CUBA: Moderate Dissidents Seek Gradual Change Without Foreign Influence

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jul 22 2004 (IPS) - A coalition of moderate dissidents in Cuba is proposing an alternative ”transition to democracy” that would be gradual, smooth, and ”without the influence of foreign powers.”

”For us, Cuba’s sovereignty and independence is as important as democratisation,” Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for Arco Progresista (Progressive Arc), an umbrella linking small moderate dissident groups, said in an interview with IPS.

The coalition is made up of the Social Democratic Coordinator, the Democratic Socialist Current, Women of the Democratic Left, the Democratic Socialist Youth Movement, the People’s Party, and the ‘Diego Vicente Tejera’ Centre for Studies of Democratic Socialism.

Cuba’s socialist government does not recognise organisations of internal dissidents, which its refers to as ”grupusculos” (a derisive term for ”tiny groups”) at the service of the U.S. government, while deriding all anti-government activists as ”mercenaries”.

The Arco Progresista, which according to Cuesta Morúa represents some 3,000 activists around the country, is critical of U.S. policy towards Cuba, and wants to bring about change in this Caribbean island nation through ”a dialogue involving mutual concessions,” which would exclude no segments of society.

”The majority of the alternatives proposed for Cuba are based on maximalist positions, and propose immediate, swift change that would lead to the replacement of the existing powers-that-be,” said Cuesta Morúa.

In the view of Cuesta Morúa and other dissidents, the measures put into effect in June by the U.S. government of President George W. Bush to ”hasten the transition to democracy” in Cuba will achieve the opposite effect.

The measures, like restrictions imposed on Cuban-Americans wishing to visit Cuba or send their families money, ”will instead slow down the transition,” he said. ”The U.S. government should not identify itself with only one alternative; it should remain open to a wider spectrum of options.”

In a statement issued last June, the Arco Progresista accused the U.S. Interests Section in Havana of spreading a rumour that its activists are ”agents of the Cuban government.”

In a subsequent press release that did not directly refer to the issue, the Interests Section stated that Washington ”firmly supports” Cuban sovereignty and is prepared to provide assistance to a democratic Cuba in the future.

Cuesta Morúa said the positions taken by the European Union (EU) and the United States towards Cuba are quite different, even if there are similarities with respect to the question of human rights.

”The EU has not broken off diplomatic relations, it does not finance the opposition, and it does not have a design to overthrow the Cuban government, even though it has raised the tone of its criticism as the possibility of dialogue has collapsed,” said the activist.

The EU and the Cuban government of Fidel Castro fell out over the April 2003 summary trials of 75 dissidents, who were handed lengthy prison sentences on charges of conspiring with a foreign power (the United States) to subvert the internal order.

Shortly over a year later, six of the dissidents were released on health grounds, a measure that Cuesta Morúa considered ”a sign of growing flexibility” by the socialist government.

”But if they were released for purely humanitarian reasons, then others, who are as sick as, or sicker than, the beneficiaries, should also be freed,” he argued.

To existing dissident initiatives, the Arco Progresista added its own proposal this month for a ”negotiated transition”, which would contribute to curbing ”the decline of the situation in Cuba” through gradual steps which should include the unconditional release of ”all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience,” and measures to move towards the creation of a ”National Human Rights Commission”.

On the economic front, the umbrella group proposes ”allowing investment of capital held by Cubans; expanding, rather than restricting,” the list of areas in which self-enterprise and self-employment are authorised; and creating a ”solid economic fabric” that would discourage emigration.

One of the highest-profile dissident initiatives is Project Varela, headed by Oswaldo Payá with the Christian Liberation Movement, which calls for a referendum on changes to Cuba’s socialist system.

Payá, the 2002 winner of the Sakharov human rights prize, which is awarded every year by the European Parliament, also called late last year for a broad ”National Dialogue” to design a project for a transition to democracy.

According to Payá, Project Varela can help Cuban society achieve its fundamental rights, while the National Dialogue would allow Cubans themselves to decide on their future.

Meanwhile, dissidents grouped in the Everyone United alliance launched last February a ”programme to begin to solve the grave problems of Cuban society”.

They clarified that it is not ”a blueprint for a transition,” but a project that is seeking ”changes that would improve the precarious situation of the Cuban people.” They have not ruled out the possibility of presenting it to the National Assembly (Cuba’s single-chamber parliament).

However, the opposition initiatives have largely gone unnoticed by most of Cuba’s 11.2 million people, who are either unaware of them – since they are not covered by the state-controlled press – or reject them as ”counter-revolutionary”.