Guillermo Fariñas’ Organization Withdraws from MUAD

Guillermo Fariñas’ Organization Withdraws from MUAD / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2016 — In the same week, the Democratic Action
Roundtable (MUAD) has lost two of its most representative
organizations. On Tuesday, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) withdrew
from the organization of opponents, and Thursday the United
Anti-totalitarian Front (FANTU), led by Guillermo Fariñas, made public
its departure.

In a note circulated by email within the island, the FANTU National
Council said that MAUD “is permeated by a majority of organizations and
personalities that are not representative of the entire non-violent
opposition.” Something that, according to the group, distances them from
those who daily confront “in the streets, the Castro’s totalitarian regime.”

The statement, signed by eight activists among whom is Fariñas, winner
of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, said
that FANTU’s members believe that the opponents who belong to the United
Roundtable reject the carrying out of “actions in the public
rights-of-ways” and “reject the methodology” of the organizations that
hold them.

Unlike UNPACU’s more diplomatic declaration of withdrawal from MUAD, the
FANTU note offers very harsh criticisms of the entities that make up
MUAD. In their opinion, they are “very popular in the media, but with
few members in their ranks,” at times only one person, “and act only
towards the exterior of Cuba.”

Manuel Cuesta Morua, one of the main drivers of the MUAD initiative,
told 14ymedio that MUAD is preparing “a well-thought out” response to
these criticisms.

For its part, FANTU has reproached MUAD for using “methods to buy and
get commitment as well as votes from opponents, which consist of
facilitating travel abroad”; a way that seeks to “defend the postures
and opinions of certain personalities within this rebellious entity.”

The document notes that “the struggle must be carried out within Cuba
and not be [going] constantly from airport to airport [since] the real
scenario for the democratization our country is within the island itself.”

Cuesta Morua recognizes that the withdrawal of these organizations “is a
blow” for the MUAD project, because both groups “have worked hard and
are very prestigious within Cuba.” However, he dismissed the seriousness
of the rupture, which he described a “a growth crisis” that “will not
end” the umbrella organization.

Cuesta Morua, who is the leader of the Progressive Arc, said that there
is still “a lack of maturity in the coexistence between the same
proposal from different viewpoints, distinct concrete strategies of
change, of how to push democratic change.” He notes that “the doors
remain open from FANTU and UNPACU,” if in the future they want to
return” to the organization.

Fariñas is setting his sights on the Second National Cuban Meeting, an
event that will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, between this August
12th to 14th. That is “another attempt at unity in which we are
involved,” the opponent emphasized to this newspaper.

Source: Guillermo Fariñas’ Organization Withdraws from MUAD / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba –
translatingcuba.com/guillermo-farinas-organization-withdraws-from-muad-14ymedio/