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CUBA
NEWS
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Thousands more sign petition seeking political,
economic change in Cuba
HAVANA, 3 (AFP) - In another bold challenge to
the Americas' only one-party communist government,
dissident Oswaldo Paya delivered more than 14,000
new signatures backing the Varela Project seeking
a referendum on political and economic change.
"Change in Cuba has begun," Paya told
reporters after delivering a box of papers bearing
the signatures to Cuba's National Assembly.
The Varela Project petition requests a referendum
on five points -- freedom of expression and association,
freedom of enterprise, amnesty for political prisoners,
a new electoral law and, if the referendum is
approved, elections within a year.
"The peaceful changes that Cuba wants and
needs will be realized only if the majority of
Cubans are open to freedom and solidarity,"
Paya said.
More than 11,000 signatures were collected for
the petition last year, but the Cuban legislature
threw it out in January, deeming it unconstitutional.
After delivering the new signatures, 51-year-old
Paya went to the Church of the Immaculate Conception
in central Havana, where he prayed for his fellow
dissidents -- whom he called his "jailed
brothers" -- and read a statement stressing
the need to "not lose hope" in Cuba's
future.
In April, Havana launched its toughest crackdown
against dissidents in years, netting 75 opponents
who were given summary trials, convicted and sentenced
to lengthy jail terms.
Subsequently, three people who tried to hijack
a Cuban commuter ferry to get to the United States
faced swift summary trials and execution in Cuba.
The moves brought an outcry from the European
Union and the United States.
Paya dedicated the petition to the jailed dissidents
on Friday.
Paya, the Varela Project's lead sponsor and head
of the Christian Liberation Movement outlawed
in Cuba, won the European Parliament's Sakharov
Prize in 2002 for his efforts to bring democracy
to Cuba and is a candidate for the 2003 Nobel
Peace Prize.
Both the EU and United States have said they
are reviewing their relations with Cuba in light
of the crackdown.
The United States does not have full diplomatic
ties with Cuba and has had a tough, full economic
embargo clamped on Havana for more than four decades.
European nations that have invested heavily in
Cuba's top industry, tourism, have always tried
to keep economic and diplomatic channels as open
as possible, until now.
Thursday, US Assistant Secretary of State for
the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega told a Senate
Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Cuba in
Washington that Havana has a biological arms program,
an accusation the United States also made last
year.
"We continue ... to believe that Cuba has
at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological
weapons research and development effort and is
providing dual-use biotechnology to other rogue
states," Noriega said.
Meanwhile the wife of jailed Cuban dissident
Oscar Elias Biscet asked for international help
in cutting short his 25-year sentence, citing
his solitary confinement in deplorable conditions.
Daughter of Executed Spy Pilot Sues Cuba
MIAMI, 2 (AP) - The daughter of a CIA pilot shot
down and executed during the Bay of Pigs invasion
sued the Cuban government Thursday under an anti-terrorism
law.
Federal laws prohibit summary executions by
state sponsors of terrorism. An autopsy concluded
Alabama National Guard pilot Thomas "Pete"
Ray died of a gunshot to the right temple.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade
Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages. A call
seeking comment from the Cuban Interests Section
in Washington was not immediately returned.
Ray became a pawn in the Cold War when Cuba kept
his body in cold storage for 18 years while the
United States officially denied he was authorized
to be in Cuba.
Ray's body was returned in 1979, but it was 1998
before the CIA acknowledged his role in the failed
1961 attempt to oust President Fidel Castro.
"It was like our whole family was held hostage
to this," Ray's daughter Janet Weininger
said at a news conference.
In recent U.S. lawsuits, the Cuban government
has not defended itself and lost by default. Awards
can be collected by the seizure of Cuban assets
such as a plane flown by defectors to Key West
last year.
Activist Pushes for Democracy in Cuba
By ANITA SNOW, Associcated Press
Writer
HAVANA, 3 (AP) - A leading democracy activist
delivered more than 14,000 signatures to Cuba's
parliament Friday demanding a referendum for sweeping
political changes, just six months after the Fidel
Castro government's major crackdown on dissenters.
This is the second straight year activist Oswaldo
Paya delivered thousands of signatures to the
government as part of the Varela Project - considered
the biggest homegrown, nonviolent effort to push
for reforms in Cuba's one-party system.
Last year, he delivered 11,020 signatures to
the National Assembly.
"Hope is reborn," Paya said Friday
after the large box of petitions was accepted
by a government clerk. "Cuba needs changes
and there is a citizen vanguard willing to achieve
them."
The petitions propose a referendum asking voters
if they favor civil liberties like freedom of
speech and assembly, and amnesty for political
prisoners.
In a letter to National Assembly President Ricardo
Alarcon accompanying the petitions, Paya said
many Varela Project volunteers were among the
75 dissidents arrested and sentenced to long prison
terms in the spring as part of a government crackdown
on the opposition.
The crackdown was condemned internationally.
"The majority of these, the prisoners of
the Cuban spring, suffer unjust imprisonment and
are an example of the strength and dedication
of our people," Paya wrote.
"The rights that we demand in the Varela
Project are enunciated in the constitution. But
we also have them because we are human beings,
sons of God.
"And because of that we will continue demanding
them for all Cubans, with the faith that we will
achieve them."
After the first petition was delivered in May
2002, lawmakers shelved it, saying the changes
it sought were unconstitutional. Paya said he
was determined to keep pressing for the referendum.
"The Varela Project lives," Paya said.
"The campaign continues across the country."
The effort is named for Felix Varela, a Cuban
independence hero and Roman Catholic priest.
The 14,384 signatures delivered Friday raise
the combined number from both petitions to 25,404,
Paya said. Tens of thousands more signatures have
been seized by state security officials, he added.
There was no immediate response from Castro's
government.
Dozens of petition workers have been picked up
for questioning in recent weeks, although none
was formally charged, Paya said.
Paya has emerged in recent years as Cuba's best
known opposition activist and has been acknowledged
by rights groups and leaders around the world.
He has been mentioned as a possible nominee for
the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded Oct.
10.
The first package of signatures was delivered
just days before former President Carter's visit
to Cuba in May 2002. During an uncensored speech
broadcast live across the island, Carter told
Cubans about the democracy effort.
The signature drive was discussed by activists
as far back as 1996, but volunteers did not begin
collecting signatures in earnest until 2001.
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