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Miriam Leiva. International
Herald Tribune, Wednesday, March 26, 2003
EU and Havana
HAVANA - On March 14, the European Union's development and humanitarian aid
commissioner, Poul Nielson, left Havana after a four-day visit. We Cubans were
told by the official state media that he would ask EU states to welcome Cuba
into the Cotonou Agreement, a trade and economic aid pact for developing
nations. Partners to this agreement are meant to respect human rights,
democratic principles and the rule of law.
The commissioner could not know that four days after he left, Fidel Castro's
regime would set new standards in disrespect for human rights, undemocratic
procedures and lawlessness.
Last week, while world public opinion was focused on the war in Iraq, more
than 70 Cuban journalists and civil society activists were detained all across
the island. These detentions were explained to us on television and in the two
dailies: "There should be no doubt that the revolution will apply with the
necessary rigor … the laws created to defend it from new and old tactics
and strategies against Cuba."
We suspect that the law in question is the "Law for the Protection of
the National Independence and Economy of Cuba," which prescribes 20-year
sentences for those of us who exercise what we think of as freedom of
expression.
Even without the latest roundup, however, there was more to Cuba than met
the commissioner's eye. Nielson's hasty conclusions are perhaps due to a few
days of flattery from his official hosts and to a vision of Cuba reduced to
showcases reserved for foreigners.
Unfortunately, the commissioner did not acquire any deeper sense of our
country. He did not hold in his hands the food rationing booklet. Perhaps he
does not know that the average monthly salary is 262 pesos ($10). Visiting a
hospital, he was not told that doctors must have second jobs to make ends meet.
Most obviously, the commissioner did not read the reports of the World Food
Program, which show that there is malnutrition in the country.
Nielson had only an hour, just before he left, to meet a few dissidents and
learn first-hand what they think about human rights in Cuba.
Unfortunately he did not visit a prison to see the precarious conditions in
which thousands of mainly young inmates serve long sentences for deeds that in
other countries are not even considered crimes, from selling pizzas to renting
videos.
The commissioner did not meet Cuban political prisoners, who number more
than 230. He did not learn about Oscar Elías Biscet, a physician, Juan
Carlos González Leiva, a blind lawyer, and 23 other defenders of human
rights who are being held without trial.
Nielson had no opportunity to become acquainted with the difficulties that
volunteers who work in our independent libraries encounter when they try to
offer uncensored reading material or that we, the independent journalists,
encounter when we try to provide information outside official guardianship.
I have first-hand experience of these difficulties. On March 19, after a
10-hour search of our tiny apartment in Havana, my husband, Oscar Espinosa
Chepe, a journalist and economist in frail health, was taken to a state
detention center.
In countries that respect human rights, democratic principles and the rule
of law, this article would be considered opinion; Castro's Cuba views it as a "body
of evidence," exhibit A.
The writer is an independent Cuban journalist. | 
