The opposition platform D Frente demanded this Monday that the European Union (EU) make a call to Havana to favor the “beginning of a process of political reforms” on the island. The petition coincides with several calls for protests, inside and outside the Island, with which different activists have called to commemorate the founding of the Republic 121 years ago and to review the situation of human rights in the country.
Addressed to the high representative of that organization for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who will travel to the island at the end of May, the letter from D Frente notes the “manifest civic behavior” of Cubans, who support a call for attention to the Government from The EU.
D Frente points out that the Twenty-seven have the power to address the Havana regime by virtue of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2016. The EU, they say, can promote the “space for this conversation”, together with a demand so that the island’s independent civil society “participates in regular exchanges” between Cuba and the EU.
In particular, they aspire to be part of the meeting of civil societies of the EU and Latin America, to be held on July 13 and 14 in Madrid, as part of the EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Summit.
The Agreement is “positive,” the letter assesses, since it encourages discussion from a “diplomatic perspective of commitment to the Cuban people and not confrontation,” despite the fact that another sector of the opposition alleges that the pact between Havana and Brussels should be cancelled.
The D Frente letter notes the “manifest civic behavior” of Cubans, who support a call for attention to the Government from the EU
As for Borrell, they affirm that his stay on the Island could lead the island’s authorities “to recalibrate their own public perception of the country they administer.”
D Frente also alludes to the “growing plurality” of Cubans, manifested in the social protests of recent years and in the abstention in the last elections, and demands “transformations” commensurate with the “structural changes” that the Cuban society.
Another group of Cuban activists, based in Sweden, will manifest in the city of Stockholm on May 20 – when the 121st anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Cuba is celebrated, in 1902 – to support a request from that country to the EU, with a view to reviewing whether Cuba complies with the Dialogue Agreement Political and Cooperation.
Protests have also been announced in Tampa, United States, on May 20, by the organizations United Antitotalitarian Front (Fantu), Cuban Republican Party, November 30 Movement, Cuban Nationalist Party, La Casa de Cuba and the Forum of Anticommunist Miami. This coalition will hold a caravan to celebrate one of the dates that Fidel Castro erased from the Cuban anniversaries after 1959.
The Cuban government has already closed ranks against any possibility of protests on the island that day, after announcing that the so-called exercise will be held on May 20. meteor 2023.
Meteor, an annual operation to “reduce the risk of disasters in the face of tropical cyclones and other hazards of natural, technological and health origin”, involves a deployment of the Armed Forces and other associated organizations, such as the National Civil Defense Staff, in all provinces. In addition, the main leaders of the regime, such as Miguel Díaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero, take part in the exercise dressed as soldiers.
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