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Rare Opposition Gathering
Opens in Cuba
By Anita Snow, Associated
Press Writer. Yahoo!
News, May 20, 2005.
HAVANA - With shouts of "Freedom"
and the singing of the Cuban national anthem,
more than 200 people on Friday opened a
rare opposition assembly in communist Cuba,
uninterrupted by authorities despite the
expulsion of European lawmakers, journalists
and others who planned to attend.
Martha Beatriz Roque, the meeting's lead
organizer and a former political prisoner
who attempted a similar gathering nine years
ago, called it "a point of departure"
for future work.
"There will be a before and after
for May 20 in Cuba," Roque said, claiming
it was the first such gathering in Fidel
Castro's 46 years of communist rule. "This
is a triumph for all the opposition."
Several years in the planning, the general
meeting of the Assembly for the Promotion
of Civil Society was aimed at bringing together
diverse opposition groups to discuss promotion
of a Western-style democracy in Cuba.
It was marred by infighting among some
of the opposition groups and the expulsion
of several foreigners from the country,
but organizers said it was a victory that
the two-day meeting began without interruption
from the government.
"This is a really nice surprise,"
said the veteran activist Vladimiro Roca.
"My predictions were not realized.
I didn't think the government would allow
it to happen."
A planned 1996 meeting of the now-defunct
Concilio Cubano was canceled after about
50 members were rounded up beforehand. The
day the convention was to be held, Cuban
MiGs off the island's coast shot down two
American civilian planes carrying four members
of the exile group Brothers to the Rescue,
plunging the countries into political crisis.
Seated in rows of plastic chairs bought
with donations from exile groups, the delegates
cheered as organizers played an audiotaped
message from President Bush.
"I have a message to those assembling
today to protest in Cuba: As you struggle
for the freedom of your country, the American
people stand with you," Bush said in
his traditional May 20 speech recognizing
Cuban Independence Day.
"Viva Bush" or "Long Live
Bush," some delegates shouted in contrast
with cries heard earlier in the meeting
of "Abajo Fidel" or "Down
with Fidel."
Cuba on Thursday expelled two European
lawmakers who had planned to attend the
gathering and refused entry to two others
earlier this week. Six Poles - three journalists,
a human rights worker and two students -
were being expelled from the country on
Friday, the Polish Foreign Ministry said
in Warsaw.
Two former Spanish senators, Isabel San
Baldomero and Rosa Lopez Garnica, also were
told to leave Cuba, Spain's conservative
Popular Party said Friday. Spanish Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos denounced
the expulsions as "unacceptable."
Also barred from entering the country this
week was a representative of the powerful
Miami exile lobby, the Cuban American National
Foundation.
"This is typical behavior of a totalitarian
state," said Czech Senator Karel Schwarzenberg,
one of the lawmakers police took to the
airport Thursday afternoon.
In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco
Fini summoned the Cuban ambassador for clarification
on the reported detention of Francesco Battistini,
a journalist with Italy's daily Corriere
della Sera. Battistini was expected back
in Italy on the first available flight.
Cuba typically detains, and often expels,
international journalists working on the
island without government approval.
"These actions demonstrate the Cuban
government's fear of Cubans who assert their
rights and underline the need for change,"
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said in Washington.
Organizers, who had predicted about 500
people would show up for the meeting, which
was held in the back yard of veteran dissident
Felix Bonne, seemed satisfied with a turnout
closer to 200.
A little more than half were delegates
from opposition groups around the island.
The rest were organizers, international
journalists, diplomats and other guests.
"This is an exercise in grass roots
democracy," said James Cason, chief
of the U.S. Interests Section. Castro accuses
the American mission of bankrolling the
opposition on the island - a charge that
Washington denies.
"This is about Cubans discussing,
in their own country, their own future,"
Cason said.
Cuban authorities have not directly commented
on the meeting.
The event also revealed divisions within
the dissident movement itself. The Christian
Liberation Movement, led by internationally
known dissident Oswaldo Paya, refused to
attend but told Associated Press Television
News his decision was not based on rivalry
"but a distrust of where these people
come from."
"They don't represent the majority
of the opposition, or even the most important
groups," said Paya, lead organizer
of the Varela Project democracy effort.
"It's a smoke screen."
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