Walesa Advises Cuban Dissidents: "Walesa tells Cuba dissidents to prepare for democratic transition
From Gainesville.com HAVANA Former Polish President Lech Walesa advised Cuban dissidents to be ready for an inevitable democratic transition, telling them Saturday that activists in his country were unprepared for the collapse of East European communism.
The former Solidarity labor leader and Nobel Peace prize laureate took questions from Cuban opponents during a morning Internet conference at the Havana home of U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly.
'When liberty arrives it's going to be difficult,' Walesa said during the hour-long exchange, his image beamed on a projector screen set up in a salon. 'We made a lot of errors. We were not prepared.'
The Cuban government maintains that there will be no such transition on the island, and that the current economic and political systems will remain after 79-year-old fidel castro is gone.
castro and other Cuban authorities have criticized a U.S. presidential commission report detailing how American aid can be used to promote a democratic transition on the island, calling it a thinly veiled blueprint for regime change.
About 100 people attended the event, including around dozen of Cuba's better known disside"
