Activists Claim to Have Signatures of 10,000 Voters Demanding More Freedom

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

HAVANA -- Oswaldo Paya says that when he was 17, he mentioned to his fellow students that he didn't much care for the government of Fidel Castro. It was
1969, the height of Stalinist repression in Cuba. Paya's comments got him sentenced to three years in a labor camp, where he hacked sugar cane and quarried marble
10 hours a day.

"It was a struggle between power and spirit," said Paya, now 50. "I left with a stronger faith that things can change."

That was the first round in a battle that Paya has been waging against Castro for more than three decades. Today, Paya is leading an unprecedented attempt to bring
more freedom to Cuba, using the unlikeliest of tools: the Cuban constitution, written by Castro himself.

"It's a myth that this regime is eternal and invincible; the people can displace it," said Paya, who circulated a petition seeking a national referendum to guarantee
freedom of expression and association, amnesty for political prisoners, free elections and the right to private enterprise. He says it has been signed by more than
10,000 people.

Paya, with help from members of more than 140 dissident groups, spent more than a year collecting and verifying the signatures, which he said would be presented in
"weeks, not months" to the legislature. By law, the National Assembly must consider and vote on any measure brought to it by at least 10,000 registered voters.

Even people who support the effort say there is little likelihood that Castro, who holds total control over the government, will allow the Varela Project -- named for
Felix Varela, a 19th-century Roman Catholic priest and independence activist -- to succeed.

But nearly all said that simply by getting 10,000 people to publicly sign an anti-government measure, Paya and the other dissidents have scored an important victory
for human rights in Cuba.

"In a culture of fear, change begins when people overcome their fear," said Paya, who alleged that many of those involved in the project have been harassed or
detained by police. "These 10,000 people are the vanguard. The fact that 10,000 people have demanded change is a change in itself."

The Cuban government dismisses the effort as insignificant and says it is supported by a tiny sliver of the island's 11 million people. Cuban officials say it was secretly
paid for and organized by the U.S. government.

In the government's only official statement on the project, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque recently said its supporters were "on the U.S. government payroll."

Another Cuban official, who asked not to be identified, said his government had proof that U.S. diplomats had provided money, transportation and other materials to
the effort. He refused to discuss details, saying, "Everything will be released in its due time."

He also complained that the project had received far more attention outside Cuba than is warranted by "its real importance and the real possibilities inside Cuba."

Vicki Huddleston, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, denied that the United States has provided anything more than "moral support" for what she called a completely
"homegrown effort."

"The Varela Project is the blooming of the Cuban human rights movement," Huddleston said. "Project Varela is the voice of over 10,000 Cubans using nonviolent
and legal means to make their lives better through gaining a voice in how they are governed."

For Idelfonso Brooks, 59, a retired Cuban naval officer, working against the government he once supported has resulted in harassment from the state security police.

Brooks, a member of Paya's Christian Liberation Movement who collected signatures for the project, said his problems started in February 2001, when police left a
citation on his front door, summoning him for questioning.

He said when he arrived, police chastised him for being involved with Paya and the Varela Project. He said they asked how a man who had spent almost 30 years in
the navy, then more than a decade working in another government department, could "turn [his] back on the revolution."

On New Year's Day, he received another summons. This time, he said, police stood him against a wall in the station, and screamed and cursed at him. He said they
called him and Paya homosexuals. They called him a liar and a traitor. They scribbled "criminal" on a piece of paper and made him wear it on his chest. They threw
him into a cell and kept him in custody for nearly seven hours.

"They said they were going to hurt my son and my granddaughter, who live in Miami," said Brooks, a small man whose severe vision problems forced him to retire
early.

"If I had any doubt about what I was doing in this movement, I didn't anymore," Brooks said, bursting into deep, uncontrollable sobs.

"I never in my whole life thought that the revolution I dedicated my life to could do something like this," he said. "I feel so guilty. We Cubans have hurt so many other
Cubans. After 43 years [of Castro], I have only suffering and I see no future. But maybe if this project works we will have reconciliation. All this hate must end."

Paya said many other activists have been harassed by police. He said they have broken into their houses and stolen many petition documents with signatures that had
to be replaced. He said a favorite police tactic is to pick up an activist and then drop him off in an isolated area miles from his home.

Paya said his house has been ransacked, and police have spray-painted the outside with "CIA agent," or "gusano," which means worm -- a term applied to those
considered to be traitors to the Castro government.

The Cuban government official said he could not swear that there had not been individual cases of harassment by police. But he said the government would never
sanction such acts.

"We will not try to respond to this with repression," he said. "The only solution is political. If the government had wanted to stop this, they would not have been able
to get their first 1,000 signatures."

Paya said his supporters were secretly gathering all the petition sheets from around the country. He said they were worried the police would try to destroy the
petitions before they could be presented to the National Assembly -- something that could happen close to the arrival of former president Jimmy Carter, an
outspoken human rights advocate who is scheduled to visit Cuba in May.

Paya said one more strategic obstacle looms: The National Assembly is now saying that all 10,000 signers must appear before a notary public to notarize their
signatures. Paya said he had a strategy for dealing with that, but would not reveal it until the signatures arrive at the assembly.

Asked if he were dreaming to think that he could outmaneuver Castro, Paya smiled.

"If you don't have dreams, you can't get results," he said.

                                               © 2002