The Varela Project ( es, Proyecto Varela) is a project that was started in 1998 by
Oswaldo Payá
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (29 February 1952 – 22 July 2012) was a Cuban political activist. A Roman Catholic, he founded the Christian Liberation Movement in 1987 to oppose the one-party rule of the Cuban Communist Party. He attracted in ...
of the
Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and named after
Felix Varela
Felix may refer to:
* Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name
Places
* Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen
* Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
, a Cuban religious leader.
Many members were imprisoned during the
Black Spring in 2003.
The Varela Project citizens' initiative
The purpose of the Varela Project was to circulate a
proposal of law advocating for
democratic political reforms within Cuba, such as the establishment of
freedom of association
Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...
,
freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, free
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
s,
freedom of religion
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freed ...
,
freedom to start private businesses, and
amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
for
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s.
About 11,000 Cubans signed the reformist Varela Project citizens' initiative.
[David Altman, ''Direct Democracy Worldwide'' (Cambridge University Press), 2011), p. 112.] The
US State Department's 2005 report on Cuba in ''
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are annual publications on the human rights conditions in countries and regions outside the United States, mandated by U.S. law to be submitted annually by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
of ...
'' (issued in 2006) stated that "activists reported increased harassment by State Security agents. Authorities arrested and detained Varela activists, confiscated signatures, fined and threatened activists and signers, and forced signers to rescind signatures. State Security impersonated canvassing volunteers and increasingly infiltrated the ranks of activists. In May and June, Oswaldo Paya reported State Security agents visited and pressured more than 50 Varela Project signatories to retract their signatures and denounce the Varela Project activists who had collected their signatures."
The US State Department's 2004 report on Cuba referred to the Cuban Penal Code concept of "
dangerousness
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
," defined as the "special proclivity of a person to commit crimes, demonstrated by his conduct in manifest contradiction of socialist norms." The report said that "If the police decide that a person exhibits signs of dangerousness, they may bring the offender before a court or subject him to therapy or political reeducation". According to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, this provision "amounted to a subjective criterion used by the Government to justify violations of individual freedoms and due process for persons whose sole crime was to hold a view different from the official view".
The Cuban government refused to consider the petition, and the
Cuban National Assembly's Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee suspended its consideration, and responded to the Varela Project with a "counter-initiative" to enshrine "irrevocable socialism" in the Cuban Constitution.
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported that, over a two week period, 9 million Cubans took to the streets and 99% of all Cuban citizens signed a petition endorsing the constitutional amendment. The BBC said that many Cubans felt pressured into signing the government's petition.