The new politics of opposition: Civil resistance to the Castro regime.(Reports)

On July 26, 2005, Fidel Castro addressed a closed-door gathering of hand-picked followers. Hall of his two-hour speech was dedicated to attacking an internal pro-democracy movement which he described as an "illusion," orchestrated from abroad. The Revolution, he promised, "will not concede a millimeter of ground" to these individuals. The streets belong to the Revolution and will stay that way, he concluded. In the cavalcade of violence following these words, government-organized mobs across the island heckled, spit upon, and sometimes even beat peaceful dissidents outside their homes.

Some observers claim to be perplexed by Castro's recurrence to street violence against a pro-democracy movement that they do not see as a serious threat to the communist regime's 47-year old hold on power. Others argue that Castro's resort to public violence against a movement that the government has repeatedly pronounced dead demonstrates the resiliency of Cuba's embryonic opposition.

The Cuban case is perhaps best understood in the context of the dynamics of nonviolent, grassroots social struggle. Throughout history, lone dissidents manage to coalesce into increasingly effective committees, coalitions, and movements. These articulated channels of social power reshape civil society, which, in turn, becomes the platform for sustained and ultimately successful civic defiance. Cuban dissidents are on this path, and the Cuban government is bent on stopping them.

A Patchwork of Unrest

The international community has recognized Cuban dissident leaders such as the Ladies in White, Oswaldo Payá, Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Oscar Elías Biscet, Gustavo Arcos, and Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz, offering them honors and awards. These well-known men and women, however, do not constitute the "body" of the Cuban opposition. The pillars of" civil resistance to the Castro regime lie deep within the island's population, spread out across the provinces: among disaffected youth and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, and, increasingly, former Communists disenchanted with the regime's rejection of economic and political reform. In 1997, the Steps to Freedom report counted 44 civic resistance actions across the island; in 2004, the number was 1,805. Intensely active, fueled by rising social discontent and increased international support from abroad, the Cuban civic movement itself is a patchwork of" individuals, families, groups, and religious denominations spreading across regions and sectors where opposition to Castroism has traditionally been high.

Year after year, a greater percentage of actions occur outside Havana. In 2004, 81.5% of civic resistance activities took place in the country's interior. Of the 75 civic leaders arrested in March 2003, 43 were from the provinces. After Havana, the provinces with the highest level of activity were Villa Clara and Matanzas, the sites of deep-rooted campesino rebellions against the Castro regime in the 1960s.

Berta Antúnez and her family from Placetas, Villa Clara, are examples of the role played by provincial dissidents in mobilizing protests against the government. Berta's brother, Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," has been imprisoned since 1990 for speaking out in favor of glasnost and perestroika. His tenacious struggle from behind bars has turned him into ah icon of the pro-democracy movement and a leader of the political prisoners. Berta's uncle, Omar Pernet, is also in jail, one of the 75 civic activists arrested in March 2003.