VERBATIM
A peaceful path to liberating Cuba
By CHRISTIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT
Below are excerpts from a declaration by the Christian Liberation
Movement -- a pro-democracy group led by Oswaldo Payá in Cuba
(www.oswaldopaya.org) -- on the fifth anniversary of the Varela Project
last week.
The Cuban Spring began when thousands of Cubans began to say I want my
rights! not only as a legitimate personal aspiration, but also as a
united and patriotic demand We want rights for all Cubans!
On May 10, 2002, we presented to the National Assembly of the People's
Power the request for a referendum on the Varela Project that was
supported by more than 11,000 citizens who, by exercising their
constitutional right, were asking for the voice and rights of all Cubans
without exclusion. Those Cubans and the thousands who have signed and
continue to sign the Varela Project can be proud of their liberating and
united gesture. We do not come to commemorate the past, but to announce
the path toward liberation.
Many Cubans who initiated this spring with their love of country were
condemned to unjust imprisonment. They as well as all the peaceful
political prisoners deserve the homage and solidarity of all, because
they are in prison only for defending the rights of all Cubans. . . .
Every Cuban reflecting on the sentiment of millions wonders:
• Why can't I express myself freely and say that I think differently
than the government without being suppressed, if they say that we are in
a democracy?
• Why does the daily routine of making ends meet turn into a crime?
• Why can't I travel abroad freely?
• Why can't I live in any part of my Homeland if I am Cuban?
• Why can a foreigner own a company in Cuba and I as a Cuban cannot?
• Why, if so many of us think differently, is there no representative in
the National Assembly who thinks differently and expresses it?
• Why isn't my salary enough to feed my family while a privileged
leadership lives like the rich?
Every Cuban can make an endless list of Why the deprivations and
repressions? -- knowing that there is no just explanation. Because there
is no justification to deny the rights of citizens and much less in the
name of justice and defense of sovereignty. Because precisely when they
deny the rights of individuals, the injustice is established, and now
the people cannot exercise their sovereignty, because they cannot choose
and they cannot make decisions in their life.
The peaceful solution -- the solution between Cubans, without
interventions or foreign interferences, the solution in reconciliation
without hate or violence, the solution that takes us to peace and
freedom -- is the solution with all and for the good of all. It is the
solution without exclusions, which can be achieved if those who govern
recognize the rights of Cubans and transform the laws so they are
guaranteed. Above all we will reach the solution if all Cubans demand
these changes to the law and the referendum that the Varela Project asks
for.
Hope is reborn because we have faith and are determined to take this path.
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