Cuban exiles in Miami, led by Rosa María Payá, founder of “Cuba Decides” and daughter of the late opposition leader Oswaldo Payá, signed on March 2 what they call an “Accord for Liberation” of Cuba, a 10-step roadmap to restore “democracy and the rule of law” on the island.
Oswaldo Payá was killed in a car crash in 2012 that had all the markings of a state security-staged accident.
The document, signed in the Father Varela Hall of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre (the patroness of Cuba) in Miami, bears the signatures of the Cuban Resistance Assembly and Steps for Change coalitions, led respectively by Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat and Rosa María Payá, along with various opposition organizations inside and outside Cuba.
The text states that it was signed “with faith in God, inspired by the founding ideals and values of the Cuban nation and the Accord for Democracy,” a document published on Feb. 20, 1998, that also establishes 10 points for a peaceful transition to democracy.
The Accord for Liberation outlines four phases for the transition: liberation, stabilization, reconstruction, and democratization of the country as well as the “dismantling of the criminal enterprise that is the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as the dismantling of all its repressive mechanisms and organizations.”
It also prioritizes the release of political prisoners and emphasizes the need to end “the humanitarian catastrophe and immediately address basic needs, beginning a limited transition period leading to free elections, during which the country will be administered by a provisional government.”
“Once the provisional government’s term has ended, general elections will be held: the first free, fair, and multiparty elections of Cuba’s new republican era,” the text emphasizes, encouraging all Cubans to join in this effort.
Payá: ‘The only way out of the crisis is the end of dictatorship’
During the presentation of the Accord for Liberation in Miami, Payá said: “Today we are promoting the democratic alternative to the barbarity that governs our country. Today we know that the only way out of the crisis is the end of the dictatorship.”
“And it’s urgent because the human suffering of our family, the human suffering of our people on the island right now is brutal. The blackouts last for days, there’s no medicine in the hospitals, there is no food in the stores,” she stated.
Payá pointed out that from 2021 to 2024, Cuba’s population decreased by 1.6 million, including Cubans who have died due to the crisis caused by the Cuban regime.
“Cubans are demanding freedom, and protests continue daily on the island. The network of opposition organizations across the island is growing, despite operating under extreme conditions,” she said.
According to the Global Affairs section of the University of Navarra, more than 1 million people have left Cuba since 2021 due to the economic crisis and the intensified repression of citizen protests that year; and according to Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information, some 480,000 people died on the island from 2021 to 2024.
The role of the United States
A few days ago, U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration was in talks with Cuba. “Maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba,” the president told reporters.
“Cuba is, to put it mildly, a failed nation. Right now, it really is a country with serious problems, and they want our help,” he added. Trump made these statements after he had ordered a blockade of oil shipments to the island on Jan. 29, which has triggered a severe fuel shortage.
Meanwhile, the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, Mike Hammer, stated in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, in late February that Cuba is at a pivotal moment and that the country will soon achieve “the freedom it hasn’t had in 67 years.”
Hammer said that “there are exchanges with people within the Cuban regime at a high level” as well as “conversations to see what can be done to take the country in a new direction” that would allow for a transition to democracy.
ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, contacted the office of the Archdiocese of Miami, headed by Archbishop Thomas Wenski, for comment on the next steps regarding Cuba but has not yet received a response.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.