Reflection on the Geneva Summit

Reflection on the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy seventeen years later

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”. – Elie Wiesel

Freedom and human rights have been declining for 20 years. Ninety one autocracies outnumber the 88 democracies in the world after 25 years of an autocratization wave.

Universal human rights are in a deepening crisis in 2026. The post-World War II architecture is under sustained attack, enforcement is uneven and weakening, yet the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) remains an enduring aspirational standard.

This grim reality brings human rights defenders from Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Cuba, Hong Kong, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe to the Geneva Summit this year.

In these societies, fundamental rights face systematic assault.

Yet these are not the darkest times.

The UDHR emerged in 1948 from the Holocaust’s horrors—the failure of nation states to protect their own citizens. The failure of the Westphalia system.

It was not the great powers but Latin American nations, including Cuba, that led the push to challenge the failed system.

In February 1945, at the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle, Cuban diplomat Dr. Gustavo Gutiérrez y Sanchez presented detailed drafts: a “Declaration of the International Rights and Duties of the Individual” and a “Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Nations.” These, from his book La Carta Magna de la Comunidad de Naciones, influenced Canadian diplomat John Humphries and the UDHR.

Gutiérrez, born in Camajuaní, Cuba, in 1895 and dying in Miami exile in 1959, helped shape Cuba’s 1940 Constitution. Over the course of his life he was a diplomat, jurist, and scholar—now often the “forgotten man.”

Mary Ann Glendon, in 2008, highlighted Latin America’s role, spotlighting charismatic Cuban delegate Guy Pérez Cisneros, whose advocacy bridged ideals and reality. His son Pablo recounted the stark contrast between that democratic Cuba and today’s repressive regime.

Since 2009, the Geneva Summit has given Cuban democrats a platform to bypass censorship and challenge the dictatorship’s narrative at the UN. Seventeen have spoken; here are some key voices:

• Regis Iglesias Ramírez: Varela Project organizer and Christian Liberation Movement spokesperson, imprisoned over seven years in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown for nonviolent reform advocacy. He addressed the Summit in 2013 after his 2010 release.
• Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina: Founder of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, repeated prisoner of conscience enduring hunger strikes for rights and university reform. Exiled after 2011 release, he spoke in 2012.
• Manuel Cuesta Morúa: Social democratic dissident, founder of Arco Progresista and leader of #Otro18 for pluralistic elections and racial integration.
• Rosa María Payá: Founder of Cuba Decide, pushing a binding plebiscite for democracy; global advocate for investigation of her father Oswaldo Payá’s 2012 murder. She first spoke in 2013 and now serves on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
• José Gabriel Ramón Castillo: Founder of the Independent Institute of Culture and Democracy, Varela Project promoter; sentenced to 20 years in Black Spring, exiled to Spain in 2008. He addressed the Summit in 2009 and 2010; he passed in 2018.

The UDHR and UN Human Rights Council arose from nation-state failures; UNWatch, and the Geneva Summit arose due to UN shortcomings. It is fitting that Cuban democrats helped birth the UDHR and continue today through the Geneva Summit advancing universal rights through nonviolent resistance—honoring their legacy while confronting today’s challenges to human rights and freedom.

The live broadcast of the 18th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy will begin at 4:00am Eastern Standard Time. Exiled Cuban dissident Yunior Garcia will be speaking at 9:20am.

 

 

 

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Cuba’s Bizarre Soft Power

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 448 B

José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon. Cuba’s Bizarre Soft Power (Previously published) Share Tweet Forward

Hard and soft powers are two types of foreign policy tools that nations use to exert influence in their relations with other countries. Hard power, the predominant tool and measure of a nation’s power, involves the use of military and economic clout to influence the political behavior of other nations. Hard power is a coercive approach to international relations which Harvard University professor Joseph Nye describes as “the ability to use the carrots and stick of economic and military might to make others follow your will.” Hard power relies on the quantity and quality of a country’s resources: its population, territory, military strength, economic power and natural resources. Hard power focuses on the threat or use of force, or economic means to achieve political goals. In contrast, soft power, a term coined by Professor Nye, denotes the ability to shape the preferences of other nations through co-optive appeal rather than through coercion. Soft power relies on affinities in culture, politics, values, or foreign policies. According to Nye, “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries—admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness—want to follow it.” Cuba, since its 1959 Cuban Revolution, has exercised hard and soft power worldwide disproportionately in excess of its resources and capabilities. In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, with the support of the Soviet Union, Cuba exported its brand of military revolution throughout the developing world to foment and aid Marxist uprisings. As early as 1961, Cuba introduced military advisors in Africa, and in 1965 Che Guevara was sent to train and lead an insurgency in the Congo. The uprising failed, but two years later Guevara was again active in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed. Cuban elements were also involved in the Vietnam War reportedly with an engineering battalion that maintained a major enemy supply line into South Vietnam. Brutal Cuban interrogators also worked in prisons in Hanoi. The Cuban military also joined Syria and Egypt in their 1973 surprise invasion of Israel. The Castro government dispatched 4,000 combat troops along with tank elements to fight against Israel. In 1975, Cuba launched a large-scale military intervention in support of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola with more than 25,000 troops. In 1977, the Castros dispatched 15,000 Cuban troops along with armored vehicles, and artillery to help Ethiopia’s ruling party in its conflict with Somalia over the disputed Ogaden region. Cuban troops intervened in Angola once again in 1988. This time troop levels reached 55,000 and included MIG-23 fighter-bombers with Cuban forces fighting South African forces in intense conventional combat. To this we can add extensive incursions by Cuban operatives in the Caribbean and Latin America and the current massive deployment of Cuban personnel in Venezuela. To fully appreciate the disproportionality of this use of hard power consider at what cost Cuba, with a population of eleven million and a GDP per capita 100th in world rankings, has maintained this level of military interventionism for six decades. For reference, the Unites States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, consisting of 21 days of major combat operations, is estimated to have cost the U.S. economy over two trillion dollars. But the most bizarre aspect of Cuba’s foreign policy is its highly successful projection of soft power which continues to this day. Cuba presents a discredited ideology and a bankrupt economy. The Cuban revolution transformed, what in 1958 was one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, into an enormously repressive and pauperized dysfunctional state from where 20% of the population has fled. According to the “Freedom in the World” report, Cuba scores in the worst-of-the-worst categories for political rights and civil liberties. The regime possesses none of the virtues of soft power. Socioeconomically, Cuba offers nothing to emulate, admire or aspire to. Discredited Cuba should not be able to exercise any soft power. And yet, we constantly witness support for the Cuban government in international forums, and the sickening, incomprehensive sycophancy of world leaders towards the Cuban leadership. This perversion is about the only success of the Cuban Revolution. Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos, Lily & José (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon. Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes? If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous, Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                                    BUY NOW Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas? Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo. Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                            Compre Aqui "Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous" Carlos Alberto Montaner Buy Now "Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo." Carlos Alberto Montaner Compre Aqui In Reflections on Freedom, José Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles. Buy Now En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico. Compre Aqui Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.

To be governed by Persuasion or by Force

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 447 B

José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon.  To be governed by Persuasion or by Force (Previously published) Share Tweet Forward

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, noted that “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” And indeed, we are all a product of the intellectual activity and history of our communities. It is a history that informs who we are, and which we carry everywhere as our intellectual backpack (I say intellectual backpack to avoid the negative connotations associated with “intellectual baggage”). We are a slice of the communities we come from. If we had been colonized by the French or the Spanish, our diets, our language, and our ways of living would be different, as well our ways of governing. It would be a different United States of America. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and immigrants bring with them learned conceptions of society and government which frame their approach to life in their new country setting. In the United States our backpack of philosophical tradition begins with the Puritans arrival in New England imbued with their Calvinist doctrine. This religious doctrine is later informed by the natural philosophy of the 18th-century’s Enlightenment. It is from this tradition that the Founding Fathers derived their notions of the relationship between the state and the individual which form the cornerstone of American political philosophy. Our intellectual history conditions the way in which we look at the world. In the United States, it is an intellectual history of classical liberalism as a political philosophy. That is to say, our intellectual backpack holds concepts such as the primacy of the individual, consent of the governed, rational self- interest, individual rights flowing from nature and not government, limited government, and equality. Our intellectual backpack of liberalism is filled with the ideas of English philosopher John Locke (1632- 1704) commonly referred to as the “Father of Liberalism.” Locke’s concepts of republicanism and liberal theory permeate our Founding Documents. In contrast, the intellectual backpacks of the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers of Latin America are more closely associated with the ideas of another 17th-century English philosopher: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Unlike Locke, Hobbes argues for unlimited government, and the absolute authority of the sovereign. For Hobbes, citizens’ value order and security above all, thus he develops his version of social contract theory in which we give up our rights to the state in exchange for the order and security that the state can provide To this day, Locke is relatively unknown in Latin America. To put it differently, the two intellectual backpacks may be thought of as representative of Plato’s two modes of subduing others: persuasion and force. The Lockean model of government relies on persuasion to obtain the consent of the governed, and to function within the scope of a limited government. The Hobbesian model relies on force to articulate the absolute power of the Leviathan. There is much more to the story, of course, but ideas and actions live together and these two entirely different sets of ideas have influenced the structures of government in our continent - Lockean persuasion in the United States, Hobbesian force in Latin America. As to the role of the government in society, these two conceptions are ideologically asymmetrical. Centuries have passed but, what we see unconsciously present in the intellectual backpack of present day Latin Americans, is essentially the Hobbesian notion of unlimited government. It is an idea of a social contract that favors collectivism over the primacy of individual rights. This is perhaps easiest to discern by examining the general expectations that Latin Americans have of the role of government in society. Events do not take place in an intellectual vacuum. Over time, we carry our Lockean and Hobbesian intellectual backpacks into the more moderate forms of limited and unlimited government represented in the American political system. But also over time, our Lockean intellectual heritage of limited government becomes more and more diluted, not by immigration, but by our failure to articulate and teach Lockean concepts of persuasion over force. We are, and must continue to be, a welcoming nation. And consequently, we must find ways to refill our intellectual backpacks with the Lockean philosophy of limited government lest we find ourselves governed by force. Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos, Lily & José (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon. Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes? If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous, Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                                    BUY NOW Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas? Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo. Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                            Compre Aqui "Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous" Carlos Alberto Montaner Buy Now "Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo." Carlos Alberto Montaner Compre Aqui In Reflections on Freedom, José Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles. Buy Now En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico. Compre Aqui Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now