Two US senators on Wednesday asked the European Union (EU) to condemn the detention of Cuban political prisoners, help pro-democracy activists more and re-evaluate the dialogue agreement with Cuba.
In a letter sent to the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menéndez urge you “to maintain the historic commitment of the EU with the Cuban people, human rights and democracy renewing its call to the Cuban regime to immediately release José Daniel Ferrer, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Osorbo, and all the island’s political prisoners. “
Following this year’s demonstrations in the isla, especially the historic protests of July 11 shouting “Freedom” and “We are hungry”, the senators demand “unwavering international pressure.”
The July protests resulted in one death, dozens injured and 1,292 detainees, of which 673 remain in prison, according to the human rights NGO Cubalex.
Menéndez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rubio, the highest-ranking member of the subcommittee on the Americas, accuse the European Union of “not having taken full advantage of its economic relationship with Cuba to achieve democratic progress for which it fought for a long time.”
Despite the fact that, according to them, it has been shown that international pressure on the Cuban regime it has worked before. They take the example of 2020, when the regime commuted Ferrer’s four-and-a-half-year sentence to house arrest.
They both appreciate the resolutions of the European Parliament calling for sanctions against Cuban officials responsible for the repression of the July protests, but calling on the EU to “re-evaluate the Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation with Cuba (PDCA, for its acronym in English) to ensure that it allows the European Union to facilitate the progress of the Cuban people. “
In Cuba all opposition is illegal and the government accuses dissidents of being financed by U.S.
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