Cuba libre! Long live Bealrus!

A legendary Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas visited charter97.org web-site’s editorial office and met former political prisoners.

In Warsaw Guillermo Fariñas and the human rights director of the Cuban-American Foundation Omar Lopez Montenegro met a 2010 presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, charter97.org’s editor-in-chief Natalia Radzina, European Belarus civic campaign’s coordinators Dzmitry Bandarenka, Uladzimir Kobec and Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, a youth leader and journalist Jauhen Afnahel.

For his civic and political activities the dissident spent over 11 years in Cuban prisons. He went on hunger strikes 23 times. During one of the hunger strikes he nearly died and was taken to a resuscitation department. The Cuban regime was compelled to make concessions and fulfill his demands for the release of 52 dissidents from prisons.

In October 2010 Guillermo Fariñas became the winner of Andrei Sakharov prized, founded by the European Parliament. Cuban authorities for long refused to let him out of the country. Only this year under the pressure of international community the dissident was allowed to go abroad. The award ceremony will take place in Brussels on 2 June. Before this event Guillermo Fariñas visited Poland.

“You are all heroes for me”, - the Cuban dissident said, when the meeting’s participants were introduced to him.

Guillermo Fariñas told about the current situation in his country and how Cuban authorities fight the opposition. It turned out the situation was identical to the Belarusian.

“Special services are constantly trying to separate their opponents. They create artificial competition and play off dissident groups one against another. It is important for Raul Castro for the opposition to remain scattered”, - the dissident said.

He noted that the Cuban regime has been lately compelled to somewhat soften the repressions against the opposition and make certain concessions in social and economic spheres. According to him, the authorities are preparing for a “transition stage” and counting on Western loans and lifting of the US sanctions. It is exactly for this reason that they are studying the experience of other dictatorial countries in Havana, including Lukashenka’s Belarus. At the same time Guillermo Fariñas is convinced that Raul Castro can take the reformer’s mask off any moment. There are still dozens of political prisoners in Cuba’s prisons. The dissident does not rule out new provocations against him.

From Brussels Guillermo Fariñas will head to the USA. In Washington and Atlanta he will meet American politicians, and in Miami – a city, which has become the headquarters for Cuban opposition in exile – he will meet his compatriots, who had to escape the country. After that Guillermo Fariñas is going to return to Cuba to keep fighting the Castro regime.

The Belarusian politicians shared their impressions from the meeting with the charter97.org web-site.

The leader of the European Belarus civic campaign Andrei Sannikov highlighted that it is important for dictators’ opponents from different countries to meet and share experiences.

“I very much looked forwarded to meeting Guillermo Fariñas. I heard a lost about this legendary Cuban dissident, I read an interview with him in Polish media. It struck me with a deep analysis and stiffly accurate assessments of the situation. Guillermo Fariñas mentioned the Lukashenka regime as an example for the incumbent Cuban leadership, he known the situation in our region very well. Of course, dictatorships in different regions have their peculiarities, but they also have many similarities. During the conversation Guillermo Fariñas told how special services control the opposition, divide it and set one against another. This is similar to our situation.

This is, of course, a legendary person. He went through many severe trials, which are even hard to imagine, but he survived and retained the clarity of mind. 23 hunger strikes, and some of them lasted for several months. He was imprisoned, fought for his colleagues and friends, who were in a very difficult condition.

Such meetings and conversations are extremely useful, since there are dictatorships in many regions of the world and it is important for those, who oppose them, to cooperate, to support each other and share not only the information on the pressure on democrats, but also the experience of resisting repressions“, - Andrei Sannikov said.

At the end of the meeting at the instance of charter97.org web-site’s journalists Guillermo Fariñas signed the issue of the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, which had published an interview with him.

“To Belarusians from a person, who admires their work for the freedom of their country”, - Guillermo wrote.