Cuba slams controversial award event as ploy to affect polls

HAVANA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Cuba Thursday condemned a program by a local dissident group as a "destabilizing maneuver" backed by Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), to affect the parliamentary elections on March 11.

"This time these organizations pretended to stage a show that would affect the normal process of Cuba's general elections next weekend with the pretext of handing out an alleged award," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The dissident group, the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, is led by Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of Oswaldo Paya, a staunch critic of the Cuban Revolution who died in 2012. On Thursday it presented the annual human rights award this year to the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA).

IDEA includes 37 former presidents from Latin America and Europe, all of whom oppose the Cuban Government and other left-oriented countries in the region.

Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana and former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga went to Cuba Wednesday to receive the award but were denied entry and deported.

"This act is part of the imperialist offensive against the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, in which the U.S. Government has brought back the 'Monroe Doctrine', and has provoked a setback in bilateral relations with Cuba," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said.

Neither Almagro, nor the former Latin Aerican leaders or the dissident organization is interested in the well-being of Cubans. They only aim to disrupt Cuba's constitutional order, the statement said.

Almagro was the recipient of the award last year but was refused a visa to Havana. He tried to accompany Pastrana and Quiroga this time, but was denied entry again.

Cuba accuses Rosa Maria Paya and her organization, which it calls illegal, of sponsoring the annual event with other foreign institutions financed by the Washington-promoted National Endowment for Democracy.

Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, and has declined to return despite being readmitted in 2009.

Since Cuba's suspension, the only OAS secretary general to visit the island was Jose Miguel Insulza, who attended a Latin American summit in Havana in 2014. Enditem