The Cuban Dissident Movement Turns 30

An evening with Ricardo Bofill and Sebastian Arcos Cazabon of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights

Monday, March 13, 2006 at 7:30pm

Graham Center 140
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th St, Miami, 33174

Showing of two short documentaries on the Cuban dissident movement: The Cuban Spring / Voices from the island of Freedom followed by panel discussion

1976: Founding of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights

1976 was the year that for the first time since the Constitution of 1940, Cuba gets a new constitution. It officially becomes a socialist and Stalinist state. On April 5 U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announces that there is no possibility of normalized U.S.-Cuban relations while Cuba has more than 15,000 Soviet-armed Cubans fighting in Angola. On April 30, in Miami, radio commentator Emilio Milán loses both his legs when a bomb explodes in his car. Milán serves as news director at WQBA radio, and hosts the popular show Habla el Pueblo ("The People Speak"). He will later assert that he was attacked because of his public opposition to terrorism.
On October 6 a Cuban airliner crashes after an explosion near Barbados, killing 73 people. It was the time that Fidel Castro’s power on the international stage was approaching its peak. On January 28, 1976 within Cuba’s prisons political prisoners of diverse political and ideological viewpoints come together and found the Cuban Committee for Human Rights led by Dr. Ricardo Bofill. They begin their work to compile reports of human rights violations.

1985-1989: The Committee exposes Castro as systematic rights violator

When Radio Marti goes on the air on May 20, 1985 the station broadcasts news and information from the U.S. to Cuba. Its constant mention of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights offers Bofill and his colleagues some protection
-- they become better known than ever and much harder to silence.

On February 21, 1988 in an interview with Fidel Castro in Havana, American journalist Maria Shriver asks about the Cuban Committee for Human Rights He responds irritably that there is only a "tiny little group of counterrevolutionaries being manipulated by the American Interest Section."
He firmly denies the existence of human rights organizations and calls any who might be involved liars and cheats.

After years of diplomatic pressure a U.N. delegation visits Cuba to investigate human rights issues between September 16- 25, 1988. Because of an endorsement by the Cuban Committee for Human Rights on Radio Martí, almost 4,500 people gather to testify on human rights violations. Some of the abuses include torture, executions, disappearances, and inhumane medical experiments in the prisons of Cuba. Fidel Castro sends police to the delegation's hotel, where more than 300 of the gathered people are physically abused. The visiting delegation finds out and protests further.
Castro tries to distract the committee by showing them flourishing hospitals and well treated prisoners in rehabilitation programs. However, back at the Hotel Commodoro, the group hears over 1,500 testimonies about rights violations.

On February 21, 1989 the U.N. delegation publishes its findings in an extensive, 400-page report. It states that Cuban citizens are deprived of freedoms such as speech, movement and the right to assemble, and details specifics including the names of people abused for political and social reasons. This began more than a decade of the international community’s condemnation via the United Nations Human Rights Commission of Cuba’s systematic human rights violation.

March 2003: The Cuban Spring

"The Cuban Spring" is a profound look at the current-day Cuban underground and its activities against the intense propaganda machine of the Fidel Castro regime. The main protagonist of the documentary is Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, an internationally recognized leader of the Cuban dissident movement. Payá speaks on camera about the dissidents' efforts to ensure a peaceful transition to democracy on the island. These efforts continue despite the worst wave of repression in decades, which was instigated by the Castro regime in March of 2003. As a result of this crackdown, more than 70 opposition leaders and independent journalists were imprisoned with jail sentences of up to 28 years. "The Cuban Spring" captures on video some interviews with these activists prior to their imprisonment.