Havana diplomats at UN try to block Yoani Sanchez news conference

Posted on Thursday, 03.21.13

Havana diplomats at UN try to block Yoani Sanchez news conference
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban diplomats at the United Nations complained "heavy-handedly" about
a news conference by blogger Yoani Sánchez at a U.N. auditorium hosted
by journalists accredited to the international body, knowledgeable
reporters said.

Sánchez's appearance before the U.N. Correspondents Association went
ahead as scheduled at 3 p.m. Thursday, but its location had to be
shifted because of the Cuban complaints, according to association
members and news media reports.

The blogger's supporters have expressed suspicions that Cuban diplomats
arranged or encouraged most of the hostile groups that tried to disrupt
several of Sánchez's recent appearances in Brazil, Mexico and New York City.

The protesters have repeatedly chanted and displayed banners with
pro-Castro slogans, repeated Havana allegations that Sánchez is a
"mercenary" on the pay of the U.S. government and thrown enlarged copies
of U.S. dollars at her.

But the Cuban diplomats' complaints against the UNCA news conference
marked the first time that officials of Cuba's communist-run government
are confirmed to have tried to disrupt a Sánchez public appearance.

The Cuban complaints noted that UNCA planned to host the news conference
in the U.N. auditorium used regularly for news conferences, in violation
of regulations that U.N. spaces can only be used by member nations, the
journalists said. The event was shifted to a smaller room on the same
floor as UNCA's offices.

"They acted very heavy-handedly in this," said one of the reporters, who
asked for anonymity to avoid souring relations with Cuba's diplomatic
mission to the United Nations.

The Cubans' complaints, in official letters known as démarches, were
sent Monday to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Peter
Launsky-Tieffenthal, under secretary general for Public Information,
according to the journalists.

Signed by Cuban Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes, the letters alleged that the
news conference would be "an anti-Cuban action" and a "grave attack" on
the climate of cooperation in the United Nations, according to the
French AFP news agency. The secretary general should "not allow the
organization's spaces to be tarnished and their use manipulated by
spurious interests," the letter added.

Sánchez denounced the Cuban complaints during her news conference and
said that it's time for the United Nations to "come out of its lethargy
and recognize that the Cuban government is a dictatorship."

"If this meeting was being held in the bottom of an elevator shaft, we
would have more freedom than in Cuba," she said. "I am proud that my
first time in this very significant U.N. building is with my journalism
colleagues."

Eduardo del Buey, deputy spokesman for the secretary general, said the
U.N. secretariat did not interfere with UNCA's plans for the Sánchez
news conference and the secretariat "has not organized or participated
in this event in any way."

Asked by El Nuevo Herald if Cuban diplomats had complained about the
site of the news conference, del Buey said only, "We speak to a variety
of people."

UNCA officials could not be reached for comment. Sánchez was introduced
at the news conference by former UNCA president Tuyet Nguyen,
correspondent for German news agency DPA.

Sánchez, whose blog Generación Y is now translated into nearly 20
languages, had been denied government permission to leave Cuba about 20
times before Havana eased its overall travel restrictions on Jan. 14.

She is now on a whirlwind 80-day tour abroad.

Sánchez will be in Miami in early April for a string of events,
including a meeting with students and community leaders sponsored by
Miami Dade College. She will receive the MDC Presidential Medal, and the
Florida International University Medal of Valor, for her work on behalf
of human rights.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/21/3299554/havana-diplomats-at-un-try-to.html#storylink=misearch