Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel traveled to Portugal for a state visit. The visit comes after the European Union Parliament called for sanctions against him.
Diaz-Canel’s itinerary includes a visit to the Parliament of Lisbon and then He will travel to Brussels, where he will join other heads of state from the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) at the first EU-CELAC summit in eight years that begins on Monday.
The Cuban presidency expressed its intention to participate in the summit in a constructive spirit and to contribute to strengthening bilateral relations based on mutual respect. But Cuba criticized the EU’s approach to the summit, describing it as manipulative and ambiguous.
This criticism follows a resolution by the European Parliament that strongly condemned the human rights situation in Cuba. The resolution proposed sanctions against Diaz-Canel and other high-ranking officials, and recommended preventing authoritarian regimes from holding such summits.
Cuba responded strongly to this decision, stating that Parliament has no jurisdiction over the Caribbean island nation, and questioning the motives behind the renewal of regional relations. In July 2021, Cuba witnessed the largest anti-government protests since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. These protests led to hundreds of activists being imprisoned by the communist government – an action that drew widespread condemnation from both the European Union and the United States.
Source: Reuters
Cover image: Getty Images
