June 7, 1999
By José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba Truth
HAVANA - The people of Cuba, according to the new foreign minister and the state news media, have initiated a lawsuit against the government of the United States for human damages.
At the same time as the news was announced, the Central Committee of the Communist Party said: "To inform the Cuban people, Granma is publishing today a special supplement with the entire text of this transcendental suit." That is, those who launched the suit didn't know they were the plaintiffs.
The suit was presented before the courts by eight organizations that respond to the government, although they're NGOs. The claim is for 181. 1 billion American dollars for damages caused by the deaths of 3,478 Cubans and injuries to another 2,099, presumably all victims of aggression by the United States in its attempt to destroy the Cuban revolution.
The suit seeks $40 million for each death and $20 million for each injury victim. Well, if the United States agrees to pay this money there'll be a lot of millionaires in Cuba. What's not clear in this suit is if the money is to be paid to the relatives of the victims. Maybe they'll treat the Cubans, the owners of the country, like they do foreigners and give them an opportunity to invest this money in their own businesses or in partnership with the government of Fidel Castro.
This latest "noise" introduced in the defective communication link that exists between Cuba and the United States is good for one thing. It tells the Cubans that it's possible to sue a government. Perhaps it will occur to someone, for example, to sue the Cuban government for the deaths of thousands of Cubans in foreign wars or for damage caused to the Cuban culture or the imposition of a foreign ideology. Or for the deaths of an indeterminate number of compatriots who have lost their lives in the seas which surround the island, fleeing from a political system that had condemned them to live without freedom.
On the other hand, this suit against the government of the United States is very bad. It's not high politics, or at least a policy seeking solutions. More so after Fidel Castro declared that the decision of Miami judge Lawrence King ordering the government of Cuba to pay $187 million for the deaths of four Brothers to the Rescue pilots would not go unanswered.
I believe that no one here thinks that the United States is going to pay a single cent of this suit. That there's an immigration agreement under which the U.S. Coast Guard enters Cuban ports to return the miserable people intercepted at sea, that there's been a baseball game between Cuban and Baltimore players, doesn't mean that a U.S. government, even though it's democratic, is going to pay $181.1 billion dollars in damages. At the end of this new mess, besides distracting momentarily people's attention, the only thing that will be shown is that the United States doesn't care what the Cuban government does in this case, and that the personal vanity of some people will be even more affected.
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