Britain’ s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have announced an official visit to Cuba next month to meet with the island’s president Miguel Diaz Canel, tour organic farming facilities, pop into a music studio and meet with owners of classic British cars.
Judging from what we know so far, the visit will be a propaganda coup for Latin America’s oldest and most outdated dictatorship. The Prince of Wales, the first member of the British royal family to visit Cuba in 50 years, has no plans that we know of to meet with dissidents or political prisoners.
British officials reportedly described the March 24-27 visit as “practical democracy” and “the best way to promote human rights.” The prince’s website said that the trip, which will kick off a tour of several Caribbean countries, will “showcase some of the cultural links between the two countries.”
Aside from the fact that both Charles and Diaz Canel inherited their jobs and are considered parasites by many of their countrymen, it’s hard to see many links that unite the two countries.
Britain is a democracy. Cuba is a dictatorship that has not allowed a free election in 60 years, prohibits by law any independent political parties and does not authorize one single non-government newspaper, radio or television station.
What’s just as contradictory, the British government recently announced its recognition of Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela, rejecting the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship in that country.
Considering that royal family trips are generally organized by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office, it’s hard to understand the logic of breaking ties with Maduro’s six-year-old dictatorship, while seeking to improve relations with Cuba’s, which is six decades old. The only explanation that comes to mind is the chaos within the British government as a new Brexit deadline expires in coming weeks.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall seem excited about their Cuba vacation, which British officials dutifully describe as an important diplomatic mission.
“Camilla, 71, said she was looking forward to listening to the music and seeing the architecture of the country, but confessed she ‘wasn’t so sure’ about the food,” the Daily Mail newspaper reported. That set off many messages in social media with tips to the duchess about dining in Cuba.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t object to heads of state or royal family members visiting Cuba, but only as long as they publicly address the island’s regime’s civil- and human-rights abuses.
When former President Obama announced his opening to Cuba in 2014, I cautiously supported it, as long as Obama met his promise of pursuing a two-track policy toward Cuba. That entailed improving commercial ties with the island on the one hand, while simultaneously putting public pressure on the Cuban regime to start a political opening.
The same should be expected from Prince Charles. He should at the very least meet with courageous pro-democracy activist José Daniel Ferrer, just as heads of state routinely meet with both government and opposition leaders during their visits abroad.
Ferrer was detained for several hours recently as he was asking people at a park in Santiago de Cuba to vote against at new constitution drafted by Diaz Canel and his political mentor — Gen. Raúl Castro — that would maintain the Communist Party’s monopoly on all government powers.
Ferrer was released after being warned by security agents to stop campaigning against the new constitution. He and about 120 other members of the UNPACU opposition group now are reportedly on a hunger strike, demanding their universal right to free speech.
Will Prince Charles take some time off from his meetings with Diaz Canel, his visits to government-run farms and his chats with people who own old British cars to talk with Ferrer? Will the Duchess of Cornwall overcome her culinary concerns and take some time to visit with the wives or widows of political prisoners?
If they don’t plan to do any of that, as I suspect, they should cancel their visit to Cuba. It sends the wrong message. It would be a royal embarrassment.
