Free Cuba Now!

Christian Liberation Movement Declaration on 24th anniversary of Varela Project. Cuban Officials Threaten to 'Eliminate' Cuban dissidents. Former Cuban political prisoner beaten to death by police.

Twenty four years ago on May 10, 2002, carrying 11,020 signed petitions in support of the Varela Project, the Christian Liberation Movement's Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Antonio Diaz Sanchez, and Regis Iglesias Ramirez delivered them to the Cuban National Assembly.

On May 10, 2026, the Christian Liberation Movement issued a formal statement recalling the continuing relevance of this nonviolent action.

Today marks 24 years since the first hand over of signatures for the Varela Project was presented to the National Assembly of People's Power. That act, supported by more than 11,000 Cuban citizens, was neither a provocation nor a partisan maneuver: it was a legitimate exercise of popular sovereignty, protected by the constitutional framework then in force, to demand a referendum on rights, freedoms, amnesty for political prisoners, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free elections.

The regime's response was not to listen to the people, but to attempt to stifle that demand with a massive signature campaign pressured from within state power, later imposing the so-called "irrevocability" of socialism, as if a clause written out of fear could supersede the sovereign will of the nation.

Having failed morally and politically in that attempt, the dictatorship responded as always: with repression, imprisonment, and long sentences against those who peacefully defended the Cuban people's right to decide.

Twenty-four years later, history once again exposes the regime. Faced with international pressure, and in particular the United States' firm stance against a tyranny that has further devastated the country, multiplied the number of political prisoners, and driven hundreds of thousands of Cubans into exile, the regime is resorting to the same tactic: collecting signatures under controlled conditions, fabricating endorsements, and simulating popular support.

But it no longer convinces. [ Rest of statement here. ]

On May 7, 2022 at the West Dade Regional library organizers of the Varela Project gathered together to reflect on the significance and impact of this citizen initiative, and the continuing struggle against the Castro dictatorship. The movement remains active in Cuba

Project Varela organizers gathered at the West Dade Regional Library on May 7, 2022.

This is not an action just remembered by Cuban activists, but four years ago the man who led the Varela Project effort was highlighted by the Florida's governor.

On May 9, 2022, the eve of the 20th anniversary of the first Varela Project petitions being turned in to the National Assembly in Cuba, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that designated “a portion of State Road 953, known as Le Jeune Road, between Northwest 11th Street and Northwest 14th Street in Miami-Dade County” as Oswaldo Payá Way. News Channel 8 reported on the significance of this today.

Payá founded the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, and “was one of the first outspoken opposition leaders against the Castro dictatorship,” DeSantis said, and fought for democracy and to change the regime. He died in 2012, in a “mysterious car accident,” that the governor said some believe was “orchestrated” by the Cuban government.

Rosa Maria Payá, the daughter of Oswaldo Paya, spoke at this gathering and discussed the upcoming  anniversary of the killing of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, but also the ongoing crimes of communism being committed by the Castro regime.

“Next July will mark the 10-year anniversary of the killing of my father, at the hands of the Cuban regime,” Payá said. “But sadly, my father was not the only one killed that day. My dear friend, Harold Cepero was also killed, 10 years ago. As thousands of Cubans before them during these six decades, actually some Cubans after them, last July 11, when Diubis Laurencio was shot down in the street just because he was filming a peaceful protest,” Payá said. “Actually, while we talk today, at least 1,000 Cubans are suffering political prison just for peacefully marching, demanding freedom, demanding the end of Communism.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on June12, 2023 made public its “Report on Admissibility and Merits No. 83/23 of Case 14,196” in which it held the State of Cuba responsible for the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.

 

There have been many others. Earlier this month activists marked another year without justice for Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (age 46) who had been arrested and beaten by Castro’s revolutionary police on May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship died three days later on May 8th from injuries sustained.

 

This decades long murder of nonviolent dissidents without officials having to answer for their crimes leads state security officials to feel secure enough in their impunity to have threatened Cuban dissidents and political prisoners with “death or disappearance in the event of a U.S. military strike on the island, as tensions between Havana and Washington continue to escalate.”  Among those targeted for death one presumes is 16-year-old Cuban political prisoner Jonathan David Muir.

 

72-year-old prisoner of conscience Félix Navarro was beaten and thrown into isolation in early April 2026 — right after a family visit with his wife Sonia Álvarez. Prison officer Norlen Pedroso Sotolongo verbally abused him, ordered a humiliating search of his belongings, then had him handcuffed and dragged to a punishment cell. He now has fresh contusions on top of his already failing health. His life is at serious risk. Felix’s daughter, Sayli Navarro, who is also a political prisoner was punished for getting the news out about her father’s beating by the Cuban prison official.

 

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia murdered by police in Cuba, and children he left behi