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By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Mon Feb 3, 7:09 PM
ET
HAVANA - A leading democracy activist said Monday that Cuba's reform
movement has entered a new era, gaining support for nonviolent change both on
the communist-run island and abroad.
"There is a new chapter beginning," Oswaldo Paya said after
returning home from a tour of Europe and the Americas that began when he
accepted Europe's top human rights award in December.
Paya is a top organizer of a proposed reform measure called the Varela
Project that would let voters decide on a series of laws guaranteeing rights
like free assembly, free expression and business ownership.
He said organizers are still collecting signatures for the referendum —
even though government officials have indicated it has been shelved. He also
said he found broad support for the project among Cuban exiles in Miami.
"There is an awakening now in many places in the world that Cuba is
important," Paya told reporters. "There is growing sympathy for change
in Cuba."
Paya accepted the European Union's Sakharov prize in France on Dec. 14. He
later met with Pope John Paul II, four presidents and a host of other officials
during his seven-week tour of 10 countries.
Paya met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Mexican President
Vicente Fox and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Although Paya's trip was not publicized in Cuba's state-controlled media, he
said people here have slowly learned about the Varela Project, mostly by word of
mouth from people across the island who continue to collect signatures.
In May, organizers delivered more than 11,000 signatures to the National
Assembly asking for the referendum. Soon after, the single-house parliament
amended the constitution to say Cuba's social, economic and political systems
were "irrevocable."
Still, Paya said organizers have never received official word the Varela
Project has been rejected. | 
