"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Showing posts with label derechos humanos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label derechos humanos. Show all posts
Jorge Duany, Director of CRI and Juan Carlos González Leiva
Tonight at the Green Library at Florida International University the Cuban human rights defender Juan Carlos González Leiva spoke about his experiences as an activist in Cuba at an event organized by the Cuban Research Institute (CRI).The conversation was in Spanish and excerpts are available in the video playlist below. He is an attorney who has spent the past twenty years in Cuba defending human rights in an atmosphere that is hostile.
Juan Carlos has been a prisoner of conscience and been subjected to cruel and unusual treatment while in captivity amounting to torture. The sound in the recording is muffled by the air conditioning in the room but it is worthwhile to listen closely to what he has to say especially on the subject of extrajudicial killings in Cuba where he engages in an overview of a number of well known and not so well known cases.
I want to thank to the first two speakers, because I realize that we are here today and we are working for the same things: we are working for pacific solutions and we are expecting that the international community recognize our realities. I also want to thank to the organizer of this Summit for Human Rights
and Democracy, It is my pleasure to thank all the friends whom worked
to make this meeting possible, to facilitate my travel here and to all
of you joining us here today.
My country is in a deteriorated and in
an unstable situation. My people have suffered the lack of human rights
for many decades already. My family has been directly affected and
attacked; I think it is time to stop. It is time to change and every
time a growing group of Cubans is working to make that change true.
At the same time the Cuban government has developed a series of legal
reforms and public messages designed to preserve its powers and
authority. These reforms do not guarantee the citizen rights: this
is the Fraud Change.
I want to be clear about something: the lack of human rights is the
principle reason, for the suffering, poverty and social problems of our
people. Cubans, like all human beings, we need to be free to be
prosperous. Europe is the proof that a country doesn’t have to choose
between being economically successful or to be a state of rights. And Cuba
is neither of these two things.
In 2007, my father and the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL in
Spanish) delivered a legal initiative called the Heredia Project to the
National Assembly (which is our Parliament). This project, as well as the
Varela Project (which is supported by more than 25,000 citizens), and you cannot imagine how difficult it is to collect the signatures of thousands of people living in fear. This project calls
for elemental rights which are grounded in a few articles of the Cuban
constitution, but are violated in the law and in the practice.
Now, The Christian Liberation Movement which is our movement, as well
as other organizations in the opposition, is collecting signatures in
support of the Heredia Project´s call for legal changes.
Coincidentally, some of the reforms which the government promotes are
precisely in some of the areas in which the Heredia Project has called
for reform. In each case, the new laws, far from giving power to the
people, have been designed so that the government retains the last
word.
These laws, not only confirm the government´s control, they also
maintain the discrimination against the Cuban citizens. For instance,
the reform of the immigration laws eliminated the exit permit (permiso
de salida), but added a list of requirements to receive the actualized
passport. The government continues deciding who may enter or leave the
island. So it is a procedural change and not an actual recognition of
the right to travel that all people have because of their human
condition. And this is just one representative example. This time I
could get out but other Cubans couldn’t and still can’t.
The Heredia Project has hundreds of activists in different provinces
of the country and from different organizations of the opposition. It
forms part of the Path of the People, which is a proposal that is
welcomed and supported by the majority of the Cuban democratic
movement. The Path of the People demands fundamental rights which the
Cuban people lack, and suggests steps to obtain them. It also expresses
the fact that the opposition in Cuba is united in its objectives.
As The Vision of The Path of the People says: “it is up to only us
Cubans to define and decide on the changes our society needs and to
accomplish our national project” and as my father said: Nobody, not a
state, neither a market could be over the freedom of the persons and the
decisions of the peoples.
We don´t want and we don’t need to depend of nobody, not of Venezuela, not of United State. What we do need is to be free.
Free to dream, free to decide, free to love, free to make, free to
build with our imaginations and our efforts the society that we, the
Cubans, choose.
The Path of the People also says: Yet, for our citizens to truly
design, decide and build their future, their rights must be guaranteed
by the law and a trustful and respectful environment must be attained.
Only by doing so will we engage in a genuine national dialogue and
launch an inclusive process of legal reform to preserve the advances the
people have achieved and to exercise the people’s sovereign right to
change that which the people decide to change.
So, our demand is for the right of all Cubans to their fundamental
rights and to free elections. We need political support for these and
the other demands which are contained in the Path of the People and this
is the support that we expect from all of you.
Otherwise, The Cuban Government have continued and have raised the
repression against the political activists. The leaders of the Heredia
Project in the whole country are always under watch and oppression of
the State Security. Other opposition’s groups and independent´s
journalists are also suffering the government hostility. The Cuban
Democratic Movement is entirely peaceful and it is being confronted by
the force and in many cases with violence.
As my father said: The heroic Cuban civic fighters, the citizens who
sign the Varela Project, are not carrying arms. We do not have a single
weapon. We are holding out both arms, offering our hands to all Cubans,
as brothers, and to all the peoples of the world. The first victory we
can claim is that we do not have hate in our hearts. We therefore say to
those who persecute and try to dominate us: you are my brother, I do
not hate you, but you are no longer going to dominate me through fear, I
do not want to impose my truth, and I do not want you to impose yours,
let us seek the truth together.
My dear father, Oswaldo Payá, and my young friend Harold Cepero gave
their lives fighting peacefully against the Fraud Change and for the
freedom of the Cubans. My family, the MCL and many people do not believe that their deaths were accidental. My father received many
death threats during his life, which increased in the last months of his
life. We received a mobile text message from Madrid that told us that
his car was hit by another car. And much of the information suggests
that their deaths were provoked intentionally. We are asking for your support of our request for an International Investigation into their
deaths.
I have a fear, but my fear will not dominate me and I trust and I
know that more Cubans feel the same way. We have a path, so we have a
hope.
Chapter 3 of the program Citizen’s Reasons with the topic "Human rights in Cuba." Invited to the conversation Darsi Ferrer, Guillermo Fariñas, Elizardo Sánchez, Wilfredo Vallin and as moderator Reinaldo Escobar
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