Today, on the seventh anniversary of Cuba’s „Black Spring” the Europe-Cuba NGO Network calls on all EU Institutions to increase their attention to issues of human rights and democracy on the island and to utilize all appropriate measures to support Cuban civil society efforts aimed at expanding the rights and freedoms of ordinary Cubans.

Yesterday evening (March 11) in a phone conversation with Guillermo Fariñas, the Cuban dissident on hunger strike, President Lech Walesa declared his help and asked for suspending the protest. “I perfectly understand your situation and the situation Cuba is in. I declare my help and support in building a free Cuba. But I would like to ask you to rethink your decision. A free Cuba needs leaders such as you” - said Lech Walesa. 

This week the information about the death of Cuban prisoner of conscience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, went around the world.

Havana, February 16, 2010

Ms. Nadine Gordimer                                                                                                                                  

Literature Nobel Prize

Dear Ms. Gordimer,

Being deeply committed to the rights of your people in South Africa your  entire life, you are an example to all who strive for justice, understanding, reconciliation, freedom and democracy, especially us, women.  I understand that you are not simply visiting Cuba as a country, but all the Cuban people.

In the suitcases: A reflection on the necessary liberalization of Americans’ travel to Cuba