Borrell meets with Cuban private businessmen while avoiding opponents and relatives of political prisoners

The High Representative of Foreign Policy of the European Union (EU), Joseph Borrell, met with private sector Cuban in his first activity of his official visit to the island, while avoiding meetings with opponents and relatives of political prisoners on the island, according to information reported on networks.

“The current context is full of challenges for the 8,000 Cuban MSMEs, but also opportunities. We hope that they manage to consolidate and continue contributing in this way to the economic modernization of Cuba. The EU is committed to continuing to support them,” the head of EU diplomacy said on Twitter this Thursday about his meeting with Cuban private parties.

Also on the social network he commented that “small and medium-sized businesses are a manifestation of a society model based on the freedom to undertake, to have ideas and put them into practice.”

He also stressed on the issue of freedoms and rights on the island that “there are things that people should have even if they cannot afford them: rights. It is necessary to find a balance between fundamental freedoms, private initiative, fiscal equity, State action and individual economic action. The EU is here to offer you our cooperation.”

After this meeting of the High Representative of EU Foreign Policy in Havana, the reactions of activists and independent media were immediate.

The director of the independent media Yucabyte, Norge Rodríguez, noted on the city's social network that “the first public event of @JosepBorrellF "In Cuba it was not a meeting with activists or with relatives of political prisoners, it was a meeting with 'entrepreneurs' in a place owned by a 'son of high-ranking military personnel.'"

Rodríguez in another message assured that the owner of the premises is Luis Mario Gell, who "has acknowledged in interviews that he was a 'communist child', of high-ranking military parents."

The independent journalist also noted that while “Borrell was talking about business, the Cuban dictatorship was repressing relatives of political prisoners. While Borrell was talking about 'entrepreneurs', the regime disappeared several political prisoners who had been on hunger strike since yesterday."

The activist and member of the group Justicia 11J, which makes Cuban political prisoners visible, Salome García Bacallao, also stressed on Twitter that “8,000 MSMEs, the majority with strong ties to the military leadership or the Communist Party of Cuba, are worth more than the lives of more than 1,000 political prisoners, and that the repression that millions of Cubans suffer daily #BorrellMiraLasPrisiones. #InCubaThereIsADictatorship”.

This week Borrell makes his first official visit to the island since he assumed his high position to participate in the structured dialogue that the EU maintains with the government headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, in addition to meeting with businessmen, European and Cuban citizens and representatives of civil society.

The EU Chancellor will be on the island from May 25 to May 27 to preside, together with the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the Joint Council promoted by the political dialogue and cooperation agreement between the European community and the Caribbean country, according to the spokesman for the high representative, Peter Stano.

Stano assured in the last week that this visit by Borrell to the island will be an opportunity to take stock of the bilateral relationship, as well as to debate regional and global issues of mutual interest, in addition to being part of the activities to bring the EU closer to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, on the eve of the next summit between the community bloc and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which will take place in Brussels on July 17 and 18.

At the end of one year the historic 11J protests in Cuba, the EU called on the Cuban regime to release political prisoners serving long prison sentences for exercising their right to free expression and demonstration.

“During the past 12 months, the EU has reiterated its call on the Cuban Government to respect the human rights and freedoms of Cubans (…) and release all political prisoners and detainees, just for exercising their freedom of assembly and expression and will continue to do so,” Borrell said in a statement in mid-July.

Furthermore, the head of European diplomacy pointed out that the EU “has followed with deep concern the disproportionate sentences” of the detained protesters, and called on the regime to engage in a “meaningful and inclusive” dialogue with Cubans about their legitimate grievances.

In March 2022, The Government of Cuba accused the European Union (EU) of acting with double standards for condemning the sentences imposed by the island's courts on protesters in the 11J protests.

On that occasion, Foreign Minister Rodríguez Parrilla disagreed with Borrell, after learning of the declaration of the European Union on the trials and sentences related to the demonstrations of July 11 and 12, 2021 in Cuba.

"We strongly reject the statement on Cuba by the EU High Representative, Joseph Borrell. Only our courts, and not any European authority, are empowered to issue sentences in strict accordance with due process," Rodríguez said on Twitter.

Also in July 2021, after the 11J protests, The island's chancellor accused the High Representative of the European Union of lying and manipulating information about what was happening in those days on the island..