Saturday, April 11, 2015

Antonio Rodiles interview “Truth is on the side of the opposition”

Antonio Rodiles interview: "Truth is on the side of the opposition" /
Cubanet, Ernesto Perez Chang
Posted on April 10, 2015

Cubanet, Ernesto Perez Chang, Havana, 9 April 2015 – The discussion
parallel to the Panama Summit (Summit of the Americas) lacks the
presence of Antonio G. Rodiles, because the Cuban government, very
"opportunistically," has retained his passport.

A recognized opposition activist and director of the Estado de Sats
(State of Sats) civic project, this talkative, jovial, controversial man
who was young athlete, doctor of science and professor at prestigious
universities in the United States, one day decided to leave the comfort
of academic life to return to Cuba and challenge the regime, building,
in his own home, a space for public debate as an alternative to the
stagnation that affects Cuban society.

The announcement of the conversations between the governments of the
Cuba and the United States has generated different positions among the
Cuban dissidence. The opinions of Antonio G. Rodiles in a certain way
deviate from those of the rest of the opponents, calling attention to
those things that should be paramount at the dialog table where many do
not feel represented.

"From my point of view," warns Rodiles, "is very illogical to accept a
path where there is no clear request to the regime in Havana. We all
know that the principal objective of the regime is to maintain itself in
power. They cannot maintain it much longer because this elite is going
to die of natural causes and clearly they are working for the transfer
of power to their family. (…)

"If the international community (…) allows them to make this transition
without asking anything in return it is going to be happiness for them,
and anguish for us Cubans (…). Our position has been made clear against
a political process, we are peaceful fighters and we believe the
solution for Cuba has to be a peaceful and a political one but this must
be through a clearly defined process, there must be transparency, which
was not what happened (…).

"It is clear that in a negotiation process not everything is going to be
said, not all points are going to be put on the table, but at least the
line and the logic of what you want to accomplish should be, and so far
we have not seen that Cubans' civil and political rights are the end
point of this conversation, and this is what overwhelmingly concerns us."

Although the constant dedication of the Estado de Sats project consumes
a great part of his social and family life, Antonio G. Rodiles – who
affirms that he grew up "hearing the Voice of America and Radio Marti,"
and without hearing "that Fidel and Raul Castro were heroes," despite
being the nephew of one of Raul Castro's trusted confidants – agreed to
meet with us, for hours, to talk about what we wanted to know about his
past, his obsessions, his personal perspectives on a democratic future,
and even his daily life, shaped by a sense of commitment to his ideas
and with respect for dialogue, qualities that have made him a true
leader for a good part of the opposition within and outside Cuba.

Video below is in Spanish
https://youtu.be/z9O4mPLu-fA

Source: Antonio Rodiles interview: "Truth is on the side of the
opposition" / Cubanet, Ernesto Perez Chang | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/antonio-rodiles-interview/

No comments:

Post a Comment