December 13, 2005
If it aint beneficial for the state...
...they aint leaving the island.
It's just that simple.
Cuba blocks Sakharov Prize winners' trip12.12.2005 - 17:43 CET | By Lucia Kubosova EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG -
The Cuban government has not granted permission for the "Ladies in White", the European Parliament's 2005 Sakharov Prize winners, to travel to Strasbourg to receive the award.MEPs will hold a special ceremony on Wednesday (14 December) to deliver the prize for "freedom of thought" to the three winners chosen this year.
Press organisation Reporters Without Borders and a Nigerian lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim will share the reward with the Cuban activists.
The "Ladies in White" have been recognized "for their action in favour of political prisoners in Cuba."
The group holds peaceful demonstrations every Sunday against the imprisonment of their husbands, sons or brothers who have been put in jail for actions such as collecting signatures for a petition calling for free elections on the island.
The group's representatives were planning to come to Strasbourg to pick up the prize and voice their concerns to the European audience, but the communist regime has prevented them from travelling.
"We have been in touch with them and they have not received the official travel permit on Monday", said Ivana Kullova from the Slovak NGO, People in Peril.
She added that the activists were still hoping the Cuban government would let them go at the last moment, pointing out that they were originally supposed to come to Strasbourg on Saturday to attend various events, including a session of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Monday.
According to Ladies in White member Miriam Leiva, the activists chosen to travel to Europe faced bureaucratic burdens from the Cuban authorities.
Last week, some Czech and Slovak female politicians and diplomats gathered signatures in a petition calling on Havana to let the activists come.
European Parliament president Josep Borrell said he was to meet the Cuban foreign minister later this week.
But he added "I can't promise that the diplomatic pressure we are making will secure the permission for Cuban activists to arrive at Strasbourg on Wednesday."
If the Ladies in White fail to get the green light, they will be represented in Strasbourg by their Europe-based associate, Blanca Reyes, who will take the floor on their behalf in plenary.
However, she will not get the prize herself.
Instead, the activists have asked a delegation from the European Parliament to bring it to them to Cuba.
This year's recognition of Cuban opposition forces comes after MEPs granted the Sakharov Prize to another Cuban activist, Oswaldo Paya, in 2002.
Posted by Val Prieto at December 13, 2005 07:27 AM
Comments
Folks,
This development should not surprise anyone, because it merely shows another facet of the repressive nature of the totalitarian regime.
It shows the complete hypocrisy of a government that calls its fiefdom "the most democratic country in the world."
It strips any facade of legitimacy, of justice and, indeed, of competency off what it reveals is no more than a domineering, unfair dictatorship, now "up front and personal" for everyone to see. For everyone who wishes to see, that is.
Sadly, the regime's defenders will choose not to see it. Not to recognize it.
A lot of these women are people of color: mulatas, negras, etc. Where is Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, Al Sharpton, Congressman Serrano, Danny Glover? Because evidently these women's basic human rights have been trashed by the tyrant in chief. So where are they? How come not one of them is uttering a peep of protest?
Because they are supporters of the oppression, that's why. Instead of marching, holding candle vigils and parading with signs against the daily ongoing injustices in Cuba, they were in California trying to save a killer from his appointment with justice. How do they live with themselves?
I read somewhere that the wife of exiled dissident poet Raul Rivero picked up the award on behalf of the Women in White. And after going through all the abuses that she and her husband had to endure before they were "allowed" to leave for Spain earlier this year, I'm sure she had a few appropriate comments to make about life in Cuba.
Ya no m'as!
Julio
Posted by: Julio C. Zangroniz at December 13, 2005 07:51 AM
This whole thing is messed up-
why do they need permission to be granted?
shouldn't they be free to go anywhere?
it doesn't matter how you look at it, this is bad news for castro..
if they go, they get to speak out....if they don't go, everybody will know that they weren't allowed to go.
Posted by: nurian at December 13, 2005 09:42 AM
Very true, Nurian,
It's easy to see --and understand-- why ese viejo apestoso (that stinky old man) wants to keep the dissidents at home, under his complete (or near-complete) control.
Outside the island, the dissidents can talk and, more important, show proof of the abuses against the people of Cuba that the oppressive regime commits day in and day out.
That unworthy fidelucho knows he's going to take some lumps over this situation, and he has acted to keep those lumps as tiny as possible.
Regardless, we --all of us, inside or out of the island-- have to keep giving him lumps. More and more, each day. Eventually, one of those lumps will put an end to this tyranny.
Del tirano? Del tirano di todo, di m'as,
Y clava con furia de mano esclava sobre su oprobio al tirano. --Jos'e Mart'i.
Julio
Posted by: Julio C. Zangroniz at December 13, 2005 10:56 AM
Yep- let's see how all this ends. I think that Las Damas de Blanco have given him more headaches than many other troubles in the past.
They are strong women, and they have castro "en jaque".
Posted by: nurian at December 13, 2005 01:10 PM
Wait until some day kagaSStro faces La Dama De La Caridad and is asked to explain himself...la cagalera que se va a formar.
Posted by: Alberto Quiroga at December 13, 2005 02:12 PM
I also bet that the EU delegation will be denied entry into Cuba to deliver the prize.
The embargo ya know
Posted by: Eleggua at December 13, 2005 03:40 PM
What? there's an embargo...?
Julio
Posted by: Julio C. Zangroniz at December 13, 2005 10:38 PM