Broad Russian Support of Solidarity with Cuba
Moscow, Mar 22 (Prensa Latina) A call by more than 1,000 prominent thinkers and journalists in the world condemning US anti-Cuban maneuvers at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) has been met with broad support in Russia.
According to Cuba´s ambassador to Moscow Jorge Mart¡, the document has been endorsed by deputies, politicians, professionals and a number of solidarity organizations here.
In a press conference at Itar Tass news agency headquarters in Moscow, the Cuban diplomat stressed that support for the Island is increasing in the Russian Federation as it is a model in social indicators such as health and education.
The same voices are also rising here against the US blockade of more than 40 years against Cuba that is doomed to fail, he said.
"They (the US) have been left alone in finding a single nation that may offer to condemn Cuba," Marti said in reference to the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
Answering a question by Russian journalists, the Cuban official highlighted the increasing, solid links in all fields between his country and Russia.
Peruvians March against Anti-Cuban Maneuvers in Geneva
Lima, Mar 22 (Prensa Latina) Political and social organizations in Peru march through Lima’s streets, demanding their government to steer clear of US manoeuvres against Cuba in the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva.
The solidarity march will wind up at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, where a group of demonstrators will deliver some documents repudiating the US policy against Cuba.
Most Peruvian congresspersons approved a motion requesting President Alejandro Toledo and Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez to abstain in the face of any US resolution condemning Cuba in Geneva.
The document, signed by 78 of 117 legislators of the single-chamber Peruvian Parliament, demands the president to maintain an independent position and respect the principle of self-determination.
Since his inauguration on July 28, 2001, Alejandro Toledo has supported US anti-Cuban resolutions against the island in the UN Commissions in Geneva, Switzerland.
So far, authorities from this South American country have said nothing about maintaining a respectable position in the next UNCHR voting.
PARLACEN Requests Presidents Not to Vote against Cuba at UNCHR
Managua, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) Legislators from the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN, in Spanish) sent a letter to Presidents Vicente Fox (Mexico), Oscar Berger (Guatemala), Abel Pacheco (Costa Rica), Ricardo Maduro (Honduras) and Leonel Fernandez (Dominican Republic), requesting them to abstain of voting against Cuba at UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva.
According to Jacinto Suarez, member of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) and PARLACEN secretary, the US government has no moral authority to set itself up as judge of the human rights in Cuba, where there is no case of disappeared people, torture or extra-legal execution.
For the Central American nations, Suarez pointed out, the Caribbean island is an honorable example of democracy and respect for human dignity, which despite the blockade, has reached high rates in health, education and culture internationally acknowledged.
US Anti-Cuban Maneuvers at Geneva Condemned
Havana, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) Union members and work experts at an international meeting in Havana condemned the US administration´s anti-Cuban tactics at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission.
Following debates at the Cuba-US International Meeting of Unionists and Scholars of Labor that closed Saturday, local academics, union leaders and labor attorneys from the United Kingdom, Canada and the US joined the world condemnation of Washington"s latest anti-Cuban moves.
Participants also demanded that the Five Cuban patriots unjustly jailed in the US for fighting terrorism be freed, and labeled the war on Iraq as genocide.
Regarding labor, they called Cuba´s legislation on the right to work a paradigm for the world to follow.
The role of unions to protect workers´ rights and the impact of regional free trade agreements and international financial bodies on labor were debated, chiefly the neoliberal policies and Washington-thrusted Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).
Havana will host a regional meeting against the FTAA from April 27 to 30, under the title "For an integration based on cooperation, solidarity and progress for all."
Presently, a document signed by over 1,500 prominent thinkers rejecting the White House anti-Cuban maneuvers at the human rights commission is distributed worldwide.
Chilean Politicians Support Cuba
Santiago de Chile, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) Progressive Chilean leaders have expressed their support for a declaration by international thinkers in favor of Cuba and against the US pressures to condemn the Caribbean country in Geneva.
Social and Democratic Power pre-candidates to Chile´s presidency Tomas Hirsh, Manuel Jacques and Jorge Pavez joined the call and condemned the US maneuvers at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
"The US has blockaded Cuba for over 45 years and is trying once again to accuse the Caribbean Island in Geneva, but that powerful nation is the main human rights violator worldwide," emphasized Hirsh.
In a statement to Prensa Latina, the Chilean leader said that the US has not respected Cuba´s sovereignty, since it has a military base in Guantanamo. That eastern Cuban territory is illegally occupied by the US, where the human rights of hundreds of Afghan and Iraqi prisoners are violated.
Condemnation of US maneuvers to impose anti-cuban resolution at UN Human Rights Commission
MOTERREY, MEXICO (PL)—Jorge Bolaños, the Cuban ambassador in México, has condemned the rabid persistence of the US government, which is trying to force the imposition of an anti-Cuban resolution in the UN Human Rights Commission.
This attitude, he said, deeply hurts the Commission’s credibility; it distorts it, perverts it and conditions it to the point of transforming it into a court of inquisition against countries of the South or any other country that dares to defy its ambitions to rule the world.
Bolaños spoke at the inauguration of the 10th Cuba Solidarity Conference, which took place with 639 delegates during two working days in this city, located about 1,000 km north of Mexico City.
He also condemned the fact that Washington is currently handing out large sums of money to finance its stratagem (in Geneva, where that UN body meets), which “whets the appetites of both its internal and external mercenaries and lackeys.”
Therefore, he asserted, the farce that the United States hopes to impose there once again lacks – as on previous occasions – any legitimacy whatsoever, and makes a mockery of truth, justice and the consciousness of those who are genuinely committed to the defense of human rights.
In addition, he condemned the hypocritical, two-faced stance taken by those rich countries that vote with the U.S. in Geneva, but oppose the convening of a special debate on the assassination by Israeli troops of Ahmed Bassin, the Palestinian spiritual leader.
Cuba, he emphasized, confirms the militancy of its struggle together with all who are ready to firmly defend truth and justice, and confront fiction and shamelessness.
The ambassador added that this is possible because it concerns a country that does not believe in threats or blackmail, and because human rights violations do not exist on its territory.
He reiterated that in Cuba, there has never been a case of disappearance by force, torture or extrajudicial execution; practices that the US government promoted on a massive scale in Latin America under its military dictatorships.
The ambassador reaffirmed that the Cuban Revolution will never lower its flag of dignity, and that, moreover, it will know how to defend to its last breath the generous friendship and solidarity of the Mexican people.
MEXICAN GOVERNMENT URGED TO NOT BOW TO US PRESSURES
THE final declaration by the Cuba Solidarity Conference, with more than 800 participants, demanded that the Mexican government refuses to bow to US pressures at the UN Human Rights Commission.
The document calls for the end of the disastrous economic and trade blockade maintained by Washington for more than 40 years.
It also urges that a possible military invasion against Cuba be prevented at all costs, and calls for a mobilization to rescue from US dungeons the five Cuban patriots who were imprisoned for defending their homeland, and who – it emphasizes – are suffering the violation of their civil and human rights.
Likewise, it advocates unceasing struggle against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and in its stead, to foster and spread the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (BAA), which is promoted by Cuba and Venezuela.
The document also expresses acknowledgement of the Cuban people’s efforts, at the cost of great sacrifice, to keep the flame of hope alive, as well as their proven spirit of solidarity with other countries in the world.
In evaluating the outcome of the conference, the document notes that ever since 1959, Monterrey has been a city where sympathy with the Cuban Revolution has been manifest, and that today, with this great conference, “a place that was recently considered an impregnable bastion of Mexican reaction has been taken away from the enemy.”
The declaration also expresses willingness to promote Mexican participation in the upcoming World Festival of Students and Youth, to be held in August in Venezuela.
The Mexican Cuba Solidarity Movement will continue to be broad, representative and unified, because the sole objective that unifies us is the defense of the Cuban Revolution, the document concludes.
Catalonians Campaign to Prevent anti-Cuba Injustice at UN HRC
Madrid, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) The Catalonian platform Defensem Cuba addressed a letter to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos calling Spain to avoid a new anti-Cuba injustice at the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC).
Defensem Cuba, made up of near 80 institutions, called for the minister to influence the 61st session at the UN HRC which has lost credibility and stopped honoring the true goals of its inception.
The letter even conveys anger for the anti-Cuba resolutions the US has imposed at the HRC via manipulated information and biased charges that other countries accept for their own convenience.
The over 40-year criminal blockade the US imposed on the Island has been condemned along the latest 13 years by the General Assembly but curiously the US is absolved and its victim condemned.
Defensem Cuba admits to the Spanish government"s efforts to avoid the unilateralism prevalent in world politics, but asks Minister Moratinos to reinforce respect and equality at the UN.
Defensem Cuba is a solidarity platform that represents all Catalonian social, cultural, professional, union and trade unions.