Spanish Politician Meets with Dissidents in Cuba

Latina american heraldtribune

The leader of Spain’s centrist UPyD party confirmed Monday that she is in Cuba to meet with dissident groups.

“Being Europeans obligates us to defend democracy and human rights, and not only trade and business,” Spanish lawmaker Rosa Diez told Efe in Havana.She criticized the fact that, in Cuba’s case, the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero “wants to reduce the demands on the (Castro) regime” during Spain’s turn in the European Union rotating presidency.Diez arrived in Havana on Sunday and she has already met with dissident Oswaldo Paya, the promoter of Project Varela.
The movement between 1998 and 2004 collected more than the 10,000 signatures necessary to officially request that the Cuban government make changes in laws governing the freedom of association, business, the press and amnesty for political prisoners, via a national referendum.

The UPyD leader praised Project Varela for “extraordinary work under complicated conditions.”

Meanwhile, Paya told Efe that Diez visited him on Sunday at his home, a meeting that was “full of confidence and transparency, among personal friends” and not “a mystery, nor clandestine, nor was her entry into Cuba.”

“She is very concerned about the situation of the political prisoners and the Cuban reality and believes it’s a very positive approach for we Cubans to resolve our problems among Cubans,” Paya said.

Paya insisted that Diez’s visit was “as a friend and as a Spaniard,” adding that “we have much in common due to her universal vocation for the defense of human rights” and also due to “the lack of understanding and the criticisms that she has suffered for defending them.”

He recalled that he met Diez when he traveled to Europe to accept the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for activism on behalf of human rights. EFE