Web posted at: 4/5/2007 8:16:2
Source ::: REUTERS
Cuban Vice-President Raul Castro (right) reading a letter addressed to
his brother, President Fidel Castro, by Spain's King Juan Carlos through
his Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Tuesday at the State
Council building in Havana. (AFP)
HAVANA • Cuba's leading dissidents, miffed by a rapprochement between
Spain and Cuba's communist government, boycotted meetings with a Spanish
official yesterday.
Pro-democracy activists said they felt "insulted" that Spanish Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos ended a two-day visit to Havana on
Tuesday without meeting with them.
Instead, Moratinos met with Cuba's acting president Raul Castro and left
an official in charge of Latin American policy, Javier Sandomingo, to
meet with dissidents after his departure in an apparent move to avoid
upsetting Cuban authorities.
"Moratinos's visit was an insult to the Cuban people. He came and gave
tyranny a slap on the back," said Vladimiro Roca, one of half a dozen
dissidents who turned down invitations by the Spanish embassy to meet
with Sandomingo.
"Moratinos visited at a time when repression, intolerance and violation
of civil rights is on the rise, especially against the democratic,
peaceful opposition," said Oswaldo Paya, Cuba's best-known dissident.
Spain's Socialist government favors constructive engagement with Havana
as Cuba approaches a post-Fidel Castro era. Other EU members, such as
Holland and the Czech Republic, want to keep up pressure for the release
of political prisoners and reform of Cuba's one-party state.
Spain and Cuba agreed on Tuesday to regular political talks that will
include discussion on human rights issues that caused a diplomatic rift
with the European Union when 75 dissidents were rounded up and jailed
four years ago.
Madrid and Havana agreed to relaunch bilateral cooperation programs
suspended after the 2003 crackdown ordered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The 80-year-old revolutionary has not appeared in public since emergency
surgery forced him to hand over power to his brother eight months ago.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Tuesday that the
agenda for talks with Spain will not include what he called
"mercenaries" jailed for being on the payroll of the US to subvert
Cuba's political system, the label Havana frequently uses for dissidents.
About 280 Cubans are in prison for political reasons, according to the
Cuban Commission for Human Rights, an illegal but tolerated group. "I do
not know how Spain can talk about human rights in Cuba if the political
prisoners are not on the agenda," said dissident economist Martha
Beatriz Roque.
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