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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