Malaga Will Not Resume Cooperation With Cuba As Long It Continues to Violate Human Rights

Malaga Will Not Resume Cooperation With Cuba As Long It Continues to
Violate Human Rights / 14ymedio
Posted on January 26, 2016

14ymedio, Havana, 24 January 2016 – The Citizens Party on the Malaga
Provincial Council in Spain has called to prohibit any kind of
cooperation between the provincial government and Cuba as long as Havana
continues to not respect the most basic human rights, according to a
report last Friday in the Spanish newspaper ABC. The proposal has
received majority support from the People's Party (PP) which holds the
majority in the province.

A spokesman for the Citizens Party, Gonzalo Sichar, pointed out that the
administration must comply with the so-called democratic clause included
among the recommendations of the European Union to grant aid to
developing countries. These rules exclude states that do not hold
multiparty elections, said the politician.

The Citizens Party, of the liberal wing, also called for an end to
cooperation with Equatorial Guinea, since Teodoro Obiang's government
has been listed as one of the most repressive in the world in the
reports of different human rights observers.

In fact, following the arrival of the PP to power in 2011 in the
province, the Malaga Provincial Council has spent more than four years
without funding a single project with Cuba, unlike what happened in the
previous administration, led by the Spanish Worker Socialist Party
(PSOE) in coalition with United Left (the Communist party). The latter
provided an annual training grant to the island of a million and a half
euros.

According to the Spanish daily, the records of many of these projects
with Cuba "remain cloudy and unresolved." The article also points out
that there "were frequent trips to the island and the training sessions
attended by politicians were blithely covered by the public purse."

The Citizens Party proposal comes as the Council has voted for an
increase of funds for development aid in 2016. According to the group's
spokesman, it wants to completely shield these programs so as to avoid
the possibility of changes in politics or opinion leading to financing
projects in countries with undemocratic regimes.

Source: Malaga Will Not Resume Cooperation With Cuba As Long It
Continues to Violate Human Rights / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/malaga-will-not-resume-cooperation-with-cuba-as-long-it-continues-to-violate-human-rights-14ymedio/