Spanish MEP José Ramón Bauzá He assured this Wednesday in statements to CyberCuba that "the real terrorist is Díaz-Canel", in response to the question about what he thinks of the National Terrorist List that the Cuban regime published at the end of December and in which it included well-known figures from exile in the United States, among whom there are communicators and well-known 'influencers'. The representative of the liberals also spoke with this portal about the resolution that will be voted on this Thursday in the European Parliament and that calls for denying entry into this institution to representatives of the dictatorship in reciprocity to the veto that the island's authorities imposed by written to MEPs.
-CiberCuba: What does the resolution that will be voted on in the European Parliament consist of?
-José Ramón Bauzá: It is one more, but it will undoubtedly be the last resolution of this legislature. At least I did not want this legislature to end without agreeing and making an express reference to the Cuban people. Also to the regime and its dictator who we do not forget nor do we want everything he is doing to be forgotten and the tragic circumstances that Cubans are experiencing within Cuba and also in exile. Therefore, what is intended is that at the end of the legislature Cuba will continue to be present in the European Parliament. That is what I have promoted and what we will vote on tomorrow (this Thursday).
-The resolution has to do with the Havana regime's veto of certain MEPs. What exactly do you propose?
-Yes effectively. It is one of the points that we incorporate in this resolution. It is curious because the Cuban ambassador to the European Union sends us to the European Parliament an invitation to go and visit Cuba. Subsequently, the regime itself, which has sent the invitation to its own ambassador, is the one that vetoes the entry of the parliamentarians. And I wonder, what do you have to hide? What is the problem that we are first invited and then denied entry? We know the answer. What they want to hide is the lack of freedom, the 1,066 political prisoners, the famine, the strictest regime and how Cubans not only have a hard time but the pressure is suffocating. And I always take the opportunity to send greetings to all the relatives of the political prisoners and to my good friend José Daniel Ferrer, about whom we know absolutely nothing. We know that he and many other Cubans are going through tragic situations. We know that there is violence. We know that there is torture. We know that there is repression against him and against all families. Therefore, I wonder if they invite us and then they ban our entry, why they invite us and why then they don't want us to go. They will have to hide something and we know perfectly well what they are hiding.
-I thank you for remembering José Daniel Ferrer because we Cubans do not forget that he is in prison even though we know nothing about him. In its resolution it also asks for reciprocity. In other words, in the same way that the regime assumes the right to decide who enters the Island, let the European Parliament decide who enters the European institutions.
-What cannot happen here is that nothing happens. What cannot happen is that we are invited to go, we are vetoed and at the last Celac summit (Summit between Europe and the States of Latin America and the Caribbean) there were representatives of the European Parliament who invited Díaz-Canel to enter our own facilities. A dictator. The leader of the Cuban regime has been walking through the European facilities when he is the highest representative of anything foreign and opposed to human rights, which is one of the main keys and values that we defend every day in the European Parliament. Therefore, it cannot be that nothing happens. And if they treat us like this, I want them to know that they are not welcome either. We already told you that you were not welcome at the Summit in Celac. They used protocol to say that they could not avoid entry and that in this case the reception or arrival of the dictators was acceptable. The same thing happened, in this case, with Venezuela. They are not pleasant, they are not welcome and we do not want them to be here with us. Where they should be in jail, in prison. They must free all the Cuban prisoners who are in prison precisely for defending freedom and those who have to be there are them, the dictators, the repressors and the torturers.
-Is this the first time that the Havana regime has vetoed European parliamentarians?
-It has been tacitly vetoed on numerous occasions. There have been colleagues who have gone to Cuba and have not been allowed entry. But in an official way, not with proof... Now a letter has been sent saying that we are not welcome, that we are banned from entering... In that way, few occasions, if not none. Although I repeat: MEPs have been prevented from entering because upon arrival at Havana airport they were not allowed entry at the border.
-You already know that what has happened to MEPs happens to Cubans who are not allowed to enter or leave their own country. What can the European Parliament do so that this is taken into account when providing aid to the Island?
-We demand that High Representative Josep Borrell do his utmost because on the part of Parliament we are doing the impossible, we cannot do more. But we are the legislative sphere. In the case of the Executive, which is exercised by the (European) Commission and the High Representative, it is that it treats the Cubans in exile well, that it exerts the necessary political pressure and in the same way that they are vetoed (the representatives of the regime ).
what, Mr. Borrell's last visit to Cuba He was not in contact with any person representing civil society. He did take a walk along the Malecón, wonderful, of course, but he was not in contact with the relatives of the political prisoners or with representatives of reprisalized people. He didn't have that opportunity. Since we, the parliamentarians, are not allowed entry, hey, let Mr. Borrell, who has been allowed entry, go and say things clearly: To the bread, bread and to the wine, wine, as we say in Spain.
-What real chances are there that the resolution will go forward?
-I am convinced that the resolution will go ahead because it has the majority support of the Chamber, of all groups and political forces, except the communists and podemites who are in Spain, the most extremist part of the left that just yesterday defended the Cuban regime, the Venezuelan one, the Bolivarian one, the Nicaraguan one. All those dictatorial regimes that put those who think differently in prison are defended by some in this chamber.
Despite this, I am convinced that the resolution will have majority support and It will serve to tell Díaz-Canel again to his face that he is not well received and that what he has to do is return the political prisoners to their homes, to their homes, and that he must be tried.
-There are many Cubans who reside in the European Union, we pay taxes in our countries and we see how the European Union continues to send aid to the Cuban regime. What can be done to stop this from happening?
-We must do a specific surgery. Know who we help and who we don't help. What cannot be is that the dictatorship be helped, that the regime be helped. That in no way and in no way. That is why I propose the suspension of the Political Agreement. We cannot negotiate with dictators. We cannot negotiate with terrorists. We cannot negotiate with the regime. It is simply non-negotiable. We cannot maintain a political agreement although some, very naively, although we already warned them, that this was not going to be of any use. It simply served for the regime to buy time; that they were going to deceive everyone again, as they have done. We cannot allow things to continue the same and nothing has happened here. We must be very strict and we must say that no type of aid to the regime. An absolutely precise and concise surgery must be carried out so that the aid goes to the Cubans and does not go to the regime.
-Would there be time for the suspension of the Political Agreement in this legislature?
-No, unfortunately not, but it would mark the roadmap to follow for the new legislature and for the new college of commissioners that have to be elected starting in June or July of this year. But it is very important that this resolution be approved because it will be one more that will be placed on top of the last one that has been approved in this house, in the European Parliament, and will serve to continue increasing the pressure on the regime and on Díaz-Canel.
-I don't know if you know that last December the Cuban regime published a National Terrorist List. Can a country included among the global sponsors of terrorism make its own terrorist list? Is it taken into account?
-If a terrorist identifies those on the other side as such, we already know who they are.. The real terrorist is Díaz-Canel. The real terrorists are the Castros since the beginning of the regime 65 years ago. Just yesterday I was seeing images of Havana, with the buildings absolutely fallen; when you see that Cubans live in the most absolute poverty, when they do not have money for the most basic resources, that they have to stand in lines for hours to take home a kilo of rice or a liter of milk... When we see that , the real terrorist is the one who makes his people live in the worst conditions. How can a terrorist, how can a dictator make a list? It is simply unacceptable, unfeasible and incredible. The lists of terrorists are made by respectable organizations, such as the European Parliament, the European institutions, different international institutions or the United Nations itself. Those are the ones that are recognized and endorsed to make terrorist lists.
What do you think?
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