Catholic News Agency

Carlos Paya, the representative in Spain for Cuban dissident group the Christian Liberation Movement, is criticizing the left in that country for supporting the Castro dictatorship in Cuba, despite the knowledge that human rights are violated on the island.

In statements to Cope.es, Paya asserted that the Spanish left “knows that that (regime) is a dictatorship.” The Cuban dissident also addressed those who doubt the severity of living in a country where freedom of expression is suppressed. “To those people I would say, Do you really know what goes on there?” he said.

Paya criticized the Minister of Exterior Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Angel Moratinos, for not protesting the statements by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, who stood in front of Moratinos and said the political prisoners in Cuba were mercenaries and terrorists.

After reaffirming that the purpose of the dissident group is to achieve peaceful transition in Cuba, Paya maintained that nobody believes in the Cuban Communist Party and that what is needed is dialogue between Cubans in the country and abroad.

“Right now Cuba does not belong to the Cubans,” Paya said, noting that the country belongs “a ruling nomenclature that makes the decisions” about what is done in the country, including in peoples’ private lives.

During the interview, Paya also addressed business leaders who see Cuba as a place to do business. He called on them to practice “responsible ethics,” as it would be “very profitable” for an unscrupulous businessman to make money in a country where workers have no right to strike because they are controlled.  Such business owners end up being accomplices with the regime, he stressed.

Paya was also harsh in his critique of Che Guevara, who has been made into a myth, he said, in contrast with facts about his true life.  He lamented that very little is said about this other aspect of his life, as “his blood was to shed blood.”