(EFE).- The release of detainees in Cuba for protests such as those of 2021 should not entail a “forced expatriation” as in Nicaragua, several Cuban human rights organizations warned on Monday.
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, Justice 11J and Cubalex indicated in a manifesto that “the recent release of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners and their immediate deportation to the United States has raised an alert in Cuban civil society about a similar ‘solution’ in the current context of the Island”.
The release of the protesters has become a key political issue in Cuba after the Nicaraguan precedent and the insistence on this issue by the United States, the European Union and the Vatican
“The alert is motivated by the conversations between the Cuban State and instances such as the Catholic Church, the European Union (EU) and the United States Government, which have expressed positions in favor of the unconditional release of political prisoners,” indicates the manifesto, disseminated by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, based in Madrid.
The release of the protesters has become a key political issue in Cuba after the Nicaraguan precedent and the insistence on this issue by the United States, the European Union and the Vatican.
The possibility of prisoners being released for protests against the Cuban government is on the table in the context of a potential negotiation with the United States.
In this regard, these organizations recalled “precedents” such as the release and exile in 2010 of “the majority of the Black Spring political prisoners” of 2003 as part of a negotiation process in the EU and in 2015 of another 53 imprisoned in this case in negotiations for the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States.
The signatories of the manifesto cited that the UN Human Rights Council has denounced these “forced expatriations”, which they described as “a systematic practice in repressive governments” and warned that “Nicaraguan political prisoners did not participate in the process of negotiation” nor “were they informed that the condition for their release was forced departure from their country”.
“No person, much less in the inhumane conditions of deprivation of liberty in Cuban jails, can be forced to leave the country as a condition to achieve their release or final release,” they claimed.
“Whoever negotiates with the Cuban State should request guarantees that the person deprived of their liberty will make the decision to leave the country without pressure from State Security bodies”
“Whoever negotiates with the Cuban State should request guarantees that the person deprived of their liberty will make the decision to leave the country without pressure from State Security bodies,” they added.
In addition, they demanded “the participation of persons deprived of liberty and their families in the exit negotiation process,” together with “minimum guarantees for those who freely and voluntarily decide to leave the country, such as facilities in the relocation process to access to the legalization of their migratory status”.
“We oppose laudatory pronouncements such as those issued by the US State Department, in which an act that violates human rights is presented as ‘positive steps’ for the consolidation of relations between countries and the path to democracy,” they underlined.
“We receive with hope the idea that they are released, in any of the possible ways,” they concluded.
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