DIALOGUE BETWEEN CUBA AND SPAIN
2008-02-16.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas, Coordinator, Christian Liberation Movement
The Spanish Embassy has kindly sent me the text of the joint communiqué
released after the Second Session of the Dialogue on Human Rights
between the governments of Spain and Cuba . We thank them for this
gesture which is not uncommon given the respectful and amicable
relations that the Spanish mission has had with civil society, including
our movement, for many years.
Within Cuba we are promoting a dialogue founded on respect for the
dignity and rights of all Cubans as a path towards reconciliation and to
achieve the changes that Cubans want.
With regards to the joint communiqué, though it was not the intention of
the authors, it sounds truly ironic to cite the visit of the UN Special
Rapporteur on the Right of Food as an example of collaboration between
the Cuban government and the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations.
This Special Rapporteur never met with any human rights activists in
Cuba who, like the majority of Cubans, have much to say about the right
to food in our country. What was sadly notable were the flattery and
justifications the Rapporteur rendered to the Cuban government,
demonstrating great partiality and superficiality.
Visits to prisons by Cuban officials and foreign visitors have not
included meetings with political prisoners who are in prison precisely
for defending human rights and continue to defend the rights and dignity
of all prisoners and denounce the cruel treatment and degrading
conditions which the majority of common and political prisoners suffer.
Recently we denounced the sadism of the guards and state security agents
of the prison of Guayabo, on Pinos Island , where the lawyer Rolando
Jiménez Pozada, a former antidrug official of the Interior Ministry, is
unjustly serving a twelve year sentence.
At the time of his imprisonment he was a civilian and member of the
Varela Project. Rolando Jiménez made a statement by telephone from
prison denying reports made by Lázaro Barredo, a journalist from Granma,
the official newspaper, in which he presented a deformed version of the
judicial process in which Rolando was condemned.
In response, the guards of the prison took Mr. Jiménez out of his cell
and placed him in a galley where common prisoners that had been
criminally prosecuted for drug trafficking by Mr. Jiménez personally
awaited him.
One of these prisoners attacked him savagely with a stick while others
held him and guards disappeared after locking the galley. We point out
this event, which is not isolated, not because we are appealing to
political positions or prejudices but to defend real people and to bear
witness to actual events. These events are indisputable. Beatings and
cruel treatment are systematic in Cuban prisons.
Although the joint communiqué mentions collaboration between the Cuban
and Spanish governments with regards to the human rights mechanisms of
the United Nations let us recall that these actions have not improved
human rights for Cubans and it would be shameful to use the dialogue
between the Cuban and Spanish governments to conceal or justify the real
and continuous violation of the human rights of the Cuban people.
The development of relations between any state or organization with Cuba
are only beneficial to the Cuban people and morally admissible if Cubans
can participate with full rights, liberties and dignity in these
relations and the life of their own country.
The communiqué mentions that the Cuban government will finally ratify,
at the latest by the end of March, the United Nations Conventions on
Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In
light of this, what would be coherent and a true advancement would be to
liberate Cubans jailed for defending these rights, publish the texts of
these conventions so that the Cuban people are familiar with them, and
to modify laws so that these rights may be guaranteed in law and in
practice. The Varela Project and the proposed Law of National
Reunification which we have presented before the National Assembly of
the Popular Power affirm these ideas. (The texts are available at
The mentioned joint communiqué states "the Spanish side reiterated that
it will continue to work for the normalization of relations between Cuba
and the European Union based on principles established for such an end."
We would like the governments of Cuba and Spain to explain publicly
which principles these are.
Speaking of principles, let's speak about what is important to the
people of Cuba and Spain: if the development of relations between the
European Union and Cuba is not based on the respect of all the rights of
Cubans, it will impose or accept as a matter of fact the condition and
situation of exclusion of Cuban citizens in those relations, just as
they are excluded within Cuba through the denial of civil, social,
economic and political rights.
If there is a dialogue with Cuba, it should support dialogue between
Cubans and the changes that Cubans seek: changes that will open the
doors to rights, liberty, peace and reconciliation.
That would respect the national sovereignty and self-determination of
all Cubans.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Coordinator, Christian Liberation Movement
Havana, February 12th, 2008
For more information or to obtain a copy of the press release, please
contact: Julio Hernández or Francisco De Armas, International
Representatives, Christian Liberation Movement, (787) 549-1805,
mcl2004jhs@yahoo.com, fdamcl@cs.com
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=14006
No comments:
Post a Comment