MIAMI, United States. — Cubans living in Europe, Spanish politicians, artists and other personalities met this Saturday in Madrid to transfer to representatives of the old continent actions and initiatives in favor of the freedom of Cuba.
The event Steps of Change Europeheld in the Assembly Hall of the Cultural Council of the Community of Madrid, was attended, among others, by the Cuban activist Rosa María Payá, who addressed several of the proposals made to politicians from various countries by the platform Change Steps.
“We are diverse, we are plural, we have different paths, but it is clear that we have a common goal, and that common goal is the change of the system in Cuba, that common goal is to recover our homeland,” said the president of the initiative in her speech. citizen Cuba decides.
For Payá, it is essential that the international community put pressure on the Cuban regime, as it has done against Russia, and demand the release of political prisoners, an end to repression and an end to forced expatriations.
Cuban activist Lázaro Mireles, MEP Hermann Tertsch, artist Yanelis Leyva and activist Elena Larrinaga de Luis, executive director of the Cuban Women’s Network, also took part in the meeting. The latter spoke with CubaNet on the situation of women in Cuba, marked by their defenselessness in the face of both political and gender violence.
“The insistence of the Cuban government is to criminalize human rights activists (…). Many women in Cuba, many mothers, encouraged their sons and daughters to march peacefully, to ask for what is legitimately theirs, freedom. And the government has criminalized them and created a very difficult situation for them,” she noted.
Representatives of political forces such as VOX and the Popular Party (PP) also expressed their unconditional support for the cause of freedom in Cuba.
“The Popular Party (PP), historically, has been supporting all demands for human rights in Cuba, and we will continue to do so. We have always been, at all times, on the side of the Cuban people and we are going to continue on that same path through the presentation of parliamentary initiatives and everything that is necessary to support and that, definitively, there is a change towards democracy in Cuba,” Janette Novo, PP deputy to the Madrid Assembly, told this newspaper.
During the event, the short-documentary The truth of the murder of Oswaldo Payáa tribute to the life and legacy of the late Cuban opposition leader on the 70th anniversary of his birth.
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