Former presidents: Cuba does not comply with agreements

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Former presidents: Cuba does not comply with agreements
By EFE -

Published by EFE

MONTEVIDEO, November 3, 2006 – Four Latin American former presidents denounced Cuba’s practice of not complying with agreements signed at Iberoamerican Summits regarding issues of democracy, political pluralism, human rights and fundamental liberties, and called for the release of political prisoners and a transition process to democracy on the Island.

The formal complain, signed by former presidents Patricio Aylwin (Chile), Armando Calderón Sol (El Salvador), Luis Alberto Lacalle (Uruguay) and Luis Alberto Monge (Costa Rica), appeared on November 3^rd as a full-page ad in the Uruguayan daily newspaper, El País, in the form of a letter to the presidents met in Montevideo for the Iberoamerican Summit.

The letter accuses the Island’s government of not respecting the agreements signed at the VI Iberoamerican Summit, which took place in Viña del Mar, Chile in 1996, concerning ”Governance for an efficient and participatory democracy.”

''Sadly, we can verify that the Republic of Cuba, which endorsed the Viña del Mar Declaration with the signature of its Head of State, Fidel Castro, has not fulfilled the most basic essentials of the agreement,” states the letter written by the former presidents.

''We feel the need to express solidarity with the Cuban people because that country’s government does not comply with its agreement,” adds the letter.

In the letter, the former heads of state ask the leaders present at the XVI Summit to insist that the Cuban government “present a program of political reforms… as well as plans for free elections.”

The document concludes by asking the Summit to demand from the Cuban government “the immediate release of political prisoners and the immediate end to the persecution and harassment against dissidents, members of the opposition, and their relatives.”

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