Chronicle on Cuba - July 2004

Exile Community

July 7: Under the slogan "For Democracy in Cuba" and over the course of several days, Spain-based Cuban exiles' associations will attempt to "educate" the Spanish public about crimes committed by Fidel Castro's regime. Outside the National Library, a series of posters have been set up, shaping the word "democracy" and bearing the names of over 10,000 Cubans shot by firing squad for their political convictions, or whose whereabouts are unknown. (Europa Press, 7/7/04)

July 7: With the goal to have Cuba join the Union, a political organization has been incorporated in Delaware, U.S., under the name "Statehood for Cuba Inc." According to a press release the organization seeks to "promote statehood as a political and economic option for Cuba, once democracy is restored." All five members of the board of directors are Cuban-born US citizens. (EFE, 7/7/04)

July 7: Miami’s powerful Cuban exile community has welcomed a call from the most prominent member of the internal opposition on the communist-ruled island for an inclusive dialogue to chart a peaceful, vengeance-free transition to democracy in Cuba. Acceptance of the proposal from dissident Oswaldo Paya marks a change for some exile groups who earlier criticized him for his "Varela Project," a petition drive aimed at pushing the Fidel Castro regime to hold a referendum on political and economic reform. "That's the result of an arduous effort we've developed over months with organizations in Cuba - including Paya's - and in the exile community about a broad proposition that has been circulating for months in Cuba," Luis Zuñiga, director of the Cuban Liberty Council, told the press. "That's why Paya changed," he said. The CLC maintained that the Varela Project "validates the communist regime by not calling for free elections but ones under the communist constitution" and because "it excludes the exile community." "This time Paya's call is inclusive and seeks deeper changes than simply putting dissidents in the communist parliament," said Zuñiga. (EFE, 8/7/04)

July 9: US President George W. Bush has lost significant support in Florida's Cuban-American community which, if the 2000 elections are a guide, could play a decisive role in November's voting, according to a poll released in Miami. The survey of 812 Cuban-Americans in several key south Florida counties shows Bush still claiming the backing of two-thirds of the community. While unusually strong for any ethnic voting bloc, that support is down from the nearly 82 percent of the Florida Cuban-American vote he received in 2000. The survey, commissioned by the William C Velasquez Institute and conducted by MirRam Global, suggests Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry could make serious inroads into the community, particularly by directing his appeal to Cuban-Americans who arrived in the United States after 1980 and those who were born in the country. [Florida Cuban American Survey] (IPS, 9/7/04)

July 13: The Democracy Movement vessels joined a Memorial Flotilla, with a dozen planes, jets and helicopters, in a series of air, sea and land activities, to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat massacre by the Cuban government. Jorge A. Garcia remembered the loss of 14 of his relatives that day. 41 civilians, among them 10 children, were sent to sea graves when three Cuban boats, chased, rammed and sank the “13 de Marzo”, the old wooden tugboat in which they were fleeing the island. ''In speeches, the Cuban government always was saying how it protected women and children,'' Mr. Garcia says today. This massacre ''laid bare the true nature of Cuba's government.'' (Movimiento Democracia, The Miami Herald, 13/7/04)

July 20: Cuban exile and Spanish organizations have called for a demonstration in front of the Cuban embassy in Madrid requesting the release of political prisoners in the island. The groups’ spokesman, Miguel Angel García Puñales, made the call trying to summon Plataforma Cuba Democracia ¡Ya! to the protest. The wife of imprisoned dissident, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, warned one of the organizations involved in the call that her husband’s health is at risk due to bad conditions in jail. (Europa Press, 20/7/04)

July 28:  The organization Cuba Democracia Ya!, made up of Cuban exiles residing in Spain, has asked Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to reconsider his decision to pursue a "constructive dialogue" with Havana. (Europa Press, 28/7/04)