Payá forms new dissident group in Cuba
Oswaldo Payá launched a new group, Comité Ciudadano de Reconciliación y Diálogo, last week with the objective of promoting "reconciliation and dialogue" and pushing for laws allowing Cubans more individual liberties. There has been a sudden flurry of political activity among dissident groups in recent months. In September two liberal coalitions formed: the Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba (ULRC) and the Convergencia Liberal Cubana. Both claimed to unite all the different strands of liberalism. Some have attributed this activity to a reduction in repression under Raúl Castro, although equally it could have something to do with the culmination of the "electoral process" in early 2008 with the formation of the council of state. Fidel Castro would need to compete if he is to reassume the presidency.
Payá is the most internationally recognised and respected Cuban opposition leader and a vocal critic of US involvement in a putative democratic transition in Cuba. He established the Varela Project in 2002, a petition containing 25,000 signatures, demanding civil rights and seeking free democratic elections, which was presented to the Cuban national assembly, where it was archived on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Many of those who organised it were imprisoned during the round-up of 73 opponents of the regime the following year. The assembly also passed a constitutional amendment stating that socialism was "untouchable".
Payá said the new group comprised more than 300 members, some drawn from the established pool of dissidents, but most merely ordinary citizens. "The majority of Cubans want change," Payá said. "Never before have the Cuban people been so conscious that change is near and that Cuba has to change." Payá was critical of US President George W Bush's major policy speech on Cuba in late October when he demonstrated an habitual miscalculation of dissident support for US intervention in any process of transition. "The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders tomorrow, and when freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them," Bush said [WR-07-43].