Request to the OAS to formally recognize the Cuban Civic Movement and reject Correa's proposal to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas

“the Cuban regime is excluding itself from the Organization, having failed to bring its internal norms into line with the Inter-American Democratic Charter”

“the Cuban regime is excluding itself from the Organization, having failed to bring its internal norms into line with the Inter-American Democratic Charter”

Social referents from the American Hemisphere signed a declaration asking the government of Colombia and the Secretary General of OAS to discuss in the next Summit of the Americas the suggestions presented before the body to recognize and support the Cuban Civic Movement.

The declaration is preceded by a categorical rejection of the initiative taken by the President of Ecuador Rafael Correa and the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) bloc of countries to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas, to be celebrated on April 14 and 15 in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The rejection is based on the fact that “the Cuban regime is excluding itself from the Organization and therefore from attending the Summit of the Americas, having failed to bring its internal norms into line with the Inter-American Democratic Charter”.

Among the signatories are Jaime Malamud Goti, one of the intellectual authors of the judgement of the military junta of the last Argentine dictatorship, political scientists Sérgio Fausto, Romero Pérez Antón, Patricio Navia and Carlos Gervasoni, jurist Daniel Sabsay, ambassador Ricardo Lafferriere, political exiles Aleardo Laría, Eduardo Viola and Héctor Leis, historians Luis Alberto Romero, María Sáenz Quesada and Ricardo López Göttig, Cuban dissidents Jorge Olivera Castillo, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Jorge Castorberi and Ricardo del Pino Barbán, journalists Jorge Elías, Sylvina Walger, Hugo Machín, Tristán Rodríguez Loredo and Andrés Cañizález, sociologists Heinz Sonntag, Gabriel Palumbo and Sabrina Ajmechet, artist Daniel Pérez, lawyers Carlos Facal and Bernabé García Hamilton, academics Carlos Sabino, Fernando Ruiz, Gonzalo Bustamante Kuschel, alderman of Lima, Jorge Villena and members of civil society organizations such as Viviana Giacaman, Peter-Alberto Behrens, Violeta Mercedes Granera Padilla, Lemis Tarajano, Yesenia Alvarez, Pamela Asturizaga, Elenis Rodríguez, Marcela Moreno, Micaela Hierro, Eduardo Matías López Ferrer, Óscar Álvarez Araya, Verónica Repond, César Mimbela Valencia and Gabriel Salvia.    

Illustrating the concerns expressed in the Declaration, during the recent visit of the Pope Benedict XVI to the Island the Cuban Vicepresident Marino Murillo stated in a press conference that “there will be no political reform in Cuba”. Also, before and during the Pope’s visit, state security blocked communications, imprisoned some peaceful opposition members and forbid others to leave their homes, thus repressing the right to freedom of speech, meeting and circulation.

In this way, the one party regime ruling in Cuba clearly showed once again its political immobility and its outspoken rejection of changes that would integrate the democratic community of the hemisphere. Therefore, its participation at the OEAS deserves no discussion.

Those interested in signing this declaration can follow the link