Cuba Informacion 12.06.24
Cubainformacion – Artículo: Denuncian plan para destruir la cooperación vasca con Cuba
Imagine that an association of migrants from a country in the Global South is dedicated to questioning and trying to prevent a Basque city council from financially supporting vulnerable groups in their country of origin.
Their actions would be described as, at the very least, miserable. This is what the so-called Cuban-Basque Association Demokrazia Kubarentzat (democracy for Cuba, in Basque country) has just done in the town hall of Durango (Bizkaia), this association is made up of “anti-Castro” Cuban men and women residing in the Basque Country. The Durango council had approved a donation of 19,000 euros for a cooperation project coordinated by Euskal Fondoa (a grouping of local Basque entities, which brings together 121 municipalities) for “Comprehensive Care for the Elderly in Havana” (1). The councillor of the Popular Party, Carlos García, expressed in the municipal plenary session, the “concern” of the aforementioned Cuban-Basque Association Demokrazia Kubarentzat, to ensure “the money… does not fall into the hands of the Cuban dictatorial regime” (2), and demanded the council “clarify the purpose and management” of the subsidy “by the Cuban dictatorship” (3).
We will give the PP and the aforementioned association two pieces of bad news: one, that the counterpart of this project belongs, yes, to the Cuban State, it is the Office of the Historian of Havana, an entity with enormous international prestige; and two, that they have arrived late with these criticisms because the project is not new. It has been developing for years in Old Havana, with Basque municipal funds, improving the health and housing conditions of hundreds of elderly people (4).
Calling to end subsidies and lobbying for more sanctions against Cuba
In a joint statement, titled “We support Euskal Fondoa, the Durango city council and the Basque cooperation with Cuba, against those who legitimize the US blockade”, the Euskadi-Cuba friendship association and those of the Sierra Maestra-Euskadi Cuban emigration and Desembarco del Granma, express their full support for the Comprehensive care for the elderly in Havana project, and express their support for the work of Euskal Fondoa and for general Basque cooperation on the Island, “whether direct, decentralized, municipal or through NGO.”
In statements to Cuba Informacion, one of their spokespersons denounced that we are facing “a new attempt to raise suspicions and tarnish the image” of cooperation with Cuba, to try to place “conditions on future support for Cuba.” But what is this Cuban-Basque Demokrazia Kubarentzat Association (ACVDK)? Based in Bilbao and registered in November 2021, it had its first public appearance a year earlier, during the Covid19 pandemic (5): This was a concentration of ten people in Bilbao, in front of the Guggenheim Museum, in support of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU ), a “dissident” organization that is supported with funds from the US Government (6) through the Cuban-American National Foundation (Miami), and whose representation in Europe is Prisoners Defenders (Madrid).
But let’s go back two years. On October 25, 2019, in the midst of the increased sanctions offensive against Cuba by the US Government of Donald Trump, the cream of the Cuban-American mafia held an event in Miami, chaired by Senator Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a partisan Republican hawk. of US military intervention in Cuba, alongside then US Deputy Undersecretary of State Carrie Filipetti. There they staged the so-called “Agreement for Democracy in Cuba” (7) which, through the so-called “Steps of Change Platform” recommended a plethora of ideas “in favour of system change in Cuba” (8). And do you know what one of the proposals of the aforementioned ACVDK was? In case it is not yet clear to you: to“Review the purpose of the subsidies that are granted to the associations promoting the regime and the media that is present in Spanish territory” (9). That is to say, this association was created with the specific purpose of damaging cooperation for development in Cuba from the Basque Country – whether through NGOs such as Euskadi-Cuba, or municipal entities such as Euskal Fondoa -, and to put an end to information alternative media that emerged from the solidarity movement, such as Cuba Informacion.
Preventing or hindering the approval of cooperation projects, which help alleviate some of Cuba’s social needs, is ACVDK’s contribution to the US Government’s economic war against the Cuban people. In addition, this association carries out lobbying actions for the repeal of the current European Union-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (10) and for the approval of sanctions, from Europe, against Cuba’s economy (11). This is especially serious in the current situation, where the Cuban population is suffering from a situation of extreme shortages and severe deficiencies in health, food, energy and transportation, a product, in the main, of the policy of total asphyxiation implemented by Washington, through 243 new sanctions, the full application of the Helms-Burton Act and the international banking blockade, after the inclusion of Cuba in the “list of countries that sponsor terrorism.”.
Euskadi-Cuba and the other signatories state that the ACVDK “does not represent Cuban migrants.” The spokesperson for the three associations, added that Cuban emigres, “the vast majority, support public, private or family efforts to help their country in the current circumstances.” In fact, there is a broad movement of associations of patriotic Cuban migrants across the Spanish state, organised through FACRE (Federation of Associations of Cubans Resident in Spain) who work, together with NGO’s and solidarity groups, to send medical supplies to Cuba, promoting cooperation projects and solidarity campaigns (12). A further example, in 2021, two associations of Cuban migrants that work in the Basque area, ‘Sierra Maestra-Euskadi’ and ‘Desembarco del Granma’, obtained funds through a joint campaign with the Euskadi-Cuba solidarity association, for the purchase of 655 thousand syringes, destined for anti-Covid vaccination on the Island, at a time when the US Government approved more than 50 new coercive measures against (13).
“Demokrazia Kubarentzat”, Prisoners Defenders and the accusations against the Basque Government.
ACVDK collaborates, directly, with the anti-Castro organization ‘Prisoners Defenders’, based in Madrid, which has tried, without success, to jail the coordinator of Cuba Informacion and the legal representative of Euskadi-Cuba – the entity that owned the domain of i.cubainformacion.tv until 2020 — for a report that denounced the collaboration of Prisoners Defenders with the US Government, in the destruction of the income of the Cuban public health system (14). To the disappointment of the members of ACVDK who had called for the imprisonment of journalists and solidarity activists on social media networks, (15), last February, the Criminal Court No. 31 of Madrid acquitted Cuba Informacion and Euskadi Cuba of the three crimes (insults, slander and hate crime). Lodging the case, the President of Prisoners Defenders had accused the defendants of these crimes and requested a sentence of six years in prison and a compensation amount close to 100,000 euros. Instead the court condemned the complainant (Prisoners Defenders) to pay part of the costs for “recklessness and bad faith” (16). Incredibly, the narrative of ACVDK and Prisoners Defenders for the “defence of freedoms in Cuba,” among them “freedom of the press”
Let us remember that, in April 2023, ACVDK and Prisoners Defenders went to the Human Rights, Equality and Justice Commission of the Basque Parliament (17). In the recorded videos, you can see how they defended sanctions and the “economic strangulation” of Cuba without the slightest compassion, and made grotesque accusations that the Government of Havana uses HIV and “ viruses and bacteria to reduce dissidents.” But this was not the first time that Basque cooperation with Cuba has been attacked from “anti-Castroism” and the pro-blockade lobby. In 2021, the aforementioned organization Prisoners Defenders managed to disseminate lies across numerous European media outlets including newspapers of the Vocento group, claiming“the Basque Government showers the Euskadi-Cuba association with European funds to undermine and destabilize institutions”, “the Euskadi-Cuba association uses European funds to attack Spain and the King”, to “undermine Europe and its institutions”, to “destabilize Europe and Spain”, and even for Cuban “intelligence work” (18). This was alleged without evidence and without the slightest right of reply to such nonsense. These allegations referred to the subsidies with which, with funds from Basque institutions, Euskadi-Cuba and its Cuban counterparts developed 18 verified cooperation projects in Cuban agricultural cooperatives that , like those carried out by Euskal Fondoa, served to improve the living conditions of thousands of people on the Island.
All this, without a doubt, should be the subject of reflection of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) which, in recent weeks, has supported, in Brussels (19) and Madrid, in making statements against Cuba based on the reports of Prisoners Defenders, the same organization that spread such false accusations against the Basque institutions run by the PNV. On some occasions, it has supported the narrative of an organization, ACVDK, that tries to harm the Basque institutional line of development cooperation with Cuba, which supports the destruction of the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement that the PNV supports, and that works in line with the US Government’s strategy of suffocation and blockade, undermining and harming the interests of Basque companies established on the Island.
Systematic attack on cooperation
This is not the first time that the Popular Party (PP), a party that acts as the institutional spokesperson for the ACVDK, has tried to tarnish the good name of Basque cooperation. In 2021, in the Basque Parliament, they presented a question about subsidies to Euskadi-Cuba projects, arguing that the money “is intended to ‘undermine’ Europe” and that these “cooperation projects exalt the regime dictatorship that governs in Cuba” (20). A few years earlier, in 2006, the mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, from the PP, went so far as to annul the decision of their Technical Cooperation Service to approve a solar electrification project for rural homes, for strictly ideological reasons (allegedly the pro “Castro” nature of the NGO Euskadi-Cuba) (21). And in 2021 another anti-Castro organization, the “European Ibero-American Alliance against Communism”, sent repeated requests to several Basque institutions demanding, with intimidating intentions, the delivery of “all documentation” on Euskadi-Cuba projects.
The blockade against Cuba, a crime against humanity
In statements to Cubainformacion, the spokesperson for the Euskadi-Cuba, Sierra Maestra-Euskadi and Desembarco del Granma associations took the opportunity to give “full support to the project, to the population of Durango and its city council and to Euskal Fondoa”, as well as to the cooperation and Basque solidarity with the Cuban people who “are victims of a genocidal blockade.” This blockade, let us remember, was described by a symbolic International Court, held in 2023 in Brussels, as a “crime against humanity”, which “has caused, directly and indirectly, the loss of numerous human lives” (22) . Trying to put a spanner in the wheel of cooperation with Cuba is, without a doubt, a way of collaborating with this blockade that, as the three associations point out in their statement, has been condemned 31 times by the entire International Community (except the United States and Israel) in the United Nations General Assembly, and “is one of the most massive, systematic and flagrant human rights violations of our time.”
We support Euskal Fondoa, the Durango city council and Basque cooperation with Cuba, against those who legitimize the US blockade : Communiqué from the Euskadi-Cuba friendship associations and the Cuban migrant organisations “Sierra Maestra-Euskadi” and “Desembarco del Granma”
On May 25, we learned that the Durango city council was granting aid to three cooperation projects through the Association of Cooperating Basque Local Entities, Euskal Fondoa. One of them “Comprehensive Care for Older Adults” will be carried out in Havana, Cuba, in accordance with a line of work supported for years by Euskal Fondoa. Days later, an association called “Demokrazia Kubarentzat”, composed of “anti-Castro” Cubans, through the councillor of the Popular Party, expressed, in the municipal plenary session, its “concern” that “the money (…) does not fall into the hands of the Cuban dictatorial regime.” Demanding to “clarify the purpose and management” of the subsidy “by the Cuban dictatorship.” It is not the first time, in recent times, that the Basque institutions (Basque Government, Provincial Councils and City Councils) have been attacked by this association and others of the same calibre, which have no other purpose than supporting the economic war of the US Government against the Cuban people, pursuing the repeal of the current European Union-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement and the approval of new sanctions against the economy of Cuba, one of its goals being the elimination of the solidarity and international cooperation that Cuba receives. This is especially serious in the current situation, when the Cuban population suffers from a situation of extreme shortages and severe deficiencies in health, food, energy and transportation, a product, in the main, of the policy of total asphyxiation implemented by Washington, through 243 new sanctions, the full application of the Helms-Burton Act and the international banking blockade, after the inclusion of Cuba on the list of “terrorist countries.”
“Demokrazia Kubarentzat” does not represent Cuban migrants. From patriotic Cuban migrant associations, together with NGOs and Basque solidarity groups, we continue to organise to send medical supplies to the Island, promoting cooperation projects and working in solidarity campaigns, such as the one achieved in 2021 in Euskal Herria, where funds were raised for the purchase of 655 thousand syringes, for anti-Covid vaccinations. From our associations we express our full support for this project, for the population of Durango and its city council and for Euskal Fondoa. At the same time, we denounce any attempt to tarnish Basque cooperation with Cuba, whether direct, decentralized, municipal or through NGOs. We reiterate our support for Basque solidarity and cooperation with the Cuban people, victims of a genocidal blockade, described by a symbolic International Court held in 2023 in Brussels, as a “crime against humanity”, which “has caused, directly and indirectly, the loss of numerous human lives”; which has been condemned 31 times by the entire International Community (except the US and Israel) in the United Nations General Assembly, and which is one of the most massive, systematic and flagrant human rights violations of our time.
Euskadi-Cuba Association
Sierra Maestra-Euskadi Association
Desembarco del Granma Association
1. https://www.deia.eus/bizkaia/2024/05/25/durango-concede-ayudas-tres-proyectos-8278481.html
2. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=465166455881607
3. https://fb.watch/syB8SAek1T/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPKwNySlLVE&t=194s
5. https://dkasociacion.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/06-09-2020/
6. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/la-columna/59132-los-financiamientos-de-usa-contra-cuba
7. https://www.pasosdecambio.com/
8. https://cubadecide.org/2021/02/pasos-de-cambio-envia-tus-ideas/
9. https://www.pasosdecambio.com/copy-of-detalle-us
10. https://x.com/DKasociacion/status/1777309112608399866
11. https://www.martinoticias.com/a/no-m%C3%A1s-ox%C3%ADgeno-a-la-dictadura-exigen-artistas-y-activistas-cubanos-/335633.html
12. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/especiales/20230515/103757/103757-hormigas-solidarias-envios-de-amor-de-la-emigracion-cubana
13. http://www.euskadicuba.org/index.php/es/euskadi-cuba/942-2021-07-19-14-39-47
14. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/solidaridad/20240214/107551/107551-la-operacion-contra-cubainformacion-y-euskadi-cuba-todos-los-detalles
15. https://x.com/Solarenaymundo/status/1750929726456082943
16. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/solidaridad/20240220/107653/107653-absuelven-totalmente-a-coordinador-de-cubainformacion-y-a-euskadi-cuba-y-condenan-al-pago-parcial-de-costas-al-presidente-de-prisoners-defenders
17. https://rebelion.org/esperpento-en-el-parlamento-vasco-piden-el-cese-de-la-cooperacion-con-cuba-y-el-apoyo-al-bloqueo-de-eeuu/
18. https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-euskadi-cuba-utiliza-millones-euros-fondos-europeos-para-minar-instituciones-y-desestabilizar-202109281607_noticia.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
19. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/contra-cuba/20240305/107891/107891-el-pnv-deberia-corregir-su-grave-error-sobre-cuba-en-el-parlamento-europeo-comunicado-de-la-asociacion-euskadi-cuba
20. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/solidaridad/20211111/94121/94121-euskadi-cuba-denuncia-el-bloqueo-a-transferencias-para-cooperacion-y-a-seguro-de-su-cooperante-y-una-campana-planificada-de-acoso
21. https://rebelion.org/la-coordinadora-de-ongd-de-euskadi-denuncia-el-veto-municipal-en-vitoria-a-euskadi-cuba/
22. https://www.cubainformacion.tv/especiales/20231103/106005/106005-tribunal-internacional-contra-el-bloqueo-a-cuba-bruselas-16-y-17-de-noviembre-de-2023-todas-las-informaciones-y-materiales
