Executive Summary:
- Cuba has announced the release of 52 political prisoners who were rounded up in a crackdown in 2003, after negotiations with the Catholic Church and Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
- Miguel Angel Moratinos has said that this marks a ‘new era’ and that the European Union should change its policy towards Cuba.
- However, more than a hundred political dissidents remain in Cuba, and internal repression and the denial of human rights continues.
- This is no time to abandon the EU Common Position on Cuba. We should continue to put pressure on Cuba over human rights.
Introduction
Cuba has recently announced the release of fifty-two political prisoners who were rounded up in a government crackdown. Some of these prisoners are now being released and are resettling in Spain. This move follows negotiations involving the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. It also brings to an end one of the biggest controversies and outstanding human right issues in relations between Cuba and the European Union, which are based on the EU’s ‘Common Position’, which links economic relations to progress on human rights. Moratinos has argued that this "opens a new era in Cuba", and that the EU must now respond to Cuba’s positive move by changing its policy. Yet, with more than one hundred political prisoners still in jail and with repression and human rights abuses far from over, such a move would be dangerously premature and misguided.
The release of prisoners
On 7th July, Cuba agreed to the largest mass release of prisoners in more than a decade, following a meeting between President Raúl Castro and Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. The Roman Catholic Church in Cuba said the government had agreed to free 52 political prisoners and allow them to leave the country. In a statement, issued by the office of the archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, it was explained that those who had been offered freedom were members of a group of 75 political activists and journalists who report on Cuba in defiance of state controls on media. They were rounded up in a crackdown on dissent in March 2003. These 52 were those who were still in prison, serving lengthy prison sentences on charges of conspiring with the United States to destabilise Cuba's political system. Moratinos and Cardinal Ortega also announced that those released would be free to leave Cuba for Spain, and that Spain would be willing to take them all in. Prisoners are now being released, and the first dissidents have arrived in Spain. One, Julio Cesar Galvez Rodriguez, argued that "this is a new stage for the future of Cuba".
International responses to the release
In this, he was echoing the words of the Spanish foreign minister. Moratinos, in Havana, said the move "opens a new era in Cuba" and expressed hopes that it could help to “put aside differences once and for all on matters of prisoners". Moratinos went on to argue for the EU to change its policy, the Common Position, on Cuba. He stated: "I think there is no reason to maintain a Common Position any longer. I expect my European colleagues to now respond." Spain has called for an end to the Common Position before, but other EU member states have been unwilling to change the policy. He went on to try to put pressure on other EU leaders now, saying: “I hope that now my European colleagues live up to what they had pledged. Many of them didn’t trust in this way of doing politics, and today we find that this is what produces results.”
EU high representative Baroness Ashton announced that she "welcomed the announcement" and "looked forward to the rapid implementation of this decision". She announced that the EU would review its policy on Cuba in the autumn. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton also gave a cautious welcome, saying: "I spoke late last night with the Spanish foreign minister, Mr Moratinos, and we welcome this. We think that it is a positive sign. It's something that is overdue, but nevertheless very welcome."
Ongoing repression in Cuba
However, Human Rights Watch pointed out that, while the release was “a positive step”, it still left scores of political prisoners in jail in Cuba. Human Rights Watch pointed out that the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent human rights group in Cuba, has been able to document 167 cases of current political prisoners. The release of 52 prisoners would therefore leave more than one hundred still in prison. Because Human Rights Watch has been able to document additional cases of political opponents imprisoned for "dangerousness," Human Rights Watch believes that the actual number of political prisoners is even higher. José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, commented: "The fact remains that scores of political prisoners locked up under Raul Castro continue to languish in Cuba's prisons. So long as Cuba's draconian laws and sham trials remain in place, they will continue to restock the prison cells with new generations of innocent Cubans who dare to exercise their basic rights." While these specific prisoners were released, the repressive laws and mechanisms which enabled the Cuban regime to imprison them remain. Human Rights Watch had previously pointed out that Rau´l Castro had continued with the repressive policies of his brother Fidel since taking over in 2006, with over there being 40 documented cases in this period of political dissidents being imprisoned for “dangerousness”, before any ‘crime’ was committed.
The group also reminded people that this was not the first time that political dissidents had been released: "Previous efforts by religious, civil, and political leaders to negotiate with the Cuban government have led to the release of some political prisoners. Reverend Jesse Jackson convinced Fidel Castro to release 26 political prisoners in 1984, and Human Rights Watch's Vivanco secured the release of six in 1995. Talks with Bill Richardson led to the release of three dissidents in 1996, and Jimmy Carter's 2002 visit prompted the release of one more. The visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998, after which more than 80 jailed dissidents were released, was the most successful of these efforts." The crackdown of 2003 and the ongoing imprisonment of political opponents under Raul Castro since 2006 demonstrate that none of these previous incidents marked a 'new era' in Cuba. Vivanco added: "The international community needs to pressure Cuba to go beyond the periodic release of jailed dissidents and instead dismantle the repressive laws, courts, and security forces that put them in prison in the first place." This is far from being achieved. It is also noteworthy that the political prisoners being released this time are not being freed back into Cuban society, but are all being flown from Cuba for Spain. Rather than them rejoining their families in Cuba, the Spanish government is allowing their families to move to Spain to join them there. While it is apparently not officially compulsory for them to leave the country, the relocation of the Cuban dissidents to Spain seems to be an important part of the agreement.
Many of the freed dissidents themselves have been sceptical of the idea that their release signals any major political change on the island. One of them, Normando Hernandez, speaking in Madrid, told the BBC: "Cuba is not opening up to democracy. I personally think it is a trick by the Cuban government. The economic needs on the island are huge. The social situation is critical, there is political stagnation. This is why it is important to draw the international community’s attention to this aspect of the Cuban government so they don't get fooled again." Dissidents also paid tribute to a Cuban prisoner who died on a hunger strike in February of this year, Orlando Zapata Tamayo. His death drew international condemnation and caused embarrassment to the regime, which is likely to have contributed to the regime’s willingness to release these prisoners, particularly given a hunger strike by another activist, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández.
The EU’s Common Position on Cuba
It would therefore seem premature in the extreme to conclude, with the Spanish foreign minister, that the release of these prisoners “opens a new era in Cuba”. It is difficult to see how this move can enable the European Union to “put aside differences once and for all on matters of prisoners" when so many political prisoners remain, and when the laws and policies within the Cuban system which led to their imprisonment also continue unchanged. The ending on the EU’s Common Position on Cuba is not something which Spain is advocating as a result of recent developments, but has been a standing policy of the current Spanish government. Moving the EU away from the Common Position has been one of Spain’s main priorities in its rotating presidency of the European Union, a priority which Spain considers an important part of its overall objective of using its presidency to improve relations between the EU and Latin America. Therefore, when the Cuban official newspaper Granma reported talks between the Cuban and Spanish foreign ministers in Havana, it announced: "Both officials (are) in favour of eliminating the Common Position as a basis for relations between Cuba and the EU". Moratinos himself declared: "The time has come, as the Spanish government has always maintained, to overcome the Common Position, to work towards a bilateral relationship that is much more structured, much more intense, for the good of both sides, through respect and progress in all areas, in order to positively guide the future between Europe and Cuba. I am convinced that these working sessions will be very positive and successful both for Cuba and Spain and that our European partners will also consider that it has been a positive visit and thus allow us to work toward lifting this Common Position definitively." The Spanish government had even offered hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas Hernández asylum in Spain in order to avoid another embarrassing hunger strike death for the Cuban regime.
The EU's Common Position was adopted in 1996 as the basis for EU relations with Cuba. It states that: "The European Council believes that the political dialogue with Cuba should be pursued and deepened on a comprehensive, equal and result-oriented basis. Within the framework of this dialogue, the EU will give high priority to the principles of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This position was reaffirmed by the European Council in 2009. While Spain, Portugal, France and Italy have tended to favour greater engagement with Cuba, Britain and Germany have maintained a firmer position. The Eastern European nations, wary of communism, have also maintained a critical stance towards Cuba. Human Rights Watch has been critical of Spain's aim of ending this European policy, with Vivanco saying that "it would send the signal that the EU does not care about the fate of political prisoners in Cuba. If the EU wants to improve the human rights situation in Cuba it must strengthen its present Cuba policy and make it more effective rather than dismiss it." The pursuit of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba – the last remaining dictatorship in the Americas - should remain a priority, as these goals have not yet been achieved. The reasons for the adoption of the Common Position in 1996, long before the prisoners now being released were arrested in 2003, remain valid. Fifty-two prisoners have been released, but many more remain, and the system has not changed. As of yet, there is no indication that this current release of prisoners will be of many greater long-term significance than the previous releases of 1984, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2002. While there is as yet no reason to suppose that the Cuban regime will repeat this, it is worth remembering that the crackdown of 2003 in which the prisoners now being released were arrested occurred after all of those previous groups of political prisoners were released.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is highly premature to hail this latest release of prisoners as the opening of a new era in Cuba. Autocratic government and repressive measures still remain. We have seen mass releases of political prisoners before, yet these did not herald the dawn of a new democratic Cuba. Abandoning the Common Position now would be a dangerous mistake, as the problems with Cuba’s political system and human rights record remain. The reasons for the common position, which was adopted in 1996 (seven years before the prisoners now being released were arrested), have not gone away. If progress is now being made on human rights in Cuba, then this is not the time to abandon a policy which is based on human rights. Changing the policy, thereby rewarding a regime which remains repressive and undemocratic, may mean that this will be the last, rather than the first, step towards democracy which we see.
Peter John Cannon is the Latin America Section Director of the Henry Jackson Society.
