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In solidarity
with Cuba's civil society
Posted on Sat, Sep. 04,
2004 in The
Miami Herald.
Below is a recently released letter supporting
Cuba's civic movement. It is signed by six
former Costa Rican presidents and some 300
congressional members from 12 Latin American
countries, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico
and Venezuela.
Cuba is governed at present by the only
dictatorship remaining in Latin America.
There, the values of freedom are disregarded
in the most visible manner.
Cuba is ruled by a single-party system
with an iron-fisted ideological monopoly
that has gone to the extreme of inserting
itself into the Fundamental Charter [Cuba's
Constitution] as irrevocable.
This has allowed the government to perpetuate
its rule for more than four decades, impeding
the expression of a civilian society that
-- despite repression and faced with innumerable
obstacles -- has awakened and raised the
banner of a peaceful transition to freedom
and pluralistic democracy for the Cuban
people.
With respect, support
The hope of regaining true sovereignty
for the Cuban people and securing respect
for human rights is strengthened by the
initiatives begun by this civic movement,
by the construction of independent institutions
and by the promotion of standards of conduct
that break the submission, fear, lies and
lack of free expression of human beings.
Democratic solidarity has been a key factor
in the development of this civic movement.
In view of the awakening of this hope within
Cuba, the international community has reacted
with respect and support.
Internationally renowned political figures
have met with the Cuban civic activists,
and the doors of the embassies of the world's
principal democratic countries have opened,
not only to the government, but also to
the civic opposition on the island.
However, in collective and general terms,
our region still has not expressed itself
in a clearly defined manner regarding this
opening to the budding Cuban civic movement.
In view of the hope for a peaceful change
that emerges from the depths of Cuban reality,
Latin American regional organisms and the
embassies of our countries in Havana have
a moral obligation to respond in a positive
manner.
We should not remain silent in the presence
of a regime that represses and attacks Cuba
civic activists while it rejects an opening
of the spaces for dialogue and democratic
constructiveness. It is time for our governments
to instruct their embassies in Cuba to open
to the entire Cuban people, both in their
cultural activities and their official receptions.
This way, each Latin American country will
be in contact with the diverse expressions
of the Cuban reality and will contribute
to promote social and political pluralism
in that country.
This will represent a major step of support
on the road to democracy in Cuba, stimulating
social control and strengthening the region's
political integration.
Citizen participation
We Latin American leaders whose signatures
appear below express our strongest desire
that the foreign ministries of the countries
of Latin America direct their embassies
in Havana, Cuba, to invite representatives
of the independent civilian society to participate
in those activities to which -- as is customary
throughout the world -- government authorities
and functionaries and representatives of
society are invited.
This apparently simple act of formal consideration
for citizens who do not occupy official
posts yet represent the pluralism of civilian
society could represent the recognition
of their important role and could be a decisive
stimulus to the opening of spaces of freedom.
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