Youth convene Cuba solidarity campaign with Venezuelan and Iranian students

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Youth convene Cuba solidarity campaign with Venezuelan and Iranian students
By Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina

"Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy and member of the board of the Eastern Democratic Alliance is speaking to you. We are engaging in a national call for members of the Cuban civic resistance, to demonstrate their solidarity with students who are in Venezuela at this time on their eleventh day of a hunger strike outside the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Caracas, asking the Human Rights Commission of that regional institution to review the cases of political prisoners in Venezuela.

At the same time we are also asking that on the 7th of December to speak out in solidarity with Iranian students that are going to take to the streets in Tehran as part of a reformist student movement in Iran, which will protest against the fraudulent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, who as everyone knows promotes both terrorism and a nuclear arms race. Iran is under the observation of the United Nations and the International Organization of Atomic Energy. The students of Iran, this December 7 which marks the day of the student in their country, will take to the streets.

In Iran there have been reports of some 70 deaths and about 4,000 detained and the political situation in that country is becoming each day increasingly critical. Cuba’s civic resistance and democracy movement desires to join in international solidarity with those engaged in the struggle for freedom in the world: the students in Tehran and, our Latin American brothers, the rebellious student movement in Venezuela.

[The Venezuelan students] are asking the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS to inspect the grounds of the cases on which the Ministry of Justice, under the Hugo Chávez regime, has imposed on Venezuelan citizens. We know that in Venezuela there is a regime that is affecting freedom of expression, the rule of law and in fact is now part of the concert of human rights violators in the world.

We are in solidarity with them. We are calling for an action in Cuba: light a candle in solidarity with the students of Venezuela and on December 7 a mass in solidarity with these brothers in Iran.

We are calling on members of the resistance, the Assembly of the resistance within Cuba to demonstrate this gesture of our solidarity. The directorate of the Eastern Democratic Alliance has information on this matter and has already given its approval to install in doorways of houses a candle in solidarity with our fellow students in Venezuela."

From Cuba, Guantanamo City Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina coordinator of Cuban Youth Forum, a member of the Eastern Democratic Alliance and president of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy.

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