04/05/2007
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos ended a three-day
official visit to Havana without talking to dissidents. The offer was
rejected by most dissidents.
The Spanish Embassy on Wednesday offered to meet with opponents of
Cuba's Government, after Madrid's top diplomat ended a three-day
official visit to Havana without talking to dissidents.
But the offer was rejected by most dissidents, who said Spanish Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos spurned them during a trip to explore
improving Spanish and European ties to communist-run Cuba. "Moratinos'
visit was a lack of respect, he came to support the tyranny," said
Vladimiro Roca, a veteran opponent and former political prisoner who did
not attend the embassy gathering.
The wives and mothers of political prisoners who form the Ladies in
White also did not attend. Nor did writer Oscar Espinosa Chepe, one of
75 dissidents arrested in a March 2003 crackdown.
"Spain is not an interlocutor because it only hears some Cubans," said
Espinosa Chepe, who was given medical release from jail along with 15
others. "We don't want to be accomplices."
Historian Manuel Cuesta Morua was one of the few dissidents who agreed
to meet with the Spanish diplomats. "The important thing is to plant a
political agenda," he said.
Cuesta Morua also noted with satisfaction that Moratinos and his Cuban
counterpart agreed during the visit to explore regular bilateral talks
that could include a discussion of human rights.
"For the first time in many years the (Cuban) government has committed
to a discussion of human rights," Cuesta Morua said.
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