The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Friday, reiterating that Cuba does not and will not recognize any moral or legal authority of the Organization of American States (OAS), nor of any of its officials and subsidiary or autonomous bodies.
For months, U.S. Secretary of State Marcos promoted a campaign to position Rosa María Payá Acevedo, a well-known defender of the blockade against Cuba, as an impartial human rights expert on the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), narrowly achieving her election through pressure and economic blackmail.
However, her history of supporting coups d’état, promoting military interventions, and ignoring international norms demonstrated her lack of suitability.
This maneuver, part of an anti-Cuban obsession, seeks to exploit the IACHR to attack Cuba’s medical cooperation, even demanding confidential information from OAS member states, violating their sovereignty.
Because of its importance, we are publishing the full statement issued by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
U.S. Pressure and Blackmail Impose Mercenary on the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
For months, the U.S. Secretary of State has unleashed an operation to try to transform a prominent member of his roster of salaried defenders of the blockade and aggression against Cuba into an impartial human rights expert.
Despite the dignified, courageous, and legitimate position of numerous governments in Our America, multiple pressures and threats, including blackmail claiming the United States would cut budgets for cooperation programs in the hemisphere, led to the narrow election of the notorious mercenary Rosa María Payá Acevedo as Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
However, the efforts of the Secretary of State, who made it a priority of his Department to whitewash the candidate’s record, did not erase the new Commissioner’s shameful record of supporting coups d’état, spreading lies, and promoting military interventions and economic warfare policies in the region.
As confirmed by the Independent Panel for Evaluating Candidates for the Inter-American Human Rights System, Payá Acevedo “demonstrated limited knowledge of international human rights standards, jurisprudence, or doctrine,” and her political activity “may call into question the appearance of independence in the judgment of a reasonable observer.”
The Center for Economic and Policy Research issued a special report on this candidate, stating that “Ms. Payá’s public record demonstrates a repeated disregard for human rights and international law in this area” and that she spread “disinformation about OAS member state governments.”
The Secretary of State, with his delusional anti-Cuban obsession and contempt for Our America, has succeeded in imposing one of his favorite employees to defend coercive policies that are universally rejected.
Facts like this demonstrate that hemispheric relations need a profound transformation.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is being used right now by the United States Secretary of State as part of his immoral campaign against Cuba’s medical cooperation. To this end, it has unprecedentedly required all OAS member states to respond to a detailed questionnaire on the agreements they have or have had with Cuba regarding cooperation in the health sector, which many consider an unprecedented request and a violation of state sovereignty.
Cuba reiterates that it does not, and will not, recognize any moral or legal authority over the OAS or any of its officials and subsidiary or autonomous bodies.
