MIAMI — A Cuban dissident leader said civil society groups within Cuba have united to lead a transition to democracy on the island, and asserted that a Venezuela-style leadership swap would be unacceptable.
“The dismantling of the totalitarian structure at the political level needs to happen,” said Rosa María Payá, founder of the Cuba Decide grassroots initiative.
Payá insisted during a talk at Florida International University’s Hemispheric Security Conference, and in a subsequent interview with The Palm Beach Post, that the remnants of the Castro brothers’ “criminal” regimes that have ruled the island since 1959 must be removed from power.
She cited that aspect in noting the contrast in how she and others view “a transition in Cuba and the difference in the way that it is being established in Venezuela.”
A U.S. military operation in January seized and removed Venezuela’s former president, Nicolás Maduro, and the Trump administration has since supported Maduro’s second-in-command, Delcy Rodríguez.
President Donald Trump has frequently praised Rodríguez, who has capitulated to Washington’s demands that the South American nation supply it with unlimited oil and other natural resources.
During a May 1 speech in West Palm Beach, the president boasted “we have a great relationship with Venezuela” and claimed the Rodríguez government was shipping 100 million barrels of oil to the United States — a figure some analysts have cast doubt on. Trump on May 12 also shared on social media an image of Venezuela cloaked in the U.S. flag and captioned “51st State.”
Cuban groups aligned behind transition plan, said Rosa María Payá
Moreover, Payá revealed that on March 2, a broad swath of pro-democracy leaders and organizations agreed to a “freedom accord” in which they pledged to forge an alliance in support of a transition plan to self-govern the country in the aftermath of “liberation.”
That plan would focus on humanitarian assistance for at least the first six months after a regime change, she said. Payá said the blueprint would then address Cuba’s many needs, from reliable energy and shoring up crumbling infrastructure to unlivable housing and stabilizing the collapsing health care network.
“The transition process, of course, is not going to be easy,” she said. “But it’s not going to be the first time in the history of the planet that we see a transition from a totalitarian regime to a democratic one. We have seen that before and we have learned from that.”
Payá’s assertions on May 6 predated news reports on May 14 that the U.S. Justice Department was preparing an indictment of Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former leader who succeeded his brother Fidel as dictator and governed from 2011 to 2021. The communist government in Havana is now led by Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Also on May 14, America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said be believes there is little likelihood of altering “the trajectory of Cuba as long as these people are in charge in that regime.”
Rubio added “we’ll give them a chance” but voiced his pessimism.
Payá, 37, is the daughter of Oswaldo Payá, who founded and led the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba from 1987 until his death in 2012.
Oswaldo Payá’s call for nonviolent disobedience to Fidel Castro’s totalitarian rule won international recognition and acclaim. The European Parliament awarded him the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and he met with Pope John Paul II.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who ushered a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations during his single White House term, was granted an unprecedented speech on Cuban television in 2002. He lauded Payá’s work during that address, which Carter delivered from the University of Havana.
Oswaldo Payá died in a car crash in 2012 that many suspect was an intentional assassination.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cuban dissident rejects Venezuela-style leadership swap
Reporting by Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
