place_of_birth leonel grave de peralta
___MASK3___ ( Spanish : " La Habana ") is the capital city , largest city , province , major port , and leading commercial centre ___MASK30___ ___MASK57___ . The city proper has a population ___MASK30___ 2 . 1 million inhabitants , and it spans a total ___MASK30___  making it the largest city by area , the most populous city , and the third largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region . The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay , which is entered through a narrow inlet and which divides into three main harbours : Marimelena , Guanabacoa and Atarés . The sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north , entering the Straits ___MASK30___ Florida a few miles west ___MASK30___ the bay . ___MASK57___ , officially the Republic of ___MASK57___ , is a country comprising the island of ___MASK57___ as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos . ___MASK57___ is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea , the Gulf of Mexico , and the ___MASK98___ meet . It is south of both the U . S . state of Florida and the Bahamas , west of Haiti , and north of Jamaica . Havana is the largest city and capital ; other major cities include ___MASK33___ and Camagüey . ___MASK57___ is the largest island in the Caribbean , with an area of , and the second - most populous after Hispaniola , with over 11 million inhabitants . The Varela Project (" Proyecto Varela " in Spanish ) is a project that was started in 1998 by Oswaldo Payá ___MASK30___ the Christian Liberation Movement ( CLM ) and named after Felix Varela , a Cuban religious leader . Leonel Grave de Peralta ( born May 30 , 1976 ) is a Cuban activist and dissident . He was an active member ___MASK30___ the Christian Liberation Movement , Varela Project , and Director ___MASK30___ the Independent Bartolomé Massó Library . He was one ___MASK30___ the approximately 75 dissidents arrested , tried , and convicted in 2003 as part ___MASK30___ the Cuban government ' s Black Spring . Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas ( 29 February 1952  22 July 2012 ) was a Cuban political activist . A ___MASK79___ Catholic , he founded the Christian Liberation Movement in 1987 to oppose the one - party rule ___MASK30___ the Cuban Communist Party . He attracted international attention for organizing a petition drive known as the Varela Project , in which 25 , 000 signatories petitioned the Cuban government to guarantee freedom ___MASK30___ speech and freedom ___MASK30___ assembly as well as to institute a multi - party democracy . In recognition ___MASK30___ his work , he received the European Parliament ' s Sakharov Prize and People in Need ' s Homo Homini Award . ___MASK46___ , ( Spanish for " Rich Port ") officially the Commonwealth ___MASK30___ ___MASK46___ (" Free Associated State ___MASK30___ ___MASK46___ ") and briefly called Porto Rico , is an unincorporated territory ___MASK30___ the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea . The Christian Liberation Movement ( or simply MCL ) is a Cuban dissident party advocating political change in ___MASK57___ . MCL was founded in 1988 by a group of secular Catholics belonging to the Parish of Cerro , in Havana . From the movement ' s founding and until his death , it was led by Oswaldo Payá . At present ( 2014 ), it is led by Ofelia Acevedo . Its bank account for financial support ( through donations and funding ) is based in ___MASK19___ , Puerto Rico - although the movement itself works in ___MASK57___ .