International
Amnesty International is “very concerned” about the human rights situation in Cuba
The NGO Amnesty International (AI) was “very concerned” this Thursday with the situation of human rights in Cuba in general – and in particular with those of expression and association – in a new publication dedicated to the island.
The report, entitled ‘Images of rebellion’, includes assessments of the situation in the country, profiles of the five people that AI currently considers prisoners of conscience in Cuba and different signs of solidarity with these people.
The objective, the regional AI researcher for the Caribbean, the Cuban Johanna Cilano, explained in an interview with EFE, was to “visualize the global action of solidarity” with Cuban prisoners of conscience and also to continue encouraging that “solidarity in defense of human rights.”
He highlighted that one of those Cuban prisoners, the artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, has received 21,000 letters of support as a result of an AI campaign to denounce his case.
Otero Alcántara, one of the best-known faces of the San Isidro movement, was sentenced to five years in prison for using a Cuban flag in an artistic performance and trying to join the protests of July 11, 2021.
The researcher clarified that AI does not make exhaustive lists of prisoners, but highlights cases that she considers relevant, “known and well-ter-treated voices,” which can “mobilize” international public opinion for their person and for the reason of their arrest.
Currently, AI considers four other Cubans prisoners of conscience in addition to Otero Alcántara: the musician Maykel Osorbo, the dissident José Daniel Ferrer García, the Yoruba religious Loreto Hernández García and the Yoruba priestess Donaida Pérez.
However, Cilano added to EFE, AI is studying recognizing several more prisoners of conscience in Cuba, possibly in the first half of this year. This implies fulfilling a series of “requirements”, but also the ability of the NGO to carry out the “follow-up” of the case.
For this researcher, the situation in Cuba is “worrying” due to the “lack of channels to express concerns of dissidents,” the citizen’ need to “claim social rights” in a context of “deterioration of economic conditions” and the persistence of “repressive patterns.”
He pointed out in this regard the “reluctance” of the Cuban Government to any recommendation on human rights, especially civil and political, by multilateral organizations and international NGOs, and its refusal to any external audit.
They also “concern” a lot” legal movements such as the approval of the new Criminal Code and the Social Communication Law, which AI emphasizes that they restrict the exercise of social and political human rights; and the delay in legislating on rights enshrined in the 2019 Constitution, such as those of association and demonstration.
Cilano also pointed out the “impossibility” of exercising freedom of the press, with the “harassment” and “retaliation” to unofficial journalism and the “clear repressive patterns” that limit religious freedom, whose intensity has fluctuated over time and the different confessions.
The researcher recalled that AI has criticized the US sanctions on Cuba, which she considers have an “impact” on human rights, but this “is no excuse for the Cuban Government not to guarantee and protect the human rights of Cuban citizenship.”
On the crossfire between Washington and Havana in which the former prioritize the freedoms of expression and manifestation and the latter the right of universal access to education and health, Cilano said: “There are no rights above others.”
International
Geert Wilders reaches a provisional agreement to form a government in the Netherlands
The leader of the Dutch extreme right, Geert Wilders, reached a “provisional” agreement on Wednesday to form a government with three other center-right parties, which he will now send to the Dutch Parliament for debate, although they have not yet agreed on behalf of the candidate for prime minister.
As announced by Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), there is already a “provisional” agreement with the other three center-right parties: the liberal VVD, the Christian Democrat NSC and the BBB farmers’ party, although there are still disagreements about pensions and “the discussion about who will lead that government will be resumed at a later date” because they have not yet decided on this point.
Wilders won the general elections on November 22, but had to resign his aspiration to the position of prime minister to unblock the dialogue with the other parties.
International
Diana Boluarte goes to a new interrogation of the Attorney General for the ‘Rolex case’
The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, arrived this Wednesday unexpectedly at the headquarters of the Public Ministry to be interrogated by the interim Attorney General, Juan Carlos Villena, as part of the preliminary investigation opened for the crimes of corruption and bribery by the so-called ‘Rolex case’.
Boluarte arrived at the tax headquarters, in the historic center of Lima, at 9:20 a.m. (14.20 GMT) sheltered by a large police security display and entered aboard an official van with dark moons.
As has happened on previous occasions, the ruler is not expected to offer subsequent statements about this interrogation.
International
The filmmaker Rasoulof will go to the Cannes Film Festival after fleeing Iran, according to his lawyer
Iranian filmmaker Mohamad Rasoulof, who fled his country after being sentenced to eight years in prison, will go to the Cannes Film Festival to present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’, his lawyer Babak Paknia told EFE.
“He (Rasoulof) will participate in Cannes,” Paknia said on Wednesday.
Rasoulof will present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’ at the French festival, which is about a judge who deals with the protests unleashed by the death of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini in 2022 after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil well.
Some actors of the film, however, will not be able to attend since the Iranian authorities do not allow them to leave the country, according to Paknia, who also stated that they have opened a new judicial case against the director for the film.
“They have opened a new case for this new film,” said Paknia, who did not explain the charges.
Rasoulof announced two days ago that he had fled his country to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison, lashes and the confiscation of property for the crime of “collusion with the intention of committing crimes against the security of the country.”
The filmmaker, winner of the Golden Bear of the Berlinale with ‘The Life of Others’ in 2020, a film that deals with the death penalty in the country, has had numerous problems with the country’s authorities and has been sentenced to prison on three occasions.
He was last arrested in July 2022 for criticizing the repression of protests unleashed by the collapse of a building that caused dozens of deaths two years ago and eight months later he was released.
In recent weeks, Iranian courts have multiplied convictions against artists and academics who are critical of the Islamic Republic.
In one of the most noted cases, a revolutionary court sentenced rapper Tomaj Salehi to death for sedition, propaganda against the system and incitement to riots for supporting the protests unleashed by Amini’s death.
In those protests, young Iranians and women called for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a repression that caused 500 deaths and the arrest of at least 22,000 people and in which eight demonstrators were executed, one of them in public.
Geert Wilders reaches a provisional agreement to form a government in the Netherlands
Diana Boluarte goes to a new interrogation of the Attorney General for the ‘Rolex case’
The filmmaker Rasoulof will go to the Cannes Film Festival after fleeing Iran, according to his lawyer
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