European and Latin American activists and lawmakers announced in Miami the formation of a commission to monitor human rights abuses in Cuba.
BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY
A group of European and Latin American activists and lawmakers Wednesday announced the establishment of a joint commission to monitor human rights abuses and promote democracy in Cuba.
The nongovernment commission will pressure President Fidel Castro's government to respect the rights of citizens seeking democracy in the communist nation, said Francisco Landero, a Mexican federal congressman from the conservative National Action Party.
Also present at the announcement at Miami's Our Lady of Charity Shrine were Anna Maria Stame Cervone, an activist in Italy's conservative Christian Democratic party, and Alvaro Dubon, a conservative Guatemalan member of the Central American Parliament.
Relatives of political prisoners in Cuba and officials from various Cuban exile groups joined the news conference to support the commission.
Although the European Community and some Latin American countries, especially Mexico, have been pressing Cuba to improve its human rights situation, there has been little coordination so far between the two sides.
Stame said the Joint Commission of European and Latin American Parliamentarians in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba has 50 members from Chile, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico and Italy, and expects many more to join in coming weeks.
Commission members said they will push for the creation of a humanitarian fund to support nongovernment groups in Cuba and will support political change on the island.
They also want international human rights monitors to ''adopt'' political prisoners, checking on them to ensure fair treatment, and urged Latin American nations to follow the European Union's lead in inviting Cuban dissidents to functions at their embassies in Havana.
Landero said the commission would lend continuity to the increasing pressure on Castro by various Latin American and European government.