ROME, Italy.- For the first time, the Italian Parliament opened its doors to the opposition of the Miguel Díaz-Canel regime. This unprecedented event happened on April 19, when the “Cubans for Democracy” Association and the “Cuba Decide” platform were officially received at a hearing before the “Permanent Commission for Human Rights in the World”, which operates to the intern of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic.
The president of the “Cubans for Democracy” Association, Marcos Rodríguez Pellitero, had the right to speak at the meeting, who attended in person along with the activists Yulami Esquivel Fernández, Alessandro Cárdenas Mesa and Yeison Soler Carpes, all Cubans residing in Italy. And in online mode, the secretary of “Cubans for democracy”, the lawyer Julio Pellitero, and the president of the Cuba Decide platform, Rosa Maria Payá, participated.
To know the scope of this important meeting, which was broadcast live by the web tv circuit of the Italian legislative power, CubaNet He spoke with Marcos Rodríguez Pellitero, who expressed his satisfaction with this achievement, which he classified as “historic” in the fight for democracy on the island.
Opponents of the regime before the Italian Parliament
“We had the opportunity to be heard by the Italian parliamentarians, who welcomed us very well and gave us the opportunity to explain the human rights situation in Cuba, what is happening with the political prisoners and the long sentences that the Cuban dictatorship has given. the demonstrators, of a maximum of up to 30 years in prison for freedom in Cuba”, he indicated.
The hearing was possible thanks to the invitation of the president of the Commission, deputy Laura Boldrini. It made it possible to show in images the testimonies of the relatives of the political prisoners of the protests of July 11, 2021. The videos of Roxana García Lorenzo, sister of Andy García Lorenzo; Yalenis Carrazana Domínguez, wife of Liván Hernández Sosa; Luis Wilber Aguilar Bravo, father of Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera; and José Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, son of José Daniel Ferrer García.
In fact, Boldrini confirmed during the hearing his concern about the repression of the Cuban regime: “The decision of the judicial authorities in Havana to inflict heavy sentences on the people involved in the spontaneous protests of July 11 and 12, 2021 arouses serious concern. ”, expressed the deputy, a member of the leftist coalition of parliament.
The also former president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies assured that “such demonstrations, which reflected the legitimate complaints of the population, were the target of a violent repression, with more than 1,400 people arrested and 790 incriminated. After a series of convictions already announced, on March 16 of this year the Cuban Supreme Court made public 128 sentences, with sanctions of up to thirty years for protesters, some of whom were under eighteen at the time of arrest.
Faced with these public statements, Marcos Rodríguez Pellitero confirmed that the hearing “was a historic opportunity because until now the opposition had not had the opportunity to be heard within the headquarters of Italian democracy.”
Demand action against the dictatorship
“Cubans for Democracy” presents itself as a non-profit legal activism organization for lawyers. They assure that in the last six months they have carried out more than 50 actions to denounce human rights violations in Cuba and prosecute those responsible in European courts; stop the financing received by the dictatorship through subsidies and investments from companies such as Spanish hotel companies, French construction companies, Italian agri-food companies, among others; and advocate for the island’s peaceful transition to a democratic state.
And this audition is the result of a letter of petitions that “Cubans for Democracy” presented to the Italian Parliament, in alliance with “Cuba Decide.” Such requests were listed by Rosa María Payá during the meeting. “We ask you: one, that the Italian parliament vote to denounce the European Union’s political dialogue and cooperation agreement with the Cuban regime (PDCA), for an obvious violation of the fundamental elements of this Agreement,” Payá said.
“The regime violated the agreement, systematically violated the human rights of Cubans, consequently, we ask that action be taken to suspend its implementation, which is now illegal, until there are no minimum conditions of respect for human rights and a transition begins. democratic, and that the European Union and the Member States can monitor the progress of these conditions”, he continued.
“These steps must at least include the release of all political prisoners, the total end of repression and the guarantee of freedom of the press, association and demonstration, as well as the beginning of political reforms that allow free elections to be held, fair and multiparty in my country. We also ask the Italian parliament to consider the possibility of taking measures to curb the impunity with which the Cuban regime currently carries out repression within the island, promoting the implementation of individual sanctions using, for example, the global sanctions mechanism of the European Union, or even directly,” added the president of Cuba Decide.
“We have asked that they recognize the associations in favor of political prisoners”
In this regard, Marcos Rodríguez Pellitero explained that they demanded that the Italian deputies “activate the mechanisms of international treaties to reduce the development cooperation funds that they allocate to Cuba because there is a document that they have, a three-year plan, which says that in the next three years it will be the recipient country of more funds in Latin America”.
He denounced that only in recent years the Castro-communist regime has received more than 30 million euros from Italian cooperation funds, “because the civil society organizations that the dictatorship presents as such do not meet international standards to be recognized. as civil society organizations, that is why they are directly feeding the dictatorship.”
Consequently, “we have asked that they recognize the associations in favor of the political prisoners that are acting inside Cuba, that are acting in a marginal way, that are being persecuted by the repressive Cuban government and these associations do not receive financial support from the European Union, they do not receive legal recognition from the Cuban dictatorship because the current legislation itself prevents them from accessing that recognition.”
What is Boldrini’s position
In response, deputy Laura Boldrini assured that the Italian Parliament is closely following events in Cuba. In fact, “we recently expressed ourselves, we made a resolution approved by a very large majority”, that is why “we would not have new elements to make another parliamentary act”. However, she promised to pass on the requests of the Cuban organizations “to those who at the governmental level must make decisions in bilateral relations.”
This important action in the heart of the Italian legislative power caused reactions from the online newspaper “l’AntiDiplomatico”, known for its pro-communism content. This is how Pellitero denounced it: “As expected, the Italian communists, through a digital medium, tried to activate a defamation campaign, in which they said that we were paid by the United States government without providing any proof, any evidence. , because they don’t have it and they won’t have it”.
“That is the typical accusation of those who outside of Cuba defend the freedom of the island, the end of the dictatorship, who want to see that end come and the truth is that we believe that behind that newspaper, we are investigating them, there are many associations that they are receiving funds from the foreign aid cooperation of the Italian government and with those funds they have active programs in Cuba. Therefore, they are simply defending their own interests and the interests of the dictatorship,” he said.
“Cubans for Democracy” urges the media outlet “l’AntiDiplomatico” to “immediately rectify and/or cancel the article, suppressing the defamatory accusations in which they claim that its members are “an opposition poorly paid by the United States government”. If not, they promise legal action.
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