The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE group of activists in Miami protesting the poor treatment of Cuban detainees in the Bahamas have called off their campaign to facilitate cordial discussions.

However, in the wake of a repatriation exercise, Ramon Sanchez, president of the Miami-based Cuban exile group Democracy Movement, yesterday raised concerns about the safety of 24 Cubans sent back to Cuba by the Bahamas government last week.

He questioned the decision to repatriate the Cubans considering Panama’s willingness to grant them asylum – a willingness that Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell denied having any knowledge of.

Mr Sanchez said: “We are worried about whether their civil rights will be violated having been returned to Cuba. What is most worrisome is that the ones who were sent back were among the persons that were the most mistreated.

“We cannot understand why 11 months after when Panama agreed to take some of them, the Bahamas government made the hasty decision to send them back to Cuba.

“Cuban officials have been known to incite fear into detainees and prisoners. The truth of this matter might never come out and I am sure that their welfare is at stake.

“They should have been sent to Panama and not to Cuba, that is the bottom line.”

Mr Sanchez said the Democracy Movement is also discouraging asylum seekers from using the Bahamas as a platform to seek refuge in other countries like the US.