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CUBA:
Duelling Dissidents Clash Over
Conference
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) - Cuban
government opponents organising
an international conference
scheduled for May are
downplaying the criticism aimed
at the meet by fellow dissident
Oswaldo Payá, the high-profile
leader of the Christian
Liberation Movement (MCL).
When contacted by IPS, Martha
Roque, the driving force behind
the Assembly for the Promotion
of Civil Society in Cuba --
which is supposed to be
officially founded at the
conference -- responded, ”I have
no comments to make at this
time, we have a lot of work to
do.”
Around 400 participants are
expected, according to the
organisers, including both Cuban
delegates and specially invited
guests from abroad. Invitations
have been issued to such
well-known figures as former
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
and former Czech president
Vaclav Havel.
The purpose of the conference is
to discuss an eventual political
transition in this one-party,
socialist Caribbean nation. The
gathering will require
government authorisation,
although the dissidents
organising it are officially
viewed as ”mercenaries on the
payroll of the empire,” meaning
the United States.
Last month, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario
Díaz-Balart, members of the U.S.
House of Representatives and
vocal opponents of the
government of Cuban President
Fidel Castro, held a press
conference in Miami to express
their support for the upcoming
dissident gathering.
Meanwhile, back in Cuba, Payá
and 13 other members of the MCL
-- four of whom are currently in
prison -- issued a statement
claiming, ”The May 20 meeting is
just another initiative by one
part of the opposition, rather
than the opposition as a whole.”
The statement accused the
”individuals” who are planning
this event of promoting and
directing ”systematic campaigns
of slander, confusion,
discouragement, provocation and
lies against the Varela Project
and the National Dialogue.”
The Varela Project was an MCL
petition campaign aimed at
collecting 11,000 signatures to
call for a referendum on
political reforms, including
multi-party elections.
A little-known article in the
Cuban constitution allows
citizens to submit legislative
initiatives to be decided by
national referendum, when the
proposal is accompanied by the
signatures of at least 10,000
registered voters.
The initiative was cut short by
a 2002 constitutional reform
officially establishing the
island's ”irrevocable”
commitment to socialism.
In May 2004, Payá launched a
call for a National Dialogue
open to all political tendencies
inside and outside the country,
with the goal of developing a
programme for political
transition and preparing for a
”democratic future” in Cuba.
Projects like these have earned
Payá and his followers a high
profile internationally, but
have also led to frictions with
other sectors in the Cuban
dissident movement, including
the moderate Arco Progresista
coalition and the Todos Unidos
(”Everyone United”) Movement.
According to the MCL statement,
the campaign against it
escalated to the point of
”blackmail” and a ”public
summons” for the organisation to
take part in the May meeting.
”We cannot mislead foreign
public opinion and the Cuban
people in the name of creating a
false image of unity,” the
document states, reiterating
that the MCL will not take part
in the congress, although it
respects those who do choose to
participate.
The Arco Progresista will not be
at the Assembly's founding
meeting, either. ”We won't be
participating, but we don't
criticise or wish anything but
the best for those involved,”
Manuel Cuesta, spokesman for
this coalition of
social-democratic groups, told
IPS.
Cuesta preferred not to comment
on the statement released by
Payá and his organisation.
”Silence is the best response.
We cannot afford to act like
political Cains,” he said.
For his part, attorney René
Gómez Manzano, another of the
main promoters of the Assembly
-- along with Roque and Félix
Bonne -- told IPS that the MCL's
harsh and public criticisms will
in no way hinder the holding of
the conference in May.
He also claimed that this
divergent stance is not
symptomatic of a lack of unity
among the various dissident
groups, because there is ”full
agreement on fundamental issues”
like democracy, human rights,
economic opening and freedom for
the country's political
prisoners.
Gómez Manzano, Roque and Bonne,
along with Vladimiro Roca --
currently a spokesman for Todos
Unidos, which will be
participating in the conference
-- were members of the so-called
”Group of Four” jailed in 1999
on charges of sedition.
Roque was arrested once again in
2003 and given a 20-year prison
sentence in a trial that ended
in similarly harsh sentences for
a total of 75 government
opponents accused of attempting
to destabilise the country in
complicity with a foreign power.
During the trial, over a dozen
supposed ”dissidents” revealed
their true identity as
undercover agents of the Cuban
intelligence services who had
infiltrated various opposition
groups and movements, and
subsequently testified against
the accused.
The MCL statement alludes to
public evidence demonstrating
that ”these figures (the
promoters of the Assembly) and
others planned and carried out”
campaigns against the MCL's
initiatives in conjunction with
the pseudo-dissidents.
”Together with these government
agents, they vented all of their
aggression until the arrests of
the 75, who included around 50
activists from the Varela
Project, most of whom are still
in prison. Even worse, they
continue to act in the same
manner,” the documents says.
After she was released on parole
last June for health reasons,
Roque has been focussing her
efforts on reorganising the
Assembly for the Promotion of
Civil Society.
Roque said that a number of
international political figures
have already accepted the
invitation to attend the May
conference, which will have to
be held in a public venue, given
the large number of participants
expected.
The last time an event of this
scope was attempted was in 1996,
when the Cuban government denied
authorisation for a public
meeting to the Concilio Cubano
(Cuban Council), a coalition
encompassing a range of
dissident groups.
The Assembly is made up of 340
small organisations from
throughout the country. One of
its goals is to establish and
coordinate ”a peaceful social
movement that will help prepare
the way for the transition to
democracy.”
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