In 2001, a group of activists collected thousands of signatures for the Varela Project, a petition requesting a referendum on the island's political process was openly supported by former US president Jimmy Carter during his historic 2002 visit to Cuba.

In 2002 supporters of a movement known as the Varela Project submitted a citizen proposal of law with 11, 000 signatures calling for a national referendum on political and economic reforms.

The Varela Project ( Proyecto Varela in Spanish ) is a project that was started in 1998 by Oswaldo Payá of the Christian Liberation Movement ( CLM ) and named after Felix Varela, a Cuban religious leader.

The purpose of the Varela Project was to circulate a proposal of law advocating for democratic political reforms within Cuba, such as the establishment of freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free elections, freedom of religion, freedom to start private businesses, and amnesty for political prisoners.

The Varela Project relies on Article # 88 ( g ) of the Cuban Constitution Text of 1976, which allows citizens to propose laws if 10, 000 persons who are registered to vote support the proposal with their names, national identification numbers, addresses, and signatures.

The Cuban National Assembly's Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee suspended consideration of the Varela Project citizens ' initiative and responded with its own counter initiative, providing that the Cuban Constitution be amended to make permanent the socialist nature of the Cuban state.

In May and June, Oswaldo Paya reported State Security agents visited and pressured more than 50 Varela Project signatories to retract their signatures and denounce the Varela Project activists who had collected their signatures.

Also, some of the Varela Project leaders were accused by the Cuban government of accepting foreign political support from James Cason of the United States State Department for political purposes, which is against the law in Cuba and many other countries, including the United States.

In March 2003, the Cuban government arrested approximately 75 dissenters, who were tried and convicted of accepting funds from foreign sources for political purposes, and approximately one half of these arrested persons were associated with the Varela Project movement.

The aspects of the Varela Project regarding the freedom to start a private business were seen by the Cuban government as the real purpose of the project.

The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Felipe Pérez Roque stated on April 9, 2003, that " The Varela Project is part of a strategy of subversion against Cuba that has been conceived, financed, and directed from abroad with the active participation of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana.

Cuba maintains that the head of the US Special Interests section in Havana, James Cason has given money, gifts and support to dissidents in Cuba, associated with the Varela Project, and that: " For these reasons, a few dozen persons directly linked to the conspiratorial activities headed by James Cason have been arrested by the relevant authorities and will be brought to trial.

In March 2003, Cuba arrested 75 human rights activists, including 25 members of the Varela Project, on a variety of charges ; all were sentenced to prison in trials within twenty days of their arrest.

Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, a Varela Project leader and one of the 75 activists arrested, reported serving 45 days in a punishment cell with no light or available water for protesting the suspension of correspondence and the delivery of food and medical supplies from his family.

Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a Varela Project political prisoner released in 2004, reported that prison officials regularly denied him adequate medical treatment during his 20-month incarceration.

In May and June, Oswaldo Paya reported State Security agents visited and pressured more than 50 Varela Project signatories to retract their signatures and denounce the Varela Project activists who had collected their signatures.

In 2002 supporters of a movement known as the Varela Project submitted a citizen proposal of law with 11, 000 signatures calling for a national referendum on political and economic reforms.

* Varela Project, movement for political change in Cuba

Varela Hermanos, a company based in Pesé, sells seco under the trade name Seco Herrerano.

He knew well and was in conversation with John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Gordon Pask, Gregory Bateson, Lawrence J. Fogel and Margaret Mead, among many others.

He had a number of notable students, among whom were Pema Chödrön, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Diane di Prima, Peter Lieberson, José Argüelles, David Nichtern, Ken Wilber, David Deida, Francisco Varela, and Joni Mitchell who portrayed Trungpa in the song " Refuge of the Roads " on her 1976 album Hejira.

These papers ( by Daniel Dennett, Colin McGinn, Francisco Varela, Francis Crick, and Roger Penrose, among others ) were collected and published in the book Explaining Consciousness: The Hard Problem.

LoF has influenced, among others, Heinz von Foerster, Louis Kauffman, Niklas Luhmann, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela and William Bricken.

Laws of Form has influenced, among others, Heinz von Foerster, Louis Kauffman, Niklas Luhmann, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela and William Bricken.

Are offered free courses in rhythmic gymnastics, futsal, beach volleyball, capoeira, boxing, volleyball, basketball, judo, karate, handball, among others, in their own municipal gymnasium and sports groups installed in neighborhoods such as those in towns and Julia Varela and St. Joseph's Garden.

She received several awards among them: National Order Orden Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Order Félix Varela of the Culture, National Culture Distinctive Award, and the Alejo Carpentier Medal ( Cuba ).

These include Eliseu, Nani, Manuel Fernandes, Rolando, Nélson Marcos, and Silvestre Varela, who all represent Portugal, as well as Mickaël Tavares, Jacques and Ricardo Faty ( Senegal ), Patrick Vieira ( France ), Gelson Fernandes ( Switzerland ), Henrik Larsson ( Sweden ), David Mendes da Silva ( Netherlands ) and Rui ( Equatorial Guinea ), among other examples.

All throughout the year, the Residencia organizes numerous public events with the participation of leading figures in the Arts and Sciences, such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Pierre Boulez, Martinus Veltman, Ramón Margalef, Jacques Derrida, Blanca Varela and Massimo Cacciari, among others.

* Félix Varela, Cuban and United States beatified Catholic priest

* Frank Varela, United States graphic designer

* Migdia Chinea Varela, United States actress

Fierce rivalries that divided the cartel into warring factions erupted in 2003 when Hernando Gómez, Wilber Varela and their inner circle, prompted by a rising number of extradition of cartel members to the United States, apparently attempted to negotiate a possible surrender deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ), in a move which was strongly rejected by Diego Montoya and several of the other cartel drug lords.

Leading national figures in these years included Félix Varela and Cuba's first revolutionary poet, José María Heredia.

He later joined the faculty of the Royal Conservatory where his notable students included Michel van der Aa, Richard Ayres, Richard Baker, Michael Fiday, Jeff Hamburg, Michael Zev Gordon, Rozalie Hirs, Ivana Kiš, Yannis Kyriakides, Juan Sebastian Lach, Steve Martland, Nathan Michel, Koji Nakano, Damien Ricketson, Patrick Saint-Denis, Víctor Varela, Jasna Veličković, and Sinta Wullur.

Theorists who both complement and contrast Hassan include Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Bruno Latour, N. Katherine Hayles, Peter Sloterdijk, Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, Evan Thompson, Francisco Varela and Douglas Kellner.

The theories of autopoiesis of Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana are a further development in this field.

** Francisco Varela, Chilean biologist ( d. 2001 )

* August 2 – Obdulio Varela, Uruguayan footballer ( b. 1917 )

Others who have written about the embodied mind include philosopher Andy Clark ( See his Being There ), philosopher and neurobiologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela and his student Evan Thompson ( See Varela, Thompson & Rosch's " The Embodied Mind "), roboticists such as Rodney Brooks, Rolf Pfeifer and Tom Ziemke, the physicist David Bohm ( see his Thought As A System ), Ray Gibbs ( see his " Embodiment and Cognitive Science "), John Grinder and Richard Bandler in their neuro-linguistic programming, and Julian Jaynes.

* Elena Gil Iberoamerican Award on Ethics, June 1995 Felix Varela Centre, Cuba.

* Francisco Varela ( 1946 – 2001 ) Chilean philosopher and biologist.

Natalie Depraz, Francisco Varela, Pierre Vermersch, On Becoming Aware: A Pragmatics of Experiencing ( Amsterdam: John Benjamins 2003 )-searches for the sources and the means for a disciplined practical approach to exploring human experience.

Francisco Javier Varela García ( September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001 ) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, and neuroscientist who, together with his teacher Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology, and for co-founding the Mind and Life Institute to promote dialog between science and Buddhism.

Varela was born in 1946 in Santiago in Chile, the son of Corina María Elena García-Tapia and Raúl Andrés Varela-Rodríguez.

Like his mentor Humberto Maturana, Varela first studied medicine then biology at the University of Chile, then did a Ph. D. in biology at Harvard University.

After the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, Varela and his family spent 7 years in exile in the USA before returning to Chile to become a Professor of biology.

Varela became a Tibetan Buddhist in the 1970s, initially studying, together with Keun-Tshen Goba, with the meditation master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founder of Vajradhatu and Shambhala Training, and later with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a Nepalese meditation master of higher tantras.

In 1987, Varela, along with R. Adam Engle, founded the Mind and Life Institute, initially to sponsor a series of dialogues between scientists and His Holiness The Dalai Lama about the relationship between modern science and Buddhism.

Varela died in 2001 in Paris of Hepatitis C after having written an account of his 1998 liver transplant.

Varela had four children, including the actress, environmental spokesperson, and model Leonor Varela.