Cuba-Nicaragua-Venezuela Opposition to Coordinate Actions
“Achieving this unity in action will bring us closer to the common goal,” says the Granada Declaration, the founding document of the alliance.
HAVANA TIMES – Opposition activists from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua agreed to coordinate actions in Latin America and Europe in their fight for democracy in their countries, after signing Granada Declaration, an initiative supported by organizations from Spain.
The document, released on Friday, includes the proposal, which was signed, among others, by the Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli, a harsh critic of the Daniel Ortega regime, the Venezuelan opponent Antonio Ledezma and the Cuban playwright Yunior García, all exiled in Spain.
The document, signed at the university in the Spanish city of Granada, is also supported by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers and the human rights defense organization Cuban Prisoner Defenders.
In order to “join efforts,” the document proposes “creating a unified coordinating body” and “debating in the different solidarity movements of the three countries the modes of organization,” EFE quoted.
The signatories want to publicize this initiative in Latin America and Europe, convinced of the “positive effect of uniting the efforts of the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan diasporas and other people of good will in Spain and other countries.”
“Achieving this unity in action will bring us closer to the common goal towards freedom and democracy and restore hope and well-being to peoples who deserve it so much,” the statement underlines.
According to Javier Larrondo, president of Cuban Prisoner Defenders, the Granada Charter arose as an initiative of the Presidency of the Subcommittee on Immigration and International Protection of the Council of Spanish Lawyers.
Blas Jesús Imbroda Ortiz, president of that entity, assured that “the Subcommittee will provide all the legal support and the framework to promote the Granada Charter as a differential impulse in the actions of activists, artists, independent journalists, peaceful opponents and the entire civil society of the three countries”.
“The joining of the activists of the three countries is a step that those who, with their actions, curtail the most basic human rights of the citizens of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, may fear the most,” he said, quoted by Cuban Prisoner Defenders on its official website.
“From the practice of international protection, we have been preparing this proposal in my entity for a long time, which we have intentionally launched in the current context in which, with the new geopolitical order, it will undoubtedly mark a very positive impulse”, said Imbroda.
The poet Gioconda Belli stressed that “the dictatorships of our three countries promote a common methodology to repress us and deny us freedom. It is time for us to forge united and fraternal efforts.”
Antonio Ledezma indicated “the problems that we Venezuelans face are similar to the sufferings of Cubans and Nicaraguans, just like our ideals of freedom. We join together now to articulate efforts to overcome those tyrannies that represent the axis of evil. It is time to attend in an organized manner to the millions of exiles who require our guidance, not only to remedy personal matters, but to channel their power towards the conquest of democracy in our countries”.
Finally, Yunior García Aguilera indicated through his Facebook wall that “dictatorships always bet on ‘divide and conquer’. They make us fight among ourselves, they invent enemies, they sow suspicion among all. And while we waste time in our differences, they retain absolute power. But no one can fool everyone all the time.”
“The world has collided head-on with the real threat posed by authoritarian models. You cannot zap with people’s suffering, clinging to false romanticism or ideological stagnation. An awakening of consciences on a global scale is urgent,” he said.