The release was issued after an online meeting on Jan. 19 organized by the group to discuss what it calls a human rights crisis in Cuba. It consisted of 10 attendees including Sebastien Sigouin, the director of Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic at Global Affairs Canada.
“I believe nobody should be forced to live in a country where a power elite forces people to choose between a fabricated social agenda and individual liberties.”
The regime also continues to repress and punish dissent and public criticism, and employ scare tactics including “beatings, public shaming, travel restrictions, short-term detention, fines, online harassment, surveillance, and termination of employment” on critics, independent activists, political opponents, journalists, artists, and others, the rights organization found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9c7pSPmw0&feature=emb_logo
“The judicial and the legislative powers are branches at the service of the executive power and the ruling elites,” Cuadra said.
“Cubans are therefore left in a state [of] defencelessness as an independent judiciary is non-existent and laws serve no other purpose [than] to perpetuate the prevailing political system.”
He added that since the media in Cuba is exclusively controlled by the state, all possible channels for dissidents to voice their views are closed. Also, the educational system indoctrinates ideological conformity and punishes all expressions of individuality; any student who dares to criticize the policies of the regime and communist party will be expelled.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, an artist and human rights activist based in Cuba, said in a pre-recorded video during the Jan. 19 meeting that the Díaz-Canel regime doesn’t want the world to know what’s really going on, noting that artists are also subjected to rights abuse.
“As an artist, I have been persecuted, abducted … I have been detained more than 40 times in two years without any justification whatsoever,” said Alcántara, also the main coordinator of the San Isidro Movement which supports democracy and free debate in Cuba.
“A [surveillance] camera has been installed in front of my house. My art has been labelled as a form of ‘terrorism’ in Cuba on the sole grounds that my art exposes misery and poverty and all the abuses that the regime does not want to show the world. They want to sell the image of a perfect society, and that is not the case.”
- Acknowledge that the Cuban regime is ruled by a human rights’ predatory and totalitarian dictatorship.
- Act in consistency with Canadian core values and publicly speak out in support of those who are engaged in the peaceful struggle for human rights and individual liberties in Cuba.
- Continue engaging in dialogue with the Cuban-Canadian community on issues related to democracy and pluralism and implement concrete actions to hold the Cuban regime accountable for human rights violations.
- Find empowering mechanisms to help independent civil society in Cuba by supporting projects that promote respect for human rights and democracy without the involvement and participation of the regime.
- Review Canadian foreign policy to refrain from a tendency to place trade and economic interests above human rights considerations.
- Implement actions in partnership with other democratic countries in the hemisphere to denounce the situation in Cuba and Venezuela with actions resulting in political costs for human rights abusers.