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Rosa María Payá presents in Madrid a transition plan with free elections within 36 months
The Cuban opposition leader set out on Tuesday at the Hotel Wellington, on the eve of the 30th Ibero American Summit, the road map "Cuba on the Threshold", which proposes a provisional government of 18 to 36 months, a general amnesty and the dissolution of State Security.
Rosa María Payá, founder of Cuba Decide and coordinator of the Pasos de Cambio platform, presented the plan "Cuba on the Threshold" in Madrid on Tuesday, at an event held at the Hotel Wellington attended by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Albert Ramdin, members of the European Parliament and diplomats accredited in Spain.
The road map sets out a sequence of liberation, stabilization, reconstruction and democratization. Payá said the transition government would have a mandate of between 18 and 36 months, with no extension, and that the process would lead to a binding referendum on the new constitutional framework and to free and competitive elections.
The first phase provides for the unconditional release of political prisoners, the departure from power of the Castro family and its generals, and an end to repression. Yaxys Cires, director of strategy at the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, laid out a humanitarian emergency response plan designed for 180 days, with distribution of food, water and medicine in the first 72 hours: "All aid will be free and no Cuban will have to show their ideological allegiance to receive it", in remarks translated by Yamacoa.
On security, Armando Ibarra, of the Cuba Decide board, proposed dissolving State Security, the Rapid Response Brigades and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, placing armed bodies under the transition government and removing the military from the economy. The lawyer Mijaíl Bonito Lovio put the maximum length of the process at 36 months and included a general amnesty.
The plan stems from the Liberation Agreement, signed on March 2, 2026, in Miami by Pasos de Cambio and the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. From the island, the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and the independent trade unionist Iván Hernández Carrillo voiced their support.
The presentation was interrupted by a woman who walked toward the stage shouting slogans against the US embargo. Cubanet identified her as the doctor Lucía Céspedes Ocampo, who had thanked Miguel Díaz-Canel on state television. Payá attributed the interruption to the Cuban government: "The Cuban regime sent a repressor to boycott the event in Madrid", in remarks translated by Yamacoa.
"We are no longer only denouncing the dictatorship, we are preparing the Republic", Payá said, insisting that "there is no transition with repression" and that "in the Cuba we want to build there will be room for every voice", in remarks translated by Yamacoa. Ramdin called for political prisoners to be released "without conditions" and said that "when a system does not work after almost 70 years, it is normal to assess it and rethink it".
Sources: Diario de Cuba · El Mundo · Martí Noticias · Cubanet · Cubanet · Serie Yamacoa: Defunciones por año (ONEI) · Serie Yamacoa: Nacimientos por año (ONEI)
Data updated: 2026-11-04T04:15:00.000Z