[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 28 (Wednesday, March 13, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H886-H887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CUBANS SEEKING POLITICAL CHANGE

  (Mr. FLAKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include therein 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a remarkable event 
that occurred last Thursday on the island of Cuba. According to 
Reuters, ``In an apparently unprecedented move during Fidel Castro's 
43-year rule, a group of dissidents says it has gathered 10,000 
signatures to ask the Cuban parliament for a referendum on political 
reforms.''
  ``We are proposing a consultation with the people so that they can 
decide about change,'' a leading moderate dissident, Oswaldo Paya, who 
is the main promoter of the so-called Varela Project, told Reuters late 
on Wednesday.
  The project, named for the pro-independence Catholic Priest Felix 
Varela, is based on Article 88 of the Cuban constitution, which says 
new legislation may be proposed by citizens if more than 10,000 voters 
support them.
  The proposed referendum, Paya says, would be on the need to guarantee 
rights of freedom of expression and association and amnesty for 
political prisoners; more opportunities for private businesses; and new 
electoral law and a general election.
  Unfortunately, it is virtually certain that the National Assembly 
will reject the referendum.
  Mr. Speaker, I include these two articles and state for the Record 
that these dissidents from Cuba deserve to be seen and heard.

               [From the Associated Press, Mar. 8, 2002]

                    Cubans Seeking Political Change

                            (By Anita Snow)

       Havana.--Cuban dissidents said Friday they have collected 
     10,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on overhauling 
     the government, a move unprecedented in communist Cuba.
       Miguel Saludes of Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement said 
     activists were checking the signatures to verify their 
     authenticity. The petition will then be delivered to Cuba's 
     National Assembly, he said.

[[Page H887]]

       He would not say when activists expected to have the 
     document ready. The proposed referendum, known as the Varela 
     Project, appears to be the first signature-gathering effort 
     to get this far under the government of Fidel Castro (news--
     web sites), in power for 43 years.
       The referendum would ask voters whether they think 
     guarantees are needed to assure the rights of free speech and 
     association and whether they support an amnesty for political 
     prisoners. It would also call for new electoral laws and more 
     opportunities for Cubans to run their own private businesses.
       Castro's government has not commented publicly on the 
     effort. Previous petition efforts have stalled in part 
     because people were afraid to sign, but in the decade since 
     the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government has shown 
     slightly more tolerance for opposition groups.
       The project is named for Father Felix Varela, a Roman 
     Catholic priest who fought for the emancipation of slaves on 
     the Caribbean island. The referendum was first mentioned by 
     the Christian Liberation Movement shortly after Pope John 
     Paul (news--web sites) II's visit here in January 1998.
       The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation 
     and the Democratic Solidarity Party later joined the 
     Christian Liberation Movement in helping coordinate the 
     signature-gathering drive. The groups have been gathering 
     signatures across the island since early last year.
       All three groups operate here without the approval of the 
     government, which regularly characterizes its opponents as 
     ``counter-revolutionaries'' and ``mercenaries'' for the U.S. 
     government and Cuban exiles.
                                  ____


           Cuba Dissidents Say 10,000 Sign Referendum Appeal

                        (By Isabel Garcia-Zarza)

       Havana (Reuters)--In an apparently unprecedented move 
     during President Fidel Castro's 43-year rule, a group of 
     dissidents says it has gathered 10,000 signatures to ask the 
     Cuban parliament for a referendum on political reforms.
       ``We are proposing a consultation with the people so they 
     decide about change,'' a leading moderate dissident, Oswaldo 
     Paya, who is the main promoter of the so-called Varela 
     Project, told Reuters late on Wednesday.
       The project, named for pro-independence Catholic priest 
     Felix Varela (1788-1853), is based on article 88 of the Cuban 
     constitution, which says new legislation may be proposed by 
     citizens if more than 10,000 voters support them.
       The proposed referendum, Paya said, would be on the need to 
     guarantee the rights of free expression and association; an 
     amnesty for political prisoners; more opportunities for 
     private business; a new electoral law; and a general 
     election.
       Havana, which scorns dissidents as ``counter-
     revolutionary'' pawns of a hostile U.S. government and anti-
     Castro Cuban American groups, has publicly ignored the 
     project. But Paya and others behind the campaign accused the 
     government of mounting a strong campaign of ``threats and 
     persecution'' to impede the gathering of signatures and 
     delivery of letters to authorities.
       ``Authorities are acting like gangsters,'' said Paya, who 
     has a long list of alleged verbal and physical abuse against 
     Varela Project activists in the last year.


                       `GOVERNMENT AFRAID'--PAYA

       ``The government is afraid of this liberating gesture, 
     where a social vanguard is showing it has no fear. The 
     government is afraid when the people are not afraid,'' he 
     added. Castro frequently says his one-party communist system 
     is more democratic than the Western model and denies the 
     existence of political prisoners or repression of freedom of 
     expression.
       The signatures, gathered by activists across the Caribbean 
     island of 11 million inhabitants over the last year, will be 
     presented to the National Assembly in a few weeks, once all 
     10,000 signatures have been checked and ratified, Paya said.
       ``This has never been done before, it has no precedent,'' 
     he added. ``It shows Cubans not only want changes, but also 
     are ready to face the risks to show they want changes.'' 
     According to Paya, more than 100 small opposition groups have 
     backed the initiative. However, some prominent dissidents, 
     such as Martha Beatriz Roque, do not support it, arguing it 
     is unrealistic to seek change within a constitution designed 
     by the Castro government.
       Paya did not say what Varela Project backers will do if the 
     initiative is rejected by the National Assembly, something 
     analysts and diplomats think is virtually certain. ``We are 
     ready to keep demanding our rights,'' he said.
       Over the four decades since the 1959 revolution, Cuba's 
     scattered and marginalized internal dissident movement has 
     made little headway against Castro's grip on power. Castro 
     again scathingly lambasted dissidents this week, in a three-
     hour TV speech, as nonrepresentative of the Cuban people and 
     intent on helping Washington bring Cuba into the U.S. 
     ``empire.''

                          ____________________