Why should Czechia help dissidents in Cuba? Czechast with Martin Palouš, Part 2

Martin Palouš served as Czech ambassador to Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2005 and later as the Czech ambassador to the United Nations in New York. After concluding his diplomatic career, he became the Director of Václav Havel Library and then the Director of the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Democracy at Florida International University.

Over the past three decades, Martin Palouš has dedicated significant effort to supporting Cuban dissidents and the island’s opposition movements. But for him, this mission extends far beyond individual acts of solidarity – it is part of a broader belief in the global fight for democracy.

"We all could hope and still hope that some sort of, let's say, Hevelian ideas that small states should have or can have significant contribution, not because they have enough of power of weapons, but something else is still with us till today."

For him, this isn’t just a matter of professional diplomacy. His personal connection to this cause has shaped his outlook for decades.

Martin Palouš en 1991|Photo: Alena Lábová, FSV UK

"You know, obviously for me, it's a personal thing. I spent 30 years communicating with Cuban dissidents at the moment opposition, so some sort of solidarity is basic feeling. But I think that it is much more than solidarity with individuals. It is belief that here what is at stake is a future of democracy."

"We tested, I think, Havelian ideas against what I called Bermuda Triangle. European perspective, European Union perspective now, United States and Latin America."

Martin Palouš’s approach reflects Václav Havel’s philosophy – the understanding that true resistance to authoritarianism starts within.

"We cannot choose the place and time when we were born, but we still, under these given circumstances, have possibilities. And we all need ourselves to take this fact seriously into consideration. Václav Havel once said that who wants to fight with totalitarianism, he or she needs to first evict it from his or her own soul. You have to start fighting with yourself."

In this episode I speak to Martin Palouš about his extraordinary diplomatic career, his dedication to human rights, and how the Czech experience of overcoming totalitarianism continues to inspire the pro-democracy movement on a far away island in the Caribbean.