The Left Forum, an annual event hosted by New York’s Pace University, held a discussion titled “New Developments in Cuba” — yet the Mar. 17 seminar was overshadowed by the absence of its original guest speakers: Juan Lamiguero, deputy chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, and Patricia Pego Guerra, its first secretary.

 Event organizers explained that the State Department had denied their request to travel to New York (Cuban diplomats stationed in Washington must get explicit U.S. permission to travel beyond the Beltway).

In their place came half a dozen members of Cuba’s mission to the United Nations, led by Pedro Nuñez Mosquera, Cuba’s envoy to the UN, and his deputy, Oscar León González.

After his speech, Nuñez Mosquera contrasted Cuba’s gradual economic changes under Raúl Castro to the dramatic market reforms undertaken long ago by China and Vietnam.

“We cannot be in a hurry. We must be careful to do what Cuba can do, because China is 10,000 miles away. It is not suffering an economic blockade. They have their own peculiarities,” he said. “We can never forget that we are 90 miles from a country whose government has made it clear that they want to destroy the Cuban revolution.” 

Nuñez Mosquera added: “Our main objectives
is to save the Cuban system of social justice, that nobody will be abandoned. How we do that must be only through the Cuban way.”

The diplomats also discussed Raúl’s ongoing campaign against corruption, which has landed several foreign businessmen in jail including Canadian entrepreneurs Cy Tokmakjian and Sarkis Yacoubian, and British realestate developer Amado Fakhre.

CubaNews asked whether all this may hurt the government’s efforts to attract investors.

 Diplomatic functionary Jairo Rodríguez insisted that his government puts priority on transparency — and that regardless of what happens to the businessmen, Cuba’s economy will still have foreign input.

“Should we allow foreign investors to enrich themselves through corrupt [Cuban] officials, without taking into account the national law?” said Rodríguez. “These challenges can only be answered by the Cuban people.” Speculation was raised on a possible “spy swap” — perhaps following Obama’s re-election — in which the “Cuban Five” will be exchanged for U.S. prisoner Alan Gross, who’s serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba for illegally distributing telecom equipment.

“The Cuban Five should never have been incarcerated, because it was clear that they were fighting against terrorism,” said Nuñez Mosquera. “What will happen during the second term of Obama? I don’t know. Of course, Cuba will be interested in finding a solution that would be acceptable to everybody.”

Just a few days after the diplomat’s statement, René González — who had been behind bars for 13 years and was on probation since last October — received permission to visit his seriously ill brother in Cuba.

Rodríguez was also asked his opinion of Occupy Wall Street protesters, who were egged on during the forum by filmmaker Michael Moore and later arrested by NYPD officers after marching on Zuccotti Park.

“It is curious these things are happening in rich countries, where they’re not supposed to happen,” he said sarcastically. “As Cuban diplomats, we’re not supposed to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. But what I see is a reflection of what’s going on in society.”