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The Florida state senator Alexis Calatayud, representing District 38, issued an official proclamation recognizing the Freedom Accord as "the path to a free and democratic Cuba."
The document, printed on parchment paper with the official golden seal of the Florida Senate and signed by the legislator, represents the first formal legislative support from a state elected official for the transition plan signed in Miami on March 2 by more than 30 organizations of the Cuban exile community.
The proclamation states that the Cuban people have endured more than six decades under a communist dictatorship "characterized by repression, the absence of political freedoms, economic hardships, and violations of human rights."
The text also acknowledges that the Liberation Agreement was developed by leaders of the Cuban democratic opposition, civil society, and pro-democracy movements, providing a comprehensive framework for governance following the end of the current regime.
Among the pillars highlighted in the proclamation are the immediate restoration of civil liberties, the release of political prisoners, the establishment of a provisional government, and the call for internationally supervised free elections.
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, Secretary General of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), shared the news from the legislative chamber in Florida, accompanied by other members of the movement, expressing his gratitude for the recognition.
The Liberation Agreement, signed by the ARC and the coalition Steps for Change —led by Rosa María Payá—, proposes a roadmap in three phases: release, stabilization, and democratization of Cuba, along with the establishment of nine technical working commissions.
The proclamation comes at a time of increasing activism from the Cuban exile community in Florida, marked by the Free Cuba Rally held in Hialeah on March 24 and the “United for a Free Cuba” demonstration at Bayfront Park that took place last Sunday.
That context of mobilization occurs in parallel to the Cuban regime's rejection of the ultimatum from the United States to release high-profile political prisoners, after which the Cuban ambassador to the UN, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, stated that "internal matters regarding detainees do not form part of the negotiation table."
CaLatayud, 30 years old and of Cuban descent, represents District 38 in south Miami-Dade, one of the areas with the highest concentration of Cuban Americans in the state, which includes Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, and parts of Coral Gables.
Rosa María Payá, who also serves as a commissioner for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, called on Tuesday to unite forces with the United States to achieve the freedom of Cuba, and summarized the spirit of the agreement with these words: "We are in this together. We are one nation both inside and outside the island, and as such, we are acting. Freedom is coming, change is coming, but it depends on each one of us how quickly it arrives."
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