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The Miami
Herald, July 2, 2002.
HAVANA - (AP) -- The first regular session of the National Assembly called
since organizers of a reform petition delivered more than 11,000 signatures to
the unicameral parliament seeking a referendum was suspended Tuesday without
explanation.
A short note on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma said only
that the regular parliamentary session scheduled for Friday had been "suspended
until a future date.''
The National Assembly had not announced an agenda for the meeting, but it
has not responded publicly to the petitions that organizers of the so-called
Varela Project delivered on May 10.
The parliament held an intense three-day special session last week to
examine and later approve a proposal to enshrine Cuba's socialist system in the
constitution as "irrevocable.''
Varela Project organizers saw that move as the government's answer to their
petition drive seeking a referendum that would ask voters if they favored civil
liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business,
electoral reforms and an amnesty for political prisoners.
Organizers of the official pro-socialism effort said they were responding to
U.S. President George W. Bush's May 20 speeches promising he would not ease
American travel to and trade with the communist island until Fidel Castro's
government holds multiparty elections and undertakes other reforms.
After turning in their signatures, Cuba's government support groups,
representing students, women, workers and community vigilance organizations,
held a petition drive of their own. In just three days they gathered more than 8
million signatures they said represented more than 99 percent of legal voters in
favor of the constitutional change.
Cuban authorities said the massive signature gathering effort was proof of
overwhelming public support for the island's economic and political systems. But
many people said they felt compelled to sign in a country where political
loyalty can affect many aspects of life.
Very few Cubans know the details of the Varela Project because it has never
been published in the state-controlled media. Cubans first heard about the
effort from former American President Jimmy Carter, who praised the project
during an uncensored, nationally broadcast speech during his visit here in
mid-May. | 
