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By Nancy San Martin. nsanmartin@herald.com.
The Miami
Herald, April 9, 2002.
The United States is banking on the support of Latin American countries to
ensure that Cuba gets an international slap again this year before the United
Nation's Commission on Human Rights annual gathering in Geneva, according to
sources familiar with the preparations for the upcoming vote.
Though the United States has been relegated to observer status for the first
time in the rights commission's 56-year history, behind-the-scenes lobbying is
taking place that could for the first time pit former Latin American allies
against the communist-ruled nation.
''We're going to win and we're going to win big,'' said Joe Garcia,
executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, which each year
sends a representative before the commission.
The commission, whose annual debate began Monday, monitors compliance with
international human rights laws and investigates allegations of violations. The
vote on Cuba could come within two weeks.
During the past 13 years, with the exception of 1998, Cuba has been censured
for its human rights record under President Fidel Castro. Last year's vote,
however, was tight, with a resolution narrowly passing, 22-20.
The resolution against Cuba is expected to have a wider margin this year,
even without the U.S. vote.
''We have a small observer delegation this year,'' said a State Department
spokesman. "Even though we don't have a vote, we're entitled to speak,
we're entitled to cosponsor resolutions. We have been working with a number of
countries to see whether there can be a Cuba resolution this year.''
Sources said various Latin American countries will probably sponsor a
resolution not only condemning Cuba, but also calling on the commission to send
a representative to Cuba to document human rights violations. The resolution is
to be presented by Peru, several sources said.
'POLITICAL DEFEAT'
It would be the first time for the region's countries to band together to
chastise Cuba.
''This would signify a political defeat for Castro,'' said Luis Zuñiga,
executive director of the Cuban Liberty Council, who has spoken before the
commission for more than a decade.
''Castro has had a stronghold in Latin America. That scenario has changed
and this would show his defeat,'' Zuñiga said.
Cuba has denounced the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica and Uruguay for
plans to condemn the island.
Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque last week accused the three
nations of practicing ''a virtual servitude'' to Washington, saying they are "ready
to bow down even before they are asked.''
The United States was ousted last year when U.N. members, in a secret vote,
denied the American delegation a seat on the 53-member commission, choosing
instead to assign Western nations' representation to France, Austria and Sweden.
In addition to expressing concern over Cuba, delegations gathered in Geneva
Monday also focused on human rights situations in Guatemala, Colombia and Haiti,
among Western Hemisphere nations.
Other countries examined include Myanmar, Congo, East Timor, Iran, Iraq,
Palestine, Chechnya, the Balkans, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Korea, China, Sierra Leone,
Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan,
Cyprus, Great Britain and the United States.
Alleged violations in the United States came from Cuba after Canada
expressed concern about the Cuban government's having "used legal
restrictions, detention, harassment and imprisonment of individuals to deter
activities that were legitimate within its international human rights
commitments.''
CUBAN RETALIATION
Cuba retaliated by saying that the country has been systematically subjected
"to a trial before relentless prosecutors . . . of the rich and
industrialized North. . . . Why didn't these self-appointed champions of human
rights take the same initiative against the government of the United States,
whose violations of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of millions of
its owns citizens was public, notorious and widely documented?''
Last year, Amnesty International criticized the United States because of the
application in several states of the death penalty. | 
