Question 12996 — foreign policy

Summary

Mr. Aurélien Taché draws the attention of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to the dissemination in France, to editorial offices and public officials, of documents emanating from the NGO Prisoners Defenders, explicitly addressed to European and national political leaders and likely to guide the public debate on Cuba. This release comes in a context of sharp deterioration in the economic situation and Cuban social. Subjected for more than sixty years to American sanctions, described as a blockade by a large majority of the international community, Cuba suffers major restrictions on access to financial markets, essential goods, medicines, energy and transport, directly affecting the living conditions of the population. These effects are regularly documented by United Nations agencies and recalled during the annual votes of the General Assembly. In this context, the MP underlines that the words of organizations financed by American interests call for increased vigilance, since their communications tend to minimize or relativize the effects of the blockade and to promote a univocal reading of the Cuban situation in the European public debate. It notes in particular that a document distributed in 2024 by Prisoners Defenders to of French media includes a chapter addressed to Pedro Sánchez and Josep Borrell, in which the NGO affirms that the United States of America would be a “benefactor” of Cuba and that the situation would not involve an embargo or a blockade. These assertions appear to contradict the multilateral positions constantly expressed at the United Nations, including by France for more than thirty years. Furthermore, the NGO has relayed in the public space spectacular figures, such as the existence of “60,000 detainees used as slaves” in Cuba, taken up by certain media, notably in an article in Le Monde published on September 15, 2025, raising questions about the solidity of the sources, the methodology used and the possible biases of this data. These communications are likely to put the real impact of American sanctions into perspective, including in their extraterritorial dimensions and to contradict the spirit of the multilateral positions regularly defended by France. The MP is more broadly concerned about the capacity of a foreign organization to structure a “turnkey” narrative in the French and European public debate without sufficient guarantees as to the transparency of funding, methodological rigor and the interests involved. In this context, he asks what the Government's position is on the influence exercised in France by foreign organizations seeking to structure the public debate on sensitive questions of international politics; how the Government intends to promote, at the European level, positions based on pluralistic, contradictory and verifiable analyzes concerning Cuba, taking into account the effects of the American blockade; and finally if the Government plans to initiate an investigation into the actions of the NGO Prisoners Defenders when they could influence the French public debate for the benefit of foreign interests.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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