US Church delegation returns with empty hands

Manuel Quintero, HAVANA, Cuba, January 30, 2004

Representatives from the U.S. National Council of Churches (NCC) returned to their country this week Taxi Heathrow Airport without achieving the two major, public objectives of their visit to Cuba: to meet with inmates on the Guantanamo Naval Base and to obtain the freedom of political dissidents facing long prison sentences in Cuba.

The fact that both issues were on the Council's agenda reflects its aim to achieve a certain political balance in the eyes of the US public after the NCC led a prophetic rejection of military intervention in Iraq, placing itin a minority position within the country.

  On December 8, the NCC General Secretary the Rev. Bob Edgar wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, requesting permission for a small inter-faith delegation to visit the detained.

  The United States is holding more than 600 people from 40 countries in Guantanamo. The prisoners are in a type of legal limbo. Despite reiterated requests from human rights groups, they have not been recognized as prisoners of war.

On January 16, a few days before the NCC delegation traveled to Cuba. The Rev. Edgar received a negative response from Jeffrey M. Starr, principal director for Special Operations Program Support in the Defense Department.

  Regarding the Cuban political prisoners, a week before their visit to Cuba, spokesmen from the Council made public their interest in meeting with President Fidel Castro to lobby for the release of the dissidents.

However, once they were in Cuba, members of a delegation from the Council, lead by the Rev. Edgar, accepted an initiation to a reception at the home of an official responsible for the Office on US Interests in Havana.

Leaders from Cuban opposition movements and groups also attended the reception, who published a letter demanding that the visitors lobby for the freedom of the political prisoners on the island. The event was also attended by the wives and mothers of the inmates jailed in a controversial process in April and June 2003.

Clearly, neither the meeting with political dissidents nor statements to the press helped the Council achieve its objectives.   After a fruitless five-day wait the delegation was not received by President Castro and a meeting with the head of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, was canceled at the last minute.

Moreover, in comparison with similar events, there was a conspicuous absence of national press and government officials at an event to discuss how international Church councils can accompany Churches and the Cuban people, including a strategy to strengthen opposition to the blockage against the island both within the United States and abroad.

Contradictory reactions

  The failure provoked contradictory reactions within the US delegation.   The Rev. Fred Morris, the NCC director for Latin America, admitted that an amnesty for the Cuban dissidents would "facilitate" the work of those who struggle against the US blockade.

However, this same official, in statements to the Associated Press, denied that his group had lobbied Castro, as reported by some press and by the relatives of the inmates.

"Yes, there was a letter addressed to Castro requesting an interview with him ... but this issue (lobbying in favor of the opposition) was not on our agenda," said Morris.

At a meeting on January 23 in Havana with the delegation, the Rev. Edgar had manifested that one of the aims of the meeting with Castro was to "suggest" the release of some or all of the dissidents.

In a press note dated January 13, the NCC said it was "hoping to discuss church concerns and issues pertaining to U.S.-Cuban relations, including the harsh sentences imposed on 75 dissidents by Cuba's courts in spring 2003."

Commenting on the situation, an official from the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC) said that the way the NCC raised the issue was likely behind the lack of positive response from the government.

He added that the intervention of the NCC could be detrimental to the work the CCC began last year to request the release of some of the political prisoners.

"We had raised the issue before the president of the parliament and other authorities and they had promised to study the issue," he said, adding that the Evangelical legislators supported the CCC's work.

Initially the CCC had requested the release of some inmates with serious health problems. These included economist Oscar Espinoza Chepe, who has cirrhosis and Martha Beatriz Roque, another economist, who has diabetes. Under Cuban law, seriously ill inmates can be placed under house arrest.

Some Cuban Church leaders believe that it is possible that the government might release a reduced number of political prisoners on the eve of the Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva. However, these leaders also recognize that the political situation subordinates any humanitarian gesture to the logic of the confrontation between the two nations, which tends to peak during US electoral periods.

In any case, the failure of the NCC delegation demonstrates that neither government is willing to cede in issues it considers important for national security. It also demonstrated the need for greater coordination in relations between Cuban and US Church bodies if they wish to be efficient instruments for human rights defense and the re-establishment of normal relations between two countries. (049/2004).