EU will set 'benchmarks' for Cuba, US says

"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet. Well, it all depends. When it comes to the European Union's lifting of its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, the word "condition" apparently is being changed to "benchmark" to make it acceptable to Raúl Castro's ears. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Friday gave reporters a preview of the, er, suggestions the EU will make to Castro next week as it resumes a dialogue with Cuba. Excerpts from the transcript:
"From our consultations [...] we understand that the European Union will set human rights benchmarks for its dialogue with the Cuban government, including the unconditional release of all political prisoners; implementation of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, freedom of information and access for Cubans to the Internet; and a dual-track approach for all EU delegations arriving in Cuba, allowing them to meet both opposition figures and members of the Cuban Government.
"These benchmarks send the right message about what is important: the need for the Cuban Government to change the way it treats its citizens. If the Cuban government intends to undertake meaningful change, it will take concrete steps to improve its human rights record, beginning with unconditionally releasing all political prisoners and ratifying and implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
McCormack then piqued the reporters' curiosity by adding: "There is going to be more to the story in terms of what the EU describes vis-à-vis its benchmarks, and what [the EU] will require of the Cuban government." To read a transcript of the briefing, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Comments

[Richard Cheeseman]

Right, so a benchmark is like a condition which the EU sets for Cuba but which is not at all obligatory for Cuba to meet for the sanctions to be lifted. Just like a condition really... except for not having any element of conditionality. Ha ha!

In other words there were no conditions for the sanctions to be lifted, but some people would have liked for there to have been and so they said there were conditions even though there weren't. Then they got caught out in their lie and started making it worse by further nonsense talk, this time about "Raul Castro's ears". Priceless!