• Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque criticizes the attitude of Ricardo Maduro’s government in supporting Washington’s attempt to condemn the island at the Human Rights Commission, under pressure from the United States and Aznar

BY MARELYS VALENCIA—Granma International staff writer—

BY accepting the U.S. petition to present a resolution condemning the island at the Human Rights Commission (HRC), Honduras is "contributing to Washington’s policy of aggression toward Cuba," Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque stated last night.

Speaking to 60 journalists from some 20 countries, the minister said that the Cuban government knew that the Central American country was going to present the text of an anti-Cuban resolution in Geneva, previously drafted by the U.S. State Department, recalling that he had warned of it last week.

"The attitude of President Ricardo Maduro," the foreign minister affirmed, "is not a sovereign decision in line with the interests of Honduran foreign policy, but the result of pressure brought to bear by the United States."

Pérez Roque stated that Cuba is well aware of the real story of what has gone on in terms of Washington’s intentions to involve Central America in the resolution and commented that that area is precisely one of acute economic problems and "great debility and external dependence."

He recalled that on March 5, at a summit meeting of Central American states in Madrid, former prime minister José María Aznar asked the presidents, and Maduro in particular, to adhere to the anti-Cuban initiative "as a special gesture." So did U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, on March 9, and "the pressure was on up until the last minute."

Three governments from that area are part of the HRC: Costa Rico, which presented a motion defeated by 31 to 15 last year; Guatemala; and Honduras. The foreign minister commented that it was Washington’s intention from the outset that the Central American countries should support the anti-Cuba issue, to which end "it has worked intensively, as well as seeking aid from the Czech government, given the discredit and erosion of these maneuvers."

Pérez Roque noted that Colin Powell had proposed including Honduras in the Millennium Challenge initiative, via which the United States has offered $3.5 billion to be distributed among a group of more than 60 poor nations, in return for it presenting the text in Geneva.

"We know that there is great sympathy and affection for Cuba in Honduras, as a result of the friendly and altruistic cooperation that the island has lent that country," he stated.

He also observed that Cuban doctors were the first to arrive in the wake of Hurricane Mitch’s passing, and that some 700 young Hondurans are studying free of charge on the island.

The foreign minister also stated that the decision of the Honduran government does not reflect the sentiments of its people.

Honduras has been one of the 53 member countries of the HRC since January.

"They are definitely not going to present any other condemnatory proposal," the Cuban foreign minister affirmed, in spite of violations of human rights in different parts, one example being the mistreatment and murder and Honduran emigrants on the U.S. border or "the systematic violations and degrading treatment of prisoners in the Guantánamo naval base."

Referring to the suggestion by certain countries to replace the Geneva condemnations with offers of collaboration in the field of human rights, he confirmed that Cuba is opposed to the so-called theme 9, "because it is here that they always present statements against Third World countries," never against the developed nations.

And he qualified that procedure as "inquisitorial, unjust, politicized and discriminatory."

He noted: "Cuba is in favor of a total rectification of the CHR’s labors and an atmosphere of transparency and equality of treatment, not selective and discriminatory treatment."

On the presence in Cuba of the Honduran first lady, he said that he had met with her and she had told him that she was impressed with the island’s advances in the rights of children of women.

TERRORIST THREAT

In relation to a written statement presented to the U.S. Congress by John Bolton, assistant secretary of state for arms control, alleging that the island continues to be a terrorist threat, given the possible existence of biological weapons, the foreign minister commented that Mr. Bolton "is suffering from schizophrenia or a permanent obsession with Cuba."

Those accusations, he recalled, were even rejected by former president Jimmy Carter during his visit to Havana.

According to Pérez Roque, it is about seeking pretexts to explain a decision to use military aggression against Cuba.