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FROM
CUBA
Cuban
engineer fired for having signed Varela
Project petition
HAVANA, December 9 (www.cubanet.org) -
An engineer at the Polar beer bottling plant
in Havana was fired December 5 for having
signed his name to the Varela Project petition
circulated by opponents of the present government.
Félix Cabrera, 56, had been engineer
in charge of machinery at the plant.
"On Friday they called me into the
office, where I found Communist Party representatives,
the director of the factory and two State
Security agents who identified themselves
as Juan and Ernesto," said Cabrera.
"They said they had been following
me for months, but that signing the Varela
Project was the last straw."
The Varela Project is a petition formulated
under provisions of the Cuban Constitution,
seeking some political changes in the island
still within the present system of government.
At the meeting, Cabrera said he asked the
officials assembled: "Where is the
labor union, and whom does it represent?"
only to be answered by the State Security
major who had identified himself as Ernesto:
"Here, we run the unions, and those
who are against the Revolution don't have
any rights to a union."
Cabrera said by the time he arrived home
that day, the coordinator of the local neighborhood
Committee for the Defense of the Revolution
told him: "We already know they fired
you from the factory. Now be careful what
you do, because it could cost you."
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