16 April 2003
Secretary of State Powell Condemns Repression in Cuba
(Says Cuba's human rights record is "horrible" and deteriorating)
(470)
By Scott Miller
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Cuban government's arrest, summary trial and
subsequent harsh sentencing of 75 dissidents are "condemnable" actions
and should spark outrage, particularly among regional leaders and
representatives of those nations participating in the United Nations
Human Rights Commission currently convened in Geneva, says Secretary
of State Colin Powell.
In what Powell previously decried as the Cuban government's "most
significant act of political repression in decades," 75 dissidents
accused of being in the pay of the United States and collaborating
with Washington to undermine the Castro regime were sentenced in early
April to between 12 and 26 years in prison following trials lasting
less than a day each.
Those individuals targeted by the Cuban government crackdown included
independent journalists, human rights activists, leaders of
independent labor unions and opposition political parties, and
numerous pro-democracy activists involved in the Varela project, a
petition drive advocating a referendum on political and economic
reform in Cuba.
The United States has repeatedly condemned the arrests of the
activists and the summary justice meted out by what it referred to as
Cuba's "kangaroo courts." Powell noted, moreover, that the Cuban
government's current crackdown is not without precedent.
Repression "has been the pattern and history of Fidel Castro's Cuba
for many, many years," Powell said in an April 15 press conference.
"And once again, he has demonstrated vividly to us the nature of his
regime."
In an April 3 statement, State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker
said that the current crackdown indicates Cuba has fallen further out
of step with the other nations of the Western Hemisphere.
"While the rest of the hemisphere has moved toward greater freedom,
the anachronistic Cuban government appears to be retreating into
Stalinism," Reeker said.
Powell echoed this sentiment on April 15.
"With respect to Cuba, it has always had a horrible human rights
record, and rather than improving as we go into the 21st century, it
is getting worse," he said.
Powell added that the political repression practiced by the Castro
regime should spark hemispheric and global condemnation.
"When you look at what they have done in recent weeks and recent
months with respect to stifling dissent, with respect to arresting
people and sentencing them to long years in prison, in jail, just for
expressing a point of view that is different from that of Fidel
Castro, it should be an outrage to everyone," Powell said. "It should
be an outrage to every leader in this hemisphere, every leader in this
world."
Powell also expressed hope that Cuba's crackdown would be "well noted"
and that appropriate action would be taken by hemispheric leaders and
those nations currently participating in the meeting of the U.N. Human
Rights Commission in Geneva.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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