Yoani Sanchez accused Brazil to be absent on violations of human rights in Cuba

Yoani Sánchez

Yesterday, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez accused Brazil from being silent about the human rights violations in Cuba and predicted that a departure from the scene of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, would favor his country to be closer to the United States.

“We are expanding a port with the help of Brazil. It’s good, that Brazil is helping and supporting Cuba, but I think it lacked toughness or honesty to address the issue of human rights in the island,” said the dissident. “In the case of Brazil, the country was too quiet. I’m not a diplomatic, but I would recommend a stronger position (Brazilian government) because people do not forget,” she added.

During a debate in Sao Paulo organized by the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, the author of the blog “Generation Y” praised the investments made by Brazil to modernize the Cuban port of Mariel, but said the largest Latin American country has to take a strongest stand with Cuba on human rights.

Sanchez says the Cuban government has had gestures of rapprochement with the U.S., for fear that, with the possible departure of Chavez from the political scene,  the country could miss the energy and financial alliance with Venezuela that allows it to survive.

“Behind this predisposition (to dialogue with the United States)  is the concern of a possible departure from the scene of Hugo Chavez,” she alleged.

Sánchez admitted that Raul Castro is undertaking reforms that would have been unthinkable at the time of his brother, Fidel Castro, but said the repression continues but in a less public way.

After receiving a passport that the Havana denied her for five years, Sánchez began last Monday in Brazil an 80-day tour through several countries of America and Europe.