Defending Cuba's image and protesting the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera, the de facto ambassador of Cuba to the U.S., spoke before an audience of mixed opinions last night.
"The fall of the Soviet Union had strong effects on Cuba's economy," Barrera said, "and the U.S. continues to impose the embargo... the Cold War is over... the embargo is out of place!"
Barrera, officially the chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, lacks full ambassadorial status because the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with the Caribbean nation. Housed in the Swiss Embassy in D.C., Barrera's office works to lift the embargo and lobby for normal diplomatic relationships.
"Our political system can't be the reason of the blockade," the highest ranking Cuban official in the U.S. said. "The U.S. has diplomatic relationships with all other socialistic countries."
Other who support the lifting of the blockade also voiced their sentiments.
"We live in a world where the income of the richest 1 percent equals that of the poorest 57 percent," said Steven Eckardt, coordinator of the Philadelphia Cuba Solidarity Coalition, referring to the blockade as a "Berlin Wall" against Cuba.
Barrera stressed Cuba's "defiant" progress in its health care and education systems, pointing out free medicines are available to all Cubans, and that the number of colleges and universities in Cuba grew from 8 to 47 in the last few decades.
"Medical students travel to Cuba because it's a model health system," said Candice Makeda Moore, a first-year Medical student. "Many will say [Cuba has] the best system in the Western Hemisphere."
U.S. sentiments toward the Cuban government and lifting the blockade remain sharply divided.
"What is the point of teaching people to read and then restricting all information to a single source -- the regime?" Dennis Hays, executive vice president of the Cuban American National Foundation, a Florida-based anti-Castro organization, asked in an e-mail.
"Mr. Barrera's answer [to cited violations of human rights in Cuba] was to look to other Latin American countries. I don't think this makes [them] morally acceptable," said a Wharton freshman who attended the event but did not want his name published.
The event was sponsored by La Casa Latina, The Romance Languages Department, Civic House, La Unidad Latina and Lamda Upsilon Lamda and took place in Houston Hall.
