The highest-ranking US official to visit Cuba in 35 years met with leading dissidents on Friday, but one prominent opposition figure declined to attend amid differences over Washington's rapprochement with Havana. Berta Soler, the head of the Ladies in White group of spouses of political prisoners, had been expected to attend the meeting with Roberta Jacobson, the State Department's top official for Latin America, but turned down the invitation.
"I did not participate," Soler told AFP. "My decision was due to there not being a balance in terms of the diversity of opinion of the participants." "If a diversity of opinions is sought, if differences are respected, then it should be balanced," she said. Dissidents who did attend the breakfast meeting under crystal chandeliers at the lavish mansion of the head of the US Interests Section in Havana played down the differences.
"This question of whether or not we welcome this dialogue between the US and Cuban government is secondary because what's important is that we remain united in that freedom, democracy and respect of human rights are the fundamental issues in this case," Daniel Ferrer, the leader of a dissident group in western Cuba, told reporters. He said they told Jacobson "what we told every foreign government official with whom we speak, which is the importance of solidarity with the Cuban dissidents and people."