysterical jocular superficiality,
to know that nothing is going right for
the inhabitants of the Isle. Therefore,
what seems practical and necessary is to
use what you have, not what you want
to have and does not exist yet.
It´s much better to focus in
contemporary cases that did work, to
draw pragmatic conclusions and to take
steps toward Realpolitik in order to
benefit the people and other interested

social sectors. According to the
aforementioned worldwide experience,
a possible rational solution to the
impasse in our national crisis could be a
serious and consensual effort, both
inside and outside the country, for
uniting the political opposition and
other sectors interested in a smooth
change without dangerous social
frictions. Such united front must begin
to express a clear and consistent
position regarding the international
reality, while taking steps toward a
peaceful transition project based on
legal safeguards against prosecution
because of past events, as it has been
done in Burma, Chile, Czechoslovakia
and other countries.
Even the second row of people in power
could assume the firm belief that only
the biggest culprits should be tried.
There are contemporary examples. No
Serbian Communist militant raised a
hand against the police to prevent
NATO forces from capturing former
dictator Milosevic and bringing him to
trial in The Hague. No group from the
huge Iraqi Baath Party tried to prevent
the trial and execution of its leader, the
tyrant Saddam Hussein. And do not
forget that it was the very Egyptian
army, the armed corps benefited by
General President Mubarak, that gave
him as scapegoat. He was found guilty,
but sentenced much more smoothly than
his opponents were by the manipulated
courts during the old regime.
This call on realistic basis and future
consensus is a key for peaceful
transition. Without the purpose to issue
guidelines, but simply to show real
possibilities not included because of
limiting ideas, this call could help
promote the gradual change of the
nation. Definitively, we all have
suffered an unjust order for too long.
And just for that reason, and because of
that reason, we are our own enemies
and we all deserve the opportunity to set
us a silver bridge to the future.

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