Havana Cuba. – With José Díaz Silva, its leader and founder, and several of its activists in prison, the Movement of Opponents for a New Republic (MONR) celebrated two decades on May 25. In addition, the house where several members of the organization would meet this Wednesday, she woke up surrounded by agents of the Political Police.
The MONR hoped to honor former political prisoner and activist Peter Louis Boitelwho died 50 years ago on a hunger strike.
Marle Alonso Parada, a MONR activist, told CubaNet that a State Security agent initially threatened the members of the group so that they would not meet and then tried to interrupt their meeting.
The lady in white Lourdes Esquivel, wife of José Díaz Silva, acknowledges today that the MONR “has assumed all the costs, from imprisonment, loss of valuable lives, beatings and exile to constant repression and the separation of families.”
“At all crucial moments, in any circumstance and throughout the country, the MONR appears with its energy and powerful sense of unity, even though the government’s aim is to silence and behead the movement,” he added.
The MONR, “an outstanding and frontline movement in the resistance,” as Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, secretary general of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, recently described it, has participated in important projects for the freedom of Cuba and human rights.
Among them, Esquivel Vieyto mentioned the Varela Project, the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Movement, the Democracy Movement, the Ladies in White, the Democratic Action Unity Table, the #Otro18 Platform and the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba.
More than 30 people saw the birth of the MONR on May 25, 2002, the date chosen to honor Pedro Luis Boitel Abraham. Among its founders were the late opponent Caridad Díaz Cabrera, as well as Jorge Fernández Mora, Rolando Díaz Silva and Lourdes Esquivel Vieyto herself.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +1 (786) 316-2072, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
