Friday, August 14, 2015

US 'human rights' push to complicate Kerry's Cuba trip

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Cuba Friday to officially inaugurate his country's new embassy in Havana, and resume diplomatic ties between the two nations.

As the day nears, however, he has come under increasing pressure to put diplomacy aside and use the event as a political pulpit to school Cuba on human rights, regardless of the United States' own appalling record.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio addressed a letter to Kerry Monday, urging him to use the opportunity of his Aug. 14 trip to Havana to demand the freedom and rights of the Cuban people.

"During your meetings with Cuban officials, you should demand that all political prisoners are released ... you should meet with the courageous leaders who are fighting to bring freedom to Cuba and invite them to the ceremony you will be presiding over at the new American embassy," Rubio said.

Last week, Elliott Abrams, an influential U.S. foreign policy expert, wrote to the influential think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and cautioned Kerry about what he will say about human rights and whom he will meet in Cuba, while recommending the envoy to invite dissidents to the ceremony at the risk of causing Cuban officials to boycott the event.

The administration of President Barack Obama reportedly has decided not to invite opponents of the Cuban government to the flag-raising ceremony.

Kerry, however, is set to hold a low-profile meeting later in the day with "a small group" of Cuban dissidents at the home of the chief of the U.S. mission there.

Yet both Rubio and Abrams highlighted a reality that Washington has ignored: given its own record of human rights violations, the U.S.insistence on casting itself as a global champion of those rights rings hollow.

Just on Sunday, protests were held around the United States to mark the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The officer, Darren Wilson, was cleared of any wrongdoing. The case, one of many similar fatal incidents, has spotlighted what appears to be systemic prejudice against minority groups and the working class by a wealthy white majority in power.

What Kerry will say in Cuba does matter, but only if it signals that the U.S. is serious about diplomacy, not simply bent on doing business as usual.

Cubans, such as Elena Diaz, a retired teacher, will be watching.

Diaz told Xinhua that Cubans were concerned about the motives behind Washington's warming relations with Cuba, saying "the United States is going to continue to harass us, though now they'll do it in a more subtle and diplomatic way."

Washington "frequently flouts the rules," warned Esteban Morales, founder and honorary director of the University of Havana's Center for Hemispheric and U.S. Studies.

The history of the U.S.-Cuba ties is full of instances of the U.S. disrespecting the norms of diplomacy, he said.

In the absence of diplomatic ties, the two countries maintained so-called Interests Sections, which the United States used to distribute propaganda and recruit disaffected Cubans to take part in covert anti-government schemes, said Morales.

While the bilateral talks leading to restoring diplomatic ties have been marked by mutual respect, "they should discuss relations as if between neighbors who respect their mutual sovereignty and independence," Morales said, especially since a much more complex and lengthy process lies ahead as the two work to normalize their ties.

On July 20, which marks the restoration of the U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties and reopening of embassies, Kerry said "the interests of both countries are better served by engagement than by estrangement."

What he says and does on Friday can drive that point home or expose it as little more than window dressing.

  Xinhua - china.org.cn
14/8/15
--
-
Related:

 -

1 comment :

  1. US flag to be raised outside embassy in Cuba...

    In a historic moment in US-Cuba relations, John Kerry will raise the Stars and Stripes over a restored American embassy in Havana, though the economic embargo legally remains in effect.

    Three members of the US Marine Corps, now retired, who lowered the flag at the embassy in Cuba in 1961, will be back on Friday with the secretary of state to raise the Stars and Stripes once again.

    "I'm gonna love seeing that flag go back up," Jim Tracy, 78, says in a video posted on the State Department website.................http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/flag-raised-embassy-cuba-150814005132902.html
    14/8/15

    ReplyDelete

Only News

Featured Post

“The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people" : US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard

US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, recently visited Syria, and even met with President Bashar Al-Assad. She also visited the recently libe...

Blog Widget by LinkWithin