Cuban Dissidents Call for Free Speech

By: Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer (AP) A leading dissident group on Tuesday unveiled a list of proposals to achieve peaceful change in Cuba, calling for free speech, private business ownership and the formation of labor unions.

The 36 demands were announced by Vladimiro Roca, a former military pilot who broke with the socialist government more than a decade ago and began calling for a Western-style democracy.

Roca, spokesman for the opposition United for All Movement, said he plans to submit the proposals to the local district representative, the lowest level of government, in hopes they will reach the National Assembly.

"The intention is to mobilize people using the (government) mechanisms that they have available to them," Roca said.

Roca said the proposals are a step toward the goal of achieving peaceful change on the communist island.

The proposals ask that Cubans be allowed to come and go from the island without restrictions, buy and sell cars and houses, run their own businesses, form unions, subscribe to the Internet and buy cable television.

Last month, a government law went into effect restricting most Internet access over the low-cost government phone service Cubans have at home.

Amnesty International criticized the measure as "yet another attempt to cut off Cubans' access to alternative views and a space for discussing them."

There was no immediate comment Tuesday from the government, but Cuban authorities have criticized dissidents in the past for appealing to the international media.

Cuba's best-known opposition drive has been the Varela Project, a signature-gathering initiative that seeks deep changes in the island's socialist system. The Cuban government has rejected the project's proposals, saying they are unconstitutional.

Cuban authorities Tuesday defended their human rights record, saying much of the criticism has come from groups whose only aim is to bring down the government.

There is no torture or forced killing in Cuba, civil rights exist, and all citizens are guaranteed free health care and monthly food allocations, said deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno.

Various nations that long supported Cuba have begun to criticize the communist island for its human rights record.

The international censure intensified last March when Cuba punished 75 Cuban dissidents with long prison sentences based on charges that they working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system. American officials and the activists denied the accusations.

Moreno said the United States uses criticism of Cuba's human rights record to maintain economic sanctions against the island.