Rhetoric in the American and Cuban palaver on human trafficking

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis is to understand how the anti-human trafficking dialogue in the Cuban-American context is used as medium to express national agendas. The research data were speeches delivered by representatives of the US and Cuban governments that specifically mentioned Cuba or the United States in addition to human trafficking. The broad categories that emerged in these speeches included religion, morality, children (youth), and gender. The rhetoric employed within each of these categories was examined to reveal how the palaver on human trafficking was used to promote American and Cuban agendas.

It was found that the use of religious rhetoric is an effective tool for the American rhetorician while, in the Cuban discussion of human trafficking, religious rhetoric was largely absent. Moral metaphors or moral themes were used extensively by both Cuban and American rhetoricians. The Cuban representatives focused on the inequality and moral bankruptcy wrought by neoliberal policy and economics. The American government emphasized the moral depravity of the Cuban ‘failed revolution’ which allegedly relies on the income that human trafficking brings to the country. Finally, both countries used the rhetoric of the innocent child and the vulnerable woman to strengthen the argument that the opposing ideology, as represented by respective governments, facilitated the exploitation of innocent children and the neglect of vulnerable women.

To facilitate greater co-operation in reducing the negative impacts of human trafficking, countries that have conflicting agenda’s must refocus their energies on the commonalities they share. In this case both Cuba and the US should acknowledge that the other, fundamentally, has mechanisms for promoting the rights and dignity of man.