The government publicly ignored that document, just as it earlier shelved Paya's Varela Project, an effort that delivered to the Cuban parliament more than 25,000 signatures seeking an initiative on rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Many of the 75 dissidents sentenced to prison terms of six to 28 years were Varela Project volunteers, accused of being mercenaries working with US diplomats to undermine Castro's system -- charges they denied.
Human rights groups around the globe and democratic leaders condemned the spring crackdown, as well as the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a passenger ferry to the US.
US President George W. Bush used the crackdown as a reason for further tightening long-standing restrictions on US trade with and travel to the island.
Cuba continued to thumb its nose at the US government and opened its arms to US farmers, buying hundreds of millions of dollars of US agricultural goods under an exception to trade sanctions that were first imposed in 1960 by US President Dwight Eisenhower.
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