POLITICS: Cuban Dissidents Raise Voices on Eve of Summit

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 11 1999 (IPS) - Representatives of what is considered the “moderate” sector of internal opposition in Cuba called on the leaders of Latin America, Spain and Portugal who will attend next week’s ninth Ibero-American summit in Havana to express solidarity with their cause.

“We are seeking solidarity with our noble objectives” – democracy, economic development, justice and national sovereignty, said the secretary-general of the Democratic Socialist Current Manuel Cuesta Morúa.

Cuesta Morúa presented Wednesday to foreign correspondents accredited in Cuba a declaration addressed to the ninth Ibero- American summit drawn up by the “Mesa de Reflexión”, a dissident coalition that is pushing for a “gradual transition to democracy.”

The Mesa is comprised of the Democratic Solidarity Party, the Democratic Socialist Current, the Liberal Democratic Party of Cuba, the Cuban Democratic Project, and the Unitary Cuban Council of Workers.

The Mesa as well as the organisations comprising it act illegally in Cuba, where any action against the one-party socialist system is considered a criminal offence.

On Wednesday, government supporters blocked a protest march organised by 11 small opposition groups, and dissident arrests were reported around the island.

When the demonstrators reached the gathering point for their march – Parque Dolores in the neighbourhood of Lawton, some 20 kms from downtown Havana, where similar demonstrations have been held in recent years – they found the park full of prep school students allegedly rehearsing a ceremony to welcome the visiting heads of state and government during the summit.

A few skirmishes took place between pro-government people in the park and dissidents.

Other opposition groups have called meetings and declarations on the occasion of the summit, which is being held in Cuba for the first time, and which several Latin American leaders plan to boycott.

Anti-Castro Cuban exile groups in Miami are also reportedly planning protests, such as a flotilla of boats near Cuban waters, around the summit.

Cuesta Morúa confirmed the possibility of a meeting between Cuban dissidents and representatives of the Nicaraguan delegation to the summit.

Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar may also meet Monday with an already selected group of Cuban dissidents, including the president of the Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation Elizardo Sánchez.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said Wednesday that each leader attending the summit would enjoy “freedom of movement to do whatever they please in Cuba.”

The declaration by the Mesa states that “Cuba must fully insert itself into Ibero-America, and Ibero-America must insert itself fully into Cuba” – which seemed to hark back to Pope John Paul’s visit to Cuba, when he called for “Cuba to open up to the world, and the world to open up to Cuba.”

In a clear reference to the situation in Cuba, the document “considers that these systematic efforts to create inter- relationships must be stimulated by all the political and social alternatives that believe in the positive pooling together of ideas.”

The Mesa de Reflexión backs the initiative to create a Secretariat for Ibero-American Cooperation, and “mechanisms to follow-up and verify commitments assumed in previous summits regarding democracy, a state of law, political pluralism…human rights and basic liberties.”

In a brief declaration issued Nov 2, the Mesa stated that the fact that Havana was hosting the summit should “contribute to consolidating our democratic Cuban identity.

“The Cuban government should be invited once more to fully join in the democratising currents that are growing in all sectors of our community,” it added.

Dissident leader Martha Beatriz Roque and several of her fellow members of the so-called”Group of Four”, jailed for releasing a document against the government of Fidel Castro, reportedly received permission to leave prison for a few hours Thursday to visit their families.