Group will demonstrate in waters off Cuba during summit

Group will demonstrate in waters off Cuba during summit

Associated Press
Posted September 13 2006, 1:37 PM EDT

MIAMI -- Cuban exile protesters plan to hold a symbolic, pro-democracy
demonstration on a boat in international waters off the communist nation
this weekend during a Nonaligned Movement summit, an exile leader said
Wednesday.

Ramon Saul Sanchez of the Miami-based exile group Democracy Movement
said the ``maritime demonstration'' is scheduled to take place Saturday.
The weeklong summit began Monday.

Current plans call for about 20 demonstrators to leave a Key West marina
onboard the 39-foot Democracia after midnight Friday and arrive in
international waters off Cuba early Saturday, Sanchez said.

The group will carry symbolic electoral ballots printed with the choice
of ``dictatorship'' or ``democracy,'' fly a large white flag, display
posters of Cuba's political prisoners and drop white roses on the water,
Sanchez said.

They are demanding free elections and the release of all political
prisoners among other things, Sanchez said. The group also hopes to fly
a blimp from the ship with the word ``Democracia'' on it and mirrors
that will reflect light and be seen on the island.

Sanchez said the community relations board of the U.S. Justice
Department has asked to meet with him Wednesday night to discuss the
demonstration. The department had no immediate comment.

Coast Guard officials have been notified of the group's plan, Sanchez said.

``They have a right to go out there. Unless they violate territorial
waters there's nothing we can do. We can stop the voyage if it's unsafe,
but there is no indication of that,'' Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer
Johnson said. She confirmed the office had been notified of the group's
plans.

The Nonaligned Movement, which includes about two-thirds of the world's
nations, was developed during the Cold War as a Third World alternative
to the United States and Soviet Union.

The summit in Cuba comes almost two months after President Fidel Castro,
80, announced he was stepping down from power _ for the first time in 47
years _ to recover from intestinal surgery. He has made no public
appearances since. Castro's younger brother, Defense Minister Raul
Castro, is Cuba's acting president.

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