Preamble

 Something that many Cubans have forgotten in these times of struggle and pestilence of the Castro’s regime is that there have been times in the history and pre-history of Man in which Man has triumphed. Not everything has to be darkness and hopelessness. If that would be the case, we would not be here, no even as poorly as we are.

 Human race has lived to conquer. Men have lived to build walls, roads, and pyramids that have challenged Nature during thousands of years. Throughout History, Man has also struggled and triumphed against oppression and tyranny. This is a time for the Cuban people to triumph again. Here is the word, the strategy, the common objective. The task is outlined and its name is Civil Disobedience!

 Civil disobedience as a fight strategy organized as a social movement is an important mobilization factor that can culminate in the making of a new government. The new government so badly needed by Cuba.

Introduction

 There are countless groups and organizations fighting to stop the usurping tyranny of Castro that destroys our people and our land. But the isolated voices of opposition, in and out of Cuba, have been inefficacious. And they have been inefficacious because each of them has tried to act alone.

 We understand the internal opposition. We understand their position and their reasoning. We know the repression suffered by them and the risks taken by them and their families. We can also understand the external opposition, with all its virtues and its defects. We realize the exhaustion produced by almost half a century of exile, deceit, grief, betrayal, and generations with different points of view. But the fight for the freedom of our people is far from over. To win the freedom is always dangerous, but it is our most valuable desire.

 Freedom is very desirable. Freedom is the goal of any nation or individual. Freedom is very important, and we cannot even begin to fathom how important freedom is for the Cuban people. Unfortunately, we observe that the opposition forces are not properly organized, not those inside nor the ones outside, nor do they have a unified fight strategy that saves us from more sorrow laden delays and leads us to the only objective: “Total freedom for the Cuban people”.

 While it is very praiseworthy to be a pacifist and follow that path, it is unfortunate that in spite of all the injustices, abuses, and violations perpetrated by the tyranny each day, it is considered “politically incorrect” to resort to self defense, as justified as it might be and, according to the Constitution of 1940, the last one approved in a civilized and democratic manner in our country, as constitutional as it might be.

 The tyranny attacks without consideration. Therefore, it is vitally important for the opposition, both inside and outside, to discard that fixed idea of pacifism as the only solution to our evils. It may be that pacifism is an intelligent path, but by itself it is not leading us up the path of triumph but rather prolonging the pain and suffering of our people, and making the great majority of our people believes that the utmost solution is to leave the country.

 However, there is a path that can help us resolve the Cuban conflict.

 The Path is Civil Disobedience

 There are occasions when using a balance between intelligence and strength not only constitutes an inalienable right but also an inescapable duty. Every new creation produces deep changes. And if we wish to build a New Cuba, those deep changes are inevitable at all levels.

 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948, clearly states in its third paragraph that the supreme recourse “to rebellion against tyranny and oppression” constitutes a human right.

 The Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et Spes”, in its Chapter IV, Number 74, states “where citizens are oppressed by a public authority overstepping its competence, they should not protest against those things which are objectively required for the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and the rights of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority”.

 Article 40 of the 1940 Cuban Constitution acknowledges the “Ius Resistendis”, proclaiming “The use of legitimate resistance adequate for the protection of the individual rights guaranteed”. The term “adequate resistance” indicates that the means or actions used by the citizens to conquer their rights and achieve honorable justice again must be in proportion to the rights conculcated or the injustices. And it proclaims it as a right and inescapable duty of the citizens.

 Furthermore, pacifism might mean peace, although an ephemeral one because, in the long run, the injustices of a tyrannical regime shall produce greater violence. That is why the path is immediate civil disobedience as a fight strategy, to prevent that the tyranny’s brutal repression leads us, as it has been seen, toward a greater, generalized, and bloodier violence, from one end to the other of the country.

 Organization

 The expression “to organize” means to make a whole with dependent and mutually related pieces in order to produce a defined and orderly structure. This is the origin of the term organization. In trying to make something to work, the organization, although fundamental, might be omitted.

 Organization is the subdivision of actions and duties in specialized tasks. A group is organized in such a way as to allow for the flow and achieve specialized, complete actions, based on which the objective is either driven or achieved.

 There is a big difference between directing and doing, and it is difficult for some people to separate these concepts. It sometimes happens that a person in charge has a different understanding of what an organization means, therefore, this person tries to do everything.

 While it is true that an active and competent individual alone can do things better, it is also true that he or she is limited by his or her own capabilities, whereas a well organized group where every individual has a responsibility can produce several times the work of one person. It is more difficult to defeat a well organized group.

 Therefore, if we aspire to achieve “Total Freedom for Cuba” through civil disobedience, we need to be well organized, in the island as well as out, to be able to work in coordination and achieve our objective. This is the purpose behind the creation and organization of the Total Freedom for Cuba Front (Frente para la Libertad Total de Cuba).

 How to Institute the Path of Civil Disobedience

 For civil disobedience to lead to the end of the tyranny, several conditions must be met, such as:

 1. Disobedience must be general and simultaneous. We cannot allow ourselves the same mistake of the Tiananmen Square, where those gathering there were repressed and subjugated by the tyrannical Chinese regime.

Disobedience by a few is not disobedience but rebelliousness without consequence. In turn, general disobedience, in multiple locations in each city, is effective and devastating.

A well organized action of civil disobedience is enough to achieve the generalized effect sought. It is important that civil disobedience is activated simultaneously throughout the country for the tyranny to be unable to repress it.

 2. Disobedience must be organized. Civil disobedience requires each individual to assume a specific responsibility, in keeping with their affinities, opportunities, and capabilities. Some of them in propaganda, others in operations, groups of legitimate defense, logistics, and so forth.

 3. Civil disobedience requires a chain of command, at both the executive and cell levels, to avoid being penetrated, with a coordinator for each function, a national executive director, a regional executive director, and a municipal executive director, as well as a sole national organism to plan, convoke, and coordinate the disobedience.

 4. While it is true that civil disobedience must be pacific, it must incorporate the right of legitimate defense. Civil disobedience should be carried through in a pacific manner but, when helpless people are arbitrarily and unjustifiably attacked, they have the right to defend themselves.

 5. Civil disobedience must be carried on by all citizens. This means that not only common citizens have the duty to restore the Rule of Law, but all other citizens have it as well, including members of the Armed Forces, National Police, Ministry of the Interior, and Government Ministers.

 6. Civil disobedience must be timely. Civil disobedience is dynamic; it is built through the work and commitment of all; it is designed with everybody’s contributions. To carry it through it is necessary to meet the foregoing conditions; then the day, time, and specific mechanism for the action of civil disobedience planned can be set.

 7. Civil disobedience must be broadcasted. If the acts of civil disobedience are not broadcasted, and explained, in terms of ideology, the people and the rest of the world would not know, and the motivation to fight will not develop; besides, the regime takes care of distorting the facts and objectives, in detriment of the freedom fighters.

 The Application

 The tyranny wants us to believe that it has the support of the majority of the people, as well as that of the Armed Forces. We know that is not true.

 If we take into account the astute operation of psychological warfare, typical of the law enforcement forces, and how they maintain control of their propaganda through the state-owned media, which they all are, we can understand how this could be perceived as true.

 If dissidence is so minimal, why are the attacks against the opposition so violent? Why the laws that forbid criticizing the government? Why Act 88? Why making life impossible for those opposing the government, and the people in general? Why the ferocious persecution of the leaders of the opposition?

 Why the thousands that have been executed by their firing squads and the thousands that languish in their torturing prisons? Why 20% of the population had fled their paradise? Why are there no free and democratic elections in Cuba?

 If all in Cuba favor the tyranny, as their propaganda proclaims, why is there repression by unofficial brigades rather than by the Armed Forces? Why so many precautions to protect a “leader” said to by cherished and voted by 99% of the population? Why the ferocious repression against the people?

To Disperse the Repression

 Up to now, the actions of the opposition within Cuba have been planned following a party platform, which, according to the logic of a political party, should translate into an electoral triumph. The only problem is that there are no free elections in Cuba, as yet.

 Civil disobedience must be general, simultaneous, and coordinated in the main cities or places of the countryside so they cannot be repressed by the tyranny. What is to be done is to be done in a pacific manner, but with the capacity to exercise the universal right of legitimate defense in case of attacks by the rapid response brigades or paramilitary mobs disguised as ordinary citizens; the advice is to defend themselves while quickly retrieving, without offering resistance to the law enforcement forces.

 The actions chosen must be carried in a massive and undefined way, until the tyranny is overthrown. The objective is to force the government to resort not only to its usual instruments of repression but to all of the Armed Forces, which main duty is to defend the people, thus provoking an internal division based on the negative to follow legitimate orders.

  Epilogue

 Forty-seven long years, almost half a century, has gone by and our people still cannot begin to see a future of freedom; far from clearer, the horizon of hope for our long-suffering people is more confuse; the brutal dictatorship loaded with murders, incarcerations, summary executions, and extreme violations to human rights against its own people leaves no room for doubt, it will not allow for any changes through dialogue because this goes against its very authoritarian nature. The methods used so far have shown that they are not capable of making the dictatorship to yield or to open spaces for democracy or power.

The international community is also responsible for any unwanted outcome in our island; their acknowledgment and support of such a bloodthirsty dictatorship makes them participants and accomplices. Their recognition of the dictatorship of the minority and their lack of recognition of the yearning for freedom of the majority of the Cuban people make them responsible before the democratic history of humanity.

 It is a reality that none of the foreign policies applied against the tyranny have worked, and that none of these policies have been created with the true purpose of total freedom for the Cuban people. It is a reality that the tyranny works arduously in prolonging its madness and, with it, the pain, the suffering, and the orgy of blood and terror that have been its constant symbols.

 It is a reality that there are many occult interests working against our total freedom. Even the interests of our most firm ally throughout these long years, the government of the United States of America, are not or have not always been identical to the interests of those fighting for the freedom of Cuba.

 It is no secret that, on many occasions, many of its policies have not been aligned with the objective of total freedom for the Cuban people. Even today, when there is a President at the White House that proclaims to be a firm ally of our freedom, his actions do not agree with his speech.

 The reality is that it is up to us Cubans to manage our destiny because no foreign interest, as noble as it might be, could represent the true interests of our people.

 After almost half a century, it is time for the true fighters for the freedom of our homeland to align towards the achievement of our common objective of total freedom for Cuba. After almost half a century, it is now time to raise our heads and fight the final battle for the total freedom of the Cuban people. Our people keep waiting and dreaming about the day in which someone issues the order to ACT.

 For Cuba, It Is Time!