Defying Castro, activists plan open-air meeting

HAVANA, Cuba - A group of Cuban activists will make history on Friday. In defiance of a government that has ruled for 46 years and outlaws political opposition, they plan to hold an open-air meeting to demand political change.

Approximately 500 people have been invited to attend the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, representing over 300 groups on the island opposed to the Castro government including illegal political parties, human rights organizations and independent libraries.

The coalition hopes to take steps toward forging unity in Cuba’s fractured pro-democracy movement still recovering from a government beating in 2003.

At that time, Cuban authorities jailed dozens of activists, charged with subversion and collaborating with American officials to cause harm to the Cuban economy and Fidel Castro’s rule. During trials, the stunned opposition learned that a large group of undercover security agents had infiltrated their ranks.

Martha Beatriz Roque, spearheading this new effort, was herself the victim of a sting operation that sent her to prison for a year. At her trial, the prosecution’s star witness turned out to be an undercover agent posing as Roque’s personal secretary.

The infiltrations sowed doubts and suspicions, and caused further division among the opposition generally perceived by Cuba watchers and diplomats as relatively weak.

A key figure missing
Some key figures will be missing from the upcoming gathering, including Oswaldo Payá, from the Christian Liberation Movement, and former political prisoners.

Two and a half years ago, after winning the European Parliament’s Andrei Sakharov human rights award, Payá called for a national dialogue on a post-Castro transition that would include Cubans living on and off the island as well as government supporters. That enraged some activists who found his ideas too conciliatory with a regime that has refused to embrace any real change in four decades.

Roberto León / NBC News Oswaldo Paya, an activist from the Christian Liberation Movement, will be missing from the meeting.

Instead of simply voicing disagreement with his proposal, Payá claims he became the target of a smear campaign.

“After we proposed dialogue, the same people organizing the May 20^th meeting criticized us, lied about us, sabotaged our work and created confusion,” said Payá. “That’s the way these people operate.”

Payá also opposes U.S. involvement in the weekend gathering.

While Roque has reached out to Miami for financial aid and Congress for moral support, Payá argues it’s best to maintain distance. Anything else, he said, allows “the regime to falsely accuse our people of being mercenaries and to throw them in jail.”

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