Paya urges Spaniards not to be indifferent to situation in Cuba

Havana, Cuba, Oct 17, 2008 / 15:41 pm

The president of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya, called on Spaniards this week not to be indifferent to the violations of human rights committed by the Cuban government, because “being on the right, in the center or on the left” is not a license “to support a system without rights like that of Cuba.”

 

In a conference call, Paya said everybody in Spain knows about the violations of human rights carried out by the Cuban Communist regime.  “It is a scandal that some justify, support and even enjoy. Others increase their support and over-calculate the risks and the benefits, with little generosity,” he stated.

 

Paya recalled that in Cuba, “There are dozens of people in prison solely for peacefully defending the rights of Cubans, solely for promoting the Varela Project which calls for rights for everyone.”

 

He pointed out that as long as these people are kept in prison, “all Cubans are under threat, and the message being sent to the world is that in order to have full relations with the Cuban state, it must be accepted as normal that Cubans are marginalized in their own country and that they are citizens, or rather servants, without rights.”

 

Therefore Paya exhorted the citizens “of Spain and of all of Europe” to decide “if they are on the side of oppression or of freedom.  There is no in-between.”