HARRY BELAFONTE: DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL
By Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

Cubans in need of democracy and human rights have become accustomed to the throng of international believers visiting their island as guests of the Castro regime for the past 42 years.

Many are part of the Hollywood crowd, like Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Ed Asner, Peter Weller, Jack Lemon, Woody Harrelson, Leonardo di Caprio, Frances McDormand, Naomi Campbell, Francis Ford Coppola, Joel Coen, and a gaggle of top entertainment industry executives including network presidents.

The people in Cuba realize that many are naive and are being used, while others are die-hard Marxists, and even Stalinists.

No matter their motivation, they all seem clear about what they think is best for the Cuban people, in an impoverished dictatorship they visit as pampered guests of the Cuban elite, staying in luxury hotels, consuming food and drink denied to ordinary citizens.

These believers are seen by the Cuban people as willing or unknowing collaborators in Castro’s repression of their freedom.

After leaving Cuba, these vistors talk at length about the fraudulent "accomplishments" of the revolution as if they were real, thereby misleading and misinforming others abroad -- and recruiting more for the constant pilgrimage to the island of Dr. Castro, who now has the distinction of being the only living dictator still in power in the Western Hemisphere.

As in former communist European countries, Cuba has developed and perfected the technique of both attracting them to the island, and then making the most of them afterwards. The carefully structured visits make it almost impossible for the guests to see through the propaganda. Tour guides inform the intelligence services of any criticism of the dictatorship, leading to fulsome praise for the system when foreigners ask their approved contacts. In the communist jargon these visiting believers are classified as "useful idiots." Indeed, they are.

Perhaps the most glittering star in Castro's firmament is singer and actor Harry Belafonte.

Yet, as writer Ronald Radosh says, "Most American admirers of Harry Belafonte probably don't realize that the popular singer and actor is an unreconstructed Stalinist."

Evidence for Radosh's claim is not hard to find. For example, on March 26, 2001, at the Lincoln Center in New York, Harry Belafonte, 73, will perform a concert to benefit the Center for Cuban Studies, a non-profit organization with a long history of pro-Castro activities. Founded in 1972, this organization is dedicated to counter the effects of American policies toward Cuba designed to bring democracy to replace the existing dictatorship. At the concert, Belafonte is going to raise his singing voice, and collect money, for a manifestly pro-Castro organization. (This concert is also sponsored by the pro-Castro Artists and Writers Committee for Normalization of Relations with Cuba while the fanatical pro-Castro organization Pastors for Peace is also promoting this event).

But although he says he is concerned about Cuba, the veteran Calypso singer has not ever raised his voice for the victims of the Castro dictatorship, including the persecuted homosexuals.

Actor Danny Glover, who is the founding member of this organization, will host the evening.

Glover, described as a "humanitarian," is also a frequent guest to the Castro regime. However, like Belafonte, the humanitarian Glover has never raised his voice on behalf of the Cuban people’s human rights, the existence of the shameful tourist apartheid, the disproportionate majority of black Cubans in Castro’s dungeons or the absence of black Cubans in key government positions.

What has Danny Glover done on behalf of the black Cuban political prisoners Vladimiro Roca or Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet?

What is even more incredible is that for the past 14 years Belafonte has been UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador.

But even in this capacity, on his many visits to Cuba, he has never denounced Castro’s regime for violating the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For example, among the clauses violated by Castro's dictatorship are:

Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."

Article 5: "No one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment."

Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and statement; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Article 20, No. 1: "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

No. 2: "No one may be compelled to belong to an association."

Not only does Belafonte ignore Castro's violation of the United Nations Charter, he ignores the fact that the dictator violates his own promises to the Cuban people.

For example, during the revolution, Castro promised the Cuban people to restore the 1940 Constitution, to provide an entirely civilian government, to have full democratic political freedom of statement and press and to have honest and free elections.

Instead, Castro installed a totalitarian communist regime, which violated the 1940 Constitution.

But apparently, the fact that the Cuban people under Castro's dictatorship do not enjoy any of the rights he has in the United States, is fine with Belafonte.

In 1990 and 1991, I saw , Belafonte’s PBS series Routes of Rhythm.

At that time, I wrote to Belafonte agreeing 100% that Cuba was the launching ground and source of inspiration for popular music in this hemisphere.

But what I could not overlook was that "for the last 32 years no more new rhythms have evolved and been launched from that island. That is very revealing indeed. I wonder if it has anything to do with freedom of creation."

After pointing out the propaganda he was exposed to in the making of his series, distortions and revisions to the history of Cuba according to Castro I continued, "Your show, with the unfortunate misinformation it contained, may fool/foul many Americans. But the eyes of a Cuban, who remembers the past and is up to date with the present reality, can see through the routes of your show Ruse of Rhythm.

"It is a shame that there is plenty of information about Cuba in public records that no one bothers to research. The lack of interest to know and hear what has really been going on in Cuba and the apathy of reporting by the [U.S.] media has made it possible to cover up the truth, to create the myth of Fidel among gullible intellectuals and political activists and help the longevity of that regime in detriment to the Cuban people trapped inside that island."

The last paragraph of my still unanswered 10-year-old letter said, "The people interviewed in your show have not possessed freedom of speech as we know it since 1959. So, in their interviews they are doing their best under the circumstances. The only free people in Cuba are the political prisoners in jails and concentration camps, and the dead."

Harry Belafonte says, "It would be very difficult to find a nation more committed to the culture of its people and the development of the culture than I have witnessed in Cuba.''

However, Maritza Lugo Fernandez, a Cuban political prisoner from her dungeon in a women’s jail in Cuba is accusing Castro’s regime of "keeping the Cuban people in complete ignorance about politics and democracy."

Who has better knowledge of Castro’s Cuba, Belafonte or Maritza?

With the excuse of "supporting the Cuban people," Belafonte’s multiple trips and speeches at communist rallies in Cuba are very much resented by those opposed to Castro inside the island, who consider him nothing less than a collaborator of the regime. His interference in internal Cuban affairs is not welcome, especially since he is an entertainer, not a Cuban and has never lived there as an ordinary citizen for any of the 42 years of suffering the most brutal regime in the 500 years of Cuban history.

Unfortunately, people like Belafonte and other true believers from the Hollywood crowd contribute with their extraordinary influence to the misunderstanding of the Cuban situation. Far from helping the Cuban people victimized by a brutal regime, they willingly serve at the side of their executioners.

Agustin Blazquez, is Producer/Director of the documentaries: COVERING CUBA, CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles and COVERING CUBA 2: The New Generation, as well as a frequent contributor to The Idler.