BRITISH EMBASSY SEEKS TO BUILD CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000512

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/CCA
DEPT PASS TO USAID/LAC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2019
TAGS: PHUM PREL CU UK
SUBJECT: BRITISH EMBASSY SEEKS TO BUILD CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY

REF: HAVANA 356

Classified By: COM Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: In regard to civil society, the British
Embassy in Cuba is focused on building capacity and providing
Cubans with greater access to uncensored information.
Although they are currently doing very little in this area,
their stated goal lines up well with past and future USINT
programs and could allow for better coordination with the
British and other European colleagues. END SUMMARY.

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No Independence
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2. (C) On August 11, poloffs met with the British DCM,
Caitlin Jones, and poloff, Chris Stimpson. Stimpson noted
that the Government of Cuba (GOC) maintains a monopoly on the
provision of social services and routinely denies
applications for NGO status for organizations that might be
seen as competitors. As a result, he indicated that he knows
of only one relatively independent NGO in Cuba that provides
anything akin to social services, the Centro Cristiano de
Reflexion y Dialogo (CCRD). He said the CCRD has been
sustainable, manages a kind of food cooperative, provides
computer courses, and is generally well tied into its
community. Although some churches and other organizations
provide computer training or other forms of local assistance,
they maintain this work at a very low level to avoid
government attention.

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Hope to Do More
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3. (C) Jones and Stimpson said Her Majesty's Government
(HMG) is primarily interested in providing Cubans with
greater access to uncensored information and in building
civil society capacity. They currently have little activity
in these areas, but are considering expansion. The British
Embassy currently receives some copies of The Economist (in
English),which they distribute. They're hoping to begin
distributing more publications. At their request, we
provided information about the materials distributed by
USINT. The British Embassy has been looking into distance
learning programs, particularly training courses for civil
society. The programs identified so far are internet-based
and/or cost prohibitive, and they've had difficulties finding
courses in Spanish. They're looking for something easy in
Spanish that they can distribute on a CD. They balked when
asked if they have any plans to offer public Internet access
through their Embassy or the British Council, citing concerns
about space and potential damage to their relationship with
the GOC (reftel).

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A Common Focus
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4. (C) The British Embassy is one of the few missions in
Cuba that regularly meets with civil society and dissidents.
HMG's desire to build civil society dovetails nicely with
USINT's ongoing support for independent libraries, human
rights groups, independent journalists, and civil society at
large. In addition to our previous and ongoing activities,
USINT started distributing this month a technology toolkit
for computer users. Packaged on flash disks, memory cards,
and DVD-Roms, the toolkit provides about 1 gigabyte of free
software for blogging, word processing, maximizing internet
time, protecting information, and photo and video editing.
By the end of 2009, we will also open a third internet center
with up to 15 computers devoted to a distance learning
program newly offered to Cubans. In planning our activities,
we will look for opportunities to coordinate and multiply the
efforts of our diplomatic colleagues in order to best support
and impact Cuban civil society.
FARRAR