The Opposition to Fidel Castro's Cuban government is largely unofficial and illegal within Cuba due to the political system being a one party state. The most concentrated locus of opposition is amongst the Cuban-American exile community in Miami, Florida.
Opposition groups inside Cuba operate illegally, as the Cuban Constitution prohibits non-Communist parties and political organizations, their actions believed to represent a danger to the stability of the present government. One such group is "Proyecto Varela" led by Oswaldo Payá. They gathered more than 10,000 signatures for a referendum requesting freedom of the press, freedom to form political parties, and freedom to create private business. Their methods were non-violent, and their philosophy was democratic. The government responded with its own petition drive to make the socialist system "untouchable."
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello is another prominent opposition leader within the country.
There is a large Cuban-American expatriate/immigrant population residing in the United States, especially in and around Miami, Florida. Many of them (especially those who back the Cuban American National Foundation) lobby the U.S. government to maintain the U.S. embargo against Cuba and to press the Cuban government for political change. Other Cuban-American groups, many of them also opposed to Castro, advocate different policies, opposing the embargo and favoring more cultural and economic engagement. The Cuban government accuses Miami-based expatriates of organizing over 700 terrorist attacks against Cuba over the past 40 years such as Alpha 66's 1994 and 1995 machine-gun attacks on the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel; this was the justification used for sending Cuban agents to monitor these movements. (See Cuban Five).
- Bay of Pigs Invasion -As early as April 17, 1961, Brigade 2506 a military force of about 1,300 cuban expatriates, some of them ex-soldiers of Fulgencio Batista's army, with support of the US goverment, invaded the Giron beaches ("Ataque a La Playa Girón"), this is known as "The Bay of Pigs Invasion". This attempt to depose the new Cuban government ended in failure. Many prisoners of war were taken by the government. The results of this invasion represent a great political victory for the government.
- Alpha 66 -ALPHA 66 was organized in Puerto Rico by the end of 1961. Alpha, the first letter in the Greek alphabet, is to symbolize the beginning of the fight against communism in Cuba. The 66 in their name comes from their initial member's number. Their official web site (English) is at [1] (http://www.alpha66.org/english/our%20history.htm)
- Escambray Mountains Fight -Since 1959 many groups of Cubans that had fought side by side with Fidel and some farm owners began to take arms against the revolution. In the Escambray Mountains region in the center part of cuba. The cuban goverment label them as Bandits. Maneuver done by the cuban goverment to diminish popular support. By the 26 of July of 1965 Fidel Castro claimed to have abolished "all the Bandits in Cuba". as source of this see Cuban Goverment Web Site (http://www.escambray.islagrande.cu/Bandidismo/Ffidel.htm) this is a very detail web site is in spanish. [2] (http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-04-10-0722.htm) other sources [3] (http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y02/may02/21a10.htm) Guerrilla movement in Cuba also in Spanish.
The history of cuban opposition is also a history full of emigrations, of parents opposing the government sending their own children to foreign countries to spare them from having to live in a society with little political freedom.
- Operation Peter Pan -From December 26, 1960 through October 22, 1962, 14,048 unaccompanied children were send by their parents to the United States. The children were between the ages of 6 and 18 years old. Source [4] (http://www.nocastro.com/atrocities/opeterpan.htm). In many occacions in the past 45 years Castro's goverment have use migration as a leveraging tool to force the United States goverment to accept some sort of agreement.
- Mariel Boatlift -In April 15, 1980 the Mariel Boatlift began. This was illegal migration of more than 125,000 cubans towards the United States. Castro's goverment manipulated the situation in their favor by pushing criminals,patients in mental hospitals and homosexuals to leave out of the country, giving the world the impression that only those groups of people wanted to abandon the revolution. Source: [5] (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mariel-boatlift.htm)
- Brothers to the Rescue were an opposition group created with the purpose of helping cubans trying to escape by picking them up on small rafts. Their objective was to supply them with water and food and reporting also their geographic position to the American Coast Guard. The United States law at that particular moment was to grant political asylum to any Cuban that defected into the United States.
- Guantanamo Bay Dissidents/Refugees -After an airplane piloted by the opposition group "Brothers to the Rescue" from Miami were killed. Fidel Castro's goverment open the door to illegal inmigration in rafts to the US. The US places 23,000 Cubans in Guantanamo Bay. There is a documentary about this called "Balceros". As a result of this manipulations of the cuban goverment of illegal cuban inmigration, the Clinton administration agreed to talks with the Castro Goverment about immigration. This resulted in a change in American immigration law to what is now know as "Wet feet , dry feet". It stated that Cubans that touch American soil are allowed to stay but Cubans caught at sea will be returned to Cuban authorities. On the same note the Cuban goverment promised the Clinton administration that no reprimands will be taken against those that are returned to Cuba.
- Ibero-American Summit Dissidents -In 1999 about a dozens of opposition groups claiming peaceful opposition to Castro's one-party socialist system urge Ibero-American leaders to back their cause. 40 dissidents planning the gathering are arrested in Havana before the Ibero-American Summit. source cnn (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9911/11/castro.summit/)
External links
General links
- Proyecto Varela (http://www.proyectovarela.org/) -Official Web Site for Proyecto Varela. The front page says "Cuba will be reborn free and in peace!"
- Vitral Magazine (http://www.vitral.org) - Vitral Magazine published in English and Spanish from Cuba by Cubans independent of Castro's goverment; published by the Service of the Civic and Religious Education Center of Pinar del Río.
Cuban Constitution
Bay of Pig Invasion links
Fight in the Mountain Region of Escambray
- The forgotten war (http://www.neoliberalismo.com/escambray.htm) Fighting Against Castro in Cuba.
