Cuba Presents National Report to the Universal Periodic Review

Cuban Foreign Minister denounces the impact of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, and the human rights violations in the illegal Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay

The economic, political and media blockade imposed by the United States, which Cuba has resisted, undefeated, for more than 50 years, is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights, denounced the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, in presenting the national report on Wednesday May 1st  to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the blockade causes harm, deprivation and suffering, but did not prevent equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, or social justice, reported Prensa Latina.

"The persistent U.S. effort to impose a regime change on the Cuban people is a serious violation of their right to self-determination, which has failed to prevent either the active, democratic and direct participation of its citizens in the building of the constitutional order, in the decisions of the Government, or the election of its authorities," he said.

The Chancellor said that in Cuba there are no people unprotected, nor deprived of dignity, nor are there children without quality education, sick people without health care or elderly without social protection.

Cuba has made significant progress in the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. Education has achieved universal coverage and is free at all levels, he said.

The Caribbean country is also recognized for its outstanding performance and the high quality of its public health system, with universal coverage and free care.

• Read the full article here
• Read full statement by Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez here
• Read Unite Union submission to the Universal Periodic Review here
• Read the NZ Cuba Friendship Society submission to the Universal Periodic Review here

US Judge Says Cuban Five’s René González Live in Cuba

The other Cuban Five members remain in US prisons.

A Florida judge announced May 3 that she will allow the paroled Cuban Five member, René González  convicted of espionage in the United States, to reside permanently on the island in exchange for renouncing U.S. citizenship, reported DPA news.

The decision of Judge Joan Lenard accepts that the first of the five Cubans, considered heroes in their country, may reside on the island. The other four are still imprisoned in the United States.

René González was released from prison in October 2011 after being imprisoned 13 years and was now serving three years probation.

Lenard recently allowed González's to travel to Cuba for two weeks to attend the memorial for his father, who died at age 82 on April 1st. Rene arrived in Havana on April 22.

Reached in Havana, González  56, told The Associated Press he was thrilled but wanted a chance to review the judge’s decision. “First I have to read the order,” he said. “If the order is real, it will be a great relief to me,” reported ABC News

González was also able to travel to Cuba last year for two weeks to visit a sick brother and later returned to the United States.

Both his visits to the island have been strictly private, despite the usual campaigns organized in Cuba to demand the release of the five agents.

The other four Cubans are serving long prison terms in the United States, one of them a double life sentence.

The case of the Cuban Five is one of the thorniest issues that hamper an improvement in the difficult relations between Washington and Havana. Another is the case of Alan Gross, the US agent serving a 15-year sentence in Havana.

The two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1961, two years after the triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Source 

Also See 

• See the full ruling by Judge Lenard
• Freedom of His Four Companions a Priority for Cuban Anti-Terrorist
• Cuban Anti-terrorist Fighter Renounces his U.S. Citizenship