Varela Project

The Varela Project was a citizen's initiative undertaken by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Oswaldo Payá, of the Christian Liberation Movement and others in Cuba. It relied on obscure provisions in the Cuban constitution which provided for citizen Initiatives on a petition of 10,000 signatures. Their proposed legislation, which if it had been accepted by the government, and approved by a vote of the people, would have established freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, free elections, freedom of worship, freedom to start businesses, and amnesty for political prisoners in the Socialist state.

Oswaldo Payá, a long-time opponent of the Revolution, remains free, but the resulting crackdown by the Cuban government has resulted in incarceration of 75 political prisoners with terms of up to 28 years.

While the Varela Project was lauded by some outside observers such as former US President Jimmy Carter and Payá was awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights by the European Union, others such as the putative Democratic nominee for President of the United States, John Kerry, have dismissed it as "counterproductive" [1]. Columnist DeWayne Wickham of USA Today described it as "false hope" and a "nonstarter", expressing scepticism as to whether the supposed right of citizen initiative even existed in the Cuban Consitutution and advocating diplomatic recognition of the Cuban government [1].

External links

• Text of the petition from the website of the Miami Herald

Reference

• Adapted from the Wikinfo article, "Varela Project" http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.php?title=Varela_Project