When I was asked about going to Cuba to meet the opposition I got excited, yet a bit scared. Some of my friends got a bit envious because of the nice and warm weather in Cuba. My father, on the other hand, didn’t want me to go since he thought that I would get arrested. It turns out that he was right but meeting the opposition in Cuba was definitely worth the trouble.

Most people that talked to me before going to Cuba know that I was well aware of the risks of going there. I had attending study sessions with people who had already been there explaining the necessary security measures and what could happen if we got arrested. I was there for 8 days in January along with Mauricio Lopez Gavia (Juventud Libertaria) and Henrik Winterstam (Liberal Youth of Sweden, LUF). The last two days of the trip were spent under house arrest in Havana. 

In Cuba we met with the two main social liberal parties PSD, PLC and also the liberal youth organization CJM. We were all very impressed with CJM – Coalición Juvenil Martiana – that received observer status within IFLRY at the General Assembly in Andorra at the end of last year. They are very active, working under extremely hard conditions. It is very heartening to see young dynamic individuals boldly rising against a totalitarian regime such as Castro’s. There is more to read about CJM and the trip in the attached travel report. 

After meeting with CJM in the countryside we ended up being arrested and were brought to Havana to be interrogated. During the interrogations we talked a lot of politics. Sometimes it seemed like the interrogators doubted their own propaganda. I asked them if they knew how much it costs to go to school in Sweden and they answered that it probably costs a lot. To their surprise I could tell them that most schools in Sweden are public and are completely free of charge. I also told them that I felt it was strange for them to have newspapers in their country that only write what the government tells them to write.

They argued with me that if the Cuban regime was so unpopular then the people would have overthrown it a long time ago. I said that I partly hoped that they were right because that could mean that the Cuban public is happy with its government. However, if the government is so popular with its people then I couldn’t understand why they were unable to allow free and fair elections as the ruling Communist party would win anyway if their convictions were true. This was hard for them to answer but, my interrogator at the time argued that anybody within the Communist party could run for elections and therefore the elections were indeed free and fair already.

After many hours of comparing and discussing our political systems he asked me what I would think if he had come to my country, met with the opposition and spoken badly of my government. I told him that we would thank him and that he could speak to as many people as he liked and as badly of our government as he wanted. He looked surprised and told me that things are different in Cuba. I became more than a bit disappointed that he had yet to understand the principles of a free society after I had spent so much time trying to explain it to him.

The day after the last interrogation we went back to pick up most of the things they had confiscated from us. A very friendly lady was going to escort us to the airport. She was clear about that we could come back after a year, and I promise that I will come back, hopefully to a free Cuba.

If you are curious to find out more about CJM and my visit to Cuba, please read the uploaded travel report and the upcoming issue of The Libel.

 Daniel W