12 May 2003
Caribbean Community Joins Global Outcry Against Repression in Cuba
(Urges Castro regime to grant clemency to 75 jailed Cuban dissidents)
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By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The 15-member community of Caribbean nations known as
Caricom has joined the international outcry against the latest
crackdown on human rights in Cuba by calling for clemency for the 75
dissidents who were recently jailed on charges of alleged crimes
against state security.
In a May 10 statement, Caricom's foreign ministers expressed their
"concern at the conduct" of recent trials of the dissidents and said
they were "deeply disturbed" by the severity of the jail sentences
meted out, and by the execution of three men who attempted to hijack a
ferry boat to Florida. Cuba jailed the non-violent dissidents for
terms of up to 28 years.
The ministers urged Cuba's government "to ensure greater transparency
in its criminal justice system, and to promote more open debate and
discussion in order to further social, political, and economic
progress."
The statement was issued after the May 8-9 meeting of Caricom foreign
ministers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
It followed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's May 4 denunciation
of the regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for jailing people "who
choose to speak their own mind." Powell said Cuba is an "anachronism"
in the Western Hemisphere and on the "face of the earth," adding that
"the whole international community should be condemning Cuba."
The secretary said that Cuba "sits there isolated, getting poorer and
broker, more irrelevant on the world stage, and sooner or later this
[Castro] regime will pass" into history.
The Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations
issued their own joint statement May 3, expressing "profound regret
and grave concern" regarding the lengthy prison sentences the
defendants received after less than a week on trial. The two
organizations said the arrests and jailings "constitute a severe
erosion of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" in Cuba.
The European Union also called for the immediate release of the
dissidents, while the government of Germany denounced the Cuban trials
for flagrantly breaching "the most basic elements of the rule of law
and human rights."
Their rebukes to the Castro regime were echoed by global human rights
organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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