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Ibero-American leaders
get nothing in return for backing Cuba at
summit
Reporters
Without Borders,
17 October 2005.
Reporters Without Borders voiced disappointment
today at the outcome of last weekend's Ibero-American
summit in the Spanish city of Salamanca,
where leaders adopted two resolutions in
support of the Cuban government without
any getting anything in return on human
rights.
"Although a notable absentee, Fidel
Castro got the 19 heads of state and government
attending the summit to support his demands,"
the press freedom organisation said. "We
do not understand why democratically-elected
leaders give their backing to Cuba's authoritarian
regime without obtaining any matching concessions
on human rights issues."
Reporters Without Borders added : "We
point out that Cuba currently has around
300 political prisoners including 23 journalists
whose only crime is to think differently
from the government. What is unacceptable
from any other repressive regime in the
world is no less so coming from Cuba. Why
this double standard? We expect a coherent
and firm stance towards Cuba from both European
Union and Latin American countries."
The leaders of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking
countries participating in the two-day summit
adopted 16 resolutions to accompany their
final statement on 15 October. Two of them
were in response to Cuba's requests.
One of these resolutions said : "We
ask the government of the United States
of America to implement what was envisaged
in 13 successive resolutions approved by
the United Nations general assembly and
to put an end to the economic, commercial
and financial blockade that it maintains
against Cuba."
The second resolution supported Venezuela's
efforts to obtain the extradition of Luis
Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro activist
and former CIA agent who is wanted for a
terrorist attack on a Cuban airliner in
October 1976 which killed 73 civilians.
Posada is now in the United States where
the courts refuse to extradite him.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned
journalists and press freedom throughout
the world, as well as the right to inform
the public and to be informed, in accordance
with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders
has nine national sections (in Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom),
representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Istanbul,
Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington
and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.
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