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NEWS
Posted on Tue, Sep. 30, 2003
Lula's
missed chance
OUR OPINION: REGION'S LEADERS SHOULD CALL FOR CUBA'S FREEDOM
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who inherited numerous
problems, has done a fine job managing tough domestic issues while
satisfying international creditors. But he fumbled badly on his visit to
Cuba last weekend. A regional leader must also exercise moral authority,
and Mr. da Silva failed to do that. He ignored the human-rights abuses
and political prisoners of Cuba's repressive dictatorship even while
rewarding the regime with $200 million in business.
Once a radical leftist and a union leader, Mr. da Silva is an old friend
of Fidel Castro. But in an interview in The Washington Post last
November, Mr. da Silva's position on Cuba was crystal clear: ''Let's not
confuse the passion that my generation has for the Cuban revolution and
what it represented then with any approval of the Cuban regime today,''
he said. ''I defend religious freedom, cultural freedom, freedom for
trade unions and political freedom.'' Those words came before Cuba's
repressive crackdown this spring. Still, Mr. da Silva declined to meet
with Cuba's dissidents or to take up the cause of its political
prisoners. He didn't even recognize fellow labor activists who struggle
against a regime that outlaws unions independent of the government.
Instead Mr. da Silva used the tired, oft repeated excuse in Latin
America that he doesn't opine on the ``internal political conditions of
other countries.''
What a cop-out. The Organization of American States promotes human
rights and democracy, so why should the region's only remaning dictator
get a pass?
Moral integrity demands that Mr. da Silva, and other regional leaders,
follow Mexico's lead and call for basic freedoms for Cuba's oppressed
people.
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