Varela Project

The Varela Project (Proyecto Varela in Spanish) is a project that was started in 1998 by Oswaldo Payá of the Christian Liberation Movement (CLM) and named after Felix Varela, a Cuban religious leader.

Many members were imprisoned during the Black Spring in 2003.

The purpose of the Varela Project was to circulate a proposal of law advocating for democratic political reforms within Cuba, such as the establishment of freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free elections, freedom of religion, freedom to start private businesses, and amnesty for political prisoners.

The Varela Project was announced as relying on Article #88(g) of the Cuban Constitution of 1976, as amended in 1992, which allows citizens to propose laws if 10,000 who are entitled to vote support the proposal with a notarized affidavit that the Varela Project's promoters failed to bring together with the project itself. The simple collection, in any number, of names, national identification numbers, addresses, and signatures does not support any proposal of law in accord with the Cuban Constitution and its complementary legislation, which in this case is the Rules of the National Assembly (1996).

The organization reported having collected 11,020 signatures, but neither the Constitution nor any complementary law authorizes a proposal of law by citizens without proving their right to vote. Article 88 of the Constitution does not refer to any signature, and the Article 64 of the Rules of the National Assembly clearly request as quantum of proof a notarized affidavit. Thus, the legal requisite for consideration by Cuban National Assembly is not a number at all, but the legal status of voter. The Cuban National Assembly's Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee did not suspend consideration of the Varela Project citizens' initiative, but responded to it with an expert opinion, dated on November 1, 2002, and forwarded to the promoters by courier on November 18 and by certified mail on November 26. This expert opinion dismissed the Varela Project because of formal and substantial grounds. Formally, the Varela Project did not prove the voter status of those who had provided their names, national identification numbers, addresses, and signatures. Also it wasn't presented as a proposal of law, but as a mix of allegations regarding legal issues that should be articulate as separate laws. Moreover, the Varela Project mixed up referendum and popular consultation, which are two different constitutional issues. The Cuban regime did not respond to the Varela Project with its own counter initiative, providing that the Cuban Constitution be amended to make permanent the socialist nature of the Cuban state. Such was the response to the U.S. President's speeches on May 20, 2002, and the foreign media broke the news that the huge mobilization — a typical resource of the Cuban regime against the U.S. — for irrevocable socialism was the response to the Varela Project. In fact, the response was limited since the very beginning to the expert opinion by the aforementioned Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee. A BBC reporter noted that many Cubans said they felt pressured into signing the government's petition. According to the United States State Department, "activists reported increased harassment by State Security agents. Authorities arrested and detained Varela activists, confiscated signatures, fined and threatened activists and signers, and forced signers to rescind signatures. State Security impersonated canvassing volunteers and increasingly infiltrated the ranks of activists. In May and June, Oswaldo Paya reported State Security agents visited and pressured more than 50 Varela Project signatories to retract their signatures and denounce the Varela Project activists who had collected their signatures."

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Wikipedia