Cuba has suffered under communist rule for 48 years. Political activity other than that supporting the communist regime is an arrestable offense, and Cuban prisons are full of prisoners of conscience serving indeterminate sentences. The Cuban Political Prisoners Council sent three delegates who, between them, had spent sixty years in prisons.

CLC publications show that the Cuban regime of the Castro brothers has, in the fashion of totalitarian dictators everywhere, kept the people poor while increasing their own wealth. While most Cubans have little health care, Cuba boasts one of the finest healthcare systems in the world-available to Party leaders and tourists only. Cubans have no right of political self-determination nor do they have free enterprise. Cuba has no free press, no freedom of belief, and no right to assemble; in the eyes of the government, the Cuban people exist only to support the communist leadership.

While maintaining its stranglehold on Cuba, the Castro regime also uses spies to harass Cuban expatriates who work for their homeland, and also to interfere with U.S. elected officials and the U.S. military.

Speaking on behalf of the assembled Cuban human rights and liberation groups, CLC Director Diego Suárez said, "Together, we will obtain democracy and freedom for all the countries here represented."

The Force of Vietnamese People for Democracy existed underground for many years, and was formally incorporated in 2004. It is pledged to bring freedom and democracy to Vietnam through peaceful means. This group's delegates included Montegnards, an ethnic minority that helped the United States during the Vietnam War and is now persecuted by the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP.)

Spokesperson Terri Vu explained that while Vietnam shows an annual 8 percent growth in GDP, it is among the poorest nations in the world because the VCP takes all the profits for itself. She spoke of young girls who did not dare dream of marrying the man of their choice, because so many girls are sold into slavery and human trafficking rings. Vietnam has no religious freedom, no free press, and no political freedom.

A theme that ran through the meeting was that each group shared common problems, and that each group brought manpower, experience, wisdom, and innovations that, if combined, could aid all the other groups in achieving their shared goal of eliminating communist and totalitarian dictatorships and the associated crimes against humanity which plague their various homelands.

While some groups had experience in establishing NGOs, or lobbying the United Nations, others were well versed in political lobbying; other groups had experience in staging large public events. The various groups realized that their campaigns were best waged on all of these fronts; that diplomatic and political pressure, media attention, and popular opinion all needed to be mobilized against the communist dictatorships that are violating the human rights of so many millions, and that cooperation and sharing resources could lead to new ideas, new methods, and a perfection of existing efforts that would ultimately lead to success: the peaceful transition from brutal totalitarian dictatorship to free and open societies wherein human rights could flourish.