Belgium residents reject MEPs' new campaign against Cuba

Latin American and Cuban organizations residing in Belgium rejected this Tuesday a new campaign against the country boosted by right-wing lawmakers in the European Parliament.

In a statement, these organizations denounced the subordination of European politics' sectors to the aggressiveness of the Trump administration towards Cuba, which has its maximum expression in the tightening of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade in force for over 60 years.

The solidarity groups criticized that the event's organizers, the Spanish MEP Jose Ramon Bauza Citizens party member and the NGO Civil Rights Defenders only invited 'a delegation of pro-American Cubans in order to define political actions for the European Union (EU).'

The people summoned to the European Parliament on February 4 are not either independent or represent the Cuban civil society at all. All belong to the ultraconservative and reactionary right. Their organizations are funded by the US National Foundation for Democracy (NED), they warned.

In the press release, to which Prensa Latina had access in that capital, parliamentarians are asked if they would accept that entities sponsored by secret services of a hostile nation as the United States to Cuba, be the representatives of civil society in their country.

'Because the aid provided by the US to the Cuban opposition is far from being insignificant, amounts to around 20 million dollars every year and the NED funds are approved by Congress, the figures are public,' noted the signatories.

Latin Americans and Cubans residing in Belgium recalled the escalation in aggressiveness against Cuba since Trump's arrival at the White House in January 2017.

They also asked those who try to drag the EU into a new crusade to attack Cuba if 'the European problems are not big enough.' And if 'the European Parliament really needs to interfere in the internal affairs of a nation located 7,800 kilometers from here.'