‘”Best friends forever” ignored Cuba’s human rights violations for commercial benefits’
December 18th, 2010 - 1:56 pm ICT by ANIHavana, Dec 18 (ANI): Secret US diplomatic cables released by the whistleblower website ‘Wikileaks’ have revealed that Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Spain had stopped pressuring Cuba over human rights with the intention of gaining commercial favours from Havana.
The Guardian quoted Jonathan Farrar, the US head of mission, as saying that the western governments continued to pay ‘lip service to concerns about political prisoners and censorship’, but in reality they were simply appeasing Cuba’s communist rulers.
He further criticised his colleagues for avoiding democracy activists, “kowtowing” to the Fidel Castro regime and joining the “best friends forever” camp.
“The Cuban government has been able to stonewall its independent civil society from foreign visitors who have, for the large part, been all too ready to give in to Cuban bullying and give up on these encounters,” the paper quoted Farrar, as saying.
“The Australian foreign minister, Switzerland’s human rights special envoy and the Canadian cabinet level minister of the Americas not only failed to meet with non-government Cubans, they didn’t even bother to publicly call for more freedom after visiting Cuba in November,” he added.
He further slammed the European commission for sitting “snugly in the best friends forever” camp and siding with Spain, which sought warmer ties with Havana, against more hawkish EU members.
“Their functionaries share with us their reproach of the ‘radical’ Swedes and Czechs, with their human rights priorities, and can’t wait for ‘moderate’ Spain to take over the EU presidency,” he added. (ANI)
- Raul Castro hints at easing of Cuba's migration policy - Aug 02, 2011
- Cuba, US to resume friendly baseball games - Mar 21, 2012
- Cuba showcases cancer vaccines - Mar 06, 2012
- Fidel Castro says US ready to order NATO invasion of Libya - Feb 23, 2011
- EU urges Cuba to carry out democratic reforms - Nov 06, 2009
- Raul Castro's daughter launches blog - Dec 23, 2011
- Cuba frees two political prisoners - Oct 21, 2009
- Castro meets experts to discuss threats to human species - Feb 12, 2012
- WHO praises Cuba's health care system - Mar 28, 2012
- Jimmy Carter visits Cuba over the issue of tension with US - Mar 29, 2011
- Fidel Castro: I was misinterpreted - Sep 12, 2010
- Ahmadinejad visits Cuba - Jan 12, 2012
- Chavez returns to Cuba for treatment - Jul 18, 2011
- Chavez heads back to Venezuela - Mar 17, 2012
- Wary of Egypt crisis repeat, Cuba cracks down on Internet opposition movements - Feb 11, 2011
Tags: australia canada, cabinet level, canadian cabinet, castro regime, communist rulers, cuban government, cubans, czechs, democracy activists, eu presidency, favours, fidel castro, human rights priorities, human rights violations, jonathan farrar, lip service, political prisoners, reproach, visiting cuba, western governments