After learning that the parliament of the honorable and sister Republic of Costa Rica granted me the high distinction of the Civic Valor Prize,  I felt it necessary to write this missive of  gratitude and to bring to light some considerations on the Cuban problem in the 21st century and these are: 

In all the contexts where transcendental changes prevail, and also in the struggles ordinary conflicts, answers are articulated with or without official consent, based in the inalienable right that each person has to participate in the public life of the country, in a pluralistic way. 

The pro-democracy movement in Cuba is genuine and is not a foreign creation as government propaganda claims.  The Cuban nation has great challenges to face, like the creation of democratic institutions that will invert the pyramid.  That is, so that power reside in society and not in the State, to transition from the culture and the practice of docile and impotent herds to the active and responsible participation of a citizenry is vital in the new national project. 

Castroism annihilated the concept of the citizen and it is one of our main priorities to restore it.  The institutional implementation of the market economy is necessary to generate greater rates of growth for both the gross domestic product and labor productivity. This will finally shorten the great distance that separates us from the developed world upon entering into a global economy that harshly penalizes resistance to change.  This would make it possible to leave behind the national poverty that has as its corollaries, among others, shortages, rationing, extremely low wages, and low quality products and services. The opening of the public space will allow the seeking of a new consensus between the State and the market guaranteeing social development on par with the expectations of our people, as well as the restoration and protection of the environment. 

I earnestly request that you promote the participation of both Costa Rican and international civil and political society as one more variable in the Cuban democratic equation.  This does not mean replacing us as the fundamental protagonists of democratic change, but rather engaging in a just solidarity with a captive people. 

It is necessary to demand that the International Red Cross and the United Nations Special Envoy, or failing that, the High Commissioner for Human Rights of said institution, visit Cuba, with special emphasis on the prisons, and to obtain the improvement of the conditions of Cuban political prisoners, which includes, in the first place, the separation of these from common inmates. These should constitute an important element of our friends’ agenda. 

The unconditional freedom of political prisoners in the shortest possible term, must be the culminating point in this respect and the first step in the critical transformations that are urgent for the Cuban nation. 

I personally feel deeply honored with such a distinction, which is also unmistakably an act of great symbolism on the part of the Costa Rican people to Cuba’s political prisoners and by extension to this nation of the Greater Antilles.  It is one more landmark in the history shared by our two brother countries. 

Fraternally,

Librado Linares García

Political prisoner and Prisoner of conscience

General Secretary of the

Cuban Reflection Movement

(This letter arrived in the hands of  the family of  Librado Linares García in September of 2004 and was read by telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate on September 16, 2004 by the wife of the same, Mrs. Magaly Broche de la Cruz).