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Socialists
urge democratic reforms in Cuba
L'express.mu,
Mauritius. October
31, 2003.
Socialists from around the world condemned
Cuba on Wednesday for violating human rights
and called on the island's communist leader
Fidel Castro to release political prisoners
and stage democratic reforms.
Gathered in Brazil for the Congress of
the Socialist International, a club of more
than 140 leftist parties, the meeting also
sent a clear message to the United States:
end a Cold-war era economic embargo on Cuba.
"We have major concern with human
rights, democracy and dialogue within Cuban
society," said Antonio Guterres, International
Socialist president and a former prime minister
of Portugal. "The Cuban people need
to find a common way that leads to a democratic
solution."
The socialists added their voice to condemnation
from left-wing leaders of Castro's imprisonment
of dozens of political opponents and journalists
earlier this year for terms of up to 28
years.
Many of those arrested in one of Castro's
harshest crackdowns in decades were charged
with working for the United States to subvert
his government. The prisoners deny the charges,
and many describe themselves as human rights
and democracy activists.
As well as criticizing Castro, the final
declaration of the Sao Paulo socialist meeting
said the US trade and travel embargo on
Cuba was "a huge mistake for democratic
interests."
US lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly
to lift a travel ban on Cuba by eliminating
any funding to enforce it. President George
W. Bush has threatened to veto any bill
easing the four-decade-old US embargo.
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