The Spanish government refused to sell repressive material to the Cuban regime, citing “respect for human rights” as the reason.
The European country denied a sale of 2,500 tear gas cartridges and 40 light, sound and fog devices worth €350,000, which were said to be destined for the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
The Interministerial Regulatory Council for Foreign Trade in Defense and Dual-Use Materials (JIMDDU), the body that regulates foreign trade in defense materials, sent a report to the Spanish Congress explaining its decision.
The document refers to Criterion 2 of the European Union’s Common Position, which defines the common rules for the export of military technology and equipment that must be observed by the member countries of the bloc.
In the case of Cuba, the JIMDDU argued that when exporting arms, “respect for human rights in the country of final destination” and the low “respect for international humanitarian law by said country” must be taken into account.
The report quoted by Portal Público describes such operations carried out by the Spanish government in the first half of 2022.
In the first six months of 2021, just before the historic and massive protests against the Cuban regime, the The Spanish government authorized the export of riot control material to the islandalthough it is not known how much money was executed from this approved budget.
In 2020, Spain approved two licenses for the export to Cuba of defense material worth 1,202,500 euros, corresponding to smoothbore weapons of less than 20 mm caliber and automatic weapons of 12.7 mm caliber, as well as energetic materials and related substances .
However, this budget was not executed and Cuba stopped importing equipment such as rifles, revolvers, pistols, machine guns, silencers, chargers for these weapons, telescopic sights, explosive silencers, propellants, pyrotechnic products, propellants and related substances, according to an official data. .