We, Cubans conscious of the need for
transcendental change in the political, social and economic
structures of our country, gather, beyond our diverse strategies
for liberation, to affirm before our people and the international
community the essential postulates that substantiate the
democratic alternative to the despotism which currently prevails
in our homeland.
We affirm that the Cuban nation is one, within
the national territory and in diaspora. We believe that all
Cubans have the right to be equal before the law and the nation,
with full dignity that can not be subject to any discrimination.
We likewise understand that the present regime has shown itself
incapable of assuring liberty and justice and of promoting
well-being and human solidarity in our homeland. Due to this,
from this point forward, we establish, through a great national
consensus and as a clear alternative to the current oppression,
this:
Agreement for Democracy
We recognize as the fundamental principle of
the new Republic that Cuba is one and independent, whose
sovereignty resides in the people and functions through the
effective exercise of representative multiparty democracy, which
is the government of the majority with absolute respect for the
minority.
All governments must respect the sovereignty of
the people, therefore, at the end of the current tyrannical
regime, the provisional or transition government shall be
obligated to return sovereignty to the people by way of the
following measures:
- Guarantee the peoples participation
in the decisions of the nation through the exercise of
universal, direct, and secret voting to elect its
representatives, and the right to seek public office.
- Immediately issue a general amnesty for
the liberation of all political prisoners, including
those who have been sentenced for fictitious common
crimes, and cancel the pending political causes against
Cubans in exile, so as to facilitate their return to the
homeland and their reintegration into the national
society.
- Organize an independent, impartial and
professional judiciary.
- Recognize and protect the freedom of
expression, of the press, of association, of assembly, of
peaceful demonstration, profession and religion.
- Protect the Cuban people from arbitrary
expulsion from their homes as well as against all forms
of detention, search, confiscation or arbitrary
aggression, and from violation of their correspondence,
documents and other communications, and defend all
Cubans right to privacy and honor.
- Immediately legalize all political parties
and other organizations and activities of civil
society.
- Refer to the Constitution of 1940, when
applicable, during the transition period and convoke free
elections with the supervision of international
organizations within a time period not greater than one
year, for a Constituent Congress which will establish a
Constitution and which, during its existence, shall have
authority to legislate as well as to oversee the
executive. Having thus achieved democratic legitimacy, it
shall call general elections in accordance with the
provisions of the Constitution.
- Recognize and protect the freedom of
economic activity; the right to private property; the
right to unionize, to bargain collectively and to strike;
the Cuban people's right to genuine participation in
their economic development; access to public health and
education, and initiate the reestablishment of civic
values in education.
- Take immediate steps to protect Cuba's
environmental security and protect and rescue the
national patrimony.
- Propitiate and guarantee the
professionalism and political neutrality of the Armed
Forces and create forces of public order whose rules of
conduct shall adjust to the principles of this Agreement.
Cuba shall resurrect from its own ashes, but it
is the sacred obligation of all Cubans - both within the
oppressed island and in diaspora - to place our hands on the
plough without looking backwards but rather into the deepest part
of our hearts, to convert those ashes into fertile seeds of love
and creation. Now, as 100 years ago, our national aspiration
remains the construction of a Republic based on the formula of
triumphant love:
WITH ALL AND FOR THE GOOD OF
ALL