Cuba Condemns Foreign Hostility and Interference
News from Cuba | Friday, 24 February 2012
from Prensa Latina
New actions to condemn foreign hostility and interference in Cuba made headlines this week on the island nation, as well as a visit by U.S. congress people and a meeting between authorities and religious leaders.
On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez rejected comments on human rights in Cuba by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo.
In a communiqué, Rodriguez recommended Margallo to take care of business in his country, characterized by social protests and the impact of the economic crisis.
It is not in Cuba where Franco's admirers are. You'd better look around you," Rodriguez said.
The Spanish minister should remember that for over half a century we have been a sovereign and independent country that does not accept being questioned by anyone, and particularly by those who try to teach lessons, when in fact they have a glass roof, the Cuban foreign minister added.
According to Rodriguez, Madrid should try to solve the serious problems affecting its society, such as the economic crisis and the continuing increase in unemployment, which affects more than five million people, and police repression against demonstrators.
Also this week, thousands of people all over the world responded to a call by Cuban Twitter users to use that social network to denounce hostility against Cuba and the world media's silence on those attacks.
The label #DerechosdeCuba received messages from all over the world in support of the Cuban Revolution.
According to the website Cubadebate, on Thursday and Friday, thousands of web surfers condemned U.S. interference in Cuba, whose latest expression was the U.S. Interest Section in Havana's stimulation of internal subversion.
A meeting with people labeled here as mercenaries, due to their subordination to Washington, took place in the residence of a U.S. diplomat to organize acts of provocation.
Public opinion also learned over the past few days about a meeting between Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (a Democrat from Vermont) and Richard Shelby (a Republican from Alabama). The president and the visitors discussed issues of interest for the two countries.
Cuba was also visited by the president of the Peruvian Congress, Daniel Abugattas, who met with his Cuban counterpart, Ricardo Alarcon, and the relatives of five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in U.S. prisons since 1998.
Regarding the cases of Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero, sentenced to lengthy prison terms for monitoring the activities of violent anti-Cuba groups in Miami, Abugattas urged to step up the international fight for their release and return home.
Also this week, Havana hosted a meeting between Vice President Esteban Lazo and leaders of religious organizations and fraternal associations.
Protestants, evangelists, Russian and Greek orthodox, Buddhists, Muslims, representatives of religions of African origin, spiritual centers and the Hebrew community, among others, participated in the meeting with Cuban authorities.
In a fraternal environment, marked by reflections and anecdotes, Lazo and officials from the Communist Party of Cuba exchanged views with some 70 religious leaders about Cubans' unity, the defense of values and the role of the family in the education of people.
