Cuban opposition calls for unity (UPDATED)

Some of the leading lights of the Cuban opposition — like Oswaldo Payá and Marta Beatriz Roque, who in the past have expressed different ideas on how to fight the dictatorship — on Sunday issued a document calling for unity in their common struggle for freedom and democracy. Other signatories includes members of the Damas de Blanco and the independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas.

Taken to heart, it may be a blueprint for victory.

Via Misceláneas de Cuba:

All nations and governments, as well as citizens and organizations, should attend to and respond to this call for solidarity. We call on all Cuban associations and citizens inside and outside Cuba to support this call and make it theirs, because this declaration of unity is for all Cubans, and is a sign of organic unity, which is so important for the Cuban nation in its aspirations for democracy, freedom, reconciliation, and sovereignty.

We Cubans who individually or as a part of peaceful groups defend and promote Human Rights, reconciliation and peaceful changes towards the democracy, want to proclaim our unity for freedom.

We know that the people of Cuba and all those who in the world support democracy for Cuba, wish, with good will, that all of the peaceful democratic Cuban opposition be united, since this unity is a necessity in order to advance the changes that the people want and need. Our unity must symbolize the goals of peace, justice, reconciliation and freedom that we want to reach.

Read the whole thing, including the list of signatories, below the fold.

UPDATED

EFE has the story.

Via Misceláneas de Cuba:

The following text for distribution is a document that demonstrates the real unity of the opposition, its maturity, and its sense of patriotism and responsibility that all of us should support. This takes apart any speculation regarding the disunity that serves as a pretext for many to discourage solidarity and support for the Cuban opposition and the people of Cuba, which as the document states, “have a right to all their rights.”

All nations and governments, as well as citizens and organizations, should attend to and respond to this call for solidarity. We call on all Cuban associations and citizens inside and outside Cuba to support this call and make it theirs, because this declaration of unity is for all Cubans, and is a sign of organic unity, which is so important for the Cuban nation in its aspirations for democracy, freedom, reconciliation, and sovereignty.

We Cubans who individually or as a part of peaceful groups defend and promote Human Rights, reconciliation and peaceful changes towards the democracy, want to proclaim our unity for freedom.

We know that the people of Cuba and all those who in the world support democracy for Cuba, wish, with good will, that all of the peaceful democratic Cuban opposition be united, since this unity is a necessity in order to advance the changes that the people want and need. Our unity must symbolize the goals of peace, justice, reconciliation and freedom that we want to reach.

The unity for freedom exists between us, but it does not necessarily express itself in a pact, or in the formation of an alliance structured into a monolithic block. Those of us who incorporate the peaceful democratic position will work responsibly toward the formation of a unitary block, if the circumstances deem that this step is necessary and the most suitable for achieving the changes towards democracy in Cuba, which is our objective and reason for being part of the Cuban opposition.

With this message we want to confirm the unity between us, a unity that stems from the alternative that we have taken towards the freedom of Cuba and that is expressed:

1. In our common objectives: to achieve the respect of all Human Rights for all Cubans and democracy, reconciliation, social justice, freedom and sovereignty for our people.

2. In our demand for the immediate and unconditional liberation of all those imprisoned unjustly for defending, promoting or peacefully exercising universally recognized Human Rights.

3. In using and promoting peaceful means to achieve these objectives among all Cubans.

4. In human solidarity, cooperation and respect for the diversity of initiatives, positions, working styles and projects within a frame of pluralism that allows for the participation of all citizens.

United in solidarity with these principles, we proclaim:

- That achieving changes in our society is a task corresponding to Cubans and only Cubans, to define and decide freely and democratically the future of Cuba, as an independent and sovereign country, without foreign interventions.

- That the solidarity of the peoples and governments of the world with the respect for Human Rights and with democratic changes in Cuba, would be the real demonstration of respect and support for the self-determination and sovereignty of the Cuban people.
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- That we do not accept that the recognition and respect for the rights of Cubans, in law and in practice, be conditional to the international situation, or to the state of relations of Cuba with other states, or to arrangements or agreements with other governments.

- That our radical demand for respect for Human Rights and democratic changes, motivates and supports itself solely on the fact that Cubans have a right to all the rights of all human beings.

Endorsement of the document at this time:

Vladimiro Roca

Elizardo Sanchez

Hector Palacios Ruiz

Laura Pollan

Oswaldo Paya Sardinas

Julia Cecilia Delgado (Partido Liberal Cubano)

Marta Beatriz Roque

Rene Gomez Manzano

Guillermo Fariñas">Guillermo Farinas

Antonio Augusto Villarreal, political prisoner, Group of 75

Ernesto Martini Fonseca (MCL)

Bertha Soler. Wife of prisoner Angel Moya

Julia Nunnez. Wife of prisoner Adolfo Fernandez