Cuban Rebel Defies Castro After Crackdown on Dissidents
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, March 26, 2003
Under house arrest and watching as dozens of his fellow dissidents are rounded up by Castro’s goons, Oswaldo Paya swore Wednesday that his civic movement to bring reforms to Cuba would not be destroyed.
Paya, who heads the Varela Project, a petition drive demanding a referendum on personal, political and economic rights and signed by more than 11,000 people, is one of the few dissidents still free after Cuban authorities launched a crackdown last week, according to the New York Times.
He told the Times about 80 people — independent librarians, journalists and many of his group's regional leaders — had been jailed and were facing charges that could result in lengthy prison sentences after a sweep all across Cuba began last Tuesday.
"They are trying to close the door on peaceful change," he told the Times by telephone from Havana.
The arrests ended a period of several years of relative freedom in which dissidents took a public role and openly met with a succession of foreign dignitaries, including former President Jimmy Carter, who publicly endorsed the Varela Project in Havana last May. Paya even embarked on an international tour that included meetings with Pope John Paul II and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Paya says the arrests of his colleagues will not stop him from fighting for freedom for all Cubans via the Varela project.
"In no way will the project be stopped," he said. "There had been a flowering in Cuba of a peaceful movement for rights and reconciliation, to defeat this culture of fear. Cuba's spring is the Varela Project, which has been sustained by thousands and which will grow."
The Castro regime calls the dissidents subversives who are conspiring with James Cason, the chief American diplomat in Havana. Cason, the Times reveals, has frequently met with Cuban dissidents and has spoken out publicly against the dictatorship.
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