14ymedio, Havana, 7 April 2015 – The official Cuban civil society delegation that will participate throughout the week of parallel forums at the Summit of the Americas in Panama denounced, this Tuesday, the presence of “mercenaries in the service of a foreign power” in the meeting.
In a press conference, organized at the University of Panama shortly after the arrival from Havana and transmitted in full by the Island’s television monopoly, the members of the official Cuban delegation attacked the Cuban dissidents and independent activists who will also attend the meetings. In addition, the Union of Cuban Journalists distributed a pamphlet titled “Mercenaries,” in which they accuse the opposition leaders of a orchestrating a provocation on Panamanian soil. In the cover image, the deceased Huber Matos appears, along with others. In the press conference, only a few questions from the journalists present were allowed.
Liaena Hernández Martínez, a member of the National Committee of the Federation of Cuban Women, read a statement titled “It is inadmissible that mercenaries paid by enemies of the Island are in Panama,” where “the presence in these mercenary spaces [parallel forums] are paid for by the historical enemies of our nation. ”
A representative of the delegation said “there will definitely be no dialogue with those people,” accused of being part of a “meager ‘opposition’ fabricated from abroad, lacking any legitimacy and propriety.” The regime’s representatives didn’t even hesitate to link some members of civil society with “known terrorists that have caused infinite pain to the Cuban people.”