Living Among Lies / Lilianne Ruíz
Living Among Lies / Lilianne Ruíz Lilianne Ruíz, Translator: AnonyGY
Camilo Cienfuegos seen in an artwork installed in 2009 in the Plaza of the Revolution. The text says: "You're doing fine, Fidel."
Cuba looks like an anthill, and each one has contributed — as they say — a grain of sand. Believing that this grain of sand is so little that it means nothing because "nothing can change". I am reading for the first time "El poder de los sin poder" (The Power of The Powerless), by Vaclav Havel, what he defines as autokenesis of the post totalitarian system I see it as this behavior of ants who sustain the commune that seems to be Cuba today. The secret life of this Commune, what does not appear, is not reflected in the official press.
On May 3rd, Press Freedom Day, the announcer of the Nightly News denounced the murder of Mexican journalists, and mentioned Honduras, denouncing these two countries as examples of places where repression against journalists is growing. It was not mentioned in the report, revised and corrected by the Editorial Board of the News, that Cuba was the third country on that list. Nor was the Cuban audience made aware that such a list, where the situation of press freedom is mentioned, was published by Amnesty International.
In Cuba there is repression against journalists, but the knowledge of such situation depends much on the media showing that situation from the moment in Cuba that no one learns about what is happening watching the News show. Then, in the consequences it has for a citizen conscious of what is right or wrong to start expressing himself and do journalism, independent of the interests of the State Dictatorship.
I saw the way in which Ariel Sigler Amaya left prison and it was not on the News. I never heard of the situation of Oscar Elías Bicet from the Cuban journalists who work for Cuban television but rather over Radio Martí. I did not not know well who Laura Pollan was, until I went to her house. Laura's death occurred under unclear circumstances but it is impossible to open an investigation and that has not been mentioned in any News whatsoever.
In the cases of Ariel and Oscar there is clear evidence of psychological tortures and attempted murder, not to mention Zapata Tamayo who was slandered in Granma Newspaper and in the News after he was left to die on a hunger strike rather than recognize the demand Zapata took to an extreme because of his freedom and that of Cuba as well.
Today I write and also make public in my blog, I live with fear, but I know the regime has had some kind of defeat after the Black Spring of 2003, carried out by the group of 75 and the Ladies in White. I also know if I do not express myself, feeling as I do, I would be an accomplice.
It is increasingly promoted in Cuba that youth become part of the huge and expensive repressive system. The government, historically a oppressor, one day could not count anymore on "the compartmentalizing" of information and the obedience of the whole people before the threat, and it happened when groups of Human Rights defenders appeared, and also independent journalists.
It did not matter whether one had a degree or not, from the Faculty of revolutionary journalism; these are people who make an effort to write a piece of news and above all they really go for it, where the only thing that matters is to be objective and witness an abuse, an arrest, a beating, a humiliating social phenomenon, having no other translation for anyone's conscience, as the so called revolutionary journalism attempts to make us believe.
Killing isn't done in the streets like in Mexico, but the cost of being an activist for freedom, a journalist, or a blogger, may be slow death in one of the regime's jails. Many times, the detentions of activists are lengthened by the regime with accusations of noncompliance with police brutality. The Cuban reality is so treacherous that it needs the real access of journalists without gags.
Then I try to imagine whose brain would be behind all the propaganda that made poor people during the first years identify their greatest welfare with the socialist Revolution, which did not start as a socialist one. And I notice it was not only one brain, but maybe many people who either believed they were doing the right thing, or underestimated their small acts from the will to survive without going against the current. And 53 or 54 years have passed, I never count them any more.
There will be some, still within the anthill, who know all this is buried under the lie, and will kill, every time, the hope of rescue for this nation and therefore for us, the people who live here. Those people who every day support the lie of the regime on many occasions only aspire to pretend a little longer until they can leave the country.
The Communist Party uses a language that can not express human aspirations. It is an inhuman language. Why don't people scream that it is not exactly what they want, that they have access to? They are terribly scared, and that generates obedience and immorality, when one has no faith not even in the innocent fairy tales.
Why did God let such phenomenon happen? But I still trust in Him. To find Him, still in the darkest valley, makes me fear no evil, as the psalm says. However, I have the hope He will make a miracle soon. During the time I have waited for Him, my God has never failed me. The lie will fall, what I can not foretell is where they will hide from their shame, those who have sustained it.
Translated by AnonyGy
May 7 2012
Cuban Americans in Congress want meeting with IKEA over Cuban prisoners
Posted on Tuesday, 05.08.12
Cuban Americans in Congress want meeting with IKEA over Cuban prisoners
To ask if Cuban prison labor was used to make furniture for the Swedish giant By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
The six Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday demanded "an urgent meeting" with the head of IKEA in North America to discuss whether the company used Cuban prison labor to make some of its furniture in the 1980s.
"It is the responsibility of every company to ensure that its products and their respective components are derived from responsible labor practices," the two Senators and four House members wrote in a letter to IKEA's Mike Ward.
"They certainly should not derive from the dark prisons of authoritarian regimes that repress their own populations, including the denial of basic workers' rights," added the letter to Ward, head of IKEA North America.
It was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, as well as South Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera and New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires.
"We want to know the exact circumstances that led IKEA to apparently enter into an accord with the Castro dictatorship to produce some of its furniture in Cuba," said a statement issued by Ros-Lehtinen's office.
"These are serious allegations and they have caused much consternation in our communities, and rightly so," it added. "The Castro brothers have misgoverned Cuba for more than half a century putting in place a tyrannical regime that harasses, beats, jails, exiles and kills anyone who stands in their way."
"Multinational corporations have a moral obligation to assure their businesses are not violating human rights. We look forward to getting answers from IKEA on our multiple concerns stemming from these accusations," the statement added.
The four-paragraph letter was sent to Ward at IKEA North America's headquarters in Conshohocken, Pa. Spokeswoman Mona Liss said a senior official at IKEA headquarters in Sweden will meet with the Congress members "very quickly."
The letter said the six members wanted the "urgent" meeting to discuss "recent reports alleging that IKEA has knowingly benefitted or sought to benefit from the use of Cuban prison labor to manufacture its products."
The authoritative German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported last week that the furniture and house wares company had contracted for Cuban prisoners to build 45,000 tables and 4,000 sofa groupings in September of 1987.
German reporters found the information while reviewing archives of the former East Germany because officials of its communist government had facilitated the deal with Cuba. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and East Germany disappeared the next year.
IKEA already has been investigating reports last fall that some of its buyers had signed deals to have prisoners in East Germany build furniture for the company in the 1970s and 1980s.
Liss told El Nuevo Herald in an email last week that IKEA would now widen that probe to include the Cuba allegations. "We take these allegations very seriously," she said.
The German newspaper reported that documents found in East German archives showed that officials of that government had signed a deal with a Cuban man identified as Lt. Enrique Sánchez, in charge of EMIAT, a Cuban government enterprise that used prison labor to manufacture furniture.
Liss acknowledged last week that IKEA had agreements of a limited nature with Cuba but said the firm has not had any long-term business relationships with any Cuban manufacturer.
"As far as we know, there have only been occasional test purchases of a limited amount of products from Cuban suppliers in the late '80s, '' she said.
The German newspaper reported that the first sofas made in Cuba had quality problems and that East German officials then traveled to the Caribbean island to try to fix the issues.
It is not known how many of the sofas and tables, if any, were eventually delivered to IKEA.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/08/2789850/cuban-americans-in-congress-want.html
U.S. government’s Radio and TV Marti call Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega a lackey
U.S. government's Radio and TV Marti call Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega a lackey By William Booth, Sunday, May 6, 4:01 AM
MEXICO CITY — Criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church in Cuba, who has been negotiating with the communist government to expand religious and political freedom, intensified last week when the head of Radio and TV Marti called the archbishop of Havana a lackey who is colluding with an oppressive regime.
The stinging editorial against Cardinal Jaime Ortega — signed by Radio and TV Marti's director, Carlos Garcia-Perez — is significant because Marti is a U.S. government agency, with its board of directors appointed by the White House and its policies coordinated with the State Department to direct messages to Cubans.
Some analysts said the editorial could undermine Ortega's position in Cuba and they wondered whether it signaled a lack of support for the Church's delicate position on the communist-run island.
Marti broadcasts, according to spokeswoman Lynne Weil, "are editorially independent, although supported by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Their editorials, unless otherwise stated, represent the views of the broadcasters only and not necessarily those of the U.S. government."
Weil said she did not know when the State Department saw the editorial or whether there was any discussion of its content.
"I would suggest that this is equivalent to a U.S. government statement and that people may conclude, rightly or wrongly, that this is a U.S. government position," said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute.
The cardinal has been hailed by some for his role in the freeing of political prisoners and for creating a small but relatively safe space for citizens to complain about the Cuban government, including its tight immigration and economic policies. Cuba's Catholic magazines contain some of the most lively, as well as pointed, criticism of the government.
But Ortega has been hammered in the Cuban exile community and by members of the South Florida congressional delegation, who say he is an appeaser who enables the Castro brothers and prolongs their rule.
Many activists voiced disappointment that Ortega did not publicly push for human rights or defend dissidents during the recent visit to Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI.
Ortega also came under fire for statements he made at an April 24 Harvard University panel, where he described the 13 dissidents who sought to occupy a Havana church a few days before the pope arrived as "criminals" and "people of low culture."
The dissidents, who included a mentally ill person, had said they hoped to push the church to engage the pope on human rights issues. Ortega had state security officers remove them.
Guillermo I. Martinez, a columnist with the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, recently called Ortega a bootlicker. The popular Cuban American blog Babalu called Ortega "a truly despicable man."
Ortega has said that he gets attacked from all sides.
"Perhaps this takes time and is a sort of martyrdom all Christians, including myself as pastor, must undergo," the cardinal said at Harvard. "That is what it means to give your life for the sheep."
In his editorial, aired on Radio and TV Marti and published on the broadcaster's Web site, Garcia-Perez, a Cuban-American lawyer from Puerto Rico, accused Ortega of speaking with "scorn and arrogance" of the 13 dissidents.
"This attitude of Ortega just goes to show his political collusion with the government and his willingness to follow the official line," he wrote. "This lackey attitude demonstrates a profound lack of understanding and compassion toward the human reality of these children of God."
El Nuevo Herald in Miami contacted several of the 13 dissidents, who denied they had criminal records.
"I can only say that the 13 are a perfect reflection of Cuban society, in which there is everything," Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez told the newspaper.
Jorge Dominguez, the Harvard professor who invited the archbishop to speak, said: "Cardinal Ortega is a good man. Calling him a lackey is beyond belief."
Dominguez added, "It is amazing that this comes from a U.S. government broadcaster."
The professor noted that as a young priest, Ortega was sent to a reeducation camp and forced to do manual labor, as the church struggled in a state that had declared itself officially atheist.
"Who freed the political prisoners in Cuba? Not the European Union. Not the U.S. government. And not Radio and TV Marti. It was Ortega who convinced Raul Castro to let them out," Dominguez said.
He added, however, that Ortega's condemnation of the dissidents was unfair. "A lot of people have criminal records in Cuba, but you have no way of knowing if they have records simply because the state has targeted them for their political activities," he said.
Until When … / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada
Until When … / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada Translator: AnonyGY, Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada
Havana, Cuba: Once again human rights activists denounce the repression in the Eastern provinces, against a group of women who belong to the organization Ladies in White.
Such an embarrassing event was characterized by a group of elderly and paramilitary people armed with many different types of sticks, some people say, to impede the activists from going down the steps of the sanctuary of El Cobre. Last Sunday the 19th history repeated itself at feet of the Mother of all Cubans.
La Virgen de la Caridad, some time before the event, would welcome each of the fervent prayers made by these women who were demanding the release from jail of all Cuban prisoners and the end of violence. While these women were listening to the Sunday mass, a few meters away from them, the Ministry of the Interior police was preparing a crowd to repress them.
The event is repeated every Sunday in each provincial capital of the country. Repudiation rallies, temporary detentions, withdrawal of identity cards, the presence of police agents around the temples. These are some of the actions taken by the Ministry of the Interior police to stop these brave women, recognized by different international awards, from attending the churches.
These events are are not unknown to the Cuban ecclesiastic authorities, institutions that become accomplices of such provocative acts, carried out in their own headquarters by the Cuban authorities and their ambassadors of terror.
Maybe this is only the advance of what it will be like for these women when the Holy Pope visits the island next March. Just to think of the fact that Pope Benedicto XVI will be in the same place where Sunday after Sunday these women are repressed and besieged by persons without scruples before faith, makes me feel scared.
It can be imagined the Holy Pope accompanied by his followers all dressed in white going up and down in the presence of the Virgin. They would be surprised by the fact that wearing white clothing, they would be considered mercenaries or receive the repudiation of such orchestras prepared to repress unprotected women as well as human right activists.
Such a fact can only be thought in our minds, we know it is not going to happen, but we will continue asking ourselves how a government which proclaims women's rights, social equity, equality and freedom like that of speech just to mention an example, why it does not let women today walk along the streets claiming freedom for their loved ones?
Is it something that other women in a different time did not do?
It is a regrettable situation under which Ladies in White live. We must trust in that God who provides their strength, that soon there will be no tears in their eyes. We trust in God that soon their husbands, relatives and friends in prison return home.
As we can see, before the rage of those shaking on the throne before the encouragement of this group of women throughout the country, others like me will keep on asking themselves, until when will things like this happen.
Note the Increase of Violence Against Prisoners with HIV/AIDS.
The Cuban Alliance Against AIDS before the increasing number of beatings in the Cuban jails of prisoners with HIV/AIDS, is calling on international organizations of Human Rights to demand Havana to stop these violations to which prisoners with such disease are submitted.
The violence against prisoners of both sexes is known, the incorrect use of punishment in the isolation cells and the increase of self aggressions as a protest to a whole string of violations on the side of the penal authorities.
To all this, we can add the extremely bad medical assistance, the lack of medicines, malnutrition and humiliating treatment.
The Cuban Alliance Against AIDS alerts the world and asks to stop these violations which put in danger the physical integrity of Cuban prisoners affected by HIV/AIDS in the six penitentiaries in the island.
Ignacio Estrada Cepero Executive Director Cuban Alliance Against AIDS estradacepero@yahoo.es Twitter: @desidahoy
Translated by AnonyGY
February 20 2012
Cuban Opposition Says Regime Arrested 402 Dissidents in April
Cuban Opposition Says Regime Arrested 402 Dissidents in April
HAVANA – The opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Thursday reported that the regime made 402 political arrests in April, a "notable reduction" compared with March, although Cuba continues to be in first place in Latin America in this type of abuse.
In a communique released in Havana, the panel headed by activist Elizardo Sanchez said that the majority of the arrests of opposition members in April were relatively short-term, often for less than 24 hours.
"Despite the notable reduction with respect to the previous month regarding the number of politically motivated arbitrary arrests, the Cuban government continues to remain in first place in all of Ibero-America in this type of abuse," the commission of 1,158 arrests of opposition members, many of them in the days before or during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.
Although in April the number of arrests declined, the figure is above that registered in the same month in previous years, according to the rights commission.
Among the most noteworthy arrests in April was that of former "Group of 75" political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer, "who was held for 27 days without formal charges," the panel said.
The commission also said that so far in 2012 at least nine peaceful dissidents were imprisoned "in high security centers, generally under inhuman and degrading conditions."
The commission says that in Cuba there are between 150 and 200 prisons, correctional centers, work camps and other internment sites "where between 70,000 and 80,000 inmates languish, several thousand of whom are absolutely innocent or have committed alleged or real minor crimes that should not be punished" with jail.
The Cuban government considers dissidents to be counterrevolutionaries and "mercenaries" in the service of the United States. EFE
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=501249&CategoryId=14510
World Press Freedom Day: Repression in the digital era
1 May 2012
World Press Freedom Day: Repression in the digital era
"States are attacking online journalists and activists because they are realizing how these individuals can use the internet to challenge them." Widney Brown, Senior Director for International Law at Amnesty International
Blocking search engines, charging the earth for internet, torturing activists to get their Facebook and Twitter passwords, passing laws that control what people can (and can't) talk about online.
These are just some of the ways in which nations from China to Iran, Cuba to Azerbaijan are preventing journalists, bloggers and activists from speaking out about human rights abuses.
In some countries, criticizing authorities online is so dangerous that, according to Reporters without Borders, 2011 was the deadliest year for online activists – with several 'netizens' killed in Bahrain, Mexico, India and Syria.
But journalists, bloggers and activists are coming up with new ways to by-pass internet controls and ensure their voices are heard by millions across the world.
"The opening of the digital space has allowed activists to support each other as they fight for human rights, freedom and justice around the world," said Widney Brown, Senior Director for International Law at Amnesty International.
"States are attacking online journalists and activists because they are realizing how these courageous individuals can effectively use the internet to challenge them. We must resist all efforts by governments to undermine freedom of expression."
Amnesty International has spoken to journalists and bloggers from Iran, Azerbaijan, Cuba and China who describe the daily challenges they face carrying out their work online.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/world-press-freedom-day-repression-digital-era-2012-05-01
The authorities attack us because we talk about the issues people face
2 May 2012
Cuba: "The authorities attack us because we talk about the issues people face"
"I do not think a tweet from me is going to save anybody from prison but it does save them from impunity" Journalist and blogger Luis Felipe Rojas
For Cuban journalist and blogger Luis Felipe Rojas, posting an entry on his blog Crossing the Wire Fences or even sending an email is a daunting task.
Every time he wants to access the internet, he has to leave his house in the early hours of the morning and travel 200 kilometres from his hometown of Holguín, in eastern Cuba, to the closest cybercafé. If he is lucky, and he is not stopped at a police checkpoint on the way, he will get to a computer in about three hours.
Once there, Luis Felipe has to show ID to buy an access card and pay six US dollars to use the internet for sixty minutes – that is almost a third of a monthly local salary.
Some days he finds websites containing information considered critical of the government are blocked or messages have disappeared from his inbox.
Internet access is so highly controlled in Cuba that critics of the government have come up with creative ways to ensure their stories get out.
Sometimes that involves converting articles into digital images and sending them via SMS to a contact outside of Cuba, to type and post on Luis Felipe's blog. He also uses text messages for posting on Twitter but the lack of internet access means that he cannot see what others say to (or about) him.
Luis Felipe is part of a growing group of journalists and government critics who are finding new ways to by-pass state control in order to disseminate information about human rights abuses taking place in Cuba.
According to a recent report by Amnesty International, independent journalists and bloggers have faced increased threats and intimidation when publishing information critical to the authorities.
The 'Hablemos Press' Information Centre, an unofficial news agency monitoring human rights abuses across Cuba, recently reported that from March 2011 to March 2012 inclusively, more than 75 independent journalists have been detained, some, like Caridad Caballero Batista up to 20 times.
"After the mass release of prisoners of conscience in 2011, we have seen authorities sharpening their strategy to silence dissent by harassing government critics and independent journalists with short term detentions and public acts of repudiation," said Gerardo Ducos, Cuba expert with Amnesty International.
On 25 March, Luis Felipe was detained in a local police station for five days in order to prevent him from travelling to attend an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
"The authorities attack us because we talk about the issues people face - that not everybody has enough food, that public services do not always work, that there are problems with the health service," Luis Felipe said to Amesty International.
"I have been scared many times. Scared of going to the street, of being beaten up, of being locked up for a long time and not seeing my children. But fear does not stop me. I do not think a tweet from me is going to save anybody from prison but it does save them from impunity."
About Hatred / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallín Almeida
About Hatred / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallín Almeida Cuban Law Association, Translator: Unstated, Wilfredo Vallin Almeida
No one shall be subjected to torture nor to cruel, inhuman or degrading …
In the early days of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, in the course of military operations, a scene shown on Cuban television remained in my memory.
A fighter against the Taliban power entered a small town where, shot down by insurgents, there were several bodies on the floor. Approaching one of them, which he seemed to recognize, he began to kick it furiously.
A question immediately came to my mind: What relation could the dead man have had with him, to fill him with such hatred? What had happened between them?
I'll never know what happened, but it immediately brought to my mind words like these:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the inviolability of his person.
Did the Taliban, possessors of total power at the time, think that it would last forever and they would never have to answer for their actions and in that belief they acted as they did?
Examples of such attitudes abound, but there they are, for those who want document them, Nero and Caligula in ancient Rome, Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Joseph Stalin in Russia, Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia, Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania, Pol Pot in Kampuchea, and many others who would make this list too long.
But there are other examples that call in another direction:
And it is not land that constitutes what is called the integrity of the Homeland. The Homeland is more than oppression, more than pieces of land without freedom and without life, more that the right of possession by force. The Homeland is a community of interests, unity of traditions, unity of purpose, sweet and comforting fusion of love and hope.
This and no other is the direction in which we should go. Because we must avoid, before it is too late, having to hear these words:
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind…
Whereas it is essential that human rights are protected by the rule of law, so that no man be compelled to have recourse to rebellion against tyranny and oppression…
I hope sanity prevails over hate.
2 May 2012
Press Freedom Matters
Press Freedom Matters 04-30-2012
Press freedom matters because without a free press, few other human rights are attainable.
Press freedom matters because without a free press, few other human rights are attainable. A strong press freedom environment encourages the growth of civil society, which leads to stable democracies and political and economic development. That's why the United States is highlighting journalists around the world who are suffering intimidation, imprisonment, and sometimes death for exercising their right to free expression.
Yoani Sanchez is a Cuban blogger who is not permitted to leave the country. She has attracted an international following for her blog, Generación Y, which gives readers unprecedented insight into the harsh realities of life in Cuba. Her work has won numerous awards, including Columbia University's Maria Cabot prize for journalism, and the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award in 2011. But Cuba's Communist government has refused to allow her to leave the country to accept these honors. Requests by Ms. Sanchez to travel have been denied 19 times.
Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States urges the Cuban government to allow Ms. Sanchez to travel abroad freely and for all governments to stop the use of travel bans against journalists or dissidents for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Elsewhere, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen has been silenced by the Chinese government. Wangchen was detained by Chinese authorities in March 2008 on charges related to his 25-minute documentary titled "Leaving Fear Behind." The film is based on 40 hours of footage and over 100 interviews conducted over five months. Filmed in China's Amdo region (located principally in Qinghai Province), the footage includes interviews with Tibetans who expressed views on a range of issues from the Dalai Lama to the human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.
Wangchen was reportedly beaten, deprived of food and sleep during interrogations, and held incommunicado for a full year. He was tried in secret in 2009 and is serving a six year sentence in Xichuan Prison, Qinghai Province.
The United States urges the Chinese government to respect the universal human rights of all Chinese citizens.
Press freedom is a fundamental human right that must be respected by all governments. The United States will continue to shine the spotlight of international attention on all those who abuse this basic human right.
http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Press-Freedom-Matters–149575695.html
Cuban dissidents say Cardinal Ortega was wrong to call them criminals
Posted on Tuesday, 05.01.12
Cuban dissidents say Cardinal Ortega was wrong to call them criminals
The dissidents were part of a group of 13 who occupied a Catholic church to press political demands in March. By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega has said that the 13 dissidents who occupied a Havana church days before Pope Benedict XVI visited the island had criminal records, were largely uneducated, and that one had mental problems.
But several members of the group contacted by El Nuevo Herald Monday denied they had criminal records. One is an architect and others were educated in a variety of jobs and professions, such as computer technician, sports trainer, bookkeeper and forensic technician.
"I can only say that the 13 are a perfect reflection of Cuban society, in which there is everything," said Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez, who angrily called Ortega's comments "incredible."
Ortega, already branded by critics as too friendly with the Raúl Castro government, sparked a firestorm of controversy last week when he criticized the 13 dissidents during a speech at Harvard University.
"All were old delinquents," he declared, adding that they "lacked a level of culture." He described one as suffering from mental problems and another as having been returned to Cuba by U.S. authorities after serving six years in a U.S. prison.
The U.S. "excludable" was Carlos Miguel López Santos, who has claimed that U.S. authorities returned him after mistaking him for another man accused of terrorism, said María López Báez, head of a Havana chapter of the Cuban Human Rights Commission.
Another of the 13 suffers from mental problems, said López by phone from Havana. She added that those problems were created by the government repression.
Ortega's office in Havana did not reply to an email asking if the information about the group had come from the dissidents themselves or from government officials.
López said 11 of the 13 were members of the little known Republican Party of Cuba (PRC) and two of the Frank Pais November 30 Movement.
They occupied Our Lady of Charity Church in Havana March 13, and Ortega asked the Cuban government to force them out the next day.
El Nuevo Herald reached six of the 13 by phone Monday:
.• Jennifer Hernandez Piloto, 23, said she had no criminal record and no university studies but earned a diploma as a food preparation technician. She is active in the PRC and the dissident Latin American Federation of Rural Women.
• Her brother Yosiel Guia Piloto, 29, said he had no criminal record either. He did not attend college and works as a bricklayer.
• Daysi Ponce Arencibia said she graduated from high school, has a certificate as a computer technician and used to work in the Ministry of Health. She added that she now repairs cigarette lighters and has no criminal record.
• Ronnier Valentín Aguillón said he played competitive baseball, has a bachelor's degree in sports medicine and now earns some income as a practitioner of Santeria, one of Cuba's several African-based religions. He said he was never convicted of anything.
• PRC spokesman Fred Calderon Muñoa said he studied commerce in a university and worked as a bookkeeper in the archives section of a Havana provincial government office.• Madeline Caraballo Betancourt, 42, the only one who acknowledged a criminal record, said she served six months in prison in 2005 for criticizing the government.
Caraballo said she was fired from her job as a forensic medicine technician in Havana after complaining about a blood transfusion that made her HIV-positive. She now buys and sells used clothing and other items.
López said PRC director Vladimir Calderón Frías, 46, is an architect with no criminal record.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/30/2776374/cuban-dissidents-say-cardinal.html
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