"Something has changed: The Cuban people have met hope," said Oswaldo Paya, coordinator of the Varela Project, a
grass-roots democracy effort that Carter praised in a speech to the Cuban people Tuesday night. The project has become a
symbol of opposition to the 43-year rule of President Fidel Castro.

Paya was among the dissidents who met with Carter for several hours today at the residence of a U.N. diplomat here. Also
present was Vladimiro Roca, who was recently released after spending almost five years in prison for calling for democratic
reforms.

Carter has made Cuba's dissident community of human rights activists, journalists, librarians and religious leaders a key element
of his trip. Dismissed by the government as an insignificant number of malcontents and agitators paid by the U.S. government,
the dissidents have always been forced to the background here. Carter's visit has given them rare public prominence.

After a welcome dinner hosted by Castro on Sunday night, Carter met the next morning with two men who had jousted with
Castro for years over human rights, Paya and Elizardo Sanchez. Then, in his speech to the Cuban people, which was broadcast
live on state television and radio, Carter urged Cuba to embrace democracy and specifically mentioned the Varela Project.

Varela, named for a famous Cuban priest and independence activist, is a petition drive that has been signed by 11,000 Cubans
seeking a national referendum to guarantee freedom of speech and assembly, free elections and more free enterprise.

The signatures were delivered to the National Assembly on the eve of Carter's visit. According to the constitution, the assembly
must consider and vote on any measure signed by at least 10,000 Cuban voters. Paya and the other backers are now waiting
to see how the government responds.

The government has called Varela a plot by the U.S. government and anti-Castro Cubans in the United States, which its
supporters deny. Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo told reporters today that the United States has invested $10 million
to finance dissidents in Cuba since 1996, "and this year, 2002, they have planned $5 million."

"We know that the government of the United States, and especially the U.S. Interests Section [the U.S. diplomatic mission] in
the country, have a role in this," he said, although he offered no evidence that the money was used to finance the Varela
Project.

He said backers of the Varela petition "represent only 0.01 percent of the population," and he said that the petition drive was
"proof of how democratic our system is."

Victor Rolando Arroyo, an independent journalist and librarian from the western city of Pinar del Rio who also met with Carter
today, said such words are a reminder of what the dissidents are up against.

"The regime is not infinite," he said. "It's got to end, and now we have new hope. But we also have the experience of 43 years
of totalitarianism, so we are skeptical."

Arroyo said he and other dissidents remember the "bad example" of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998. Arroyo said
there was great hope during the pope's visit that religious and other freedoms would blossom. Some did, others did not, Arroyo
said, adding: "We have had high hopes and infinite frustrations."

Paya said Carter had taken a major step by publicly mentioning Varela, which most Cubans had never heard of because its
mention was banned on state airwaves. However, today's Granma, the state newspaper, carried a full transcript of Carter's
speech, a remarkable change from Wednesday, when it carried a highly sanitized report that barely mentioned Carter's main
points.

Paya presented Carter with the poster of Varela that has hung in the dissident's main working space since the project began
more than a year ago. "The enemy of Varela is fear," Paya said. "And when people realize, thanks to Carter, that thousands of
Cubans have signed, there could be a contagion."