Interviews with Armando Valladares

You are asking me what kind of government I would like to see in Cuba in the future. Well, the only one I conceive and for which I will keep on fighting until it is achieved, is democracy. A full democracy. A democracy as all Cubans deserve, a democracy where no one would feel scared when someone knocks at the door at 2:00 a.m. as it could only be the milkman. A true democracy with all the constitutional rights, where the dignity of the human being is respected above everything.

That is my aspiration for my country. No dictatorships at all, no caudillismos, no other regime but democracy. Keep the fight. Don´t lose hope, the future is ours. Democracy is the future of mankind, as the physical and spiritual fulfillment of human beings comes through freedom. There is no democracy without freedom. Don´t lose heart, don´t lose faith. Keep fighting. Success is getting closer, and soon the entire world will be a world of democracies, and dictatorships will end forever.

Armando Valladares, a poet, human rights advocate, and former diplomat, was a political prisoner in Castro’s Cuba for 22 years. After international pressure led to his release, he emigrated to the United States and served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission from 1988 to 1990.

Valladares was a Cuban Postal Bank employee who was arrested in 1960 when he refused to display a sign on his desk that endorsed Communism. Valladares, then 23 years old, was convicted of being a “counter-revolutionary” and spent 22 years in prison. He was adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and his prison memoir “Against All Hope” became an international bestseller and raised the profile of the campaign for his release. This campaign finally succeeded after then French President Francois Mitterand made a personal appeal to Fidel Castro.

During his service as ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Valladares succeeded in persuading the commission to adopt a resolution on the human rights situation in Cuba.