Top Cuban human rights campaigners have slammed Lord 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. Meanwhile, Cuba sends its citizens to fight for the Russians in Ukraine…
Leading Cuban human rights campaigner Rosa María Payá spoke to Guido:
“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”.
Boris Gonzalez Arenas, pro-democracy campaigner and journalist, told Guido:
“Just reading the references to the meeting between Mr. David Rutley and the vice president of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs is enough to anger Cubans who demand respect from the international community, for the cause of our freedom.
The date of the signing of the document could not be more scandalous, when the communist regime faced the greatest international rejection for having allowed the death in prison of Luis Barrios Díaz, a political prisoner who had suffered for months from severe lung conditions without any medical attention, a crime that Mr Rutley and the FCDO help to cover up.
The Castro Foreign Ministry thanked, according to the text of the news published by Cubaminrex, the support of the United Kingdom for the Resolution against the United States embargo that Cuba presented at the United Nations. We Cuban activists pointed out years ago this European support for the Cuban dictatorship is a strategy favourable to European businessmen who wish to take advantage of the ban on American companies dictated by the embargo, to do business with the dictatorship.
This collusion between the authorities of the United Kingdom and the communist dictatorship, against the Cuban people, is undoubtedly bad news for Cuba“. Shortly after Guido spoke to Boris, Cuban state police blocked the exits to his apartment…
If the agreement is anything like one signed by the EU, it will agree to strengthen “political dialogue, cooperation, and economic and trade relations“, affirm the “principles of democracy, good governance and the rule of law“, and “strengthen political relations“. The text of the agreement won’t actually be published until spring when it is laid before Parliament, despite it being signed by both parties. Leaving no chance for MPs to scrutinise its contents for months…
UPDATE: An FCDO spokesman responds:
“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”. Not that they’ll provide any actual details…
It looks like John McDonnell has backed down from a rare bout of sensible foreign policy opinion-having: having previously signed an EDM in support of Cuban human rights protests and the release of the country’s political prisoners, McDonnell has now withdrawn his support for the motion, without explanation. A real shame; it looked like McDonnell had finally come to his senses about the Cuban government’s mass violence against its own citizens. Apparently not.
The full text of the motion read:
“That this House notes that the Cuban civil society movement, Archipiélago, has called for marches on the 15 November 2021 against violence, to demand that all Cubans’ rights are respected, for the release of political prisoners and for the solution to their differences via democratic and peaceful channels; further notes that the Cuban government has thus far denied the right of citizens to protest peacefully and continues to detain and imprison those who peacefully protested on 11 July 2021; and calls on the Cuban government to allow peaceful protest, release political prisoners and to engage in meaningful dialogue with Cuban civil society.”
Last night Zarah Sultana came out with a classic loony left take: that the scenes of protesting in Cuba over the anti-civil and economic freedom regime there is actually the fault of imperialist America.
The US has waged economic war on Cuba for nearly 60 years. Its blockade of the country is estimated to have cost Cuba $753,000,000,000+.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 12, 2021
If you care about Cuba, the key demand is for Washington to end its economic war on the country, just as the UN has repeatedly demanded.
Guido struggles to see how Zarah’s claim that those who “want to help Cuba” should focus on the US would end the scenes of mass violence by Cuban authorities against their citizens. It’s particularly brazen given just last week Sultana boasted about voting against the government’s Police and Crime Bill on the basis it was “an attack on our democratic right to protest”. Sultana is silent about the Cuban dictatorship’s arrest and beating of a protesting priest…
It seems that for Zarah the right of people to protest only extends to Western citizens complaining about capitalist systems; railing against the failing communist Cuban state just isn’t cricket. So far more than 100 people have been arrested or are missing on the island following Sunday’s protests. No doubt Sultana’s 401 majority will once again value her campaigning on issues directly affecting them…
The hard left’s romanticised example of a successful socialist nation, Cuba, is currently experiencing thousands-strong protests by its citizens over the collapsing economy, lack of freedoms and the country’s handling of the pandemic. Videos from Havana show the freedom-loving protestors shouting “Down with the dictatorship!”. There have also been chants of “down with communism!” and “freedom!”
In response, the military dictatorship has ordered police to make mass arrests and they have been seen beating protestors – further emphasising the protestors’ calls for improved civil liberties. Presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on television to accuse them of being provoked by US-hired mercenaries trying to destabilise the country, calling on government loyalists to “fight… into the street, revolutionaries!” Guido sends his best to the brave freedom fighters…
Chris Williamson happy once again to lavish praise on the regime of Fidel Castro. No mention, of course, of the forced labour camps set-up by the Castro regime which saw thousands of homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses and others imprisoned in misery. No mention of Castro routinely referring to gay people as “faggots” and “worms”. No mention that HIV positive people in Cuba were forced into quarantine and that gay students were expelled from universities. Williamson, a shadow minister remember, wants “the legacy of Fidel to continue”…
John McDonnell and Ian Lavery are to celebrate Labour’s better-than-expected election defeat at a Cuba Solidarity Campaign party next week. McDonnell and Lavery will enjoy Cuban acid house and salsa music, as well as a tribute to Fidel Castro, before giving speeches in praise of the communist Cuban regime. For voters, a look at what you could have won. Of course Fidel never gave himself the opportunity to lose an election…
