WikiLeaks: Euros and Canada Suck Up to Castro for $$

How many times have European governments lectured the US about their alleged moral superiority? They care more about people, we care about money and power. Or so they tell us. Now WikiLeaks reports that several Euro countries are turning a blind eye to human rights in Cuba in the hope of landing lucrative commercial contracts. Indeed, diplomats don’t even bother to meet with Cuban human rights activists. The UK’s Guardian reports:

Australia, Canada and several European countries have stopped pressuring Cuba over human rights in the hope of winning commercial favours from Havana, according to confidential US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

The western governments continued to pay lip service to concerns about political prisoners and censorship, but in reality were appeasing the island’s communist rulers, said Jonathan Farrar, the US head of mission.

The diplomat made scathing remarks about his colleagues shunning democracy activists, “kowtowing” to the Castro regime and joining what he scornfully termed the “best friends forever” camp.

“The Cuban government has been able to stonewall its independent civil society from foreign visitors who have, for the large part, been all too ready to give in to Cuban bullying and give up on these encounters,” Farrar said.

He named and shamed the countries Washington considers offenders in its battle, started half a century ago by JFK, to keep an international squeeze on the island.

“The Australian foreign minister, Switzerland‘s human rights special envoy and the Canadian cabinet level minister of the Americas not only failed to meet with non-government Cubans, they didn’t even bother to publicly call for more freedoms after visiting Cuba in November,” Farrar wrote.

Canada had softened its position over the past year, he said, with newly arrived diplomats minimising civil society contacts. “Promoting democracy may play well in political circles in Ottawa but the Canadian government appears to have decided that doing anything serious about it in Cuba under the current regime could jeopardise the advancement of Canada’s other interests.”