Directorio Timeline:
1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996
1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004
December 10, 2003:A day of
fasting and prayer is held in the Dominican Republic to support Cuban political
prisoners.
November 24, 2003:
Lorenzo de Toro
III of the Directorio participates in the Third Annual Meeting of the
Inter-American Forum of Political Parties in the OAS, held at Cartagena
de Indias, Colombia.
October 12, 2003:
Javier de Céspedes and
Orlando Gutiérrez participate as special guests in the Assembly of the ARENA
Party in El Salvador. The Castro-backed FMLN party, who objects to
the presence of Directorio’s representatives, holds a press conference to demand
their deportation.
September 20,
2003:
Javier de Céspedes and Orlando Gutiérrez address the Pacific
Democratic Assembly in Taipei, Taiwan, chaired by the highest authorities
of the Republic of China.
August 5, 2003:
Philip
Dimitrov, Former Prime Minister of Bulgaria during its transition to democracy,
presents the third Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award in Miami. It is
awarded to the Cuban political prisoner Roberto de Miranda, president of the
Cuban Association of Independent Teachers.
July 24-27, 2003:
The
Directorio, together with the Dominican Patriotic Youth, hosts a
conference on Fidel Castro’s unsuccessful attack on the Moncada barracks. Former
rebel commander turned political prisoner during Castro’s consolidation of power
Huber Matos is the featured speaker.
At Florida International University, another conference on the same topic
takes place with veterans of the attack in attendance as well as academic
experts and intellectuals.
June 17, 2003:
The Directorio’s
Communications Director Marilú del Toro, represents Cuban political prisoners
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antúnez,” Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Juan Carlos
Gonzalez Leiva as they are awarded the 6th International Human Rights
Award, presented by the Hispano-Cuban Foundation of Madrid,
Spain.
May 25, 2003:
The first World Day in
Reclamation for Cuba’s Liberty takes place in various cities throughout
nine countries in the Americas: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and The United States. These
events commemorate the death of Pedro Luis Boitel, one of Cuba’s nonviolent
civic leaders who died on a hunger strike protesting his unjust
imprisonment.
During Castro’s visit to Argentina, Senator Pablo Walter hands the dictator a
copy of the Varela Project and demands the release of Cuba’s political
prisoners.
May 22, 2003:
The
Argentine Senator Pablo Walter, member of the Federal Recreation Party,
visits Miami, FL reiterating his commitment to the Cuban pro-democracy internal
civic movement at a press conference.
May 15, 2003:
The
parliamentarian Alvaro Dubón, member of Guatemala’s National Advance
Party and leader of the conservative block in the Central American
Parliament, participates in a series of press events in Miami to share the
latest efforts that he and other parliamentarians had undertaken to advance the
Cuban internal opposition’s democratic cause.
May 10, 2003:
Through
the joint efforts of the Directorio and the organization New Generations of
Peru, the first Peruvian Solidarity Committee for Democracy in
Cuba is founded in Lima. Castro regime sympathizers and envoys coordinated
by the Cuban embassy in Peru attack this project.
May 3, 2003:
Lorenzo de
Toro III participates in a Cuban pro-democracy demonstration in Rome, Italy.
April 3, 2003:
As the Cuban government
begins its show trials of scores of human rights activists arrested in its wave
of repression, two members of the Directorio, Jannet Rivero and John Suarez,
take the floor five times at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, denouncing
the crackdown and other acts of oppression.
The Directorio participates as a special guest at the XVI Meeting
for Pluralism in Warsaw, Poland, organized by the Institute for
Democracy in Eastern Europe.
February 2003:
The Directorio publishes its
annual report on human rights violations in Cuba for the period spanning
2002-2003.