Cuban Opposition Prepares its Proposals for the Summit of the Americas

Madrid/Cuban dissidents, gathered in Madrid on Thursday and Friday at the Transitions in Latin American Societies conference, have agreed on a set of actions for 2015.Their proposals include:

1. Implement actions to maintain the demands of Four Points of Minimum Consensus
2. Promote discussion of the document An Ethical Path for Cuban Civil Society at the grassroots level (Open Forum agreed by the meeting of February 25, 2015 in Havana)
3. Support peaceful pro-democracy movements for greater visibility among citizens
4. Discuss proposals for new laws on Associations and Parties and an Electoral Law
5. Begin the Journey of thought to Cuba (3.0)
6. Encourage projects by youth for youth

Among the participants in the meeting, which took place in La Casa de America, were Dagoberto Valdés Hernández (of the magazine Convivencia), Daniel Millet Jiménez (Comando Agromontino F.N.R. Orlando Zapata), Eliécer Ávila Cicilia (leader of Somos+), Elizardo Sánchez (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional), Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” (Frente Nacional de Resistencia Cívica Orlando Zapata), Manuel Cuesta Morúa (Arco Progresista), Reinaldo Escobar (editor-in-chief of14ymedio), Yoani Sánchez (director of14ymedio) y Yusmila Reina Ferrera ( Unión Patriótica de Cuba).

Also participating in the event were Alejandro González Raga (executive director of Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos), Amado Lorenzo (president of the Grupo de Estrategia y Geopolítica), Andrés Hernández (vice president of the Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba), Antonio Guedes Sánchez (Asociación de Iberoamericanos por la Libertad), Antonio José Ponte (Diario de Cuba), Elena Larrinaga de Luis (FECU/Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos), Frisia Batista ( Raíces de Esperanza), José Oscar Pérez Couce (President of the Centro Cubano de España), María Matienzo Puerto (Diario de Cuba), Tomás G. Muñoz y Oribe (Vice president of Relaciones Internacionales Unión Liberal Cubana), as well as Spanish politicians and representatives from European embassies in Spain.

Attendees discussed the establishment of the Democratic Unity Roundtable in Venezuela and its possible applications to the Cuban case

Attendees discussed the establishment of the Democratic Unity Roundtable in Venezuela and its possible applications to the Cuban case. The current status of the opposition in Cuba was also discussed, along with short-term action strategies (before the conclusion of the Summit of the Americas in Panama on 10 and 11 April), as well as medium- and long-term strategies.

One of the objectives of activists gathered in Madrid has been the development of a Journey of Thought for a new country that would include a diagnosis of the major social and economic challenges and the development of possible solutions. They also attempted to come to consensus on ideas and actions for Cuban civil society inside and outside the island, to achieve unity in the face of a peaceful transition, including freedom of expression, the ethical use of the media and new technologies, a process of civic education for the proper exercise of freedom, entrepreneurial empowerment, in addition to the essential legal and constitutional changes.

Participants agreed to organize follow-up meetings based on themes – economy, education, agriculture, communications media, new technologies – and the widest possible dissemination of these discussions outside the Island under the slogan “Another Cuba is possible.”