By Luis Domínguez Castellano
The United States Embassy in Havana has hung a banner on the façade of its building. The sign reads “Freedom 250” — evoking the concept of freedom and apparently referencing the anniversary of the country’s Declaration of Independence, adopted 250 years ago in 1776.
However, this message may be confusing or even misleading. While the text of the commemorated document was indeed drafted and published back then, freedom was not a reality in the 13 colonies at that time — nor was it in the new republic that emerged following the independence of those territories from British colonialism, which had maintained slavery as a fully institutionalized practice.
Furthermore, it does not appear that this was even a genuine intention of the document’s proponents. They were intent on expanding westward across the North American continent — into territory that did not belong to them and was already inhabited by indigenous communities. The “free and independent” nation that the Declaration of Independence sought to establish grew and expanded precisely through the massacre, enslavement, displacement, and cultural destruction of these native peoples.
In fact, all — or the vast majority — of the Declaration’s signatories were slaveholders at the time, and they remained so thereafter. Some owned the largest numbers of human beings held in bondage across the 13 colonies. Among them was Thomas Jefferson — credited as the primary author of the text — who held his own children as slaves; they were born to his enslaved woman, Sally Hemings, and grew up in that very condition of servitude. Those offspring did not gain their freedom until their father’s death, in accordance with the provisions he set forth in his will.
Slavery was not legally abolished in the United States until 1865 — 161 years ago, not 250. By that time, significant progress had already been made in the genocide of the indigenous populations. A large portion of Mexican territory had been seized, and the Mexican populations that remained under the U.S. regime had been relegated to a position of inferiority.
Today, the number of people held in indefinite detention in the United States is extraordinarily high. It is estimated that, out of 740,000 people held in various detention facilities, two-thirds have never been convicted of a crime. It is believed that approximately 400,000 people are currently being held without trial—that is, deprived of their freedom. The reasons for this vary; many cases stem from immigration-related raids conducted over the last two years, while others involve individuals with limited financial means who are unable to pay bail.
There are numerous accounts of such detentions being used as a form of coercion and punishment, even in the absence of evidence or any actual crime. Law enforcement agencies employ this tactic in a racially biased manner, using it as an instrument of domination over entire communities — whether in specific neighborhoods within large cities or in smaller towns.
The abuse of arbitrary detention — both within the United States and globally — became an official component of the U.S. government’s foreign policy and national security strategy during the so-called “war on terror.” The large number of individuals of various nationalities who were cruelly deprived of their freedom — many for years on end — constitutes a crime that no sign or slogan can erase.
It is wise to try to discern what lies behind every sign or message issued by the United States Embassy in Cuba.
IMAGE CREDIT: Photo: EFE
[ SOURCE: CUBA DEBATE ]
