POLITICS-CUBA: Opposition to Seek Backing at G-77 Summit

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Mar 9 2000 (IPS) - Representatives from Cuba’s illegal political opposition are confident they will have the chance to meet with delegations from the Group of 77 – made up of 133 nations from the developing South – who are to meet next month in the Cuban capital.

More than 100 heads of state have confirmed their attendance, according to official sources, and another 50 nations without G-77 member status will take part as observers.

The conference will be the group’s first to gather the members’ heads of state since it was officially created in 1967. The summit is the second of this international stature to be held in the Cuban capital, after the 19th Ibero-American Summit last November.

Cuba’s moderate opposition, made up of five illegal political groups, sent a communique to the foreign press on the island that expresses its respect for the G-77 summit and support of the demands made by the planet’s poorest countries.

The document also stresses the opposition’s desire to communicate “with as many personalities as are willing to receive its representatives so that they may inform them of the human rights situation in Cuba” and “our alternative vision for the profound national crisis.”

The opposition alliance is made up of the Democratic Solidarity Party, the Cuban Socialist-Democratic Current, the Liberal Democratic Party of Cuba, the Cuban Democrat Project and the United Council of Cuban Workers.

Among its primary goals is to establish a “moderate alternative for democratic change” and develop joint initiatives, though the group’s representatives have stressed that they do not represent a coalition and that their unity is based on the autonomy of each one of its members.

At November’s Ibero-American Summit, representatives from the opposition were able to talk with presidents José María Aznar of Spain, Julio María Sanguinetti of Uruguay, and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal, as well as several Latin American foreign ministers.

The Cuban government, under president Fidel Castro, claimed such contacts were part of a United States attempt to sabotage the summit, and blamed US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and diplomats at the US Interests Section in Havana.

A report released by the opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation affirmed this week that “the greatest number of politically repressive actions” in the last 10 years occurred last November to February.

This organisation, led by Elizardo Sánchez (who met with various delegations at the Ibero-American Summit), reports there were 121 arrests and 96 restrictions on movement in November, while December saw 141 arrests and a similar number of movement restrictions.

The Commission’s report states that 96 percent of the 352 arrested during the four months were released without charges “within a few hours or a couple days,” which constitutes proof “of the innocence of the hundreds of citizens affected.”

The G-77 summit organisers have refrained from identifying the heads of state who have already confirmed their attendance, though diplomatic sources assume that most of the Caribbean delegations will be led by their presidents, as will those coming from the African continent.

Cuba’s vice-minister of Foreign Relations, Jorge Bolaños, said in February that the G-77 meeting will have “adequate representation” from Latin America, but he also avoided specifying names.

The G-77 takes its name from the first meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), held in Geneva in 1964, when 77 nations from the developing South demanded more equal participation in world trade, dominated by the North’s industrialised nations.

Next month’s summit agenda includes analysis of North-South relations, the globalisation of the world economy, South-South co- operation and technology-related issues.

From the Cuban perspective, creating common ground on the globalisation process is “key” in a world where the gap between the poorest and richest countries continues to expand.

“The growing globalisation and liberalisation trend has been a challenge for most developing countries, many of which have found themselves marginalised from the world economy,” indicated sources from the summit’s organising committee.

The conference will allow G-77 members to create a common front for the Millenium Summit, called by the United Nations for September at its New York headquarters.