La convocatoria a una reunión
general del movimiento disidente en Cuba ha destapado la pugna entre dos
reconocidos segmentos de la oposición interna sobre la forma de conducir una
transición democrática en la isla: con reformas calibradas o
desmantelamientos radicales.
La Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil (APSC), que organiza la
cumbre disidente de los próximos 20 y 21 de mayo, rechaza cualquier tipo de
intercambio con los representantes del gobierno, una puerta que dejan
entreabierta el Proyecto Varela y la propuesta de Diálogo Nacional,
iniciativas promovidas por el Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL) de
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.
''Con el gobierno no hay nada que discutir'', manifestó Martha Beatriz
Roque, promotora del foro, quien encabeza la coalición de la APSC. ``La
sociedad civil está desligada del Estado cubano, y con el gobierno que la
frena no podemos contar''.
Roque dijo que respetaba la voluntad del MCL de incluir al gobierno en
sus proyectos reformadores y consideró loable el Proyecto Varela ''porque
obligó al régimen [en el 2003] a transformar la constitución vigente'', pero
apuntó que ''hasta el momento ninguna propuesta de cambio ha resultado tan
aglutinadora, dentro y fuera del país'', como la cumbre convocada por la
APSC.
Payá negó que sus iniciativas sean conciliadoras con el gobierno y culpó
a los líderes de la APSC de haber ''fomentado y dirigido campañas
sistemáticas de difamación, confusión, desaliento, provocaciones y mentiras''
contra las propuestas del MCL.
El MCL, el Partido Solidaridad Democrática y la coalición Arco
Progresista --de tendencia moderada-- son las únicas agrupaciones de la
disidencia interna que han declinado hasta ahora su participación en la
cumbre de mayo. La Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación
Nacional (CCDHRN), de Elizardo Sánchez, ha manifestado su ''apoyo abierto y
público'' a la reunión de la APSC, así como al Diálogo Nacional liderado por
Payá.
''La negativa de un grupo a participar en una reunión no daña al
movimiento disidente, que cada día muestra mayor diversidad de tendencias
ideológicas'', manifestó Vladimiro Roca, delegado de la coalición Todos
Unidos. ``Lo que verdaderamente perjudica es hacer públicas las diferencias
y las pugnas, porque eso sólo favorece y alegra al gobierno''.
Todos Unidos lanzó un llamado a la oposición interna y a las fuerzas del
exilio a ``impedir, con su acción decidida, las manifestaciones de
sectarismo, intolerancia y marginación por parte de cualquier persona,
movimiento o agrupación''.
La renuencia de Payá a sumarse al congreso disidente se sustenta en que
''las personas que dirigirán y que convocan a ese evento, durante años se
han dedicado a la difamación de los líderes verdaderos de la oposición'' y
han boicoteado el Diálogo Nacional ``mediante maniobras para confundir y
desalentar''.
''Las presiones que hemos recibido para que asistamos a esa reunión son
inaceptables'', afirmó Payá, quien opinó que la convocatoria de la APSC es
``una iniciativa de una parte de la oposición y no de toda la oposición''.
Los miembros de la APSC --que aseguran reunir unos 300 grupos y entidades
opositoras-- niegan haber boicoteado el Diálogo Nacional. ''En todo momento
hemos hablado con respeto del Diálogo, pero la realidad es que el proyecto
del Diálogo es posterior a la Asamblea'', expresó Roque.
Las rivalidades entre ambas agrupaciones salen a la luz luego de un
intenso debate en el exilio sobre el Proyecto Varela, que polarizó
posiciones en torno al reconocimiento de la actual constitución socialista,
vigente desde 1976. Luego de la visita de Payá a Miami, en enero del 2003,
arreciaron los ataques de los sectores radicales, acusándolo de desconocer
los derechos de los exiliados y de priorizar el acercamiento a la Unión
Europea en detrimento del papel de Estados Unidos.
En contraste, en el exilio la reunion convocada por la APSC ha recibido
un apoyo múltiple de diversas agrupaciones y sectores, sumando a quienes
durante años han defendido estrategias antagónicas para solucionar el caso
cubano.
Las campañas de recaudación y donativos se han multiplicado en los
últimos días, mientras que agrupaciones reunidas la pasada semana
propusieron aplazar todas sus actividades previstas en los próximos 50 días
y concentrar los esfuerzos en el apoyo a la cumbre en Cuba.
El listado de apoyo integra coaliciones y grupos de la llamada línea
intransigente como Unidad Cubana, el Foro Patriótico, el Concilio por la
Libertad de Cuba, la Brigada 2506 y las organizaciones de ex presos
politicos, hasta la ahora moderada Fundacion Nacional Cubanoamericana (FNCA)
y el pacifista Movimiento Democracia.
Este sábado una representación de estos grupos anunciará un plan de
respaldo a la APSC, el cual incluye la apertura de un Centro de Apoyo e
Información en Miami.
El listado de apoyo integra coaliciones y grupos de la llamada línea
intransigente como Unidad Cubana, el Foro Patriótico, el Concilio por la
Libertad de Cuba, la Brigada 2506 y las organizaciones de ex presos
politicos, hasta la ahora moderada Fundacion Nacional Cubanoamericana (FNCA)
y el pacifista Movimiento Democracia.
El flamante senador federal Mel Martínez y los representantes federales
cubanoamericanos por el sur de la Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen y Mario y
Lincoln Díaz-Balart, han impulsado decisivamente la agenda de la cumbre ante
el Congreso y la Casa Blanca.
''Esta es una reunión de opositores verdaderos'', señaló Félix I.
Rodríguez, presidente de la Brigada 2506. ``Ellos [la APSC] comparten con
nosotros la idea de un cambio radical, sin sucesión en el régimen, y
reconocen la Constitución de 1940, no la constitución socialista''.
Por su parte, el Movimiento Democracia --firme promotor del Proyecto
Varela-- realizará una flotilla frente a las costas cubanas el próximo 20 de
mayo, en solidaridad con la reunión de los opositores.
''Nuestra misión es apoyar el espacio democrático que todos los
opositores están abriendo en la sociedad cubana'', explicó Ramón Saúl
Sánchez, líder del Movimiento Democracia. ``Estamos a favor de todas las
acciones que contribuyan a desgarrar la dictadura''.
U.S. allows hunger striker on its property
By CAROL ROSENBERG
Herald Staff Writer
Sitting in a wheelchair, water-only hunger striker Ramon Saul Sanchez
moved his
17-day-old fast 100 feet across the street Friday after the government
relented on
the venue of his protest -- but not on releasing his boat, The Human Rights.
``Morally, I feel very, very strong. I'm surprised by how strong I
feel,'' said a
weak-looking Sanchez, 44, who has lost 27 pounds in more than two weeks.
The founder of the Democracy Movement was buoyed by the arrival just
moments
earlier of a hand-written card from Florida's Republican governor.
``Dear Ramon: My prayers are with you,'' it said. ``Stay strong.
Sincerely, Jeb
Bush.''
Tiny print on the card added, ``not printed at taxpayer expense.''
Amid shouts of ``¡Adelante!'' and ``¡Libertad!,'' Sanchez stopped
lunchtime traffic
at West Flagler Street and First Avenue by moving from a city park
diagonally
across the street to the Claude Pepper Federal Building.
He was surrounded by dozens of supporters, federal and local police
officers, and
escorted on either side in his wheelchair by Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex
Penelas, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican, amid
the
whir of TV and still cameras.
Federal authorities at first denied his petition for a permit to stage
the hunger
strike at the federal building. Democracy Movement lawyers and the ACLU on
Monday asked a federal judge to intervene on Sanchez's right to protest on
U.S.
property.
On Thursday, just moments before an emergency hearing, the government
relented. By agreement of federal authorities, he can sit outside the
building from
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week.
Miami's ACLU chapter president, John de Leon, called the decision ``an
important
victory. . . . It demonstrates that there is no federal exemption to the
First
Amendment.''
Democracy Movement members said Sanchez's 12-foot-by-12-foot tent will
remain across the street. Sanchez has used a portable latrine there, slept
there,
lain in a cot or sprawled in a recliner there since starting the fast May 5.
Supporters attend to him around the clock and also solicit signatures on
preprinted letters to President Clinton, protesting the boat's seizure. A
pointed
banner addressed to Clinton's national security advisor also decorated the
spot
Friday.
``Sandy Berger: You are the threat to national security!,'' it said.
The Coast Guard seized the 35-foot fiberglass fishing boat Dec. 10 at sea
after
Sanchez refused to pledge not to sail into Cuban waters. Sanchez vows not to
eat until its release.
Howard Simon, Miami's ACLU director, said intensive talks were continuing
with
at least five different federal agencies on getting the boat freed from a
Key West
dry dock. They include the National Security Council, the State Department,
the
Coast Guard, Customs and the Treasury Department.
Otherwise, he said, the ACLU and Democracy Movement intend to challenge
-- in
court -- the extraordinary World War I-era presidential maritime powers that
let the
government seize the boat.
The Clinton administration discovered the powers as a way of defusing
tensions
between the exile community and the Cuban government after Cuba in February
1996 shot down two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes.
``It's in everybody's interest for the government to return the boat and
keep Saul
Sanchez alive as a leader of the exile community,'' Simon said.
Diaz-Balart again Friday characterized the extraordinary Clinton
administration
measures as serving to safeguard the Cuban regime from both peaceful and
violent protest at the expense of U.S. civil liberties.
Penelas, a lawyer, said he has studied the matter and had found no
justification
for the government's using the law to seize Sanchez's vessel.
The Miami Herald
May 20, 1999
Activist's hunger strike draws crowds
By CAROL ROSENBERG
Herald Staff Writer
On Day 15 of Ramon Saul Sanchez's water-only hunger strike -- called to
free a
fishing boat, the Human Rights, from a Key West dry-dock -- the dirt lot
opposite
Miami's Claude Pepper Federal Building looked like a full-blown South
Florida
festival.
Trucks careened past bearing Cuban and U.S. flags. Pension-age exiles
wearing
caps and T-shirts of Sanchez's Movimiento Democracia and Alpha 66 crammed
around a 12-by-12-foot tent. Inside, Sanchez, 44, sat wearily in a recliner,
next to
the cot where he has slept since declaring the strike, shunning all but
water.
The tent is decorated with a photo of Jose Marti, a poster of Martin
Luther King
Jr., religious items, a scale, a portable toilet -- and a huge sign
declaring the U.S.
government's seizure of the 35-foot fishing boat ``an infamy -- MacCarthyism
[sic]
at its worst.''
At issue: The U.S. government's Dec. 10 decision to seize Human Rights,
one of
the movement's two boats. Sanchez wants it back; he vows not to take
sustenance until the Coast Guard releases it.
A former gun-toting commando who now advocates nonviolent change on the
island, Sanchez lost the ship at sea because he refused to pledge that he
would
not take it into Cuban waters.
He started the hunger strike at 10:30 a.m. May 5 after a robust breakfast
of black
beans, rice and picadillo, the traditional Cuban ground beef dish. He
weighed 224
at the time and is now down to 198, he said.
``This has been such a spiritually rewarding experience, even though
physically it
might be a little bit harsh,'' Sanchez said Wednesday morning while
supporters
gathered signatures for letters to President Clinton urging the boat's
release.
He got dewy-eyed when a letter arrived from the Information Bureau of
Human
Rights in Cuba declaring that the Havana-based Directorate for Political
Prisoners
and Former Political Prisoners of Cuba supports his effort.
``How far is this administration going to take this policy of being the
bodyguard of
the Castro regime?'' Republican Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart asked.
``They
not only prevent armed action against Castro, they prevent people like
[Brothers
to the Rescue founder Jose] Basulto and Sanchez from carrying out peaceful
protests. It's unconscionable.''
Diaz-Balart, who spoke from Washington, has visited Sanchez twice during
the
hunger strike and characterizes the seizure of the vessel as
``unconstitutional.''
``The question is, are they going to wait until Ramon Saul Sanchez dies
before
they release the boat? That would mean eternal shame on them. I hope and
pray
that they act, as I have demanded on the House floor.''
The Clinton administration has periodically invoked extraordinary
maritime powers
to clamp down on Sanchez's protests at sea in the aftermath of Cuba's
February
1996 shootdown of two Brothers planes that left four men dead. Sanchez said
he
started the hunger strike after less-public efforts to pressure the U.S.
government
failed.
Besides seeking the return of the boat, he said his fast should also
demonstrate
the power of peaceful protest to democratic forces on the island.
``The boat is a symbol of freedom, of human rights, of civil rights,'' he
said. ``It's
the principle.''
Ever since Sanchez got the city permit to hold the demonstration and set
up the
carpeted tent in the park opposite the Miami-Dade Cultural Center, his
hunger
strike headquarters have increasingly become a pilgrimage point for Cuban
activists.
Elderly Cubans rallied around the tent early Wednesday, urging passersby
to sign
the letters to the President. A few handed cash to volunteers in Democracy
Movement T-shirts to help offset costs, although fund raising is frowned
upon at
the site, spokesman Luis Felipe Rojas said.
Sanchez stays there around the clock but never alone, Rojas said.
Friends, family and movement members sit vigil with him. Crowds gather
around
past midnight. Downtown homeless people have also dropped by, Sanchez said.
One presented him with a long-obsolete hotel key as a good-luck charm.
e-mail: crosenberg@herald.com
Copyright 1999 Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
November 9, 1999
Anti-Castro activist arrested outside Cuban offices in
D.C.
BY KAREN BRANCH
Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the anti-Castro Democracia Movement, was
arrested by the Secret Service on Monday outside the Cuban Interests
Section in
Washington, D.C. -- where he was in his fourth day of a hunger strike.
Agustin Garcia, another Democracia member, said Sanchez was arrested
after
he tried to pass a letter and a white rose through the metal bars at the
entrance.
``They said he was violating the law, Garcia said. ``Something about
foreign
territory.
The actual charge, according to D.C. police, was disorderly conduct.
``He was arrested by the Secret Service . . . at 12:30 p.m., D.C.
Officer Dee
Williams said. ``He paid a fine, but I don't know if he was released.
D.C. police spokesman Anthony O'Leary said Sanchez will have to appear
in
court at a later date, but would not comment on Sanchez's whereabouts: ``As
far
as conditions of his release, I can't get into that.
Luis Felipe Rojas, a Democracia spokesman, said police told him they
were
transporting Sanchez to a local hospital at about 5:30 p.m.
``He's been on the hunger strike and is very weak, Rojas said.
Garcia said employees at D.C. General Hospital's emergency room
confirmed
Sanchez was there late Monday: ``They told me they could not allow me to
speak
to him because he's under police custody.''
Sanchez launched the hunger strike to protest a policy by the Cuban
government
requiring visas for Cuban exiles who want to return to their homeland.
``The letter said it was a declaration that under United Nations, he has
the right to
enter his country of origin,'' Garcia said.
The white rose was a symbolic gesture that alluded to a poem by Cuban
independence hero Jose Marti. In one of his Versos Sencillos, Marti wrote,
``I
grow a white rose . . . [even] for the cruel person who tears out my
heart.''
The Miami Herald
May 6, 1999
Democracia leader on hunger strike
Following a hunger strike by the mothers of Cubans detained at the Krome
detention center, the leader of the Democracia Movement began a hunger
strike
of his own Wednesday asking for the return of a boat seized by the federal
government.
Carrying inspirational books about Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and
Martin
Luther King Jr., Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez began the
strike at the northwest corner of West Flagler Street and First Avenue near
the
Claude Pepper Federal Building.
``I'm willing to give up my life, not for the boat, but for the principle
of it,'' Sanchez
said. ``You can buy a boat anywhere, but you cannot buy a right.'' He said
he is
appealing to the President of the United States, by whose direct order the
boat
was seized.
The 35-foot boat ``Human Rights'' was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard some
25
miles south of Key West in international waters Dec. 10. The boat is being
held
by U.S. Customs, which sent a letter to Sanchez refusing to return the
vessel
because ``no assurances were provided by you that you did not intend to
enter
Cuban waters.''
Although members of the group say they were heading to Cuba to hand out
copies of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights on the 50th anniversary
of
the document's signing, the group declines to tell the Coast Guard where it
is
going because it believes the question violates civil rights.
Sanchez now has 30 days to post a $2,800 bond and request a court hearing
so
a judge can decide the boat's fate. If he does not post the bond, the
government
can sell the boat at an auction. Sanchez has not decided yet what he'll do.
CNN
July 6, 1998
Exile group sends raft with aid to Cuba
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- In a protest aimed at the United States as well as
Fidel Castro's government, a Cuban exile group sent a raft loaded with food
and humanitarian aid into Cuban waters Monday.
The Miami-based Democracy Movement said it's action was the first by an
exile group in Cuban territory since Cuba shot down two unarmed planes in
1996 flown by Brothers to the Rescue, killing four exiles.
The raft, containing food, soap and other supplies, was launched late
Sunday from Cuban waters, about 10{ miles from the Cuban coast, said Luis
Felipe Rojas, a Democracy Movement spokesman. Attached to the raft was a
20-foot-long blimp with the word "Democracy" emblazoned across it.
The action came one month after the United States resumed direct
humanitarian aid to Cuba, which was suspended after the planes were shot
down. President Clinton lifted the ban after Pope John Paul II visited Cuba
in January.
Democracy Movement said in a statement that it "needs neither a foreign
law, nor the arrogant denial of the Cuban government, to take assistance to
its own people," describing the operation as "a new tactic within its
nonviolent strategy."
The balloon could be seen from a coastal highway outside the capital,
Havana, the Mexican state-run news agency Notimex reported.
Later, some foreign journalists could see the deflated balloon and raft
on El Chivo beach, west of Havana, the agency said. Security agents kept
reporters from getting close to the scene.
Luis Diaz, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman in Miami, said the agency had no
knowledge of the group's action.
In April, the Coast Guard seized a Democracy Movement boat that tried to
sail into Cuban waters. The boat was later returned.
