A congress consistent with freedom

By: Pedro Corzo - 14/10/2024

Guest columnist.
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Miami has been the venue for the annual meeting of the Union of Latin American Parties, UPLA, an organization of right-wing and center-right political parties and movements in America, created more than three decades ago with the aim of promoting freedom and democracy in the countries of the hemisphere.

According to a document I read, “the organization recognizes the superior dignity of the human person, in his freedom and in his transcendent destiny. The members of the Union of Latin American Parties adhere to democracy as a form of political organization and to the market economy as an instrument that produces wealth, development and well-being for the people.” Nothing could be further from the political extremes and shameful populism that confuses our voters.

I learned about this meeting from my comrades and friends in the struggle, Héctor Caraballo, leader of the Christian Democratic Party of Cuba, and Orlando Gutiérrez, leader of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, organizations that are part of UPLA and that work in favor of the return to democracy in Cuba in a very notable way.

One of my first satisfactions was learning that a Latin American event was being held in which two organizations radically opposed to Castro's totalitarianism would participate with full rights, and that the cases of Cuba and Venezuela would be addressed without any kind of concessions, a fact that is predicated on the motto of the conference, "The West facing global threats."

On the other hand, I was extremely pleased with a conference held at the headquarters of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, which is headed by Gutiérrez. The conference was very lively. It was attended by members of the organization, mostly young people, who answered the questions in a very unconventional way. I consider this answer to the question of what to do with an electorate that is bringing politicians from the extreme left to the government to be a great example. The essence of the answer for this listener was “that there had been no disenchantment in the electorate and that many attitudes and recipes had to be changed in order to win it back.”

From my perspective, UPLA has other advantages, and that is that it is not willing to make concessions to populist discourse. Recognizing that it is not an organization without sympathies or attraction to the political left and admitting into its ranks entities that are opposed to the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, is to show an unequivocal commitment of any kind to democracy.

I participated in the first session of the meeting held on the 3rd in a hotel in Miami. I repeat, I was struck by the large number of young people and the high number of women, all members of the 30 political organizations that make up OPLA, from 20 countries.

The first round of this session was dedicated to Cuba. Orlando Gutiérrez, Gelet Martínez Fragela of ADN Cuba and my fellow inmate and a bulwark in the fight against totalitarianism, Luis Zúñiga Rey, gave a presentation that showed in detail what the vile government that our people suffer has meant and means for Cuba and Cubans.

The participants listened to the presentations with interest and later referred to the situation in Cuba and Venezuela as a serious problem in the hemisphere that should be addressed by all those committed to freedom and human rights, including a phrase that was much appreciated: “Zero tolerance for Castroism.”

Other aspects discussed that I appreciated were the great importance given to the election of the members of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the appointment of the next Secretary General of the Organization of American States, OAS, an extremely important body in the hemisphere, which, in my opinion, is not given the relevance it deserves.

Late in the afternoon, a panel was particularly meaningful to me, entitled “New generations of voters and the communication of the centre-right”. The speakers, father and son, demonstrated with great skill how vital it is not to neglect the most insignificant aspect of politics, because all are vital.

That was the end of the conference for me because I left with my great friend, Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”, for the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, a great work about which I promise to write. 

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