Manuel Cuesta Morua Nominated for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize

Manuel Cuesta Morua Nominated for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize
Posted on May 8, 2014

The Program for International Democratic Solidarity of CADAL, Democracy
Bridge, has nominated Cuban dissident leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa
spokesman for the Progressive Arch Party, to the Václav Havel 2014 Human
Rights Award, according to their press release.

The award "aims to reward civil society action in defense of human
rights in Europe and beyond. The candidates must have made a difference
in the human rights situation of a determined group, have contributed to
the exposure of large-scale systematic violation, or have successfully
mobilized public opinion or the international community to review a
particular case," said CADAL (Center for Democratic Opening in Latin
America), based in Argentina.

Cuesta Morúa founded the Progressive Arch with other dissidents in 2008,
"with the intention of bringing together organizations of a social
democratic nature, hitherto scattered in and out of Cuba," said CADAL.

The opponent is also an activist for racial integration and against
violence on the Island.

This last January he was arrested in Havana when he organized, along
with CADAL and other organizations, a Democratic Forum on International
Relations and Human Rights, to be held parallel to the Community of
Latin American and Latin American States (CELAC) Summit.

The Cuban authorities accused him of "spreading false news against world
peace." Recently, the regime lifted a provisional release measure that
obliged him to present himself to the Police weekly and blocked him from
traveling abroad.

The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize is annual and is awarded by the
Council of Europe in collaboration with the Vaclav Havel Library and the
Charter 77 Foundation.

The award was created in memory of Havel, playwright, opponent of
totalitarianism, architect of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, President
of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, and "an enduring symbol
of the opposition to the dictatorship," noted CADAL.

From Diario de Cuba, 2 May 2014

Source: "Manuel Cuesta Morua Nominated for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights
Prize | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/manuel-cuesta-morua-nominated-for-the-vaclav-havel-human-rights-prize/