EU/Kuba

The spokesper­son of Cather­ine Ash­ton, High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy and Vice Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion, issued today the fol­low­ing state­ment on the death of Mr Tamayo in Cuba:

“The HR deeply regrets the death of polit­i­cal pris­on­er Orlan­do Zap­a­ta Tamayo and presents her con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly. The EU has, on many occa­sions, called upon the Cuban Gov­ern­ment to improve effec­tive­ly the human rights sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try by, inter alia, releas­ing uncon­di­tion­al­ly all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, includ­ing those detained and sen­tenced in 2003. These ques­tions are dis­cussed at the high­est lev­el in the frame­work of the EU-Cuba polit­i­cal dia­logue and remain a key pri­or­i­ty for the EU. Fur­ther­more, the Cuban Gov­ern­ment, as all gov­ern­ments, has the respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect the pris­on­ers under its juris­dic­tion. The EU reit­er­ates its call to the Cuban author­i­ties to make real the com­mit­ment to human rights it has tak­en through the sign­ing of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights. ” 

Source:
Euro­pean Union