ODCA DEMANDS RELEASE OF ODCA VICE PRESIDENT IN CUBA EDUARDO CARDET

Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) in Spanish represents 34 political parties that span the Americas. ODCA issued the following statement today demanding the release of its Vie-President in Cuba Eduardo Cardet.

ODCA DEMANDS RELEASE OF ODCA VICE PRESIDENT IN CUBA EDUARDO CARDET

The leader of the Christian Movement for Liberation (MCL) and ODCA Vice-President, Eduardo Cardet, was recently convicted by the Cuban authorities of three years in prison accused of "assault on authority." The opposition leader had been beaten and detained, during Fidel Castro's funeral proceedings, on November 30 in Holguín province.

Before this new determination against the Cuban dissidence, the Christian Democratic Organization of America states:

1. We demand the immediate release of Dr. Eduardo Cardet, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and Vice-President of ODCA, who has been leading a social and political movement that nonviolently struggles for democracy and more freedoms for Cuba. 
2.  We understand that this new impulse to repress political dissidence is a mechanism to intimidate the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and block the initiative "One Cuban, One Vote" that they presented to the National Assembly of People's Power in Havana.
3. ODCA reiterates its historic position in favor of respect for the human rights and public liberties of Cuban opponents seeking to peacefully promote a process of democratization in Cuba, a struggle historically promoted by Christian Democratic leaders such as Oswaldo Payá, who died in 2012 under circumstances not clarified, and led today by Eduardo Cardet.
4. ODCA denounces the practices of the Cuban State that violate human rights to repress and frighten political dissidents and humanitarian organizations, including beatings, threats, surveillance, harassment, arbitrary detentions, summary trials that do not comply with the principles of due process, and imprisonment.
5.  Three months ago, the international community celebrated the 68th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the favorable vote of Cuba and 47 other member states. In that context, we reiterate the call for Cuban authorities to respect human rights, civil and political liberties and the physical integrity of dissident political leaders, as mandated by that international commitment.
6.  ODCA joins Amnesty International's demand for freedom, which has declared our Vice President Eduardo Cardet "a prisoner of conscience" for being imprisoned "solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression." At the same time, ODCA issues a call for subscribing of the MCL Campaign "Freedom and Life for Eduardo Cardet".
7.  Finally, ODCA reaffirms that the right of all Cubans to decide freely and sovereignly the future of their country is the only way to move towards a tolerant, plural, free and democratic Cuba.

Santiago de Chile, March 26, 2017

Francisco Javier Jara
Executive Secretary ODCA

Original Spanish text below

ODCA DEMANDA LIBERACIÓN DEL VICEPRESIDENTE DE ODCA EN CUBA EDUARDO CARDET

El dirigente del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación (MCL) y Vicepresidente de ODCA, Eduardo Cardet, fue condenado recientemente por las autoridades cubanas a tres años de cárcel acusado de “atentado a la autoridad”. El líder opositor había sido golpeado y detenido, en el marco de los funerales de Fidel Castro, el pasado 30 de noviembre en la provincia de Holguín.

Ante esta nueva determinación contra la disidencia cubana, la Organización Demócrata Cristiana de América, declara:

1. Demandamos la inmediata liberación del Dr. Eduardo Cardet, líder del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación y Vicepresidente de ODCA, quien se ha caracterizado por encabezar un movimiento social y político que lucha pacíficamente por la democracia y más libertades para Cuba.

2. Entendemos este nuevo impulso a la represión de la disidencia política como un mecanismo para amedrentar al Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL) y bloquear la iniciativa “Un Cubano, un Voto” que presentaron ante la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular en la Habana.

3. La ODCA reitera su posición histórica a favor del respeto a los derechos humanos y las libertades públicas de los cubanos opositores que buscan promover pacíficamente un proceso de democratización en Cuba, lucha que ha sido impulsada históricamente por líderes demócrata cristianos como Oswaldo Payá, fallecido el 2012 en circunstancias no aclaradas, y liderada hoy por Eduardo Cardet.

4. La ODCA denuncia las prácticas violatorias a los Derechos Humanos del Estado cubano para reprimir y atemorizar a los disidentes políticos y a las organizaciones humanitarias, entre ellas, las golpizas y amenazas, los seguimientos y hostigamientos, las detenciones arbitrarias, los juicios sumarios que no cumple con los principios del debido proceso y el encarcelamiento.

5. Hace 3 meses, la comunidad internacional celebró los 68 años de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos aprobada con el voto favorable de Cuba y otros 47 Estados miembros. En ese contexto, reiteramos el llamado a las autoridades cubanas a respetar los derechos humanos, las libertades civiles y políticas y la integridad física de los dirigentes políticos disidentes, tal como lo mandata ese compromiso internacional.

6. La ODCA se une a la demanda de libertad de Amnistía Internacional que ha declarado a nuestro vicepresidente Eduardo Cardet como “prisionero de conciencia” por estar encarcelado “solamente por el ejercicio pacífico de su derecho a la libertad de expresión”.  Al mismo tiempo, la ODCA formula un llamado a suscribir la Campaña del MCL “Libertad y Vida para Eduardo Cardet”.

7. Finalmente, la ODCA reafirma que el derecho de todos los cubanos a decidir libre y soberanamente el futuro de su país es la única vía para avanzar hacia una Cuba tolerante, plural, libre y democrática.

Santiago de Chile, 26 de marzo de 2017

Francisco Javier Jara

Secretario Ejecutivo ODCA

Christian Democrats denounce Castro regime blocking political leaders travel to Cuba

Castro regime shows its dictatorial nature

ODCA REJECTS PROHIBITION OF ENTRY TO CUBA OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL LEADERS

 In response to the decision of the Cuban authorities to impede an act of recognition of international figures for their struggle in favor of democracy and human rights, the Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA) declares:

1. Our solidarity with the Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy and its president Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late Christian Democrat leader Oswaldo Payá, before the decision of the Cuban authorities to prevent the ceremony of awarding the Oswaldo Payá Prize in Havana.
2. We support the initiative of young Latin Americans whose main objective is to recognize the former President of Chile Patricio Aylwin and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro for their commitment to democracy and human rights.
3. We protest the decision of the Cuban authorities to ban the entry of former Mexican President and former ODCA Vice-President Felipe Calderón, who was traveling as a special guest, and former Chilean Minister of Education Mariana Aylwin, who was traveling to receive the posthumous award for the former Chilean president.
4. Our solidarity with former minister Mariana Aylwin and former president Felipe Calderón and we value the formal protest of the governments of Chile and Mexico, since the measure of the Cuban government is unacceptable for the terms of respect and reciprocity that must exist between States that maintain diplomatic relations and consular posts.
5.  ODCA reiterates its historic position in favor of the respect for the human rights and public liberties of the Cuban opposition seeking to peacefully promote a process of democratization in Cuba, a struggle historically promoted by Christian Democratic leaders such as Oswaldo Payá, who died in 2012 under unexplained circumstances.
6. ODCA subscribes to the words of the former president of Mexico and former vice-president of ODCA, Felipe Calderón, who, being prevented from traveling, declared: "I yearn and I pledge to fight so that one day all Latin Americans can live in Freedom, Justice and Democracy".

ENGINEER JUAN CARLOS LATORRE

ODCA President

FRANCISCO JAVIER JARA 

Executive Secretary

MARCO ANTONIO ADAME 

Vice President of Political Issues 

Santiago Chile, February 21, 2017 

Original Spanish text

Paying homage and giving thanks to Patricio Aylwin Azócar

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Patricio Aylwin Azócar with Vaclav Havel in 2004 in Prague, Czech Republic

Patricio Aylwin Azócar passed away on  April 19, 2016 in his beloved Santiago, Chile. Don Patricio presided over the unification of the democratic opposition in Chile, the No Campaign, and the democratic transition following 17 years of military rule under Augusto Pinochet.

We would have to be grateful to him for that example alone, but free Cubans owe him for much more. President Patricio Aylwin met with pro-democracy Cubans over the years in Santiago, Chile at his private home and freely gave his advice, but he did more.

Rosa Maria Paya meets with Patricio Aylwin Azócar at his home (2013)

 In 2004 Don Patricio was a founding member of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba. The former Chilean president traveled to the Czech Republic at age 85 to spend three days with other Latin American and European leaders in an act of solidarity with a free Cuba that will long be remembered. At the time of his passing Orlando Gutierrez of the Cuban Democratic Directorate remembered President Aylwin's role. We also know that the best way to honor his memory of solidarity is through following his example.

Patricio Aylwin, Luis Alberto Lacalle, Petr Pithart, Philip Dimitrov, Luis Alberto Monge, José María Aznar, Václav Havel, Mart Laar close the meeting of former presidents and prime ministers at the ICDC Summit.

Free Cubans are grateful, and today in Santiago, Chile when members of the Christian Democrat Organization of America gathered to pay homage and pray for Patricio Aylwin Azócar at the Frei family mausoleum, where he is being temporarily laid to rest, the above episode was remembered and given thanks for by the representative of the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

On May 27, 2016 ODCA laid flowers to Ex-presidents Eduardo Frei & Patricio Aylwin.

The Christian Democrat Organization of America held its 21st Congress in Santiago, Chile from May 25 -27, 2016.

International organizations concerned about legislative elections on December 6th in Venezuela

Venezuela stopped being a democracy a while ago. What you have now is a dictatorship that long ago undermined the rule of law, imprisons popular opposition leaders, murders student activists, hides billions in foreign Swiss bank accounts and rigs contested elections to give the appearance of a democracy. Maduro and his regime are threatening voters and may not recognize a loss at the polls. This is why the international community has taken such an interest in today's election to the National Assembly.

ODCA parliamentary delegation for Venezuela's legislative elections

 The President of the Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA), Jorge Ocejo led a delegation of fifty parliamentarians to attend the transcendental legislative elections in Venezuela this Sunday.  The Mexican political leader, Jorge Ocejo, confirmed that a large delegation of International Christian Democrats arrived on Friday to Caracas to integrate an election observation mission for the parliamentary elections scheduled for today, Sunday, December 6th.  Ocejo said the ODCA delegation is composed of more than 50 parliamentarians and political leaders from 16 countries in Latin America, who were invited by the Campaign Command of "United Venezuela"  of the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD). In Sunday's election more than 19 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote and elect 167 deputies to the National Assembly to hold office for a period of 5 years, from 2016 to 2021. According to most polls, the democratic opposition  for the first time in 17 years will defeat the ruling party for the first time since the electoral triumph of Hugo Chavez in the election of December 6, 1998.  Presentación de la Misión Electoral en Venezuela

OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro: "24 hours before the legislative elections in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we call on all Venezuelans to ensure that Sunday is a civic celebration and that the sovereign - the people - can exercise their right to vote in peace. We also hope that December 7 is a day of unity, peace, and calm following the electoral results. All the peoples of our Americas and the world are watching attentively what happens in Venezuela. In this context, we respectfully ask all sectors of Venezuelan society, following the electoral result, to find mechanisms to begin a dialogue and a great national reconciliation." Reference: E-349/15

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: "I remain very concerned at the deteriorating human rights situation in Venezuela, particularly the government’s harsh responses to criticism and to peaceful expressions of dissent. The use of lethal force against demonstrators is deeply disturbing. We have also received repeated reports of intimidation and public smear campaigns, including by high-ranking government officials, of human rights defenders. I am particularly concerned at the continued detention of opposition leaders and demonstrators, often for prolonged periods."  Opening Statement, Item 2, High Commissioner's Annual Report

The International Young Democrat Union declared: Constant violations to human rights and individual freedoms in Venezuela and Ecuador must end – immediately; Support for political leaders who resist human rights violations, fight against the abridgment of individual freedoms, and defend freedom of peaceful assembly and protest of those in opposition to an oppressive regime; International organizations be cognizant of the plight of those oppressed, create missions to stop human rights violators. The IYDU demands with specificity: Freedom for all political prisoners in Venezuela and Cuba; International groups send observers to Venezuela leading up to the December 2015 parliamentary elections to ensure the democratic process is upheld so that free and fair elections exists; Member parties act to the best of their abilities to influence the governments of their respective countries to protest the violations against freedom of expression in Latin America and the Caribbean. In conclusion, the IYDU remains steadfastly committed to free people, the rule of law, liberal democracy, and the right of self determination believing that without freedom of speech or freedom of assembly none of those pillars of democracy can flourish. IYDU Demands an End to Human Rights Violations in South America

Venezuelan democrats are not alone and are being accompanied by international democratic movements on the ground as observers in Venezuela and via social media across the internet. Whatever happens today will be documented and reported far and wide.

Rosa Maria Paya Addresses the Christian Democrats of the Americas

Address by Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo, Christian Liberation Movement delegate at Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA) Congress in Mexico City on August 23, 2013

Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo addresses ODCA Congress

 Mr. President of ODCA, presidential candidates, Cuban brothers, dear friends all,

Thank you ODCA for the invitation and courageous support that has signified the cause of truth and rights for Cuba. Thank you for the recent recognition of the entire Cuban delegation, many in my country have given their lives for the cause of liberty as Mr. Ocejo reminded us is the cause of happiness.


"These are times of dangers and hopes for Cuba. The lack of freedom and rights maintains the people immersed in great disadvantages. The government complicates the situation because it refuses a democratic opening while Cubans want real change and transparency, fraud is imposed" warned my father, remembering that:

"There remain mechanisms of repression and surveillance of citizens, total dependence and obedience of the courts of the group in power and their ordinances, cruelty in prisons, systems of control, concepts and practices of exclusion and marking or targeting, the fence of laws which are anti-rights and undemocratic are maintained over the citizen, despotism, the lack of democratic instruments for citizens to decide and finally the power group itself still stands above its own laws and with all the privileges stated above.

Moreover poverty grows and deepens the differences, under the simulacrum of economic opening. Also the cult of personality and the concretion of dynastic succession are affirmed with the denial of Cuban’s civil and political rights. These factors are components of the totalitarian regime that has caused and continues to cause severe damage to the people, an anthropological damage. The antagonistic contradictions between the regime and the freedom and rights of citizens remain. What has changed then? Or what is changing in Cuba: the people."

These people do not want to move from savage communism to savage capitalism, nor want Russian style or Chinese style changes, the people of Cuba want to participate in building our future and to be happy.

Two months ago, after 54 years, before the evident failure, the government has accused people of not having "honesty, [...] decency, [...] shame, [...] decorum, [...] honor and [...] sensitivity" and has threatened to take coercive measures. But have not referred to the torture or the forced repatriation of Cuban migrants in a concentration camp in the Bahamas. Neither have they spoken about outbreaks of dengue and cholera, as they also did not do before with polyneuritis, or serious statistics on the spread of HIV in Cuba, or the rate of suicide and domestic crimes, or medical malpractice cases, or the use of abortion as birth control, or the many other expressions of the "culture of death" on the Island.

Nor have yet announced merchant ships smuggling ammunition and fully operational arms, violating the national security of a fraternal country like Panama, violating several UN resolutions on the dictatorship of North Korea, and putting innocent lives at risk

The Cuban government is not legitimate, as the Venezuelan government is not and will not be because presidents of the world shake hands with the impostors in power, it will be much less because they spearhead regional organizations like the CELAC, as is the case of the Cuban dictator, to the shame of Latin America. Legitimacy is delivered by the people at the polls, in free elections, in an atmosphere of respect and safety. We all know that's not what happened in April in Venezuela and we all know that has not occurred in Cuba for more than 60 years.

That is why I believe our challenge as the Christian Democratic family resides in looking at the people before power, the human being who lives and suffers from power when it is not at the service of society. But that fragments and sickens society to perpetuate itself. What we are seeing in some of the countries of our America at the turn of a decade find themselves divided on populism, whose greatest concordance is the obstinacy with which they cling to power. They also agree on their embracing Cuba's dictators.

The humanist values of defending life, truth, sustainable and inclusive economic freedom, equality, the environment, and fraternity join us here today. The budgets that we defend do not respond to ideological fundamentalism, but they are a radical proposal that need firm parties; requires strong and free spirits that do not form a complex before power or before fashion or before a trend or before apparent majorities. Other forces and languages inconsistent with democracy have shown no qualms in showing they are allies. I understand that our option involves taking the side of the poor of the Earth, which in our region are many and they are also those who cannot even say that they are poor, because a government has hijacked all their rights.

I believe in the Christian humanist project as a real and effective alternative to the so-called crisis of disorientation that our societies seem to suffer. The world is confused with epithets that others have put on us, these negative nuances that fill the term conservative, or counterpose us to so called progressive forces. It does not seem to me that we have to define ourselves from codes which other interests have imposed, the message embodied in the Christian humanist option is new and renovating in a world that has displaced human beings from the center of its priorities. In the words of my father: "neither the state nor the market, can be above the rights, the will and freedoms of persons."

Please do not abandon, let us not abandon those in America and beyond, from positions of danger fighting for the same concepts that bring us here today. Not without suffering, I am witness what a tyrant can do when they feel that those who oppose them have been abandoned, when they feel that their opponent is alone. My father, like Caldera, like Adenauer, thought: "Rights have no political color, or race, or culture. Nor dictatorships have political color. They are not right or left, they are only dictatorships "and recalled that" Cubans have not chosen the path of peace as a tactic, but because it is inseparable from the goal of our people. Experience tells us that violence begets violence and, when political changes are made in this way, you arrive at new forms of oppression and injustice," as painfully illustrated by the hundreds of people killed this week in Syria and Egypt.

Most of Cuba's peaceful opposition agrees to defend the road map of The Peoples Path, we expect you solidarity with the demands of this proposal. In this framework thousands of Cuban citizens ask for your support in our demand for a plebiscite of the legal initiative of the Varela Project. We do not seek another caudillo to replace a dictator; we have a proactive and inclusive solution waiting for your solidarity. We need your help to stop the violent repression of the state security of the Cuban government against members of the Cuban democratic movement, to be able to keep fighting for real change. The recognition of the entire truth is essential to the reconciliation process of the transition to democracy that we seek. We need your endorsement of the need for an independent investigation to clarify the circumstances of the attack on my father and Harold Cepero, to help remove the sense of impunity that the Cuban government has and with which it continues to repress with increasing violence.

The essential transformation is taking place in the minds and hearts of Cubans. It's time to begin the process of reconciliation that we all want, because what we want is to live in harmony and freedom. Long ago the people stopped trusting the regime and despite the repression and apathy fewer and fewer Cubans are being dominated by fear.

On December 5, 2011 my father reminded them in a message to this organization that "there have already been many conjectures, postulates and intellectual exercises. There have already been many. Now for you should be the time of solidarity with Cuba, with our demands:

We want all rights. These are the changes we want! Now Cubans are going to demand real change, now let's fight for free elections,” through a plebiscite!

I think that the authoritarian phenomena that have been generated in our region demonstrate that what you do for the freedom of the Cuban people will be a commitment for the good of all America.

God help us all

Many Thanks

Text translated from: http://freecubafoundation.blogspot.com/2013/08/rosa-maria-paya-se-dirige-los.html

Oswaldo Payá, Harold Cepero and the Future of ODCA

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. - Martin Luther King Jr.  

Senator Ocejo Moreno

Excerpt from the Statement by the President of ODCA, Senator Jorge Ocejo Moreno before the 2012 Meeting of the ODCA Council 

Santiago, Chile
August 31, 2012

A few days ago, with much pain, we have seen the departure of one of those men of ours committed to our ideals and an example of heroism for his people.

Oswaldo Payá left us on this earth the example of a heroic struggle of an entire lifetime, but also left us a role model to follow as politicians and Christians. A young man also left us, Harold Cepero, and that his memory serves us to remember so many nameless faces in our history, which also fought for democracy and freedom.
 
Today I want to represent in them, in Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá, what should be our fight in the future. A struggle of commitment and heroism to make reality our communitarian dreams.

He said that man tends by nature, by the character of the human spirit, sooner or later, towards freedom, to the collective and fraternal good, to the pursuit of happiness and perfection in his encounter with his other brothers and in the final encounter with God.

For them, I was moved that in the midst of the pain of the departure of Oswald and Harold, there was no time to mourn or detain the march.

At the home of Oswaldo, we were together with youth of the Christian Liberation Movement, with smiling faces, with hands symbolizing the struggle for liberty, and with the spirit and the heart disposed for the new fight.

Yes friends, this has been the history of the ODCA in these 65 years; this is the story of the ODCA in the present and must be the future story of the ODCA. It is a history built from the conviction and spirit, it is a Christian humanist and heroic struggle, a struggle that cannot be stopped even one second until reaching our dream.

I know we have all the strength of the human spirit to achieve it and also that it will be that way until the end of time.

Oswaldo Payá y Harold Cepero

Extracto de la Declaración del Presidente de la ODCA, el senador Ocejo Moreno antes de la reunión de 2012 del Consejo de la ODCA

Santiago, Chile
31 de agosto 2012

Hace muy pocos días, con mucho dolor, hemos visto partir a uno de esos hombres nuestros, comprometido con nuestros ideales y ejemplo de heroísmo para su pueblo.

Oswaldo Payá nos dejó en esta tierra una lucha heroica de toda una vida, pero también nos dejó el ejemplo de un modelo a seguir como políticos y cristianos. Nos dejó también un muchacho joven, Harold Cepero, y sirva este recuerdo para no olvidar a tantos rostros sin nombre de nuestra historia, que han luchado también por la democracia y la libertad.

Hoy quiero representar en ellos, en Harold Cepero y Oswaldo Payá, lo que debe ser nuestra lucha en el futuro. Una lucha de compromiso y de heroísmo por hacer realidad nuestros sueños comunitarios.
Decía que el hombre tiende por naturaleza, por el carácter del espíritu humano, tarde o temprano, hacia la libertad, hacia el bien colectivo y fraterno, a la búsqueda de su felicidad y también a su perfección en su encuentro con sus otros hermanos y en el encuentro final con Dios.
Por ello, me emocionó que en medio del dolor por la partida de Oswaldo y Harold, no hubo tiempo para llorar o detener la marcha.

En la casa de Oswaldo, estábamos juntos a jóvenes del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación, con los rostros sonrientes, con las manos simbolizando la lucha por la libertad, y con el espíritu y el corazón dispuesto para el nuevo combate.

Si amigos, esa ha sido la historia de la ODCA en estos 65 años; es la historia presente de la ODCA y ha de ser la historia futura de la ODCA. Es una historia construida desde la convicción y el espíritu, es una lucha humanista y cristiana heroica, es una lucha que no se puede detener ni un solo segundo hasta alcanzar nuestro sueño.

Sé que tenemos toda la fuerza del espíritu humano para lograrlo y se también que así será hasta el fin de los tiempos.







Discurso del Presidente de la ODCA, el Senador Jorge Ocejo Moreno:  "Fundadores de Valores, Democracia y Futuro: el Legado Internacional de la ODCA"