Word: varela
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...stayed in Cuba to work for democratic reform. More than two decades later, his efforts are suffering a backlash - they moved Castro to launch his harshest crackdown ever. In the past few months, 54 leaders of Payá's dissident groups - the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and the Varela Project - have been convicted of treason and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. But Payá, 51, insists his movement is still strong. "We're the first nonviolent force for change this island has ever known," he told Time. "Castro can't crush that, no matter how hard he tries." Cuba...
...journalists have been jailed, accused of treason for allegedly being financed by the U.S. The evidence? Some of them recently met with American diplomatic officials who are permitted to work in Havana. But a prominent dissident who has not been arrested is physicist Oswaldo Paya, 51, head of the Varela Project, which is calling for a constitutional referendum on free speech and elections. Castro's ire at the growing popularity of Paya seems a key impetus for the dragnet, since most of those arrested are Varela activists. But Castro has apparently decided that arresting Paya, who last year...
...launch a roundup of dissidents opposed to his 44-year-long communist rule. Since March 18, 78 dissidents and journalists have been jailed, accused of treason for allegedly being financed by the U.S. One who has not been arrested is physicist Oswaldo Paya, 51, head of the Varela Project, which is calling for a constitutional referendum on free speech and elections. Paya's growing popularity may have triggered the dragnet, since most of those arrested are Varela activists. Paya himself, who last year won the E.U.'s Sakharov Award for human rights, remains free, at least...
Late last month, a Cuban legislative panel officially jettisoned the Varela Project, an initiative spearheaded by dissidents seeking a referendum on political and economic reform within the island’s Communist framework. A clause in the regime’s constitution purportedly allows citizens to organize a national referendum if they can gather 10,000 signatures, and Cuba’s opposition leaders had been able to collect over 11,000 for the Varela petition, which they presented to the National Assembly in May 2002. Unfortunately, the dissident project now appears to have suffered the same fate...
...those of Spain, where 133,000 people are employed directly - and many more indirectly - in the fishing industry. Most of these people work in regions suffering from chronic unemployment. Predictably, Spain has objected to the new Commission plans. "This is a death sentence for our fishing industry," says Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna, a Spanish conservative and member of the European Parliament. Publication of Fischler's proposals was delayed after Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar reportedly pressured Commission President Romano Prodi to soften the reforms. Around the same time Steffen Smidt, the Danish chief of the Commission...