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P R 161621Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0940
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0974
UNCLAS VATICAN 000040
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KDEM PHUM PREL KPAO SOCI CU VT
SUBJECT: CUBA SOLIDARITY - EMBASSY VATICAN ACTIVITY
REF: STATE 51536
1. (SBU) In response to reftel, Embassy Vatican reports that
Ambassador Glendon hosted an important and well-attended
conference this month commemorating the 60th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the crucial role of
Latin American countries in creating that document. WHA
Assistant Secretary Shannon spoke at the conference, along with
Ambassador Glendon, several ambassadors of Latin American
countries to the Holy See, and Professor Paolo Carozza of Notre
Dame, who has just been elected Chairman of the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights. The conference featured a moving
presentation by Pablo Perez-Cisneros, the son of Guy
Perez-Cisneros, who as Cuba's UN delegate in 1948 played a major
role in the creation of the Universal Declaration, and a film
clip of Guy Perez-Cisneros speaking at the United Nations about
the Declaration. Pablo Perez-Cisneros specifically drew
attention to the contrast between the Cuba of his father's day
and the woeful state of human rights under today's regime. This
conference received tremendous favorable publicity, and is only
the first of three we will host this year on the theme of Human
Rights.
2. (SBU) Post also continues to raise Cuba with the Holy See,
particularly in conversations with Cardinal Bertone, the Holy
See's Secretary of State (ranking just below the Pope) who
visited Cuba in February to commemorate the tenth anniversary of
Pope John Paul II's visit to Havana. Our scenesetter for the
Pope's April visit to Washington and New York included points on
Cuba to be raised with Cardinal Bertone. We anticipate another
high-level meeting with Bertone in the very near future, at
which Cuba may well be an agenda item (this event has not yet
been formally announced, but has been confirmed).
3. (SBU) Ambassador raised Cuba with several members of the Holy
See's Secretariat of State at a meeting on May 16.
GLENDON