OSWALDO JOSÉ PAYÁ SARDIÑAS
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THE LATEST SUMMIT THAT ABANDONS THE CUBAN PEOPLE - 2007/11/13 14:30
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Francisco De Armas
International Representative, Christian Liberation Movement
(787) 549-1805
www.oswaldopaya.org
THE LATEST SUMMIT THAT ABANDONS THE CUBAN PEOPLE
We are not asking for anything, nor do we address any leader before the Latin American Summit to ask for an act or expression in favor of democracy in Cuba or in support of the political prisoners. We do not summon anyone publicly or privately. The recent visit by the Director of the Latin American Office to meet with the Cuban authorities, without interacting with the Cuban people, already signaled the exclusion of the Cuban people once again at the Latin American Summit. We also knew to expect nothing, given the contradictions and incoherence demonstrated in previous Summits.
This Summit is taking place in Chile, a symbol of peaceful transition to democracy and the host of the memorable Viña del Mar Summit where the governments that were present, including that of Cuba, signed in support of human rights and democracy. But it seems that for the expediency of these very Summits, the memorable accords from Viña del Mar have instead been forgotten.
Perhaps much time will pass before the people of Cuba find a reason to become part of these Summits. In the near future of a free and democratic Cuba, our children might ask “why doesn’t the Cuban state participate in the Latin American Summit and its institutions?” Surely we will have to give them a just reply with the truth:
Because although we are historically, humanly, and culturally part of that family, those Summits abandoned and denied our people while we lived under totalitarian oppression.
Because many Cubans who sent messages to the Summits asking for solidarity ended up serving cruel prison sentences for only defending human rights and meanwhile these Summits remained silent and complicit.
Because those Summits never had the courage to speak up for the rights of Cubans.
Because those Summits legitimized and praised the regime that denied us our liberty, guiltily sanctioning the oppression that our people suffered.
Because they had so much fear that they coexisted with a lie, much further beyond the limits of what was already a ridicule and disdain for our people.
Because they did not dare to utter a word of solidarity with the Cuban people even in the final moments when the people of Cuba needed support for peaceful changes and dialogue among Cubans, based on respect for their rights.
There have been brilliant and exceptional individual actions of courage and coherence at the Summits that have recognized the rights of Cubans and those of us who defend those rights. To those individuals we send our permanent gratitude and admiration.
However this Summit that took place in Chile missed the opportunity, perhaps the last, to vindicate itself in the face of history, the Cuban people and its own nations. Once again, in such a crucial moment, they abandoned Cuba, its people, and its citizens and they submitted to the simulation of a democratic concert, in which there are so many abuses, a false concert that is a dissonant scandal.
We can proclaim that by the next Latin American Summit the people of Cuba will already be free, without the support of the Summits and in spite of the Summits.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
On Behalf of the Christian Liberation Movement
Havana, November 11, 2007
For more information or to obtain a copy of the press release, please contact: Francisco De Armas, Julio Hernández, International Representatives, Christian Liberation Movement, (787) 549-1805, fdamcl@cs.com
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