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Forging Cuba's civic movement
By Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat

Traditionally, two forms of struggle against the Castro regime have been posited: one, armed revolution; the other, dialogue and understanding.

The former aims to fragment the ruling elite and provoke a military takeover. The latter targets the same elite, too, but it does so to encourage the purported reformers in their confrontation with the ''hard-liners'' and, thus, find an opening that will permit a democratic evolution.

We respect those who advocate either proposal. But that is not our road. Nonviolent civic struggle is directed at the Cuban citizenry.

Civic struggle says to the oppressed people: ''`Change begins with you. If you do not demand your rights, if you do not regain your self-esteem, oppression will prevail because only we Cubans can change this situation.'' It is a movement of popular affirmation in the face of those in power.

The civic movement invites the individuals who are part of this elite to join, as citizens, because their own rights, too, are violated by the dictatorship that they support.

The Varela Project is the expression of this movement of citizen power that has been coalescing in Cuba for more than a decade. It is not an instrument of negotiation because it demands unalienable rights that are not negotiable.

The growth of this movement -- starting with the Cuban Committee for Human Rights; proceeding through the nationwide organization of groups, committees, unions and movements that are independent from the totalitarian power; achieving civic protests and now the mobilization of citizens -- is the most forceful evidence of how the Cuban people have awakened from a long and damaging lethargy imposed by a totalitarian revolution.

The movement of citizen power is a movement of liberation. It does not wait for Fidel Castro's death or for magical solutions before urging Cubans to step forward in a quest for change. It does not look to Washington or the Palacio de la Revolución for one thing or another. It looks at the ordinary Cuban -- sweaty, tired, struggling to survive day in and day out -- and says to him: ``Only you can improve your life. Add your voice to the voices of those who demand freedom. We believe in you because we believe in ourselves. We the oppressed are more numerous than the oppressors. Besides, look: The dictatorship has left a legal crack here. Through it, we can take the first step.''

The civic movement, of which the Varela Project is a faithful expression, prepares citizens to build a new political order from a regained sovereignty. This regained sovereignty shows the world the new face of Cuba, gradually replacing the humiliating images of domesticated masses gathering at a public square.

This new face attracts international sympathy. It allows Cuba's civic leaders to tell their people, while holding a record of international achievements: ``See how the world supports us when we demand our rights.''

Those who say that the Varela Project merely attempts to democratize communism are wrong. The Varela Project is a radical movement, because it goes to the root of the Cuban issue. It mobilizes a lethargic citizenry and breaks away cleanly from the culture of violence that spawned the Castro regime.

Read it, study the pronouncements of its creators, look at the dynamics of the movement's nationwide development. Pluralism and a multiparty system are the very essence of its postulates.

No dictatorship has ever resisted with success the transformations made by a mobilized civilian society. The countries that have gone through that process today enjoy the best-guided democracies.

In the face of the communist virus, which erodes the values of the national body to dominate it, the civic movement represents the antibodies that hope to restore the natural defenses of any society against the abuse of power. This is the legacy of civic health that we must leave to the future generations of Cubans.

Published by The Miami Herald, March 20, 2003

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About the author


Orlando Gutierrez Boronat Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat nació en La Habana en 1965. Tiene un doctorado en estudios internacionales en la Universidad de Miami. Tiene licenciaturas en comunicaciones y ciencias políticas y una maestría en ciencias políticas. Imparte cursos de ciencias políticas en la Universidad Internacional de la Florida y la Universidad Barry. Es cofundador y Secretario Nacional del Directorio Democrático Cubano, una de las organizaciones más destacadas en el trabajo de recabar apoyo internacional y solidaridad para el movimiento democrático en la Isla. Es co-autor de los informes Pasos a la Libertad que publica el Directorio anualmente sobre el crecimiento del movimiento cívico en Cuba. También es autor del libro La República Invisible, una colección de ensayos sobre la identidad nacional cubana, la política del exilio y el movimiento cívico en Cuba.

 

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