The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell – Europa Press/Contact/Niyi Fote – Archive
BRUSELAS, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A group of 34 ‘popular’, conservative and liberal MEPs has demanded from the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, “concrete steps” within the framework of the Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba to advance the democratization of the island and obtain the release of political prisoners.
«We join the initiatives of relatives of prisoners who ask for the release of all political prisoners. We demand that the Cuban State consider any legal action that implies the immediate release of political prisoners and the cessation of harassment of the prisoners’ families,” the letter presented by the parliamentarians, mostly Spanish, underlined.
The initiative is presented on the occasion of the visit to the European Parliament of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) and calls on the head of diplomacy to take measures in the context of the framework that governs relations with Cuba that contains commitments “always unfulfilled” by the “Cuban regime.”
“We reiterate the urgent need for concrete steps for a transition towards a full state on the island, and the holding of plural, free and democratic elections, as well as respect for Human Rights and individual freedoms,” the letter stated. .
In this sense, they highlight the increase in “social violence” and migration as an “escape” from the critical socioeconomic situation of the island, besieged by inflation, the lack of medicines, and the deterioration of essential public services. “They are a consequence of the structural crisis and the lack of political will of the Cuban regime to make the changes that the country needs,” the MEPs emphasize.
The letter is signed, among others, by the ‘popular’ Leopoldo López Gil, Gabriel Mato, Antonio López Istúriz, Javier Zarzalejos, Isabel Benjumea, Pilar del Castillo, José Manuel García-Margallo and Juan Ignacio Zoido. While on the Ciudadanos side José Ramón Bauzá, María Soraya Rodríguez, Jordi Cañas and Maite Pagazaurtundúa join; Jorge Buxadé, Hermann Tertsch, Mazaly Aguilar and Margarita de la Pisa from VOX, and Izaskun Bilbao, from the PNV.
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– 2024-05-10 19:00:34
