Cuban dissident - opposition may eventually spark a work stoppage

Posted on Friday, 08.09.13

Cuban dissident: opposition may eventually spark a work stoppage
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Opponents of the Cuban government may eventually spark a gradual work
stoppage against the government that would undermine Havana's ability to
repress dissent, according to activist Jorge Luís García Pérez, also
known as "Antúnez."

The stoppage will be difficult to achieve but could grow into a mass
protest down the long road of opposition to the communist system,
Antúnez said during a news conference at the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies.

By disrupting the work of government agencies and institutions, the
stoppage could erode their ability to repress the people and control an
outburst of public protests, added Antúnez, who arrived in Miami on
Sunday for his first-ever trip abroad.

The stoppage is already visible in the growing abstention rates reported
for recent elections, he said, but to make it effective will take time.
"It will be a gradual, patient and difficult process. We're not thinking
of paralyzing the country tomorrow," he declared.

Antúnez also disagreed vehemently with reports that Cuba's opposition
movement is riven by internal disputes and rivalries, and blamed the
reports on government propaganda efforts to slander dissidents and
diminish their importance.

"I want to deny that the opposition is divided," he said. "The Cuban
resistance is more alive than ever."

He added: "I know that there is an attempt on the part of the government
to neutralize it, to silence it, to make believe that it does not exist."

The dissident, who served 17 years in prison, added that the opposition
to ruler Raúl Castro's government was much bigger than what is perceived
abroad, because each day there are many protests that are never reported
in the news media.

"The protests, and the people's sympathy for the opposition, have been
growing," he said. "Never before has the freedom of Cuba been so close."

Antúnez, who was interviewed by El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald on
Wednesday, also repeated his criticisms of Castro's economic reforms as
"maneuver" designed to fool the international community into believing
that real change is afoot.

"They only want to legitimize and give continuity to the dictatorship,"
he said.

Source: "Cuban dissident: opposition may eventually spark a work
stoppage - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/09/3551317/cuban-dissident-opposition-may.html