PARLIAMENTARIANS AND ACTIVISTS IN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA ADVOCATE FOR A COMMON FRONT BETWEEN BOTH REGIONS TOWARD CUBA
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

The need for a common stance between Europe and Latin America toward the Cuban government and an international effort to adopt Cuban political prisoners were the topics of discussion by two Latin American parliamentarians and an Italian political activist in a press conference held in Miami

MIAMI, June 16, 2004. The need for a common stance between Europe and Latin America toward the Cuban government and an international effort to adopt Cuban political prisoners were the topics of discussion by two Latin American parliamentarians and an Italian political activist in a press conference held in Miami sponsored by the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

“We would like to tell Cuban political prisoners, their families, and the 11 million Cubans inside Cuba, who also suffer a kind of imprisonment, that they are not alone,” said Dr. Alvaro Dubon, Guatemalan legislator of the Central American Parliament.

Also with Dubon were Mexican congressman of the National Action Party (PAN) Francisco Landero, and the representative of Centrist Democrat International before the United Nations Anna Maria Stame Cervone. These political leaders announced an international parliamentary effort to adopt Cuban prisoners of conscience and the creation last May of the Joint Commission of European and Latin American Parliamentarians in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba in Mexico City. They described this initiative between Europe and Latin America as a collaborative, solid first step in the right direction.

“This commission that will monitor human rights is made primarily with Cuba in mind, because Cuba is the only country in the hemisphere under the rule of a dictatorship. For this reason, for the close proximity and brotherhood that exists between both nations, the priority is Cuba,” said Landero, who also participated in the founding of the new parliamentary commission past May.

Among the ideas suggested for a joint European-Latin American policy toward Cuba was the opening of European and Latin American embassies in Havana to nonviolent civic activists, the symbolic adoption of political prisoners, the creation of a humanitarian fund to support independent civil society in Cuba, and support for the Cuban people during a future transition to democracy.

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Directorio Democrático Cubano
P.O. Box 110235
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In Memory of Mario Manuel de la Peña