Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07HAVANA1188
2007-12-28 21:10:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

COM CONVERSATION WITH FRENCH AMBASSADOR

Tags:  CU EU PGOV PINR PINS PREL 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1444
PP RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHUB #1188 3622110
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 282110Z DEC 07
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2645
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY
RUEHLJ/AMEMBASSY LJUBLJANA PRIORITY 0004
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0005
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 001188 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2012
TAGS: CU EU PGOV PINR PINS PREL
SUBJECT: COM CONVERSATION WITH FRENCH AMBASSADOR


Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 001188

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2012
TAGS: CU EU PGOV PINR PINS PREL
SUBJECT: COM CONVERSATION WITH FRENCH AMBASSADOR


Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)



1. (C) On December 27, COM lunched with Frederic Dore, the
new French Ambassador to Havana, as part of our regular
contact with the French embassy, but also in anticipation of
France taking the EU lead in Cuba for the next year.
Slovenia, the next leader of the EU Troika has no
representation in Cuba.

-------------- --------------
France to take of EU Leadership in Cuba in January
-------------- --------------


2. (C) Dore urged that if we sent anyone to Ljubljana to
discuss Cuba, it would be important for the person to stop in
Paris as well, given France's role as de facto EU coordinator
on the island for the next six months. Dore said he had
spoken with the Slovenian Ambassador to Madrid, who is
co-designated for Cuba, but doubted the Slovenian would get
to Cuba very often from Spain, making him (Dore) the EU point
person on the ground for the months to come.

--------------
Current State of Affairs in Cuba
--------------


3. (C) Dore agreed with our analysis on the degree to which
immense expectations have built up in the Cuban population,
partly as a result of Raul's own speech-ifying, partly the
product of the acceleration in the deterioration on the
island, partly just the natural evolution of average Cubans
and their thinking. Dore said he was struck by the worn-down
nature of almost everything he had seen in his first three
months here. The system cannot go on as it is.


4. (C) Dore asked what we thought of the Cuban announcement
they would sign the two HR covenants. COM replied that it
was not what the regime said as much as what it does that
matters. He pointed out the contradiction between FM Felipe
Perez Roque announcing Cuba's intention to sign at the same
time, literally, as Cuban police were going after human
rights marchers. He also noted that the blow to the head of
Laura Pollan around that same time was the first time in
memory that the authorities had gotten physical with one of
the Damas de Blanco. Dore agreed that the regime is trying
to put out a different image of itself, but that their
intention "to retain total control of Cuban society" remains
unchanged. He said the EU position on Perez Roque's
announcement was similar--that saying you intend to sign is
one thing but seeing what you do is what really matters.


5. (C) On the issue of political prisoners, Dore said the EU
had made repeated demarches, but always discreetly. He felt
it important they keep up that pressure, and he expected the
pattern to continue over the next six months. He had little
expectation that the regime would do more than release those
whose sentences had been completed, but felt it was
important, nonetheless, for the regime to know what the
international community expected of it. For that reason the
EU would keep talking about lists of prisoners. COM
cautioned about getting too hung up on specific lists,
reciting the famous Supreme Court justice's adage about
pornography.


6. (C) Looking down the road, Dore thought the speeches this
week at the fall session of the Asamblea Nacional would be an
important indicator of the thinking of those at the top, but
agreed that equally critical would be whatever popular
reaction there might be to what comes out. In the Spring,
and before the French Presidency takes over in July, he said
the EU would have to review its common position on Cuba, but
he thought that so much was likely to happen between now and
then that it was a pure exercise in speculation to try to
predict what the EU is likely to do. Internal divisions
aside, Dore mused, the EU has to react to what actually
happens. Since he has been here, Dore noted, there have been
repeated promises and predictions of impending change in
Cuba. To date, there has been none. He repeatedly
emphasized his amazement at the hullabaloo over what to date
has been "exactly zero" in terms of actual change.
PARMLY