For another Cuba

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Cuban dissident Antonio G. Rodiles said Tuesday his Estado de SATS movement is trying to knit together a network of domestic and exile opposition forces that will facilitate the nation’s transition to democracy.

Washington should maintain the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, he said during an interview with journalists from The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, and Raúl Castro’s economic reforms are “minuscule maneuvers.”

Rodiles, who left Cuba in 1998 but returned in 2007 after living in Mexico and starting a doctorate in mathematics at Florida State University, is the fifth blogger or leading dissident to visit Miami since the Cuban government eased its migration controls in January.

The 40-year-old, who was detained for 19 days last year on charges of resisting arrest, said he plans to return to Havana in early May, then leave the island again for a trip to Spain, Sweden and perhaps some former Soviet Bloc nations. Continue reading →

By Pablo Pascual Méndez Piña

HAVANA, Cuba, February 23, 2013 (Pablo Pascual Méndez / www.cubanet.org).

Coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the first meeting of Estado de Sats in 2013 was held on Saturday at its headquarters on 1st Street between 46 and 60, in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The meeting was attended by about a hundred people.

The issue addressed by the panelists focused on the Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba, which demands the ratification of the United Nations covenants signed by Cuba’s then Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, four years ago, and which, as explained at the meeting today, should be discussed in the Council of Ministers, approved by the National Assembly and included in the laws of the Nation.

At a break in the panel, the meeting honored the memory of all those who have died defending the cause of human rights, the democratization of Cuba, and the downing in international waters of the two Brothers to the Rescue planes, a crime which occurred 17 years ago tomorrow. Also remembered was Antonio Rodiles’ father, recently deceased, who in life was a fervent attendee at Estado de Sats debates.

On this occasion, the panel consisted of the Sakharov-prize-winning psychologist Guillermo Fariñas, the Baptist pastor Mario Felix Lleonart, the attorney Laritza Diversent, the historian Manuel Cuesta Morúa, and the president of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) Jose Daniel Ferrer; as always, the host was Antonio Rodiles, who served as moderator.

Presentations were made on civil society and on the collection of signature for the Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba. A documentary by the intellectual Juan Antonio Blanco was screened, and several questions were asked of the panel by those present, as well as from abroad via text message.