Foreign minister defends Cuba's rights record

Foreign minister defends Cuba's rights record
By ANITA SNOW – 53 minutes ago

HAVANA (AP) — Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque defended Cuba's human
rights record Wednesday, recognizing some "imperfections" but saying the
communist-run island can be proud of how it has treated its people.

"After 50 years, a work has been constructed favoring the rights of all
Cubans," Perez Roque told reporters, referring to the Cuban revolution's
half-century in power. The minister called it an "imperfect work," but
said, "Cuba can celebrate this day with head held high."

Perez Roque spoke as he arrived for an international conference on the
60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which set a worldwide standard for how countries should treat
people. Cuba is a signatory to the declaration.

The United States and several independent human rights groups accuse
Cuba of violating rights of free speech, assembly and the press, say its
courts are unfair and accuse it of holding at least 219 political prisoners.

Also marking the day, about 30 wives of political prisoners marched
peacefully down a Havana street to demand the release of their loved
ones. The husbands of the women known as the "Ladies in White" were
among 75 dissidents, rights activists and others sentenced to long
prison terms after a 2003 government crackdown on the opposition.

In Washington, outgoing U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez issued
a call to "remember the plight of the Cuban people, who live under a
totalitarian dictatorship that has denied them human rights for almost
half a century."

"The Castro regime prevents its citizens from having an elected and
democratic government, freedom of speech and fundamental human rights,"
added the Cuban-born Gutierrez, who co-chairs a commission formed by
President George W. Bush aimed at hastening a transition to democracy on
the island. Cuban authorities have criticized the commission as a thinly
veiled attempt at overthrowing their government.

Cuban officials maintain they respect human rights more most countries
do, given the free education and health care and other subsidized
services their system provides.'

Perez Roque said that "no Cuban family weeps" because a relative has
been the victim of state-sponsored disappearances, extra-judicial
killings or physical tortures that have plagued some other Latin
American nations. He said no Cuban family has to worry that a child
won't be able to attend school or that an elderly relative won't get
health care.

"Here in Havana you will not find a single child at a traffic light
washing windshields," he said.

Cuban officials say they do not hold any political prisoners and say
some of those on independent lists of political prisoners are actually
"mercenaries" who take money from the U.S. government to destabilize the
island's communist system. Both the opponents and American officials
deny that charge.

Perez Roque also called for the closure of the prison for terrorism
suspects at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, on the island's
extreme eastern end, and eventual return of the land it is built on to
Cuban control.

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