When Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died this week on an 85-day hunger strike, hopes for near-term improvement in US-Cuba relations may have died with him, political experts said on Friday.
His death in a protest against prison conditions added to tensions caused by the arrest of a US contractor in Cuba and made the political climate tougher for diplomatic and legislative moves to improve ties, they said.
“For the time being all bets are off regarding further progress in US-Cuba relations,” said Marifeli Perez-Stable, a Cuba analyst at Florida International University in Miami.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Zapata’s death prompted indignant statements in Washington, where long-time opponents of communist Cuba said it showed the US must not appease the government of Cuban President Raul Castro by easing the 48-year trade embargo against the island, the cornerstone of US-Cuba policy.
“Let us take his sad and untimely death and renew our commitment to assure that the Cuba of the future is rid of the failed ideology which killed this brave man,” Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said.
For supporters of a thaw in relations with Cuba, Zapata’s death makes it harder for them to make their central argument — that the best way to encourage change in Cuba is to get closer to it.
With unfortunate timing, new legislation was proposed on the day of Zapata’s death that would do just that by ending a general ban on US travel to Cuba and making it easier for Cuba to buy food from the US.
“I have always felt — and continue to believe — that if we are truly going to do a better job of standing with the Cuban people, then we need to be closer to them,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said in the US House of Representatives.
“We need to travel freely to the island to meet and learn from them, and them from us,” he said.
A similar problem is facing Spain, which is currently presiding over the EU and has pushed to remove a clause from the EU’s common position on Cuba urging democracy and greater respect for human rights.
Under pressure from the media, Spanish Prime Minister Jose ,Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist and long-time advocate of close ties with Havana, lamented Zapata’s death and demanded that Cuba free political prisoners and respect human rights.
“That is a fundamental demand of the entire international community,” he told parliament.
Cuba’s small dissident community, meanwhile, vowed to step up demands for democratic change so that Zapata will not have died in vain.
On Friday, four Cuban inmates considered political prisoners and an opposition activist who is not behind bars vowed to stop eating in protest against Zapata’s death. Prisoners Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero, Eduardo Diaz Freitas, Fidel Suarez Cruz and Nelson Molinet, held in the high-security Kilo Cinco y Medio prison in the western province of Pinar del Rio, were refusing solid food, the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said.
Also on a new hunger strike is Guillermo Farinas, an activist-journalist in the central province of Las Villas who reports independently on Cuba in defiance of state controls on the media.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was