Description
From the Pulitzer Prizewinning Washington Post reporter David E Hoffman comes the riveting biography of Oswaldo Pay a dissident who dared to defy Fidel Castro inspiring thousands of Cubans to fight for democracy
Oswaldo Pay was seven years old when Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba promising to create a free democratic and just Cuba But Castro instead created an authoritarian regime with little tolerance of free speech or thought His secret police were trained to crush dissent by East Germanys ruthless Stasi
Throughout Cubas 20th century history the dream of democracy was often just within reach only to be dashed by dictatorship and revived again by a new generation Pay inherited this dream and it became his lifes work As a teenager in Communist Cuba he led a protest against the Sovietled shattering of the Prague Spring Before long he was sent to Castros forced labor camps Pay later became a leading voice of opposition and formed a prodemocracy movement A devoted Catholic he championed a simple bedrock belief that rights are bestowed by God and not the state Every day he witnessed these rights trampled in Cuba He could not stay silent
Pays most daring challenge to the Cuban government was the Varela Project a onepage citizen petition demanding free speech a free press freedom of association freedom of belief private enterprise free elections and freedom for political prisoners More than 35000 people signed the Varela Project an extraordinary outpouring of protestwith nothing more than pen and paperagainst Castros decades of despotism The regime responded by ignoring the petition arresting dozens of Pays followers and sending them to prison for many years After receiving multiple death threats Pay was killed in a suspicious car wreck on a remote country road
Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter David E Hoffman returns with an epic portrait of a lone individual who had the courage faith and persistence to struggle for democracy against an unforgiving dictator At its heart Give Me Liberty is a sweeping account of one countrys tragic and continuing struggle for its freedom
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