LIMA, Peru – The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC) thanked the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, for the official reception of the organization’s secretary general, Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, at the Mburuvicha Róga presidential residence.
During a meeting of more than an hour and a half, both parties analyzed the political situation of Cuba and the role of the regional democratic community, with the participation of Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez, Minister of the Interior Enrique Riera and other authorities.
“We presented the criteria of the Cuban Resistance: that the full restoration of the sovereignty of the Cuban people, the accumulation of their rights and freedoms, is essential for the true salvation of the Cuban nation, that the Latin American democratic community has a necessary role in accompanying a true change in Cuba, which we call liberation,” says a statement from the organization.
Gutiérrez-Boronat provided documentation on Cuban political prisoners and explained the need to restore sovereignty and freedoms on the Island, as well as the willingness of the diaspora to participate in a eventual national reconstruction.
In statements to Paraguayan media, the opposition leader questioned the official version of the recent massacre of four Cubans on a boat near the island and attributed the events to state repression.
“I do not believe the official version. This regime and its repressive mechanisms have a long history of perpetuated massacres and manipulation and instigation of violent acts… this fact shows why there cannot be true freedom for the Cuban people as long as these totalitarian repressive organizations exist,” he stressed.
Subsequently, he held another meeting with the Paraguayan Minister of Education and highlighted Paraguay’s democratic transition as a model from which, in his opinion, Cuba could learn.
ARC promotes a united front for freedom in Cuba
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat’s visit to Paraguay occurs days later from another leader meeting of the ARC with the elected president of Chile, José Antonio Kast, in Santiago de Chile, also focused on the Cuban problem.
On that occasion, the meeting was held in the Office of the President-Elect (OPE) and lasted one hour. The statement notes that both parties “spoke widely about the Cuban reality and the struggle of the Cuban people for their freedom.”
After the meeting, Gutiérrez-Boronat stated that “this meeting, held on February 20, the anniversary of the signing of the historic Agreement for Democracy in Cuba in 1998, shows President Kast’s understanding for the cause of the rights and freedoms of the Cuban people.”
The statement places the meeting at “crucial moments for the Cuban nation” and adds that it took place when “Cuban democratic forces seek a more effective coordination of all the constituent factors of Cuban patriotism.”
In this sense, the secretary general of the ARC declared: “In these urgent moments we are going to expand the international front of support for the freedom of Cuba.”
