business leaders will discuss trade and commercial opportunities with the Communist island, protest organizers said Wednesday, October 6.
The Mothers and Women Against Repression organization said in a statement to BosNewsLife it was concerned that the National Summit on Cuba in the university of Tampa, Florida, would influence decision makers to "ease restrictions in order to do business with a communist dictator and a terrorist state."
"This Summit should be about demanding fundamental liberties and rights for the oppressed Cuban people," said Ileana Puig, Vice-President of Mothers and Women Against Repression.
Sylvia G. Iriondo, President of M.A.R. POR CUBA, another human rights group, added that "every dollar of trade with (Cuban leader Fidel) Castro, is a dollar that supports repression."
FRIDAY’S PROTEST
The planned protest on Friday morning, October 8, underscores a growing debate on conducting trade with Cuba, at a time when the administration of President George W. Bush is under pressure to lift sanctions. Some church officials, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have recently suggested that the trade embargo is hurting more the average population than the Communist leadership.
"We believe the goals of improving the lot of the Cuban people and encouraging the democratization of the governance of Cuba are best accomplished through more rather than less contact between the Cuban and American peoples," said Bishop John H. Ricard, Chair of the USCCB International Policy Committee, in a recent statement.
Several large Cuban denominations have also criticized the embargo, although some of them are believed to be close to the government.
CHRISTIAN DISSIDENT
However in letters send through intermediaries to BosNewsLife, at least one leading dissident recently suggested that lifting the embargo would be a mistake. Juan Carlos Gonzales Leiva, a blind Cuban Christian who is under house arrest for opposing the Castro’s Communist government, stressed changing the American policy toward Cuba will "not help to bring about solutions or improvements" for the people of his country.
He said 114 human rights activists have "not only expressed" their "total backing and support of the U.S. embargo against the Cuban government but also requested the stiffening and the hardening of the policy of the European Union and other countries of the international community toward Cuba."
"American business has not brought about any freedom in China. We cannot confuse freedom with the fish of the Israelite’s during their slavery in Egypt," he added in an August letter to Bishop Ricard.
At least over 70 dissidents are known to have been jailed during a major crackdown by Communist authorities since March 2003.
Castro’s government does not recognize the word "dissident" saying those detained are "counter revolutionaries" working for American interests.
