Tomasz Turowski, Former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Cuba

Throughout my four-year stay in Cuba, I observed the state of captivity of the nation.  I also noticed the attempts of liberation that the nation undertook.  Now I can clearly say that my observation was not a passive observation.  Anyway, not only I observed – but I was also observed.  We lived between 5th and 46^th Avenue.  On 46^th Street, there was an apartment taken up by the Ministry of Education where there was an observational security service post which controlled the comings and goings of guests to and from their residences.  Because of this, we felt safe.

This sense of security brought about, that after becoming acquainted with the work of  Oswaldo Paya’s the Christian Liberation Movement, Marta Beatriz Roques’ Assembly to Promote a Civil Society, Ricardo Sanchez’s Cuban Commission on Human Rights, Vladimiro Roca’s All United, Manuela Costa Rua’s the Ark of Progress, and Fernando Sanchez’s the Democratic Solidarity Party, I came to the conclusion that it was high time to gather everyone and make it accessible for them to have direct contact with the diplomatic corpus.  Cuban authorities, I do not know how, found out that such a plan was in the making and warned me that if this plan follows through, then they will take definite steps in regards to me.  Cuban officials assumed that that the meeting would take place during the Polish national holiday.  Normally in Cuba until the rift of the common politics of the European Union in regard to Cuba, representatives of the opposition were invited to the embassies of certain European countries on their national holidays.  In connection with this, I came to the conclusion that I will not organize a national holiday in which I will invite the opposition, but on 14 November, I will organize The Meeting of the Diplomatic Corpus and the Representatives of the Cuban Civil Society.

Church officials, the freemasonry guilds, and all the opposing sides came to the meeting.  I prepared materials for them incorporating the methods used by Solidarity leaders.  And so, I now decided to take advantage of the current legal system and get as much as everything  possible from it that I  could get, in order to gain the democratic end effect, even if, to a large extent, the constitution was going to be a constitution protecting the totalitarian system.  And so, I took fragments from Granma, the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba about the local civil society of Cuba.  While giving the material to everyone present, I said: ‘Here you are, this is Granma - it is your Central Committee vehicle which will motivate you to take actions of freedom, actions within the structure of a civil society.”

After the meeting, some of the people were restrained immediately, but I must add, that all those who came to us were fully aware of the eventual consequences.  On 19 November, I immediately also received a strange note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where I was called in.  There I was given a text in which in diplomatic language sounds very funny.  Here is a summary:

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sends its warm regards to the Republic of Poland Embassy and at the same time concerning the unpleasant actions of this Embassy which organized a party with the attendance of the accredited diplomatic body in a country where this embassy called “Cuban civil society” on 14 November.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs judges the invitation of the mercenaries, who receive money and collaborate with the aggressive politics of the United States against Cuba, as a serious provocation from the Polish Embassy’s side.  Cuban officials say that this inadmissible behavior is an action of subservience and a willingness to appeal to the interests of the US government in their declared aggression against our country.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs feels obliged to communicate to the Embassy of the Republic of Poland that the Cuban government will take this time measures which it feels will be adequate in response to the open provocation.  Additionally, the Ministry wants to warn the Polish Embassy officials that repeating this action or a similar action as well as any other which will be unfriendly towards the Republic of Cuba and its people will lead to the decision of the Cuban government demanding immediate removal of the mission leader of our country.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to take this opportunity to again pay its respects to the Embassy of the Republic of Poland (…).”     

Here we have an example of complete and downright hypocrisy and not approximating the threats to the consequences.  Why?  Because with full premeditation, I organized the meeting on 14 November.  It was not a Polish national holiday either.  This time the warning which went to all embassies mentioned that there would be frozen ties with them if the representatives of the Cuban opposition or the civil society would be invited to the national holiday.  Our establishment did not commit any crime not even towards the Cuban authorities. Despite this, repression was used.  The Cuban political class works, therefore, in an area full of hypocrisy and that is why we should sympathize with society in which these interventions are endangered on a daily basis.  It is necessary to give back justice to the great courage of people who try within this framework of the learnable aggression of society – in the framework of this political culture – a culture of aggression and repression to look for peaceful ways of escape, ways of evolution.

These are everyday examples of our work in Cuba.  We got absolutely cut off from any contact with government officials; correspondence takes place only with the help of notes.  Then the most interesting period of my ambassadorship began in Cuba.  I started driving around the Cuban countryside, meeting people from the opposition, delighted with full protection.

In back of my tailgate and in front of my car, spies were everywhere.  Of course, I visited these people who agreed to these kinds of meetings.  Because driving around in Cuba, speaking with the opposition, we have to remember one thing, we are always in a privileged situation.  If need be, serious consequences will be taken regarding the people who we speak to.  At best, a 24-hour arrest awaits us, then an excursion.  But they must stay behind.