DEMONSTRATIONS IN FAVOUR OF THE “ASSEMBLY FOR THE PROMOTION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN CUBA”

May 20, 2005: “Freedom, Rights and Democracy in Cuba” states a banner during the protest organized by the Radical Party outside the Cuban embassy in Rome.
The demonstration was in solidarity with the opponents of Castro’s regime who at the same time were taking part in the “Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society in Cuba”  (APSC) held in Havana.
Members of Hands Off Cain also took part in the demonstration: “Cuba is not only Guantanamo with the American base,” stated the group’s Secretary Sergio D’Elia. “There’s the hidden Cuba with the maximum security prisons where poets, journalists and union members are locked up. Cuba isn’t the happy island of socialism. The revolutionary dream has shattered into the reality of Fidel Castro’s regime. It is this Cuban reality which we are fighting against.”
Other demonstrations organized by the Radical Party took place simultaneously to the one in Rome in front of Cuban embassies and consulates in Milan, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels and Moscow.
At the conclusion of the Assembly in Havana, the independent economist, Martha Beatriz Roque, elected President of the APSC, called for the government to release all political prisoners.  
“Castro’s regime is Stalinist, totalitarian and antidemocratic. We will continue the fight for democracy,” added the dissident, who invited Castro “to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. (Sources: Ansa, 20/05/2005)