U.S. policy toward Cuba - Peter Tarnoff, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, May 22, 1995 - Transcript

US Department of State Dispatch, May 29, 1995

Contraction of the regime's economic control, however, has created tiny spaces in which Cuba's civil society, devastated by 35 years of dictatorship, is re-emerging. Attendance at religious services of all denominations has risen dramatically. The influence of the Roman Catholic Church, aided by the naming of the first Cuban cardinal in over 30 years - Monsignor Jaime Ortega - has increased. The charitable arm of the Catholic Church - CARITAS - has opened offices in seven regional centers for the distribution of humanitarian aid. Small independent associations of professionals, including academic researchers, economists, lawyers, journalists, and engineers have formed. This movement is nascent and fragile, but it provides an alternative to state-controlled organizations for a growing number of Cubans.

In November 1994, the Cuban Government agreed to invite the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ambassador Jose Ayala Lasso to visit the island. In the weeks leading up to the visit, however, the regime detained some 55 human rights activists and harassed a number of others, threatening them with severe reprisals if they continued to denounce human rights abuses or contacted foreign diplomatic missions during the High Commissioner's stay. Ambassador Ayala did see a number of human rights activists during his four-day visit in meetings that took place on the fringes of his official program, which limited his contacts to government officials and officially approved groups and individuals.

Still, no improvement in the human rights situation in Cuba has followed the visit. Ambassador Ayala presented Fidel Castro with a list of over 1,000 political prisoners and asked Cuba to free them; since the visit the regime has released fewer than 20 political prisoners, most on condition of their immediate exile from the country. As recently as last month, noted human rights leader Francisco Chaviano was sentenced by a closed military tribunal to 15 years' imprisonment on trumped-up charges of "revealing state secrets" and document fraud after being held for almost a year without formal charges. Ambassador Ayala also pressed the Cuban regime to sign the UN charter against torture and to permit the UN Special Rapporteur for Cuba, Swedish diplomat Carl-Johan Groth, to visit Cuba in order to fulfill his mandate.

Ambassador Ayala's visit notwithstanding, the Cuban Government has taken no concrete steps to cooperate with the UN on human rights. While the regime claimed that its invitation to Ambassador Ayala demonstrated that it had nothing to hide where human rights were concerned, it continues to defy the repeatedly expressed will of the international community - specifically the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Commission - by refusing to let Special Rapporteur Groth enter Cuba. Cuba has not yet signed the convention against torture, and hundreds of political prisoners remain in detention.

A four-person international human rights delegation headed by the French organization "France-Liberte" visited Cuba April 27-May 5, after being invited by Fidel Castro during his visit to Paris early last month. The delegation interviewed 24 political prisoners in the reception areas of nine different prisons, but was not allowed to inspect the prisons themselves. The delegation called for the immediate, unconditional release of four of these prisoners who are seriously ill and expressed its concern about excessive sentences meted out for non-violent, political "crimes." Within days of their visit, however, we received reports that the Cuban Government had detained 15 members of a human rights organization whose leader had met with the delegation, as well as with other Western visitors.