CUBA-SPAIN: Sending Clear Signals to Europe

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 4 2007 (IPS) - With the announcement of a new mechanism for dialogue on human rights, Spain and Cuba issued a clear message to the European Union on how to work towards an understanding with this socialist Caribbean island nation.

When it comes to Cuba, “Spain is Europe’s key,” Reverend Raimundo García, director of the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue, told IPS. His organisation is one of the few civil society groups in Cuba which systematically discusses human rights issues.

As occurred in 1996, when the government of then centre-right prime minister José María Aznar pushed for an EU “common position” towards Cuba, “if Spain takes the initiative,” other European countries could attempt a rapprochement with Cuba, said the Baptist minister. “It all begins with Spain,” he maintained.

The “keys to success” were underlined by Cuban and Spanish Foreign Ministers Felipe Pérez Roque and Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who ended a two-day visit to Havana on Tuesday night.

In Pérez Roque’s view, Spain “has moved away from the route of impositions and political conditions,” in a new tendency that has facilitated the end of an old stage in relations and the reestablishment of “communication and political dialogue between the two governments.”

Moratinos, for his part, said he had travelled to Cuba “to study the situation and listen.to share, not to impose conditions.”

The only way to work is “through dialogue and understanding, while tackling the touchy, difficult and complex issues on our common agenda,” said the representative of the socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Moratinos’ trip to Cuba was the first visit by a Spanish foreign minister since 1998.

The principles guiding relations with Cuba are outlined in the joint statement issued at the end of Moratinos’ visit, and include respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, the strengthening of multilateralism and the settlement of international disputes through dialogue and negotiations.

Authorities in Havana say that Spain is thus distancing itself from the “common position” adopted in 1996 by the EU in its foreign policy towards Havana, calling for democratic change and respect for human rights.

“Spain is venturing out boldly, and trying to mark a new path within the EU by showing what route should be taken in relations with Cuba: non-isolation and effective dialogue in all directions,” Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for Arco Progresista, a dissident group with social democratic leanings, told IPS.

Reverend García said he had witnessed this same openness to dialogue on his last trip to Spain, where he talked to “dozens of government officials, parliamentarians, and representatives of political parties, trade unions, religious organisations and other civil society groups.”

“The conclusion I reached was that Spain was completely willing to cooperate and engage in constructive dialogue with Cuba and that people in other parts of the old continent were simply waiting for Spain to take the initiative in order to begin a strong movement towards rapprochement,” he said.

Among the practical results of the Spanish minister’s visit were the renewal of a bilateral cooperation agreement and the signing of an accord for the establishment of annual political discussions, including dialogue on human rights. “No question will be excluded a priori from this process,” states the accord.

Also announced were a search for a solution to the question of Cuba’s foreign debt (estimated at 1.2 billion dollars), a new agreement for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investment, and the start of conversations on Spain’s Cultural Centre in Havana.

The closure of the Cultural Centre was announced by the Cuban government in June 2003, in the midst of the growing tensions triggered by the imprisonment of 75 dissidents and the execution of three men who hijacked a passenger ferry in an attempt to make it to the United States.

Spain had invested 3.9 million dollars in restoring the Cultural Centre and had used it for less than half of the 20-year period stipulated by the initial agreement.

Previously, the EU had approved a package of measures that included limits on government visits, reduced participation by representatives of EU member countries in cultural events related to Cuba, and a plan to invite representatives of dissident organisations to EU embassy celebrations of their national holidays in Havana.

In January 2005, the European bloc lifted the measures, although not all EU ambassadors stopped inviting dissidents to official receptions, the aspect that had particularly irritated the Cuban government.

Spain is now the first country to take a decisive step in that new direction.

Moratinos’ visit shows how relations between Cuba and the European Union can be managed, as well as the capacity and the will to work out differences through dialogue, beyond confrontation and conditions, wrote Granma, the daily newspaper of the governing Communist Party.

Local analysts interpreted the fact that Moratinos met for two hours with acting president Raúl Castro as evidence that the Spanish diplomatic visit was highly fruitful. The meeting had been announced in Madrid, but did not figure on the official agenda distributed to the press in Havana.

Raúl Castro, who is also defence minister, has provisionally replaced his brother since Fidel underwent emergency intestinal surgery in July.

Although a meeting between one of the visiting high-level Spanish officials and representatives of dissident groups had been expected, it did not take place. Nor has the Spanish Embassy in Havana confirmed that a meeting will be held within the next few days.

“We have channels of dialogue open with all sectors of Cuban society, we are open to all of them, whoever wants to meet with us can do so, because our commitment to human rights remains, and will always remain, unaltered,” said Moratinos.

The Ladies in White, the wives and mothers of the 75 dissidents handed lengthy prison sentences in the spring of 2003, complained that they had not been received by any member of the Spanish delegation during Moratinos’ visit, and said they would not attend the planned meeting, if it indeed took place.

Meanwhile, Cuesta Morúa said it was positive that Cuba is willing to open up a dialogue for dealing with “the thorny issue of human rights.” But he also urged the government “not to wait for the dialogue with Spain to be established, and to start taking unilateral steps in that direction.”

Although the bilateral agreement states that no issue will be excluded from the dialogue on human rights, the Cuban foreign minister told the press that the agenda would not include the question of political prisoners, who he termed “mercenaries” at the service of foreign interests.

“It is impossible to start to talk about human rights and not take into account Cuba’s prisons and the people who are behind bars for defending human rights,” said Cuesta Morúa. “The first step that should be taken is to release all of the political prisoners,” he added.