For several months now the forces of repression have suffered the daily nightmare of having to face a new phantom, the “National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front Orlando Zapata Tamayo”, an initiative born inside Cuba as a result of the need to join forces and take action on a national scale. Inspired by the teachings of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, the members of the Front arrange throughout the country actions of public protest and civil disobedience, which work to awaken the conscience of the citizens and achieve engagement and systematic communication between geographically distant leaders and organizations and above all to demand, with one voice, respect for the human rights of Cubans.
The journalist Raúl Luis Risco Pérez in Pinar del Río; Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo, Heriberto Liranza Romero, Hermógenes Guerrero Gómez in the capital; Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya and the patriots of the Alternative Option Movement in Matanzas, as well as Francisco Rangel Manzano, Caridad Burunate Gómez and Ernesto Mederos Arozarena; in the southern province of Cienfuegos, Alejandro Tur Valladares and Ricardo Pupo Sierra; Idania Yánes Contreras, Yuniesky García López, Yris Pérez Aguilera, the veteran Blás Augusto Fortún, in Cuba’s most central province; in Sancti Spiritus’ territory Adriano Castañeda Meneses who is one of the most enthusiastic pillars of the Front; in Ciego de Ávila, Julio Columbié Batista, Plinio Cruz Tamayo; in the historic Agramontina territory Virgilio Mantilla Arango, Julio Romero Muñoz, Yoan David González Milanés, Belkys Bárbara Portal Prado among other important leaders honor us with their presence and that of their respective groups in the Front. The eastern part of Cuba tops off our Front with the strength and representation that deserve prestige and among the women Caridad Caballero Batista, Marta Díaz Rondón, Gertrudis Ojeda Suárez and Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger, mother of the martyr Orlando Zapata Tamayo; among the men, what to say about the brothers Néstor and Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina, Cristian Toranzo Fundichely, Raudel Ávila Losada? How do we not feel honored with the militancy of Yordis García Fornier, Enyor Díaz Allen, and other eastern patriots? That is the Front.
Members speak for themselves, with their own voice, and activism is the response to as many questions as may appear.
Translated by: Jack Gibbard
November 18 2010