BARACUTEY CUBANO

Las actividades de la disidencia interna de Cuba han aumentado pese a la 'represión del Gobierno' y sólo entre 2005 y 2006 se realizaron más de 3.000 acciones de resistencia cívica, según un grupo del exilio en Miami (EEUU).


Orlando Gutiérrez, secretario nacional del Directorio Democrático Cubano, dijo hoy a Efe que 'vemos una relación entre un régimen que se está deteriorando y el descontento del pueblo. Poco a poco las personas están perdiendo el miedo y tomando acción'.

Los opositores han incrementado las protestas callejeras, la colocación de letreros antigubernamentales, las vigilias, los ayunos y las manifestaciones pacíficas, de acuerdo con el informe 'Pasos a la libertad'.

El informe, compilado por el Directorio Democrático Cubano y el Centro de Estudios para una Opción Nacional, se presenta anualmente desde 1998 y documenta el crecimiento de la acción cívica en la isla caribeña.

Gutiérrez afirmó que las acciones de la disidencia indican que el pueblo cubano 'quiere un cambio' y que la transición temporal del poder de Fidel Castro a su hermano Raúl 'no refleja la voluntad de los cubanos'.

El activista resaltó que desde 1997, cuando se comenzaron a analizar las acciones de resistencia cívica, se han incrementado 'significativamente estas iniciativas dentro de Cuba'.

Precisó que entre 2005 y 2006, el pueblo cubano protagonizó 3.322 acciones de resistencia cívica frente a las 44 efectuadas en 1997.

'El mundo conoce la represión sistemática que existe en la isla, pero tal vez desconoce que la raíz de esa represión es la resistencia cívica y no violenta que existe en Cuba y el accionar de las organizaciones independientes que dentro del país abren espacios de libertad', expresó Gutiérrez.

Diane Cabrera, integrante del Directorio Democrático Cubano, informó de que las acciones se efectúan a nivel nacional, pero se observa una mayor actividad en las provincias del este de la isla.

'Los familiares de muchos de los líderes del movimiento opositor juzgados y encarcelados durante la primavera negra (una ola de represión en 2003 en la que se detuvo a 75 disidentes) han tomando la bandera de la disidencia en esas zonas y en toda Cuba', anotó.

Para la activista, este movimiento demuestra que 'hay esperanza para un cambio democrático en la isla, porque hay una oposición que está activa y que está perdiendo el miedo'.

Acts of civil disobedience on the rise in Cuba



By Frances Robles
McClatchy Newspapers
The Ledger Inquiry
Infosearch:
José F. Sánchez
Analista
Bureau Chief
Cuba
Research Dept.
La Nueva Cuba
November 30, 2006


From candlelight vigils to hunger strikes and even a mountain hike, Fidel Castro opponents logged more than 3,300 acts of civil disobedience in Cuba last year, nearly twice the number of the year before, according to a report to be released Thursday.

As Castro's government continues a campaign of reprisals against dissidents that began with a wave of arrests three years ago, members of the opposition movement say more people are speaking up and joining up.

``Repression generates rebellion,'' said Janisset Rivero, executive director of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a Miami exile organization that published the Steps to Freedom report, to be released Thursday at the University of Miami.

The report's numbers underscore growing discontent with the quality of life in Cuba, and the government's inability to satisfy basic needs. And while the government's 2003 crackdown decapitated much of the dissident movement, each year the number of acts of civil resistance climbs, the report said.

Among the group's findings:

_The central province of Villa Clara appears to be a hotbed of political opposition, logging far more protests than any other province. Even though nearly all of the island's internationally known dissident activists live in Havana, only 11 percent of last year's civil disobedience took place there.

_25 hunger strikes were held by prisoners.

_The Ladies in White, the group of female relatives of the 75 political prisoners picked up in the 2003 sweep, held 182 different protests.

_The 3,322 acts logged in 2005 - including 2,613 vigils - represent an 85 percent increase over the 1,805 acts of civil disobedience in 2004.

``What we're seeing is a direct relation between the incapacity of the regime's administration - economically, politically, the errors they commit every day - and the discontent of the people,'' Rivero said. ``People see no hope, but they are losing their fear.''

The Directorate helps pro-democracy organizations on the island. It receives a portion of its funding, some $1 million, from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The USAID money goes to a project, separate from the civil disobedience report, that focuses on international outreach.

The Directorate's federal funding has made it a frequent object of criticism from the Cuban government. The report has come out annually since 1997, documenting each reported act of disobedience by date and address and citing the source. When it began a decade ago, the listing was of a scant 44 events. That more than doubled to 100 events in 1998, eventually jumping to 1,328 in 2003.

``The opposition has taken a lower profile since July 2005, when Fidel Castro incited violence against us in a speech he gave,'' said Eliecer Consuegra Rivas, of the Eastern Democratic Alliance in Holguin. ``But as that happens, horizons broaden. The police will loot an independent library, and people on the street come forward and say, `How are they going to take the books?'''

Cuban dissident leaders say they lost momentum when the 75 were jailed, but have since overcome the leadership loss.

``The 2003 wave was a big blow to the opposition,'' said Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a Ciego de Avila activist who was jailed for two years for heading the Cuban Human Rights Foundation. ``It decapitated the movement, so that now we have opposition members leaving the country and being jailed. But there are two sides to that: we lose people to jail and exile, but those people have friends and family who join the ranks.''

He said the opposition movement is stymied by a lack of funding and materials. The issue has been a sticking point for the Bush administration, which last year pledged to provide dissidents an additional $80 million.

But U.S. law prohibits AID from sending cash, and Cuban law prohibits dissidents from receiving it. ``I think we're even stronger than 2003,'' Gonzalez said. He cut the conversation short when he said the pro-government mob throwing rocks at the home of another dissident where Gonzalez was using the phone had set the roof on fire. Reached later, he said a few pails of water put out the fire.