Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Charity and Patron of Cuba and the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). On Friday, September 7, 2018 Rosa Maria Rodríguez, member of the Coordinating Council of MCL, was interrogated and threatened for eight hours by the police because the Christian Liberation Movement had requested that a park in Havana be named after Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. Last year at this time Hurricane Irma was pounding Cuba. Today the Castro regime continues its dictatorial rule over the island, but Cubans continue to fight for freedom. Below is the MCL statement on the thirtieth anniversary of their founding.
No more "rectification of errors". No more "updating" of the socioeconomic system. No more "experiments." Cubans are not laboratory rats. We are human beings, and as such we deserve respect for our dignity. "We Cubans have a right to rights."
It is time for Cuban society to demand and make the changes it wants and needs. And changes mean, in the current context, freedom and all rights for all Cubans. "We do not believe the erroneous and fatal omen that there is no other way but to lead a false and unworthy life. Faced with the fatal conjuncture of Socialism or Death, we proclaim the alternative of Freedom and Life. "
We reaffirm that it is up to Cubans and only Cubans to define and decide freely and democratically the future of Cuba, as an independent and sovereign country, without interventions or foreign interference, neither from the North, nor from the South, nor from the East, nor from the West.
We remind the
international community, with respect but also firmly, that sovereignty
resides in the people, not in the government; and that the rights are held by the citizens, not the rulers. And
as Oswaldo Payá expressed before the European Parliament, on the
occasion of receiving the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience
2002, "dictatorships are not left or right, they are simply
dictatorships". If some countries or groups of
countries prefer, by promoting their own interests or geopolitical
positions, to align themselves with those who for 60 years have
oppressed and discriminated against their own people; we,
the Christian Liberation Movement, as proclaimed by our founders 30
years ago, "will fight for our freedom, even alone, as in 1868 and 1895,
even with the world against us. We do not need anyone's license in this world to claim the freedom that God gave to man. "
Once again, as we did 30 years ago, "we proclaim before the world our determination to conquer the freedom and full dignity of man, the sovereignty for the people and to build a new nation for all."
"All Cubans, all brothers and now freedom!"
September 8, 2018
XXX Anniversary of the Christian Liberation Movement
Original Spanish text here.
CHRISTIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT:
30 YEARS FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF CUBANS
On September 8, 1988, a small but courageous handful of Cubans, composed of Oswaldo Payá, Ramón Antúnez, Dagoberto Capote, Santiago Cárdenas and Fernando Arvelo, inspired by their faith, the strength of their ideals and love for our country, founded the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), to work for the recovery of popular sovereignty and national reconciliation.
"Liberation is our purpose, liberation carried out by the people, who will not be a spectator of the moment in which their destiny is decided. We do not call all against each other, but all for a new Cuba. We reject violence, offense, lies and destruction as means of struggle. We do not believe that the end justifies the means. Our goal is to achieve freedom, justice and this is achieved only moved by love. Freedom is true only if it emanates from love. "
Since then, many Cubans have joined the Christian Liberation Movement and have given their best for their Homeland. Some are no longer physically with us. Others have chosen different paths. Most of them have remained faithful to the principles and values on which the MCL is based.They have spent 30 years walking together with the people. 30 years working hard for freedom and the rights for all Cubans. 30 years suffering persecution, imprisonment, exile and even the murder of their leaders.
Today, like 30 years ago, the future of Cuba appears dark. The
Cuban regime, in a great political marketing maneuver, playing with the
longings of change of the Cuban society, tries to make believe to the
Cubans themselves and to the international community, that in Cuba a
process of changes has been initiated. But they only seek
to institutionalize the fake-change so often denounced by the Christian
Liberation Movement, which has already cost the lives of its founder
Oswaldo Payá and the youth leader Harold Cepero, as well as the
imprisonment of its current National Coordinator Eduardo Cardet.
We take this opportunity to call attention to the situation of Eduardo Cardet, who in 2014 was elected by the Coordinating Council of the MCL as Oswaldo Payá's successor to lead the Christian Liberation Movement. Cardet was detained 2 years ago with extreme violence in front of his wife and children, and once in the dungeon they continued to beat him while they kept him in handcuffs.
In prison he has
been attacked by common inmates, he was even the object of an
assassination attempt encouraged by State Security itself. Eduardo
is not given the medical attention he requires and he has also been
banned from family visits for 6 months, as well as phone calls, for
maintaining a firm position and not give up on his principles. In this way they also punish his family for reporting his situation. We also thank all the expressions of solidarity with Eduardo Cardet and his family received mainly from the international community.
The majority of
the Cuban people know that the political-military-financial oligarchy
that governs the destinies of Cuba only seeks to apply make up to the existing reality to
perpetuate itself in power. That is why the only horizon that many visualize is to escape from Cuba, to any place, in any way. Cubans are tired of being asked for sacrifices, while they lead a life of millionaires. "We
Cubans are simple and we only want a life of love and peace, but we can
not, we do not know and we do not want to live without freedom."
30 YEARS FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF CUBANS
On September 8, 1988, a small but courageous handful of Cubans, composed of Oswaldo Payá, Ramón Antúnez, Dagoberto Capote, Santiago Cárdenas and Fernando Arvelo, inspired by their faith, the strength of their ideals and love for our country, founded the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), to work for the recovery of popular sovereignty and national reconciliation.
"Liberation is our purpose, liberation carried out by the people, who will not be a spectator of the moment in which their destiny is decided. We do not call all against each other, but all for a new Cuba. We reject violence, offense, lies and destruction as means of struggle. We do not believe that the end justifies the means. Our goal is to achieve freedom, justice and this is achieved only moved by love. Freedom is true only if it emanates from love. "
Since then, many Cubans have joined the Christian Liberation Movement and have given their best for their Homeland. Some are no longer physically with us. Others have chosen different paths. Most of them have remained faithful to the principles and values on which the MCL is based.They have spent 30 years walking together with the people. 30 years working hard for freedom and the rights for all Cubans. 30 years suffering persecution, imprisonment, exile and even the murder of their leaders.
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| Members of the Christian Liberation Movement in Hialeah, FL |
We take this opportunity to call attention to the situation of Eduardo Cardet, who in 2014 was elected by the Coordinating Council of the MCL as Oswaldo Payá's successor to lead the Christian Liberation Movement. Cardet was detained 2 years ago with extreme violence in front of his wife and children, and once in the dungeon they continued to beat him while they kept him in handcuffs.
 |
| MCL: Regis Iglesias, Tony Díaz Sánchez, jailed leader Dr. Eduardo Cardet
|
No more "rectification of errors". No more "updating" of the socioeconomic system. No more "experiments." Cubans are not laboratory rats. We are human beings, and as such we deserve respect for our dignity. "We Cubans have a right to rights."
It is time for Cuban society to demand and make the changes it wants and needs. And changes mean, in the current context, freedom and all rights for all Cubans. "We do not believe the erroneous and fatal omen that there is no other way but to lead a false and unworthy life. Faced with the fatal conjuncture of Socialism or Death, we proclaim the alternative of Freedom and Life. "
We reaffirm that it is up to Cubans and only Cubans to define and decide freely and democratically the future of Cuba, as an independent and sovereign country, without interventions or foreign interference, neither from the North, nor from the South, nor from the East, nor from the West.
 |
| Founding member of MCL Ramon Antunez recognized. |
Once again, as we did 30 years ago, "we proclaim before the world our determination to conquer the freedom and full dignity of man, the sovereignty for the people and to build a new nation for all."
"All Cubans, all brothers and now freedom!"
September 8, 2018
XXX Anniversary of the Christian Liberation Movement
Original Spanish text here.
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