Most Eminent Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 69A   This Azel Perspective was first published in 2017.

Most Eminent Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega Share Tweet Forward

Indeed, we all agree, as you state in your interview with Palabra Nueva (New Word), that Cuba finds itself in a crises and that changes are needed in Cuba quickly; the feeling that change is needed has become a national consensus. But your Eminence, your conviction that to expect the government to respect individual freedoms is to “begin at the end” and that improvements in human rights should be considered only as the final goal of any talks are profoundly misguided. Cardinal Ortega and General Raul Castro Your Eminence, Cuba today may be described as “an impossible country” with unsustainable sociopolitical and economic arrangements where, for most Cubans, work has ceased to be the principal source of livelihood. As you know, unable to live from the results of their legitimate labors, Cubans have developed a quasi ethic that justifies everything. To deal with the incoherence of life in Cuba, civil society has committed a sort of philosophical and ethical suicide to escape the existential absurdity of a future without possibilities. These are elements that, I am sure, concern you deeply. But your Eminence, Cuba’s way out of its existential distress is not just freedom from deplorable economic conditions. Cuba’s potentialities will depend more on individual freedoms and empowerment than on a given set of economic reforms. As Saint Thomas Aquinas taught us, “The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs his own actions.” Political rights and civil liberties are not, as your statements suggest, superfluous luxuries to be appended at the end of a program of economic reforms. They are the very essence of progress that allows an empowered citizenry to correct mistakes, voice discontent, and bring about changes in leadership. To expect political rights and civil liberties is not, your Eminence, to “begin at the end.” Any reform effort that leaves civil society inarticulate and incapable of holding rulers accountable fails to recognize that no modern society can function in the best interest of the people without an effective system of checks and balances. Freedom, as John Paul II noted, consists in having the right to do what we ought. And thus freedom must be the first step for the genuine and effective change that we agree Cubans want, because it is a necessary condition to reversing political apathy. Freedom, Your Eminence, stands out as both a means and an end. The spiritual, sociopolitical, and economic healing of the Cuban nation cannot take place in a totalitarian setting; it cannot take place without the civil liberties and political rights to practice heroic tolerance and political wisdom.  As you point out, change is needed quickly. Pope John Paul II also taught us that “The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic efficiency.” To be successful, Cuba’s reform process must be broad-based, comprehensive and carried out expeditiously. It must be based on a philosophy of citizen empowerment to return to individual responsibility and recapture individual energies from the inefficiencies of collectivism that Pope John Paul II spoke of. Moreover, individual freedoms and citizen empowerments should not be dismissed as casually as you seem to by insisting that they should be the final goal. Individual freedoms are essential to live meaningful lives.  They are central to the mental comforts that give dignity to human existence. The isolated economic changes you seem to favor without placing individuals freedoms and empowerment front and center, would condemn Cuban society to live a provisional existence of unknown limit. This is a condition that wounds the human spirit and does not promote the development of spiritual or sociopolitical values. Your Eminence, the successful change in Cuba you argue for requires above all else a compelling vision of hope for all Cubans; an irrefutable realization of the Church’s teachings that life can regain its potential meaning despite its tragic aspects. It requires a visualization of the future that does not equate the dignity of a society with its economic gains or as the Lord taught us, that “Man does not live by bread alone.” Respectfully, Please let us know if you  this article. This article was originally published in English in the PanAm Post and in Spanish in El Nuevo Herald.   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 and 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.  Dr. Azel is author of Mañana in Cuba: The Legacy of Castroism and Transitional Challenges for Cuba, published in March 2010 and of Pedazos y Vacios, a collection of poems he wrote as a young exile in the 1960's. 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. They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast.  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 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

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