Puente Democrático

04/04/2012
Request to the OAS to formally recognize the Cuban Civic Movement and reject Correa's proposal to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas
“the Cuban regime is excluding itself from the Organization, having failed to bring its internal norms into line with the Inter-American Democratic Charter”

13/04/2011
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Your Excellence Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė visits CADAL
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Your Excellence Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, visited the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) where she held a meeting with Gabriel Salvia and Hernán Alberro, General Director and Programs Director of CADAL, respectively. Vice-Minister assisted accompanied by Vaclovas Salkauskas, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania in Argentina; and Irena Skullerud, Head of the Division of Latin America, Asia and Pacific from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

23/02/2011
Zapata Tamayo remembered in front of Buenos Aires’ Obelisco (read it in Spanish)
Members of “Movimiento de Mujeres Cubanas exiliadas en Argentina: Por una Cuba Libre y Democrática” remembered the first anniversary of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo at Avenue Corrientes and 9 de Julio, in front of the Obelisco, an emblematic place of Buenos Aires. According to the organizers the place chosen for this commemoration was full of interested people.

31/01/2011
Message from Ingemar Cederberg for the Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba 2009-2010 (read it in Spanish)
“I just finished five years of diplomatic service at the Embassy of Sweden in Havana. It has been a great privilege for me to have the chance to know deeply the difficult life conditions and the tough work of Cuban opposition. During my 18 years in different diplomatic positions in Latin America I have not known of violations to freedom of expression so infamously planned like in the case of Cuba”.

21/01/2011
Volker Pellet received the plaque of the Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba 2009-2010 at the office of Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin (read it in Spanish)
Hans Blomeier, Director of Latin America at Konrad Adenauer Foundation, gave German diplomat Volker Pellet the plaque of the Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba 2009-2010 at the office of Konrad Adenauer in Berlin.

20/01/2011
Message from Caecilia Wijgers when she received in Hague the plaque of the Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba 2009-2010 (read it in Spanish)
''In my work during my stay in Cuba I have always had the conviction that free speech and access to information are basic and fundamental rights. This is why it was obvious and natural for me to support them in their efforts intended to the wellbeing of the Cuban people. I believe that a true civil society is an engine to create a space where citizens can flourish and open doors and windows”.

22/12/2010
Participation in the acknowledgement of the magistrates who judged the military dictatorship Junta (read it in Spanish)
The Federal Senate, by initiative of Senator Norma Morandini, gave on Wednesday, December 22 the honorable mention “Senador Domingo Faustino Sarmiento” and the medal of the Bicentenary to the members of the National Chamber of Crime Appeals of Buenos Aires who were in charge of the judgment of the Military Juntas 25 years ago. Through Hernán Alberro, CADAL and Red Puente Democrático Latinoamericano were present in such an important act.

10/12/2010
A Dutch, a Swedish and a German receive the 2009-2010 Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba
After the end of their mission in Havana, on the International Day of Human Rights, Wijgers, Cederberg and Pellet receive the 2009-2010 Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba. The award had a vast participation of Cuban Democrats, among them “Ladies in White”, Oswaldo Payá, Yoani Sánchez, Vladimiro Roca, Elizardo Sánchez, René Gómez Manzano, Guillermo Fariñas, Dagoberto Valdés and Félix Bonne Carcasses. In total, 16 foreign diplomats in Cuba were nominated. They represented the following countries: Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Spain, United States, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Canada.

29/11/2010
Participation in the forum “Cuba: a view to the future. Challenges and opportunities” (read it in Spanish)
The Youth Action Secretary of PAN DF, the Movimiento Nacional de Jóvenes Competitivos and Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) organized a forum “Cuba: a view to the future. Challenges and opportunities”. Gabriel Salvia, General Director of CADAL, was invited as a speaker for the last panel: Scenarios of transition in Cuba and its international context. He shared the panel with Edgar Lamm, member of the International Society of Human Rights (IGFM) in Aachen, and Julio Hernández, representative abroad of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL).

21/10/2010
Fariñas receives the Sajarov Award for Human Rights
The award of the European Parliament honors the memory of Andrei Sajarov, wellknown Soviet nuclear phisicist and afterwards human rights and democracy activist. This award is given since 1998 to people and organizations who had an important role in their struggle in favor of human rights and freedom in the world.

20/10/2010
Hilda Molina presented her book in Vicente López (read it in Spanish)
Organized by Ateneo Juan Bautista Alberdi from Vicente López and sponsored by Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL), Dra. Hilda Molina presented her book “Mi verdad” at the auditórium of Foro de las Ciencias y las Artes in Vicente López – Provincia de Buenos Aires, before a full house.

07/10/2010
2010 Award to Committed Diplomacy in Cuba (read it in Spanish)

17/09/2010
Cañizález dedicates his award to Venezuelan journalists
This international award, given every three year, recognizes the work of journalists and professors of communications in the defense of human rights in any part of the world where they are under threat. It was established to honor the carmelite religius Titus Bransdma, who from academia and catholic press firmely and early opposed to the totalitarianism presented by Nazism in Europe during the Second World War. Because of his opinions, Bransdma was executed by the Nazis on 1942.

13/08/2010
CADAL proposes the Cuban disident Guillermo Fariñas to the International Award of Human Rights Emilio F. Mignone
Emilio Mignone heroically fought together with few people against the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983), while the Cuban regime helped dictator Jorge Rafael Videa to block the resolution condemning Argentina in Geneva for human rights violation. This is why, what better way to make a homage to Mignone than to award someone who is currently facing in a peacefull and brave manner a totalitarian regime that is still in power since more than half a century and which government was a known accomplice of the Argentine military dictatorship.

29/07/2010
Letter to Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman with recommendations of foreign policy and human rights
CADAL presented Minister Timerman with eight recommendations of foreign policy and human rights, oriented to the fulfillment of the first of the strategic foreign policy objectives of Argentina. On this regard, CADAL stated that the Argentine Minister that these initiatives are absolutely in accordance with the article he published and signed on January 23, 2004 in the magazine Debate where he was the director: "The past of Argentina puts us on the obligation of excercizing a role of leadership that very few countries can try to occupy. For instance, in the struggle agains human rights violations and in the active solidarity with those opressed. Since we have been victims we must not forget the current victims".

07/06/2010
Claim for recognition of Cuban Civic Movement at OAS
The head of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), Gabriel Salvia, claimed to the foreign ministers gathered in Lima also to lift the "implict suspension that the majority of the Hemispheric states hold towards the human rights supporters in Cuba and thus comply with article 1 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

03/05/2010
Red Puente Democrático Latinoamericano awarded Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Ricardo González Alfonso and Guillermo Fariñas with the 2010 Award to Freedom of Expression in Cuba
The Cuban government is a declared enemy of free speech. To exercise it in the island implies being brave and assuming huge risks. To highlight the work to the Cubans that, in spite of the big obstacles, try to express themselves freely and allow their fellow citizens to have access to independent information and opinions, Red Puente Democrático Latinoamericano (Latin American Democratic Bridge Network) has created the Award to Freedom of Expression in Cuba.

18/03/2010
Unprecedented claim on human rights in Cuba
At CADAL we are convinced that the permanence of a dictatorship in Cuba, without firm claims of political opening, set a democratic limit to Latin America; and we also consider that this claim has to be led by people with a long history in the defense of democracy and human rights.

03/03/2010
SCOs claims to UN High Commissioner
CADAL's head signed with other SCOs managers a request for the UN High Commissioner, to claim the Cuban government to allow human rights activist Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina to travel to attend to the 2nd Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy in Geneva.

23/02/2010
Indignation for the death of Cuban prisoner of concience Orlando Zapata Tamayo
The Cuban prisoner of concience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, recognized by Amnesty International, died today after a long hunger strike of more than 80 days. This wellknown activist of Cuban democratic oposition was unjustly enjailed since March 20, 2003, condemned to a long sentence for peacefully oposing the government.