The Centro de Estudios para una Opción Nacional ("Center for the Study of a National Option," or "CEON," its acronym in Spanish) is a project affiliated with the Directorio that aims to rescue and rebuild the values, traditions, and fundamental democratic civic concepts of the Republic of Cuba. To this end, the CEON sponsors research, study, and debate on Cuban democratic civic thought. It also promotes the study of the philosophy of democracy and of nonviolent civic struggle.

The CEON's permanent aspiration is to identify and promote the values and projects that arise from the consensus of Cuban democrats, as well as to contribute to the development of a new national leadership based on such values. The CEON believes that an effective manner of consolidating the concepts that will allow for the development of a future free society in Cuba is to work in the field of ideas by means of publications, workshops and conferences, thus promoting the advancement of independent civic and cultural institutions in the island.

Most recently, the CEON hosted a series of 22 workshops to analyze the most urgent steps for a government in Cuba to take during a transition period. The workshops examined different issues related to the rehabilitation of the nation's social, economic, political, and legal life during a transition. The primary points discussed during these workshops, as well as other articles and studies, have been published in the organization's quarterly journal Meridiano.

The CEON is affiliated with four different organizations in Cuba, civil society groups that carry out workshops and seminars in conjunction with the organization's projects in Miami. Rafael Artigas is executive director of the CEON and editor of Meridiano.

Affiliated with:

-- Instituto Independiente Cultura y Democracia, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
-- Movimiento Cubano Reflexión, Camajuaní, Cuba
-- Centro de Estudios Sociales, Havana, Cuba
-- Biblioteca Independiente "Reyes Magos", Pinar del Rio, Cuba



Rafael Artigas was born in Holguin, Cuba, in 1954. He left the island at the age of 14 and lived in Spain for five years before arriving in the United States in 1973. Rafael received a Bachelor in Science from the University of the State of New York, Albany, and also studied at Miami-Dade Community College and the University of Florida. He has a long history of activism, as Vice President of the Federation of Cuban Students at Miami-Dade Community College from 1976-1977, Vice President of the Cuban American Student Association at the University of Florida from 1983-1984, and a member of the Directorio since 1993. Rafael has been the executive director of the CEON since July 1999.