Cuban University Students Present Five Thousand Signature Petition for University Autonomy

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Cuban University Students Present Five Thousand Signature Petition for University Autonomy
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

University students from various parts of Cuba presenting the 5,000 signatures supporting the project University Students Without Borders. From left to right on the top row: Eliécer Consuegra Rivas, Rogelio Tabío Ramírez, Idalmys, Enrique, Yordis García Fornier, and Juan Carlos Hernández Hernández. In the first row: Yanet Mosquera Cayón, Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, Gerardo Sánchez Ortega, and Adrián Sánchez Ortega.

Central Havana, 27 November 2007. Five thousand Cubans have signed a petition for university autonomy from the state and freedom of expresión and association on Cuban campuses, stated young opponents of the Castro Regime at a press conference in Havana this afternoon. The initiative, “University Students without Borders,” was presented to the press by a group of youths from different parts of Cuba.

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, president of the Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement, and founder of the University Students without Borders initiative, stated: “These signatures, freshly placed before public opinion, represent a notice given to the Cuban authorities […] if the Cuban government publicly commits not to take reprisals against those who signed this demand for academic freedom, then we shall submit the petition to the proper authorities.”

Young people from Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Villa Clara, and Havana, along with opposition activists from various of the Island’s pro-democracy organizations publicly presented University Students without Borders to an audience that included European Union diplomats from Hungary and Poland, as well as international press outlets.

At the close of the events, a large group of young people wearing t-shirts with pictures of Jose Antonio Echeverria, a pro-democracy student leader slain during the Cuban Revolution, conducted a symbolic march through Central Havana to the Church of El Carmen.