To promote a nonviolent transition to a Cuba that respects human rights, political and economic freedoms, and the rule of law.
Open Letter to the EU Special Representative for Human Rights asks for pause or suspension of PDCA with Cuba. Meanwhile Cameron’s UK Cuba policy ignores reality, drawing protests
“#Cuba: Co-chairing the EU-Cuba Human Rights Dialogue. Agenda included freedom of expression, assembly and association, women’s rights, gender equality and social and economic rights. Recognised the impact of the embargo, and called for release of July ‘21 detainees” - Eamon Gilmore, Nov 24, 2023 on X.
The chairman of the Center for a Free Cuba, Guillermo Marmol, and its president Ambassador Otto J. Reich thanked for meeting with families of political prisoners, independent members of civil society, and requested this Tuesday, November 28, 2023 in an e-mail sent to Mr. Eamon Gilmore, European Union Special Representative for Human Rights, that the 2016 EU Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with Havana be suspended or paused.
The letter was sent in the aftermath of Gilmore's visit to Cuba, and affirms concern for the situation of the more than a thousand political prisoners on the Island. They express their concern that the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been granted access to Cuba's prisons, although the prison at the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base where terrorists are housed, have had over 100 visits since 2002.
The letter outlines how the European Parliament has denounced the human rights situation, has requested that Magnitsky sanctions be applied against senior officials of the regime who have committed human rights violations against Cubans, and has requested that the PDCA between Cuba and the European Union, which includes a human rights clause that, if violated, the agreement can be suspended or paused.
"Placing a pause on, or suspending the PDCA, would alert Havana to the priority placed by Europe on the plight of Cuban political prisoners, and would accelerate their release, and improved treatment. The four who’s families you met are representative of the over 1,000 political prisoners, who are jailed for exercising their fundamental rights," observed Guillermo Marmol, and Ambassador Otto J. Reich in their letter to Mr. Gilmore.
There is cause for great concern.
In the aftermath of the visit Yindra Elizastigui Jardines, Luis Robles’s mother, felt "completely distressed" and initiated a hunger strike on November 25, 2023 following this meeting. In part, because she learned that the Cuban government had told Mr. Gilmore "that these people were imprisoned, but not for political reasons, that they had all the medical attention they needed and that they had never been mistreated."
Eralidis Frómeta, wife of journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, reported that she had evaded State Security with the help of activists to reach the European Union (EU) Embassy in Havana, and later reported over Facebook to CubaNet that the vehicle of one of the Cubans who helped her had been stolen.
European Union representatives should have held equally public and high profile meetings with dissidents, and family members of prisoners and requested they not be harassed. It is disappointing that meetings with dissidents, and family members of political prisoners not be included in Gilmore's report with the same specificity provided for his meetings with representatives of the Cuban dictatorship.
The European Union since 2016 has had a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with Havana that is providing tens of millions in subsidies to the communist dictatorship in Cuba. Eamon Gilmore, the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights visited Cuba last week to dialogue with representatives of the Castro regime, like Josep Borrell, of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Federica Mogherini, who in her youth had been a member of the Italian Communist Youth, comes from the Left. Gilmore was a past member of the Democratic Left Party in Ireland that had split off from the Worker's Party after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Gilmore had also been a member of the Workers' Party. The Workers' Party, a Marxist-Leninist party active in Ireland, itself had split off from Sinn Féin, but held close ties to the USSR. "The United Kingdom may have left the European Union, but some old habits die hard. "Top Cuban human rights campaigners have slammed Lord David Cameron’s first agreement as Foreign Secretary: a Political Dialogue and Cooperation agreement with Havana. Americas & Caribbean minister David Rutley flew to Havana last week to sign the agreement, watch events at 'British Culture Week' and meet with 'local entrepreneurs'. There is no indication Rutley met with human rights campaigners or victims of the communist regime," reported Global Guido earlier today. This is replicating the failed EU-Cuba policy so that UK taxpayers can pick up the tab of subsidizing rich communist oligarchs in Cuba through the the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Rosa María Payá was quoted by Guido in the article:
“Establishing political dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Cuba is immoral and futile. Immoral because it validates a totalitarian regime that holds more than a thousand people imprisoned for having ideas different from those of the Communist Party of Cuba, subjecting them to torture, persecuting, and harassing their families. Futile because there is no benefit for the United Kingdom in such an agreement. The only beneficiary is the regime, which will receive resources without any conditions to continue strengthening its repressive apparatus.
We hope that the British Parliament rejects this agreement that does not benefit the interests of its people but serves the narrative of the Cuban dictatorship to whitewash its image internationally”.
The FCDO's weak rebuttal in the same article:
“An open dialogue with Cuba allows us to frankly discuss areas of serious concern, such as human rights, as well as areas of mutual agreement.During his recent visit to Cuba, Minister Rutley raised human rights, concerns about political prisoners and the transparency of the judicial process in his meetings with ministers, including with the Cuban Foreign Minister, and met with a range of Cuban human rights experts”
The FCDO is ignoring recent history, and seems to be suffering from the same amnesia that too many have had in the State Department and the White House.
U.S. policy makers over the years repeatedly sought to unconditionally engage the Castro regime, while unilaterally loosening sanctions, and each time the results led to negative outcomes, and a cooling of relations until a new crowd made another good faith effort, ignored past failures and repeated the cycle leaving a mess.
The Wall Street Journal's Mary O'Grady revisited in her 2020 column "Biden’s Cuba Policy Ignores Reality" what happened to Stephen Purvis, a British businessman, who moved together with his family to Cuba and "as a top executive at his firm, he worked with the regime on a variety of joint ventures, including resorts, hotels and factories. Over a decade, he writes, 'steadily our business grew into a respected company.'” This is what those who advocate a policy of engagement do not understand about the dictatorship in Cuba, and Mr. Purvis learned at a high cost that "Raúl [Castro] and a cadre of his military buddies worried about the status quo 'turning into something uncontrollable.' They decided to act by 'methodically eradicating anything that [was] a threat' including 'every single high-ranking politician or business leader.' There were 'public purges' of a few but 'most were simply edited out' and 'replaced by military figures.'"
Learning this lesson cost Mr. Purvis 18 months of his freedom beginning in 2011 along with turmoil and terror for him and his family. Targeting businessmen and capitalists in a communist dictatorship should not be a surprise. Unfortunately, O'Grady's column could be retitled "Cameron’s Cuba Policy Ignores Reality" and be all too timely today.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario