<p>本月早些时候，民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔（Pramila Jayapal，华盛顿州）和乔纳森·杰克逊（Jonathan Jackson，伊利诺伊州）从古巴返回，呼吁减少美国的 “言辞” 并重新考虑制裁，他们将此次旅行框定为人道主义考察任务。不幸的是，他们带回来的太多内容是古巴政权关于自身的宣传。</p>
<p>毫无疑问，近期美国的政策加剧了本已严峻的局势。更严格的制裁，特别是对石油运输的限制，加剧了古巴脆弱的能源部门，导致停电和短缺，影响到日常生活。任何诚实的叙述都必须承认这一点。</p>
<p>但仅止于此就是接受哈瓦那的叙述：古巴的苦难主要是外部压力的结果，而不是一个几十年来优先考虑控制而非能力、压制而非改革的政治体系。</p>
<p>这种叙述在立法者的访问中得到了充分展示。贾亚帕尔和杰克逊动情地谈论古巴的物质困境，并呼吁美国采取更少惩罚性的方式。他们对普通古巴人的关心是可以理解的。但关心并不等同于清晰。一次关注短缺而未能充分面对管理、分配并常常将短缺武器化的政治体系的访问，风险在于强化古巴政府最希望外国访客带回的故事。</p>
<p>面对一个监禁异议人士、限制表达并维持一个压制生产和分配的集中控制体系的政府，这些立法者选择了不去质疑权力，而是去附和它。</p>
<p>这样一来，他们的角色更像是放大器，而不是观察者——或者用一个更古老且严厉的术语来说，是 “有用的白痴”，参与了一个为他们声称以人道主义关怀接近的政权服务的木偶剧。</p>
<p>古巴政权早已理解与外国同情者进行精心策划的接触的价值。它提供接触、亲近和被接待的安静声望，这是一种经过精心管理的窥视，强化了其偏好的论点，同时压制异议声音。它所不提供的是未经调解的现实。而那些接受邀请的人往往未能超越所展示的内容。</p>
<p>在我早期访问古巴期间，我与岛上的政治精英关系密切。我曾与玛丽埃拉·卡斯特罗（Mariela Castro）和古巴五人组之一的赫拉尔多·埃尔南德斯（Gerardo Hernández）以及一些文化人物交往，他们的知名度依赖于不偏离官方剧本。我不仅得到了一个波将金式的窥视，而是前排观看了一个精心策划的革命古巴的表演。</p>
<p>我知道这个剧本是多么具有说服力，因为我曾经也相信其中的一部分。</p>
<p>然后我走出了这个剧本。我发现的并不仅仅是贫困——这可能有多种原因——而是一个剥夺和依赖与政治控制密不可分的体系。获取、特权和救济与权力的亲近紧密相连。普通人被迫在早已成为结构性短缺的情况下即兴求生。</p>
<p>在后来的访问中，我开始走在哈瓦那老城和哈瓦那中心的街道上。我与普通古巴人交谈。我走进公寓，亲眼目睹了官方叙述努力掩盖的衰败、剥夺和安静的绝望。许多外国同情者仍然倾向于通过浪漫的镜头看待古巴国家，但这种视角在与现实接触后并未存活。</p>
<p>这种现实依然严峻。独立记者、艺术家和活动家继续描述监视、任意拘留和对表达的严重限制。近期因轻微异议行为而被监禁的事件凸显了政府在管控言论和公共生活方面的决心。</p>
<p>所有这些并不需要淡化美国制裁可能造成的伤害。人们可以反对加深人类苦难的政策，同时也要追究古巴政府对其公民所承受条件的责任。知识的诚实要求两者兼顾。</p>
<p>更难以辩护的是那些以团结名义完全混淆这种区别的姿态。当美国立法者或活动家将古巴的危机主要归因于华盛顿时，他们冒着免除造成并延续这一危机的体系的风险。</p>
<p>民主党国会成员——无论多么进步——都应抵制将精心策划的接触误认为真相的诱惑。一个人道的古巴政策必须同时考虑制裁可能造成的伤害和当前政权在制造其巧妙向外宣传的苦难中所扮演的核心角色。</p>
<p><em>乔治·亨森（George Henson），博士，是蒙特雷国际研究所西班牙语翻译的访问助理教授。</em></p>

CUBA

<p>民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔和乔纳森·杰克逊最近的古巴之行被框架为人道主义使命，但因与古巴政权的宣传相呼应而受到批评。文章承认美国制裁加剧了古巴的困境，但认为将危机完全归因于外部压力忽视了内部政治体制在延续苦难中的作用。作者强调需要对古巴的情况进行细致的理解，既要认识到制裁的影响，也要承认政权对其公民困境的责任</p>

<p>When Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) returned from Cuba earlier this month urging less U.S. “rhetoric” and a reconsideration of sanctions, they framed their trip as a humanitarian fact-finding mission. Unfortunately, too much of what they brought back was the Cuban regime’s preferred propaganda about itself.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>本月早些时候，民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔（Pramila Jayapal，华盛顿州）和乔纳森·杰克逊（Jonathan Jackson，伊利诺伊州）从古巴返回，呼吁减少美国的 “言辞” 并重新考虑制裁，他们将此次旅行框定为人道主义考察任务。不幸的是，他们带回来的太多内容是古巴政权关于自身的宣传。</p>
</div><p>There is no question that recent U.S. policy has worsened an already dire situation. Tighter sanctions, particularly restrictions on oil shipments, have aggravated Cuba’s fragile energy sector, contributing to blackouts and shortages that ripple across daily life. Any honest account must acknowledge that.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>毫无疑问，近期美国的政策加剧了本已严峻的局势。更严格的制裁，特别是对石油运输的限制，加剧了古巴脆弱的能源部门，导致停电和短缺，影响到日常生活。任何诚实的叙述都必须承认这一点。</p>
</div><p>But to stop there is to adopt Havana’s preferred narrative: that Cuba’s suffering is primarily the result of external pressure rather than a political system that has spent decades prioritizing control over competence, repression over reform.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>但仅止于此就是接受哈瓦那的叙述：古巴的苦难主要是外部压力的结果，而不是一个几十年来优先考虑控制而非能力、压制而非改革的政治体系。</p>
</div><p>That narrative was on full display during the lawmakers’ visit. Jayapal and Jackson spoke movingly about Cuba’s material hardships and urged a less punitive U.S. approach. Their concern for ordinary Cubans is understandable. But concern is not the same as clarity. A visit that focuses on scarcity without fully confronting the political system that manages, distributes and often weaponizes scarcity risks reinforcing the very story the Cuban government most wants foreign visitors to take home.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这种叙述在立法者的访问中得到了充分展示。贾亚帕尔和杰克逊动情地谈论古巴的物质困境，并呼吁美国采取更少惩罚性的方式。他们对普通古巴人的关心是可以理解的。但关心并不等同于清晰。一次关注短缺而未能充分面对管理、分配并常常将短缺武器化的政治体系的访问，风险在于强化古巴政府最希望外国访客带回的故事。</p>
</div><p>Faced with a government that imprisons dissenters, restricts expression and maintains a system of centralized control that stifles production and distribution, these lawmakers chose not to interrogate power but to echo it.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>面对一个监禁异议人士、限制表达并维持一个压制生产和分配的集中控制体系的政府，这些立法者选择了不去质疑权力，而是去附和它。</p>
</div><p>In doing so, they functioned less as observers than as amplifiers — or, to use an older and harsher term, as “useful idiots,” participants in puppet theater that serves the interests of the very regime they claim to approach with humanitarian concern.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这样一来，他们的角色更像是放大器，而不是观察者——或者用一个更古老且严厉的术语来说，是 “有用的白痴”，参与了一个为他们声称以人道主义关怀接近的政权服务的木偶剧。</p>
</div><p>The Cuban regime has long understood the value of curated encounters with foreign sympathizers. It offers access, proximity and the quiet prestige of being received, a carefully managed glimpse that reinforces its preferred talking points while muting dissenting voices. What it does not offer is unmediated reality. And too often, those who accept the invitation fail to look beyond what is shown.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>古巴政权早已理解与外国同情者进行精心策划的接触的价值。它提供接触、亲近和被接待的安静声望，这是一种经过精心管理的窥视，强化了其偏好的论点，同时压制异议声音。它所不提供的是未经调解的现实。而那些接受邀请的人往往未能超越所展示的内容。</p>
</div><p>During my early visits to Cuba, I moved in circles close to the island’s political elite. I spent time around Mariela Castro and Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five, as well as cultural figures whose prominence depends on not straying too far from the official script. I was given not merely a Potemkin glimpse, but a front-row seat to a carefully staged production of revolutionary Cuba.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在我早期访问古巴期间，我与岛上的政治精英关系密切。我曾与玛丽埃拉·卡斯特罗（Mariela Castro）和古巴五人组之一的赫拉尔多·埃尔南德斯（Gerardo Hernández）以及一些文化人物交往，他们的知名度依赖于不偏离官方剧本。我不仅得到了一个波将金式的窥视，而是前排观看了一个精心策划的革命古巴的表演。</p>
</div><p>I know how persuasive that script can be, because I once believed parts of it myself.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>我知道这个剧本是多么具有说服力，因为我曾经也相信其中的一部分。</p>
</div><p>Then I stepped outside of it. What I found was not merely poverty — which can have many causes — but a system in which deprivation and dependency were inseparable from political control. Access, privilege and relief were tied to proximity to power. Ordinary people were left to improvise survival amid shortages that had long since become structural.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>然后我走出了这个剧本。我发现的并不仅仅是贫困——这可能有多种原因——而是一个剥夺和依赖与政治控制密不可分的体系。获取、特权和救济与权力的亲近紧密相连。普通人被迫在早已成为结构性短缺的情况下即兴求生。</p>
</div><p>During later visits, I began to walk the streets of Habana Vieja and Centro Habana. I spoke with ordinary Cubans. I went into tenements and saw firsthand the decay, deprivation and quiet despair that official narratives work so hard to obscure. The romantic lens through which many foreign sympathizers still prefer to view the Cuban state did not survive contact with reality.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在后来的访问中，我开始走在哈瓦那老城和哈瓦那中心的街道上。我与普通古巴人交谈。我走进公寓，亲眼目睹了官方叙述努力掩盖的衰败、剥夺和安静的绝望。许多外国同情者仍然倾向于通过浪漫的镜头看待古巴国家，但这种视角在与现实接触后并未存活。</p>
</div><p>That reality remains grim. Independent journalists, artists and activists continue to describe surveillance, arbitrary detention and severe limits on expression. Recent imprisonments for minor acts of dissent underscore how determined the government remains to police speech and public life.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这种现实依然严峻。独立记者、艺术家和活动家继续描述监视、任意拘留和对表达的严重限制。近期因轻微异议行为而被监禁的事件凸显了政府在管控言论和公共生活方面的决心。</p>
</div><p>None of this requires minimizing the damage U.S. sanctions can inflict. One can oppose policies that deepen human suffering while also holding the Cuban government accountable for the conditions its citizens endure. Intellectual honesty demands both.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>所有这些并不需要淡化美国制裁可能造成的伤害。人们可以反对加深人类苦难的政策，同时也要追究古巴政府对其公民所承受条件的责任。知识的诚实要求两者兼顾。</p>
</div><p>What is harder to defend is the posture of those who, in the name of solidarity, collapse that distinction entirely. When U.S. lawmakers or activists attribute Cuba’s crisis primarily to Washington, they risk absolving the very system that has produced and prolonged that crisis.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>更难以辩护的是那些以团结名义完全混淆这种区别的姿态。当美国立法者或活动家将古巴的危机主要归因于华盛顿时，他们冒着免除造成并延续这一危机的体系的风险。</p>
</div><p>Democratic members of Congress — no matter how progressive — should resist the temptation to mistake curated access for truth. A humane Cuba policy must reckon with both the harm sanctions can cause and the central role the current regime plays in producing the suffering it so skillfully markets abroad.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>民主党国会成员——无论多么进步——都应抵制将精心策划的接触误认为真相的诱惑。一个人道的古巴政策必须同时考虑制裁可能造成的伤害和当前政权在制造其巧妙向外宣传的苦难中所扮演的核心角色。</p>
</div><p><em>George Henson, Ph.D., is visiting assistant professor of Spanish translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.</em></p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p><em>乔治·亨森（George Henson），博士，是蒙特雷国际研究所西班牙语翻译的访问助理教授。</em></p>
</div>

进步人士必须明白：不能全信古巴所说的话