MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula da Silva entangled in controversy over Cuban political prisoners

“I think it's insane to mistreat your own body” said the Brazilian president

Brazilian president Lula da Silva has become entangled in a controversy for having compared Cuban political prisoners with jailed criminals and was even severely criticized by members of his own party.

In a long interview with the Associated Press agency Lula da Silva said the Cuban legal and penitentiary system should be respected and criticized hunger strikes as a means of protest to call attention on human rights abuses.

But in spite of the public controversy and the uproar over the confusion, the ruling coalition did not vote in Congress a condemnation of the Cuban regime over the lack of freedom and basic rights.

Raul Jungmann from the Brazilian opposition Socialist Popular Party presented a motion before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House condemning “human rights violations in Cuba” but the coalition headed by Lula da Silva’s Workers’ party vetoed the initiative.

“It is regretful and disappointing that the congressional support of government refuses to see the flagrant human rights violations in Cuba as if we had enough with the disastrous statements from President Lula da Silva”, said Jungmann.

The lawmaker was referring to the AP interview in which he disqualified hunger strikes from Cuban political prisoners and compared them to ordinary criminals incarcerated in Brazilian jails.

“We have to respect the decisions of the Cuban legal system and the government to arrest people depending on the laws of Cuba, like I want them to respect Brazil. Hunger strikes can’t be a human rights excuse to free people. Imagine if all the jailed criminals in Sao Paulo went on a fast to demand they be set free”, he was quoted by AP.

The release of the interview coincided with a new petition from the Cuban dissidence addressed to Lula da Silva asking him to intercede before Raul Castro in favour of political prisoners, particularly Guillermo Fariñas who has been on a hunger strike for over two weeks.

However according to the Brazilian embassy in Havana the letter addressed to Lula da Silva by the “Committee Orlando Zapata Tamayo for the liberation of Cuban political prisoners” was not received because it was not signed.

In late February, Lula da Silva met in Cuba with Fidel and Raul Castro just hours after Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo died from a prolonged hunger strike. At the time, he told Brazil's privately run Agencia Estado news agency that he “deeply regretted” Zapata's death but Lula da Silva refused to meet with opposition groups in Cuba

Lula da Silva later stated he had received no petition from the Cuban opposition and even more embarrassing he remained silent next to Cuban president Raul Castro when he described Zapata Tamayo as an “ordinary criminal” and blamed Washington for what was happening.

“The president expressed himself poorly or he was misunderstood,” said Mauricio Rands, a federal deputy from the Workers Party. “We don't accept that somebody can be detained just because they have disagreements with the government. The President is well aware of the difference between a political prisoner and an ordinary prisoner”.

From Cuba political prisoner Fariñas was quoted by Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo columnist Flavia Marreiro saying that “with that statement, President Lula da Silva shows his commitment to the tyranny of Castro and his contempt for the political prisoners and their families“. He added ”a majority of the Cuban people feel betrayed by a president who was once a political prisoner.“

Lula da Silva led worker strikes against Brazil's military regime and was imprisoned for 31 days in 1980 for his political activities. He was quoted saying that ”I've been on hunger strikes and I would never do it again; I think it's insane to mistreat your own body.“

The Brazilian president said he thought there was hypocrisy at play in the criticism of Cuba. ”It's not just in Cuba that people died from hunger strikes,“ he said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim came to the rescue of the president. ”It's one thing to defend democracy, human rights, the right to free speech,“ said Amorim. ”It's another thing to be supporting everything that is dissident in the world. That is not (our) role.“

Celso Amorim said Brazilian trade and its development projects were helping Cubans and said it was in the hands of the US to bring the quickest changes to the nation. ”If someone is interested in creating political evolution in Cuba, I have a quick prescription: End the embargo.“

Columnist Merval Pereira wrote in Wednesday's edition of the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that ”the comments of President Lula da Silva are worrying because they denote that he made a terrible confusion between democratic regimes and dictatorships, treating them equally.”