Havana, November 28, 2006

His Excellency, Mr. Lech Walesa

Warsaw, Poland

His Excellency, Mr. Walesa,

I received with great happiness your letter from the first of November. Inside the dissident movement in Cuba, you are a greatly respected leader among everyone.

The Institute that carries your name has honored us with the celebration of a conference “From Solidarity to Democracy: Can Cuba Achieve Freedom?” and with the establishment of the Polish Committee of Solidarity with Cuba. This form of support is of great importance for us inside the island.

With my acceptance of your invitation, I want you all to feel as I were there with all of those who will be in attendance- perhaps you might be able to symbolically have an empty chair for me. As you all know, the mechanisms to leave the country are extremely difficult; they end with a permit known as the “white card,” which is something like the card of liberation for the slaves, which the government does not ever concede to give me.

Nonetheless, I want to ask of you that during the conference there is reference made to a document- which I have sent here- that we have distributed among the presidents of the Ibero-American Summit that is titled Obligation of the Cuban Government, which contains ten points that we believe summarize the violation of civil, political and economic rights that the Cuban government commits against our people. It would be important that your friends among the intellectuals, artists and polish opposition have the opportunity to become aware of these situations directly from the Cuban opposition.

I hope that soon you will be able to extend a hand to a Free and Democratic Cuba.

God willing we will be able to remain in contact, for which I thank your embassy in Havana for its concern and regard in this matter.

Please accept my gratitude and highest respect,

Marta Beatriz Roque

* Translation into English from the original Spanish