An exemplary Latin American

By: Ian Vásquez - 04/07/2023

Guest columnist.
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We lost Carlos Alberto Montaner, exiled Cuban writer, tireless defender of human freedom, activist and friend.

At the age of 80, he did not get to see a free Cuba as he dreamed of, but he did not resign himself. "No matter how long it lasts," he said in his memoirs, "what happens in that country is nonsense doomed to disappear." At another time he declared that "it has been beautiful to be in the trenches."

He was referring to the battle of ideas in the Spanish-speaking world. With his feet on the ground, a liberal outlook and an ease of expression, he influenced the thinking of generations of Latin Americans and Spaniards. He did it through thousands of opinion articles about him, dozens of books, presence in the most watched television programs and constant travel throughout the hemisphere and Spain, where he lived decades of his exile.

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Carlos Alberto had a special appreciation for Peru. He said that when the Movimiento Libertad led by Mario Vargas Llosa emerged in 1987 to confront the authoritarian threat of President Alan García, it “gave life to Latin American liberal political thought in a way that had not been seen before in Latin American political history.”

He was right. And to the extent that these ideas gained strength and a large part of the region began to liberalize, Carlos Alberto became an increasingly important reference point. I met him in the 90s and what impressed me the most about him was his quality of person. He was very nice – modest, sophisticated and good-humored. I fully agree with Andrés Oppenheimer that, in addition to everything, the Cuban writer was "a very good person."

Carlos Alberto was always very generous with me. Every time I invited him to participate in conferences in Latin America or the United States, he eagerly accepted. In those meetings, he spoke about Latin American history, ethics, philosophy and the political situation. He used to stress the importance of freedom of expression. He said that "tolerance is the ideal climate for the appearance of truth." Upon meeting Carlos Alberto, it was evident that he embodied the liberal spirit, the complete opposite of what the Cuban regime said, accusing him of being a "terrorist."

By the way, once Carlos Alberto participated in a seminar in Lima organized by the Cato Institute and Enrique Ghersi, the Cuban regime provided us with entertainment. He organized a public protest that consisted of five individuals with a huge banner that read "Carlos Alberto Montaner, murderer."

Actually, the only way Carlos Alberto killed was through logic and humor. He once wrote, for example, that "Cuba is the only country in the world where it is easier to change your sex than your political party." When they spoke to him at conferences, he would say that it is always dangerous to give a Cuban a microphone.

If you want to laugh, I recommend reading "The Man Who Talked to the Birds." In that article, Carlos Alberto takes Nicolás Maduro at his word, who had said that Hugo Chávez, recently deceased, appeared to him in the form of a bird. The comparison that Carlos Alberto makes with a real case of a madman who talked to pigeons ended up "killing" Maduro.

When Fidel Castro died, I wrote in these pages that he represented the worst of the worst centralist tradition in Latin America. Carlos Alberto Montaner, on the other hand, was another type of Cuban. He distrusted power, he did not believe in utopias and he was faithful to his principles based on the dignity and freedom of individuals. He was an exemplary Latin American that I was lucky to have as a friend. I'll miss him a lot.

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