| ID: | 24491 |
| Date: | 2004-12-22 14:52:00 |
| Origin: | 04MADRID4827 |
| Source: | Embassy Madrid |
| Classification: | CONFIDENTIAL |
| Dunno: | |
| Destination: | This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available. |
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 004827 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/22/2014 TAGS: PREL, CU, SP SUBJECT: LOCAL NGO PRESSURES SPAIN ON CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS Classified By: Political officer Ricardo Zuniga; reason 1.4 (D) 1. (C) Summary. On 12/21, Poloff met with Rafael Rubio, head of the Spanish NGO "Cuba en Transicion" (Cuba in Transition), a human rights organization dedicated to raising public awareness in Spain about human rights abuses in Cuba. Rubio, who generally works with the Popular Party (PP) but has also sought to expand his links to the Socialist Party, said that his organization is pressing the GOS to take concrete measures in support of Cuban civil society, "since the only concrete measure they've taken so far is to exclude dissidents from national day events." Rubio said that, despite public claims of a victory for Spanish policy in Brussels, the GOS has opened the door for NGOs such as his to lobby for higher-profile EU support for the Cuban opposition. He has made little headway with Socialist Party leaders, some of whom cling to a romantic vision of the Cuban revolution, and is now focused on influencing the MFA. Rubio said he is perplexed by the UK's support for easing EU measures against Cuba and asked about the importance of Cuba in GOS-USG relations. Poloff responded that Cuba is an important issue at the highest levels of the USG and that Spain's change in tack towards the GOS over the last year had not helped bilateral ties. Rubio's organization is small, but working with allied NGOs, it may manage to rein in Socialist desires to further ease Spanish and EU policy towards Cuba. End Summary. //PREACHING TO THE UN-CONVERTED// 2. (C) Cuba in Transition is a small, but well-connected NGO (www.cubaentransicion.com) that is unusual in that it has no Cuban exiles in its membership. It receives a small USAID grant through the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba. Rubio said he has attempted to work through the Socialist Party (PSOE) before approaching the government. His objective is to sensitize PSOE to the massive scale of Cuba's repression in an effort to eliminate a lingering sense of political affinity for Castro among some elements of the Socialist Party. He has made little headway, primarily because the PSOE remains wary of publicly criticizing the Castro regime and because the Socialists have determined that so-called "moderate" dissidents Gutierrez Menoyo and Manuel XXXXXXXXXXXXX are the only dissidents worth listening to. Rubio said the "moderates'" message of working with the Castro regime to encourage gradual change was seductive to EU left wing parties such as the PSOE (NOTE: PSOE has brushed aside dissident suspicions that xxxxxxxxxxxx is in fact a Cuban Government agent. END NOTE.) Rubio said he was taken aback to hear PSOE members criticize Project Varela leader Oswaldo Paya as "too conservative" and as "a tool of the Miami exile community," especially given Paya's well-known differences with Miami groups. This echoes PSOE comments to a visiting National Democratic Institute representative that Paya's anti-abortion stance and good relations with former President Aznar had alienated the PSOE. 3. (C) Rubio said he had inundated Spanish Ambassador to Cuba Carlos Saldivar with information regarding GOC abuses for many months. He believed he had managed to at least get Saldivar, a former Spanish Communist Party member, to question his preconceptions about Castro. However, Rubio said Saldivar "remains a Marxist in his basic world view" and may be fundamentally incapable of conducting an objective evaluation of conditions in Cuba. //MAKING THE BEST OF A BAD SITUATION// 4. (C) Having determined that the PSOE is not likely to veer from its cautious stance towards aiding the opposition, Rubio has gone directly to the Socialist Government. He recently approached the MFA to encourage them to take specific steps to comply with Spain's claim that it intends to ramp up contact with the dissidents to offset their dis-invitation from EU national day events. Specifically, Rubio is urging the GOS to: - Raise the public profile of the regular EU-Cuban opposition exchanges the GOS has pledged to activate in Havana. - Create public space in the Spanish Embassy in Havana for civil society, similar to the USINT Havana media center. - Distribute books and information materials to Cuban citizens, including both political and non-political literature. - Create an official Spanish "human rights officer" position in Havana to act as a POC for democracy activists and for human rights NGOs overseas. 5. (C) Rubio said he had told MFA DG for Latin America Javier Sandomingo that the opposition could not accept having its relations with the EU downgraded, since this implied that Europe did not consider the activists to be legitimate political actors. Rubio asked Sandomingo to support a human rights conference he is trying to organize in Madrid two days prior to the January 31 review/approval by EU foreign ministers of the COLAT experts recommendation to modify the EU restrictive measures. The goal of the conference would be to provide concrete recommendations to the EU on how to structure assistance to Cuban civil society, based on the EU's experience supporting democracy activists in other countries. //INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT// 6. (C) Rubio expressed his consternation that the UK had "turned its back" on Cuba's human rights activists, saying it was inconceivable to him that a country with the UK's tradition of support for human rights would have agreed to weaken EU measures against the GOC given the lack of progress in Cuba. With respect to the U.S., he asked whether the Cuba issue was a genuinely important issue in bilateral relations with Spain. Poloff replied that Cuba was a very important matter to the USG and that we were very skeptical regarding Spain's current approach. While we have good working relations with the GOS on many issues, Cuba developments were not helping the bilateral relationship. //COMMENT// 7. (C) Rubio's close association with the opposition PP complicates his efforts to influence the ruling Socialists. He is aware of this and focuses on basic human rights issues in order to avoid becoming ensnarled in the politics surrounding Spanish policy towards Cuba. Cuba in Transition is a small organization with limited objectives, but its members are genuinely committed to the issues and are capable of keeping Cuba human rights in the public eye. The best we may be able to hope for over the near term is that activists such as Rubio will manage to keep alive the domestic debate over Cuba policy, preventing the GOS from going too far in easing pressure on Castro. MANZANARES |
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