U.S. envoy who touts ‘disability diplomacy’ finds points of agreement with Cuba
Despite a tense relationship, the United States and Cuba have found a new topic on which the two countries can sit and talk: the rights of people with disabilities.
Sara Minkara, the blind, young woman who is the top U.S. diplomat championing disability rights around the world, traveled this year to Havana, where she discussed the barriers that Cubans with disabilities face and inquired in official meetings about the well-being of political prisoners with disabilities.
Cuban authorities routinely dismiss attempts to discuss the thorny issue of the hundreds of people incarcerated on the island for political reasons, most of them demonstrators who were accused of sedition for protesting against the government in 2021. But Minkara, whose official title is U.S. Department of State Special Advisor on International Disability Rights, said she sensed “openness” on the part of Cuban officials when talks included issues of disability inclusion.
“We had multiple government meetings, and one of the focuses was on political prisoners with disabilities,” Minkara said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “Ultimately, disability rights and disability inclusion are something that there’s openness to engage on. There was openness to us sharing best practices from how we look at disability inclusion, so that was a very positive element in our meetings.”
According to Justicia
11J, a group monitoring the situation of people detained for taking part in island-wide demonstrations in July 2021, there are at least 17 protesters with mental and other disabilities in Cuban prisons.
‘NUANCED RELATIONSHIPS’
In a statement about the visit in late January, the U.S. Embassy in Havana said Minkara, who has traveled to 25 countries since 2021, is a proponent of “disability diplomacy” as a tool to navigate “nuanced relationships with the U.S.’s international partners, as well as raising global awareness about the economic, social, and political benefits of including persons with disabilities.”
Minkara said she engaged in several meetings during her “very productive” two-day trip, which included discussions with associations of Cubans with disabilities, a visit to a primary school for kids with special needs and exchanges with private entrepreneurs.
“My favorite meeting was the meeting with entrepreneurs,” she said, praising their “tenacity, resiliency and creativity.” The U.S. official said she met with entrepreneurs who had disabilities but also private-business owners who are employing people with disabilities and some serving the needs of that group.
“For instance, we met the owner of a bike shop that also repairs wheelchairs, which is really cool,” she said. “Or an entrepreneur who was training persons with disabilities to be hairdressers and another deaf entrepreneur who is doing a lot of environmental woodworking.”
In those conversations in Havana, she said she heard similar stories about the challenges that Cubans with disabilities face.
“What we heard is that there’s a lot of different barriers for persons with disabilities across all aspects of society,” she said. “If you go walk around, there is a lot of work to be done to make accessible infrastructure, barriers when it comes to digital technology, barriers when it comes to employment as well. So it’s across across the board.”
Shortages of food and medicines and hours-long electricity blackouts spurred anti-government protests during the past weekend in Santiago de Cuba, the island’s secondlargest city, and smaller towns. The protests have again stirred the controversy surrounding the impact of U.S. sanctions on the population.
The scarcities are felt across the public-health and education systems that serve people with disabilities on the island. As the internet has become accessible on the island, parents of children with autism and other disabilities have taken to social media to plead for help with medical treatment or food.
A few days after Minkara’s visit, the Communist Party newspaper Granma published an article with data on government initiatives to protect the rights of people with disabilities. According to the report, 466,957 Cubans live with disabilities. In a similar report last week, Granma said more than 30,000 children are enrolled in special education.
Minkara said that during her visit to a primary school, she learned of the emphasis on engaging families in special education early on.
“There’s a lot of effort being made, but there are a lot of barriers to inclusive education,” she said. However, she notes the problems that Cubans with disabilities face are common in other countries.
“It’s not just resources; it’s narrative and legislation,” she said.
Cuba has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as many other countries have, but ultimately, she said, “it comes down to implementation.”