Madam, - A number of fundamental errors and misrepresentations have been presented in the international media about the recent trials of so-called dissidents in Cuba which demand clarification.
First, these "dissidents" are in fact mercenaries proved to be working for, and in the pay of, the US government, whose aim was to destabilise and overthrow the Cuban government by illegal means. The trials had absolutely nothing to do with human rights but everything to do with the protection of Cuba's national sovereignty against external interference.
These mercenaries were not imprisoned on the basis of what are frequently referred to as trumped-up charges, but as a result of clear evidence being produced through internationally accepted legal channels. This evidence proved that they were working with the chief US diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, with the aim of destroying the Cuban Revolution. Among many other things, Cason organised meetings with these mercenaries both in the US Special Interests Section and his own diplomatic residence.
If one imagines right-wing British racists being organised by the British Ambassador in a similar way in Dublin to overthrow the Irish state, one begins to understand the reality and seriousness of what these mercenaries in Cuba were doing and why they were convicted in the way they were.
The crime these mercenaries committed was not to criticise a so-called dictatorial regime as frequently suggested, but to conspire with a foreign government to overthrow a democratically elected and populist state. To suggest otherwise is an utter distortion of fact and a perversion of the term human rights.
Cuba has suffered intensely at the hands of the US for over 40 years. As a small country, which has managed against all the odds to pursue an alternative socialist path of development, Cuba should be fully supported by all those who oppose the increasing and aggressive US imperialist domination of the world.
That there has been such distortion of recent events in the international media and such a deafening silence from governments around the world to this deep infringement of national sovereign rights is a shameful disgrace. - Yours, etc.,
DOUGLAS HAMILTON, Belfast Co-ordinator, Cuba Support Group -Ireland, Belfast BT7