Do not prosecute the 3 Cubans who entered their waters peacefully

PETITION TO STOP PROSECUTION AGAINST LEADERS OF THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT FOR PEACEFULLY EXERCISING THE INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RIGHT OF A CITIZEN TO RETURN TO HIS OR HER HOMELAND (Article 13, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

For 42 years the Cuban military government has divided the Cuban families and their nation and has established a very lucrative industry from that division at the rate of one billion dollars annually. Practically every family unit has been divided. Even Castro's own family has been affected from his own totalitarian policies with his daughter Alina and sister Juanita both living in exile.

To keep this infamous policy in place (and the profits from family division), Castro discriminates his own countrymen who live outside Cuba. A "visa" system has been established for Cubans living aboard to return to their homeland to see their families. They have to acquire a visa as if they were foreigners in their own homeland so that they can be limited in the days that they may stay in Cuba. Castro then uses the visa to discriminate who can visit and who cannot. This is a clear violation of Article 13th of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Cuba is a signatory. More so when Castro allows American vessels from the Florida Keys to enter Cuba without a visa for 72 hours while prohibiting Cubans from the United States from doing the same, a clear practice of discrimination based on national origins.

For many years now, the Democracy Movement, a non-violent, pro-democracy civil and human rights advocacy organization has been struggling to reunite the Cuban People in their homeland with growing support both in exile and in the Island. Requests addressed to the Cuban Government have been ignored. Attempts to peacefully exercise the "right to return" have been met with violence. Unfortunately, the US Government has succumbed to Castro's threats of a massive exodus to the US and Washington came up a Presidential Proclamation (6867) under which it joins the Cuban regime in discriminating Cuban nationals --more directly the members of the Democracy Movement--in what relates to the right to return to one's homeland. Presidential Proclamation is selectively enforced against the Democracy Movement: in the six years since it was enacted, three thousand permits have been given by the US Coast Guard to Americans to enter Cuba by boat and only three have been denied--all three from the Democracy Movement. This is even recognized by the US Coast Guard in their own web page www.uscg.com. Under the Proclamation only three vessels have been confiscated since it was enacted: the "M/V Democracia", the "M/V Human Rights" and the "M/V My Right To Return Home", all three from the Democracy Movement. Since enacted, only three people have been criminally charged and are now facing trial: Ramon Saul Sanchez, Alberto Perez and Pablo Rodriguez, all three, leaders of the Democracy Movement.

These three men are facing 15 years incarceration each and $10,000 fine for having peacefully entered their waters on July 14, 2001, during a memorial flotilla to drop flowers and say prayers for the innocent children and adults that had been murdered by Cuban gunboats in those same waters on July 13, 1994.

Serious constitutional violations exist in this case. Equally serious are the violations of universally recognized rights, such as the right to return to one's country, the right to free travel, the right to freedom of expression, the right to equal treatment under the law and to not be discriminated against based on nationality and beliefs, etc.; all done--according to the Proclamation's main objective--to preserve "international relations" with the murderer of thousands of Cubans, a renown sponsor of international terrorism, a denounced torturer by the Geneva Convention on Human Rights, and a preacher of hatred and violence against the People of the United States and other nations of the world he dislikes.

Please, make the difference by petitioning the President of the United States, Mr. George W. Bush, to stop prosecution against Ramon Saul, Pablo and Alberto, and to rescind Presidential Proclamantion, 6867. Help us bring down the walls of family division that have caused and continue to cause so much suffering to millions of human beings both in Cuba and in the US.

For additional information, please e-mail us at movidemo@aol.com or call 305-264-7200. Someday the today oppressed people of Cuba will be able to reunite freely in their homeland, and we will not forget those who raised their voices for us in the midst of our plight.