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Opposition groups inside Cuba operate illegally, as the Cuban Constitution prohibits non- Communist parties and political organizations, their actions believed to represent a danger to the stability of the present government. One such group is " Proyecto Varela" led by Oswaldo Payá. They gathered more than 10,000 signatures for a referendum requesting freedom of the press, freedom to form political parties , and freedom to create private business. Their methods were non-violent, and their philosophy was democratic. The government responded with its own petition drive to make the socialist system "untouchable."

There is a large Cuban-American expatriate/immigrant population residing in the United States, especially in and around Miami, Florida. Many of them (especially those who back the Cuban American National Foundation ) lobby the U.S. government to maintain the U.S. embargo against Cuba and to press the Cuban government for political change. Other Cuban-American groups, many of them also opposed to Castro, advocate different policies, opposing the embargo and favoring more cultural and economic engagement. The Cuban government accuses Miami-based expatriates of organizing over 700 terrorist attacks against Cuba over the past 40 years such as Alpha 66's 1994 and 1995 machine-gun attacks on the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel; this was the justification used for sending Cuban agents to monitor these movements. (See Cuban FiveThe Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzales, and Rene Gonzales. After being arrested in Miami in September 1998, they were indicted on 26 different counts ranging from using false identification to espionage a).

• Bay of Pigs InvasionThe Bay of Pigs Invasion (also known in Cuba as La Playa Giron after a beach in the Bay of Pigs where the landing took place) was a United States planned and funded landing by armed Cuban exiles on southern Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban social -As early as April 17, 1961, Brigade 2506 a military force of about 1,300 cuban expatriates, some of them ex-soldiers of Fulgencio BatistaGeneral Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar ( January 16, 1901 August 6, 1973) was the de facto leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940 and the country's official president from 1940 to 1944 and again from 1952 to 1959. Batista was born in Banes, Cuba in 1901 and consi's army, with support of the US goverment, invaded the Giron beaches ("Ataque a La Playa Girón"), this is known as "The Bay of Pigs InvasionThe Bay of Pigs Invasion (also known in Cuba as La Playa Giron after a beach in the Bay of Pigs where the landing took place) was a United States planned and funded landing by armed Cuban exiles on southern Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban social". This attempt to depose the new Cuban government ended in failure. Many prisoners of war were taken by the government. The results of this invasion represent a great political victory for the government.

• Alpha 66 -ALPHA 66 was organized in Puerto Rico by the end of 1961. They use Alpha as that's the first letter in the Greek Alphabet to symbolize the beginning of the fight against communism in Cuba. The 66 in their name comes from their initial member's number. Source in English their Official web site [1]

• Escambray Mountains Fight -Since 1959 many groups of Cubans that had fought side by side with Fidel and some farm owners began to take arms against the revolution. In the Escambray MountainsThe Escambray Mountains are off the coast of the western shore of Cuba. region in the center part of cuba. The cuban goverment label them as Bandits. Maneuver done by the cuban goverment to diminish popular support. By the 26 of July of 1965 Fidel Castro claimed to have abolished "all the Bandits in Cuba". as source of this see Cuban Goverment Web Site this is a very detail web site is in spanish. [2] other sources [3] Guerrilla movement in Cuba also in Spanish.

The history of cuban opposition is also a history full of emigrations, of parents opposing the goverment sending their own children to foreing countries to spare them from having to live in a socialist society.

• Operation Peter PanOperation Peter Pan which took place between 1960 and 1962, was an operation coordinated by the CIA and Cuban dissidents in which over 14,000 children were sent away from their families in Cuba, some never to reunite again. In general, the parents of thes -From December 26, 1960 through October 22, 1962, 14,048 unaccompanied children were send by their parents to the United States. The children were between the ages of 6 and 18 years old. Source [4]. In many occacions in the past 45 years Castro's goverment have use migration as a leveraging tool to force the United States goverment to accept some sort of agreement.

• Camarioca Boatlift In 1965

• Mariel BoatliftThe Mariel Boatlift was a mass exodus of refugees from Cuba's Mariel Harbour, from April 1 until September 26, 1980, when Castro closed the harbour. Most of the boats were headed to Florida. 124,776 Cuban Migrants arrived in the United States in nearly 1, -In April 15, 1980 the Mariel Boatlift began. This was illegal migration of more than 125,000 cubans towards the United States. Castro's goverment manipulated the situation in their favor by pushing criminals,patients in mental hospitals and homosexuals to leave out of the country, giving the world the impression that only those groups of people wanted to abandon the revolution. Source: [5]

• Cuban American National Foundation - Source the official web site [6]

• Brothers to the Rescue were an opposition group created with the purpose of helping cubans trying to escape by picking them up on small rafts. Their objective was to supply them with water and food and reporting also their geographic position to the American Coast Guard. The United States law at that particular moment was to grant political asylum to any Cuban that defected into the United States.

• Guantanamo Bay Dissidents/Refugees -After an airplane piloted by the opposition group "Brothers to the Rescue" from Miami were killed. Fidel Castro's goverment open the door to illegal inmigration in rafts to the US. The US places 23,000 Cubans in Guantanamo Bay. There is a documentary about this called "Balceros". As a result of this manipulations of the cuban goverment of illegal cuban inmigration, the Clinton administration agreed to talks with the Castro Goverment about immigration. This resulted in a change in American immigration law to what is now know as "Wet feet , dry feet". It stated that Cubans that touch american soil are allowed to stay but Cubans caught at sea will be returned to Cuban authorities. On the same note the Cuban goverment promised the Clinton administration that no reprimands will be taken against those that are returned to Cuba.

• Ibero-American Summit Dissidents -In 1999 about a dozens of opposition groups claiming peaceful opposition to Castro's one-party socialist system urge Ibero-American leaders to back their cause. 40 dissidents planning the gathering are arrested in Havana before the Ibero-American Summit. source cnn

• Cuban Democratic Directorate -Founded in 1990. Source their official web site [7].

• Christian Liberation Movement Proyecto Varela is a child of this movement. Source [8]