Fariñas Says Latest Arrests Show The Cuban Regime’s Insecurity

San Juan, Puerto Rico/The dissident Guillermo Fariñas, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, told EFE Monday, speaking from the Puerto Rican capital, that the arrests recorded last weekend in Cuba are a sign of insecurity of the regime in Havana.

Fariñas, who participated in the closing ceremony in San Juan of the first Cuban National Conference, said the regime in Havana “was left without enemies” after the rapprochement with the US Government.

“The battle is now with the Cuban citizen, because the enemy is the people,” said Fariñas, shortly after the issuance of the Declaration of San Juan, which contains the outcome of the meeting begun last Thursday in the Puerto Rican capital in which a hundred dissidents coming from Cuba and elsewhere participated. The declaration marks the steps to follow in the coming months.

Fariñas emphasized that the approach to Washington has not decreased the intolerance of the Raul Castro regime. “They demand tolerance from everyone, but also ask to be left to do,” whatever they want, he said.

Fariñas is a part of the opponents of the regime in Havana gathered in San Juan to study a common strategy of opposition to the Government of Cuba, both inside and outside the island.

These Cuban dissidents called today for the unity of those who fight against the Castro regime during the closing ceremony of the conference.

The Declaration adopted at the conference said that the purpose of the meeting was “to seek ways to reconcile the work of the pro-democracy forces with the commitment to restore sovereignty and all their fundamental rights to the Cuban people.”