Cuban authorities ‘responsible’ for activist’s death on hunger strike – Amnesty International
Cuban authorities ‘responsible’ for activist’s death on hunger strike 20 January 2012
“The responsibility for Wilman Villar Mendoza’s death in custody lies squarely with the Cuban authorities, who summarily judged and jailed him for exercising his right to freedom of expression.” Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International Fri, 20/01/2012
The death in custody of a Cuban prisoner of conscience after a hunger strike is a shocking reminder of the Raúl Castro government’s intolerance for dissent, Amnesty International said today.
Wilman Villar Mendoza, 31, died this morning in Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in the city of Santiago where he was transferred from prison on 13 January due to health problems allegedly arising from a hunger strike protesting at his unfair trial and imprisonment.
He was serving a four-year prison term on charges related to his participation in a public demonstration against the government.
“The responsibility for Wilman Villar Mendoza’s death in custody lies squarely with the Cuban authorities, who summarily judged and jailed him for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” said Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International.
“His tragic death highlights the depths of despair faced by the other prisoners of conscience still languishing in Cuban jails, who must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
“The Cuban authorities must stop the harassment, persecution, and imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators as well as political and human rights activists.”
On 14 November 2011, police arrested Villar Mendoza and eight other members of the Cuban Patriotic Union dissident group in the eastern town of Contramaestre for taking part in a protest against the Cuban government.
While he was in detention, police intimidated Villar Mendoza, telling him he would be disappeared or face imprisonment on criminal charges stemming from an earlier arrest if he did not stop his protests and leave the dissident group.
He was released after three days in police custody but was then summoned to Contramaestre Municipal Tribunal on 24 November. Judges tried him in private and refused to accept testimony from his wife or other defence witnesses.
The judges sentenced the activist to four years’ imprisonment and immediately transferred him to Aguadores prison, in the provincial capital Santiago. The same day, he began a hunger strike in protest at the ruling.
As Villar Mendoza’s health deteriorated over recent days, members of the Cuban Patriotic Union and the Ladies in White opposition group organised a vigil outside the hospital. On 18 January, state security officials broke up the gathering and detained more than a dozen people.
Wilman Villar Mendoza is not the first prisoner of conscience to die in Cuban custody.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience jailed after the “Black Spring” crackdown on opposition groups in March 2003, died in prison on 23 February 2010 after several weeks on hunger strike.
Amnesty: Cuba Releases 3 Prisoners of Conscience
Amnesty: Cuba Releases 3 Prisoners of ConscienceBy PETER ORSI Associated PressHAVANA January 23, 2012 (AP)
Amnesty International said Monday that three Cubans held without charge for 52 days following their arrest at a protest were released last week, hours after the human rights group named them as prisoners of conscience.
The release of the three also came a day after a hunger-striking dissident died, prompting condemnation from island dissidents, rights watchers, the United States and other nations. Amnesty had planned to designate Wilman Villar, 31, a prisoner of conscience but he died in custody before it could.
Ivonne Malleza Galano, Ignacio Martinez Montejo and Isabel Haydee Alvarez were set free Jan. 20 but threatened with "harsh sentences" if they do not stop their anti-government actions, the human rights monitor said in a statement Monday.
It said all three were detained at a Nov. 30 protest in Havana at which Malleza and Martinez held a banner that read "Stop hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba." Alvarez was arrested for objecting when security forces took the other two into custody.
"Amnesty International had adopted them as prisoners of conscience, as they were detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, and had called for their immediate and unconditional release," the statement said.
Cuba considers dissident activity to be counterrevolutionary, and the dissidents to be mercenaries out to bring down the communist-run government. It denies holding any political prisoners in its lockups.
Amnesty, which has strict criteria for who constitutes a "prisoner of conscience" including a history of nonviolence, had not recognized any Cuban inmates as such since the previous spring, when the last of 75 dissidents jailed since a 2003 crackdown were freed.
Villar was arrested in November in the eastern city of Santiago following an anti-government protest.
The Cuban government denied that he had been on hunger strike or was even truly a dissident. It described him as a "common criminal" sent to prison for domestic violence, said he received all the medical attention he needed and alleged that his case was being manipulated for political ends.
Authorities' indignation continued Monday as official newspapers Granma and Trabajadores published an editorial titled "Cuba's Truths." Taking up the entire front pages of both publications, it attacked critics' own records on human rights and defended the island, citing achievements in health care, education and literacy, and calling the accusations a smear campaign by Cuba's enemies.
"The so-called political prisoner was serving a sentence of four years, following a fair process … and a trial according to the rule of law, for brutally and publicly beating his wife, threatening police and violently resisting arrest," the editorial said
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which monitors detentions of dissidents in Cuba, sent an open letter to the government demanding access to the investigation.
It said it wanted to confirm or rule out its belief that Villar was unfairly and disproportionately punished for his political activities, held in solitary confinement and given inadequate medical care when he went on hunger strike. Signed by Commission founder Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident and former prisoner himself, the letter doubted that Villar was truly imprisoned for beating his wife.
"The family incident from July 2011 should be clarified, as well as the reasons why he would be freed and sent back to the family home despite the possible risks from a supposed situation of domestic violence," it read.
Prominent Cuban dissident detained
Prominent Cuban dissident detainedPublished November 02, 2011EFE
Havana – Cuban government opponent Guillermo Fariñas was detained in the central city of Santa Clara while trying to visit a hunger-striking dissident at a hospital, his family and pro-democracy activists said.
"Guillermo went to pay a visit to Alcides (Rivera) at the hospital and they don't want anyone there. The (hospital guards) didn't let him in. They immobilized him, beat him and called the police, who took him to a (police unit)," Fariñas' mother, Alicia Hernandez, told Efe Tuesday.
She said she learned of her son's arrest thanks to an "eyewitness."
Another 18 dissidents who went to the Arnaldo Milian Castro Provincial Hospital Monday to check on Rivera's health were not allowed inside the facility and were detained, although apparently some were released Tuesday, Hernandez said.
Rivera went on hunger strike on Sept. 28 to demand an end to government repression of dissent, activist Elizardo Sanchez, spokesman for the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said.
Fariñas was detained at approximately 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, Sanchez said, adding that he believes it will be a typical short-lived stay in police lockup of a few hours.
Winner of the European Parliament's 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Fariñas has been detained briefly on numerous occasions this year, most recently in mid-September amid a wave of arrests of dissidents in his home city of Santa Clara and other towns of central Cuba.
The psychologist and independent journalist has staged two dozen hunger strikes since the 1990s to call for a free press, access to the Internet and the release of imprisoned dissidents, among other demands.
Last year, he went on a four-and-a-half-month fast to demand the release of political prisoners following the death of Orlando Zapata, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2010, after a lengthy hunger strike behind bars to force the Cuban government to acknowledge his designation by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.
The international outcry over Zapata's death prompted the Cuban government to launch a Spanish-backed dialogue last year with the Cuban Catholic hierarchy that led to the release of more than 100 political prisoners, including dozens of dissidents jailed in March 2003 amid the harshest crackdown in decades.
Fariñas, who received food and medication intravenously during the protest, ended the fast after the announcement of the prisoner releases.
He also staged a brief hunger strike earlier this year to demand justice in the case of fellow dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto, who government opponents say died after being beaten by police officers.
The government and the dead man's family say no such aggression occurred.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/11/02/prominent-cuban-dissident-detained/
Being a Dissident / Luis Felipe Rojas
Being a Dissident / Luis Felipe RojasLuis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
Policemen and dissidents in the pilgrimage for the Virgin of Charity, Central Havana, September 8, 2011
Let's suppose that there exists a country where the people could affiliate themselves to the political party which reflects their own ideals, where the government — of an opposing party — does not dedicate itself to attacking all those who think differently.
Let's suppose that on Earth there is another country in which the act of delinquency is not punished beyond the sentence decreed by tribunals, and that the reincorporation of these individuals is not utilized as a pennant to be used each time the rulers wish to play the image of excellent social actors.
But… to be left without employment and without receiving an explanation as to why, being excluded from every social assistance plan, being singled out by the accusing fingers of neighbors, etc. These are only three of the hellish paths which Cuban dissidents are condemned to walk as soon as they step out of the line to speak the truth against those who govern.
The manipulation of ideological stubbornness can enjoy the luxury of carrying out propaganda with the social rehabilitation of citizens, only if these individuals do not challenge their political interests. The pages of national newspapers fill up with reports of young ex-convicts turned into social workers, paramedics, or repairmen. With this, they try to shine light on the kindness of the tropical socialist system, but it would be ideal if we could, in those same mediums, hear about the attacks against people who have been penalized and, in their time behind bars, have decided to support political prisoners, to join the condemnations of human rights violations and, once extinguishing the penal sentence, join the ranks of the non-violent opposition.
There are more than enough examples of those who, in jail cells, have collaborated with a dissident so that their journalistic work arrives in good hands, that a family letter or a denouncement of a beating against a prisoner of conscience goes beyond the prison walls. Sure, there have been those who have lent themselves to beat or harass a dissident in prison, but there have also been those who have defended one of those who have been sent to the dungeons just for defending universally recognized rights.
According to the communist Cuban propaganda, the internal dissidence is full of treacherous thieves. But the real corruption, the violators of so many rights, and those who embezzle the exchequer stem from the Communist Party, the revolutionary elite, and the "organizations of the masses", but it does not matter when it comes time for the the public taunts, the assignations, and the expositions.
It is a two-faced methodology, the defining trait of a system which abhors informative transparency.
Translated by Raul G.
This article was written by Luis Felipe Rojas and published in Diario de Cuba on October 14th, 2011.
Dissidents arrested in Cuba – Urgent Appeal
Document – Cuba: Dissidents arrested in Cuba
UA: 265/11 Index: AMR 25/005/2011 Cuba Date: 1 September 2011
URGENT ACTION
DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBA
Eleven members of a dissident organization and three of their relatives have been detained , without be ing told of any charge s against them , since their arrest on 28 August in Cuba. They have not been allowed access to their families.
Eleven members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unión Patriótica de Cuba, UNPACU), an umbrella group of dissident organizations from the east of Cuba have been detained without charge since 28 August. Three other men, who are relatives of the detainees, are also in detention. According to relatives they are being held at a State Security facility on the outskirts of the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Twenty-seven members of UNPACU met at the house of Marino Antomarchit in the town of Palma Soriano, in the south-eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, to discuss the current crackdown against dissidents in the province. Witnesses state that around 140 members of the security forces, including the National Revolutionary Police (Policía Nacional Revolucionaria), State Security and members of the prison service surrounded the house at 1pm. Shortly afterwards, tear gas canisters were launched into the house, where Marino Antomarchit's two-year old daughter and 76-year-old mother were also present, causing nausea and coughing of those who were there. At 5:40pm, between 30 to 40 members of the security forces entered the house and reportedly beat the men and caused damage to the house. The 27 UNPACU members were arrested as were three relatives who had come to the house after the arrival of security forces. Sixteen of the men were released on 31 August, all without charge. Eleven of them remain incarcerated in overcrowded conditions and have not been allowed family visits.
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
calling on the authorities to charge those detained on 28 August with recognizable criminal offences or release them immediately;
asking them to ensure that anyone charged is given a fair trial in compliance with international standards;
urging them to immediately cease the harassment and intimidation of members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and any other citizens who seek to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 13 OCTOBER 2011 TO :
Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +53 7 8333085 (via Foreign Ministry); +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Su Excelencia/
Your Excellency
Interior Minister
General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +537 8556621, +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu
Salutation: Su Excelencia/
Your Excellency
And copies to:
First Secretary, Cuban Communist Party of Santiago de Cuba
Lázaro Espósito
Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Santiago de Cuba
Avenida Garzón 51
Plaza de Martes
Santiago de Cuba
Provincia de Santiago de Cuba
Cuba
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBAADditional Information
The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is a recently formed umbrella group of dissident organizations, primarily in Santiago de Cuba but also in neighbouring provinces of eastern Cuba. UNPACU seeks democratic change in Cuba via non-violent means. UNPACU's coordinator is former prisoner of conscience, José Daniel Ferrer García, who was released in March 2011 following eight years imprisonment.
The last few weeks has seen increasing repression against dissidents in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), a group of female relatives of former prisoners of conscience and current political prisoners, and the Ladies in Support (Damas de Apoyo), have for the last month faced arbitrary arrest and physical assault from members of the security forces and government supporters as they have tried to carry out a weekly silent protest march after attending mass at the cathedral in Santiago de Cuba city. Other dissidents, the majority of them from UNPACU and many with close ties to the Damas have also faced harassment and intimidation from the security forces and government supporters and are increasingly victims of arbitrary arrest.
Name: Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya
Víctor Campa Almenares
Pedro Campa Almenares
Andrés García Almenares
Yosvanys García Infante
The other names have not been verified
Gender m/f: All the detainees are male
UA: 265/11 Index: AMR 25/005/2011 Issue Date: 1 September 2011"
Cuba: Further information: Women denied right to protest – Amnesty International
"Document – Cuba: Further information: Women denied right to protest
Further information on UA: 256/11 Index: AMR 25/004/2011 Cuba Date: 1 September 2011
URGENT ACTION
WOMEN DENIED RIGHT TO PROTEST
A group of female relatives of prisoners of conscience in Cuba and their supporters were again prevented from organizing a peaceful protest on 28 August . They have been harassed and intimidated by state officials since mid-July for their peaceful activities.
The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), a group of female relatives of former prisoners of conscience and current political prisoners, and the Ladies in Support (Damas de Apoyo), have since mid-July faced arbitrary arrest and physical assault from members of the security forces and government supporters in the south-eastern city of Santiago de Cuba and surrounding towns.
On 28 August, 13 Damas gathered at the home of Aimée Garcés Leyva with the plan to go to the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba in order to attend mass, and afterward organize a peaceful protest around the cathedral. However, according to testimonies from some of the women, the house was surrounded early in the morning by police cars and female police officers. Testimonies say the Damas were ill-treated by the officers and forced into buses. As on previous Sundays, they were driven near to their hometowns in the province of Santiago de Cuba and released. The Damas also claims that police officers took computers, cell phones, photo cameras, memory flash drives, book notes and other external hard drives from the home of Aimée Garcés Leyva.
Two other Damas who were driving from Holguín to Santiago de Cuba on 27 August, complained to have been violently arrested in the municipality of Bayamo. They were brought back to Holguín where they spent a night in jail.
The Damas are planning to try to organize a silent protest on 4 September, and every subsequent Sunday, to call for the release of prisoners they believe to have been jailed for their dissident activities.
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
calling on the authorities to permit the Ladies in White and Ladies in Support to march peacefully on Sundays and attend religious services without unreasonable restrictions;
urging them to cease immediately the harassment and intimidation of the Ladies in White, Ladies in Support and any other citizens who seek to exercise peacefully their rights to freedom of expression and association.
asking them to thoroughly and independently investigate the accusations of ill-treatment by police officers on the Ladies in White and Ladies in Support and bring those responsible to justice respecting international standards.
P LEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 13 OCTOBER 2011 TO :
Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +53 7 8333085 (via Foreign Ministry); +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Su Excelencia/
Your Excellency
Interior Minister
General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +537 8556621, +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu
Salutation: Su Excelencia/
Your Excellency
And copies to
First Secretary, Cuban Communist Party of Santiago de Cuba
Lázaro Espósito
Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Santiago de Cuba
Avenida Garzón 51
Plaza de Martes
Santiago de Cuba
Provincia de Santiago de Cuba
Cuba
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 256/11. Further information: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR25/003/2011/en
URGENT ACTION
WOMEN DENIED RIGHT TO PROTESTADditional Information
In 2003, over several days, the Cuban authorities arrested 75 men and women for their peaceful expression of critical opinions of the government. They were subjected to summary trials and were sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years. Amnesty International declared the 75 convicted dissidents to be prisoners of conscience, and the last of them was released in April 2011.
The Damas de Blanco organizes peaceful marches where they distribute flowers and call for the release of their relatives and friends. In 2005, the Damas de Blanco were awarded The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament.
The Damas de Apoyo emerged as a solidarity group who support and participate in activities organized by the Damas de Blanco.
There are now 35 Damas de Blanco and Apoyo from the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Granma and Guantánamo.
The Damas de Blanco and Damas de Apoyo have repeatedly suffered harassment and intimidation during their peaceful activities. In central Havana on 18 August 2011, 49 Damas were prevented from carrying out a protest in support of their members in Santiago de Cuba and other eastern provinces. Government supporters physically forced them to return to their homes. On 14 August only three of 22 Damas who travelled to Santiago de Cuba managed to enter the Cathedral for mass. Five of them were arrested before mass began, and taken to various police stations in the city and held for several hours. The 14 other Damas were stopped at a police checkpoint 11 km outside the city and forced off the bus they were travelling in by women police officers. Nine of them, including Belkis Cantillo Ramírez, the wife of former prisoner of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García, were kicked and slapped as they were pushed into police cars and returned to their homes.
On 21 August, 11 Damas gathered at the home of Aimée Garcés Leyva in the town of Palma Soriano. Some 100 people, including police and government supporters, surrounded the house for several hours. When the women tried to leave, police pushed them and pulled their hair before forcing them into buses. They were driven a few kilometres, then taken in police cars and dropped near their hometowns in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguín.
Name: Damas de Blanco and Damas de Apoyo
Gender m/f: f
Further information on UA: 256/11 Index: AMR 25/004/2011 Issue Date: 1 September 2011"
Ladies in White are brutally attacked once more
Threatened with German shepherd dogs during their detention
Ladies in White are brutally attacked once more – News on the Net Monday, August 15, 2011
This is the fourth Sunday in Eastern Cuba since July 24, 2011, that numerous "Ladies in White" accompanied by female supporters in white attire are arrested after suffering violent physical and verbal assaults by forces of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. Government sponsored mobs besieged the homes of human rights defenders in different towns of the province of Santiago de Cuba to curtail any acts of solidarity with the Cuban women.
According to Belkis Cantillo, wife of Cuban ex-political prisoner of conscience, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, she and all the women traveling with her to attend mass at the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba were forced down with punches from a truck in the city of "El Cristo" where authorities had set up a control point. More than 50 women dressed in military uniforms beat and pushed them into police cars where Cantillo says she was beaten once more and her hair was pulled.
Around twenty women were arrested. Advocates of the Ladies in White: Maria Elena Matos, Annia Alegre and Adriana Nunez were threatened with German shepherd dogs during their detention. Ms. Nunez had to be hospitalized due to the ill treatment she suffered. The police cars eventually abandoned the women in the outskirts of their home towns.
Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia informed that the home of Rene Hierrezuelo Arafe in the town of 'El Caney' was attacked while 'Palma Soriano' and 'Palmarito de Cauto' were militarized by Rapid Response Brigades. Some of the activists besieged in El Caney were: Agustin Magdariaga, Reinier Arocha Tellez, Eliecer Consuegra Velazquez, Pavel Arcias Cespedes, Guillermo Cobas Reyes, Yimmy Eduardo Arocha Montoya, Henry Perales Elias.
In 'Palma Soriano' the home of Marino Antomarchy was surrounded by mobs with sticks, stones, and metal rods. Rolando Reyes and Miguel R. Cabrera were arrested and Jose Antonio Zulueta was injured when authorities slammed him against a wall.
As the Ladies in White in Cuba vow to continue their peaceful struggle on behalf of the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners, and as long as the human rights activists continue to defend fundamental rights in the island, the Coalition of Cuban-American Women will persist in demanding international solidarity for the leaders of the civil resistance in Cuba. We make an urgent call to women in positions of leadership in religious, political, educational, social, and cultural institutions, in NGO's, and in the press to denounce the increase of these cruel and degrading acts committed by the Cuban government against their own people.
The awakening of Cuba’s resistance movement
Posted on Saturday, 07.30.11CUBA
The awakening of Cuba's resistance movementBY OTTO J. REICH ANDinfo@directorio.org
In Guantánamo, Cuba, an important eastern city near the eponymous Naval Base, the streets recently reverberated with shouts of "Down with Fidel! Down with Raúl!" and "The streets belong to the people!" as dozens marched in open defiance of the iron-fisted rule of the Castro brothers. Even the physical attacks hurled by the regime's paid thugs did not prevent the march from continuing.
Over the past few months similar protests have taken place across cities and towns throughout the island. What do they portend?
To most people, popular uprisings against dictatorships appear spontaneous because they capture our attention at their moment of fruition, when massive crowds in public plazas attract television cameras. In truth, uprisings are the result of many years of individuals struggling to overcome personal fear, and of tenacious organizational work by small groups.
Resistance networks that grow through repressed societies act like arteries that arouse a subjugated people, a key event or moment serving as the critical spark, the catalyst for the awakening. The death last year of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Afro-Cuban bricklayer, perpetrated by the authorities' denial of water for 18 days in an attempt to force him to stop a hunger strike, set off a wave of street protests and hunger strikes. International condemnation forced the dictatorship to release hundreds of political prisoners. Many of those released were pressured into exile, but a hard core of political prisoners chose to remain on the island, their leadership qualities thereby growing exponentially in the eyes of the population.
The Castro dictatorship is once more trying to stem the growth of such resistance in Cuba through persecution and brutality because popular demonstrations, unprecedented in number and message, have erupted throughout the island, among them:
• On March 24, citizens in the central city of Santa Clara blocked traffic to protest the arbitrary arrests of peaceful activists.
• On March 28, resistance members demonstrated at Havana's historic capitol building for the release of all political prisoners, an action timed to coincide with a visit by former President Jimmy Carter.
• Demonstrations again took place in Central Cuba during the run-up to the Communist Party Congress in April, despite heightened surveillance.
• May saw a 13 day-long "Boitel and Zapata Live!" memorial, a series of nonviolent actions commemorating martyrs in the anti-communist resistance struggle. It started with nationwide pots and pans protests and continued with marches and meetings.
The resistance also responded to the murder of activist Juan Wilfredo Soto García by joining the Guantánamo march and demonstrating in the central city of Placetas, where in a separate action, women activists carried out a sit-in in the lobby of the government-controlled radio station demanding to state their perspective on the murder of Soto García.
Scores of people turned Soto García's funeral in the streets of the central province capital of Santa Clara into a demonstration calling for the end of the Castro regime and freedom for all Cubans.
The protesters are young, many of them black, most of them poor and from the provinces. Coalesced in the Cuban National Civic Resistance Front, the island's new resistance movement rises from a marginalized population that derives strength from the social bonds of family and friendship harnessed under the duress of decades of economic exploitation, criminal persecution, political imprisonment and ideological discrimination by its own government. These brave Cubans have nothing to lose — not freedom nor material goods, for there is neither on the island. They fight for liberty and for restored natural rights.
The struggle of Cuba's democratic resistance is lonely and hard. Not only do they face a vicious regime's police brutality, but an indifferent world and a Catholic hierarchy too close to the regime (as information revealed on Wikileaks corroborated). Leftist international leaders — typified by Spain's Prime Minster José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — who put ideological predilection and commercial interests above human rights, and shamelessly coddle Castro's decrepit tyranny, prolong the repression.
But the Cubans will regain their freedom. And when Cuba's plazas are filled with crowds clamoring for, or celebrating, the removal of the dictatorship, no one should be surprised and say they were not warned as to when the awakening began.
Otto J. Reich, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant, is a former U.S. assistant secretary of state and ambassador to Venezuela. Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat is a member of the Secretariat of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/30/2337422/the-awakening-of-cubas-resistance.html
Mother of late Cuban dissident talks to lawmakers
Posted on Tuesday, 07.12.11
Mother of late Cuban dissident talks to lawmakers
Reina Luisa Tamayo met with members of Congress who heard her tell the story of her son — a Cuban dissident who died earlier this year following a long hunger strike against the communist regime.By James RosenMcClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The mother of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died after an 85-day hunger strike, gave emotional accounts Tuesday of her son's death in captivity to dismayed lawmakers.
A sober-faced Sen. Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, led Reina Luisa Tamayo to meetings with senators and House members who listened in rapt attention as she described Zapata's ordeal at the notorious Kilo 7 prison in Camaguey province.
"I would go to every corner of the world to ask for justice for the cause of my son who was assassinated," Tamayo told reporters in Rubio's Capitol Hill office. "The Castro brothers (Fidel and Raul) are murderers and every door should be closed to them. We have to fight for liberty and justice for all Cubans. Our people are suffering."
Her hands shaking, Tamayo held up a blood-stained white T-shirt she said her son gave her shortly before his death at age 42 in February 2010.
Tamayo, 62, said the blood came from vicious beatings Zapata endured while refusing to eat during his 15-month imprisonment. She said his captors denied him water for 18 days toward the end of his life.
"They murdered Orlando Zapata in premeditated fashion," Tamayo said, her voice rising. "This mother would be incapable of making such a strong allegation against the government unless I held proof in my own hands."
Tamayo read from writings her son had inscribed on the shirt.
"My blood is in service to liberty for all 11 million Cubans who don't express themselves because they fear joining the many who are already in prison," Tamayo read. "Long live the shirt of the prisoner of conscience!"
Rubio, elected to his first Senate term last November, held up what he said was incriminating evidence of a different sort.
Displaying a recent newspaper article about increased U.S. tourism opportunities in Cuba, Rubio criticized President Barack Obama for loosening the decades-old travel ban.
The Obama administration earlier this year started allowing students and church groups to travel to Cuba, and it expanded the number of airports that can offer charter service there beyond those in Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Rubio, a West Miami Republican, was joined at a news conference with Tamayo by Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Tallahassee and Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Menendez' parents also emigrated from Cuba.
"We're honored to be in the presence of a hero who has witnessed firsthand the brutality of the Castro regime and the reality of Cuba today," Rubio said. "It is the brutal reality of a brutal dictatorship that oppresses its people and violates human rights on a consistent basis."
Nelson noted that he and Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, sponsored a resolution honoring the life of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, which the Senate passed unanimously in March 2010 shortly after his death.
The measure called on the United States "to continue policies that focus on respect for the fundamental tenets of freedom, democracy and human rights in Cuba and encourage peaceful democratic change consistent with the aspirations of the people of Cuba." Before meeting with senators, Tamayo appeared at a House briefing hosted by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican who was born in Havana.
"Cuba is a tropical gulag where the Castro brothers serve as prison wardens and executioners," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Anyone who has any doubt about that truth should listen to the sad story of Reina Luisa Tamayo."
Tamayo gained political asylum in the United States and arrived in Miami last month carrying her son's ashes in a shoe-size box. The remains were buried June 25 in a Bay of Pigs mausoleum at Dade South Memorial Park cemetery, marking the first time someone who wasn't a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion was interred with participants in the 1961 failed military action against Fidel Castro.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/12/2311525/mother-of-late-cuban-dissident.html
Reasons for an Injustice / Miriam Celaya
Reasons for an Injustice / Miriam CelayaMiriam Celaya, Translator: Unstated
As if the proverbial mediocrity of the usual television programming weren't enough, in recent weeks there is a new series, incredibly badly made and edited even worse, that has been presented on the screen. "Cuba's Reasons," is the title of this latest garbage, which clearly intends to disinform the national population trying to create a state of negative opinion around the use of new information and communications technologies. To accomplish this they are using old methods that everyone knows don't work: demonizing the dissidence as "mercenaries in the service of the empire," presenting "hero" agents infiltrated into the heart of it, and showing "proofs" — which is never presented — of the activities designed to destabilize the revolution and betray the people.
The official demonization of the Internet in a country where people have a miserable level of access would seem an absurdity, which is reinforced if we consider that this campaign takes place in the era of computers and in the midst of a true global revolution in communications technology.
However, if we analyze the current global context and internal conditions in Cuba, the fact is perfectly logical. The Cuban government may be too late, archaic and decadent (as it is), but its attitude is consistent, given that its ultimate goal is to retain power at all costs.
I will try to present an explanation of what appears to be the desperate resort of the island's government: disinformation as state policy.
New scenes and new actors
The year 2011 debuted with a new scenario. At the international level, the processes of transformations that are occurring in North Africa and that continue to widen their influence over neighboring regions, have demonstrated the functionality of the technology in support of democratic interests. Long-standing autocratic regimes have collapsed or are in the process of extinction faced with the push of innovative ideas that have flowed through social networks and have been able to mobilize crowds. A new world landscape is being drawn, which necessarily influences the emergence of new global and national politics. There are clear signs of the coming of other times, not yet clearly defined, but generally showing a trend: The era of dictatorships, as we know, seems to be coming to an end.
At the national level, the Cuban landscape has been gradually and quietly evolving in recent years. It would be useful to mention the fundamental elements that indicate these small apparent changes, or that have influenced them.
A growing feeling of popular frustration faced with a permanent socioeconomic crisis that has translated into a general apathy: the regime has lost the power to call on people. Instead of the old voluntary and massive mobilizations, it's becoming ever more obvious that participation in "revolutionary acts" is being achieved through the setting of "quotas" — for schools and workplaces — to achieve a significant volume of people to attend these public rituals. Official recognition of the inability to indefinitely maintain the so-called "subsidies" (social benefits), such as the ration book and others; as well as the announcement of the layoffs of 20% of the working population of the country. The government itself has confessed that "the model is broken." The growing significance of the activism of civic groups since the imprisonment of the 75 independent journalists in 2003 (The Black Spring) in a wave of repression what received wide international condemnation and that led to the rise of the Ladies in White, an example of peaceful resistance, of the ability to act and of the force of ideas, even in a closed society. The events of the Havana Psychiatric Hospital that resulted in the death by cold and mistreatment of more than two dozen patients there, which led to a number of criticisms among the population and accented the lack of confidence in these institutions. The death after a long hunger strike of the prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo and the following hunger strike of Guillermo Fariñas, events that unleashed an international movement to reject the Cuban government. For the first time in many years, different sectors of the dissidence, without articulating a common program, showed unanimity in support of the release of the political prisoners. Growth in the sector of active dissidence, refreshed by the growth in activity by independent journalists and in the rise and rapid development of the independent blogosphere and social networks. The sudden and extemporaneous announcement of a Communist Party Congress, which was eight years late and held in secret, admitting only the base of Party militants. Forcing the release of the political prisoners of the Black Spring, an undeniable achievement of the forces of independent civil society, particularly of the Ladies in White and Guillermo Fariñas.
Other factors of a diverse nature have influenced the emergence of a scenario in which new social actors are breaking ground with alternative proposals to the national stalemate. An interesting variable in this scenario is, undoubtedly, the fact that a share of the recently released political prisoners have decided to remain in the country, and to continue their activities within the peaceful dissidence. This not only puts to rest the government's argument that "dissidents are only interested in emigrating," but shows the power of the widening focus of alternative views of civil society in virtually all regions of Cuba.
The government's "reasons"
To try to understand the government's new disinformation strategy, one has to start from the essential premise: it is a strategy of survival. The regime has run out of time in an irreversible way, and is incapable of recreating even its repressive methods. This puts it in an extremely fragile position, to the point that the mere use of technology as an alternative option to create and develop citizen journalism and social networks accelerates the crisis of a system that has been able to rely, until recently, on monolithic control of the media.
The closed nature of dictatorships is, paradoxically, their most vulnerable point, given that anything that alters the monolithic nature of the system can pierce its structure and precipitate its fall. So the Internet is now a crack through which what up to now has been half a century of totalitarian power could begin to drain away, forcing the authorities to implement an urgent campaign against "the free flow of information."
As if the critical position of the regime was not already sufficiently compromised, the recent arrive of the fiber optic cable in the country — via Venezuela — will allow an exponential multiplying of the capacity to reach the network of networks. Thus, it is urgent for the Cuban government to create a social climate that justifies the maintenance of controls on the use of technologies, establishing a rigorous system of selection to determine who merits (revolutionaries-faithful-reliable) receiving this service and at the same time using this as an excuse not to allow general access.
Arguably, then, the series on Cuban TV — for which four programs have been produced to date — is only the phenomenal external expression of the creative weakness of the government, as well as a scandalous demonstration of its incapacity to renew its methods and discourse, forcing it to remain barricaded behind obsolete formulas proven to be ineffective.
It is obvious that there are objective reasons not only for the authorities to systematically obstruct access to the Internet, but to try to convince the masses of the great harm that flows from freedom of information. It is because of this that the entire information spectrum must pass through the purifying hand of the government and its most loyal servants who will determine the relevance — or not — of each news item before it is consumed by the population. To orchestrate this campaign — a medieval crusade against what has come to be called "cyberwar" — the authorities count on the media, in their absolute control, and the relative technological illiteracy and lack of access of the masses.
The effects of injustice
What the authorities obviously did not count on, is the effect on the population ideological fatigue, caused by the general decay of the system at all levels, which manifests itself for the most part in the total lack of impact of the programs already broadcast and in the result contrary to what they hoped to achieve. The ordinary Cuban tends to reject the informers, hence the antipathy aroused by the real or supposed "agents" who infiltrated the dissidence. On the other hand, the haste and the hatchet job of the makers of the series, flagrantly present a product so badly made that it offends the natural intelligence of ordinary people.
As a result of these questionable shows, some Cubans I know have more questions than answers, among them one finds with great frequency the following:
Who can believe the testimonies of the "agents" of State Security and some paper scrawled with numbers as proof of alleged payments to the "mercenary" dissidents?
How can they support the idea that the dissidents are seeking to benefit from the United States Interest Section if the TV series clearly shows that it was an alleged Cuban government agent with which the officials of the "enemy" county conducted their contacts with citizens of this country?
Is State Security working now to create more national mercenaries, or "counterrevolutionaries"?
Who is "fabricating" new villains, the Empire of the government of the Island?
And another rhetorical question which arises from an overwhelming logic: When an agent of the Cuban government lies on Radio Marti, is it the station that is lying?
The official media manipulation that occurs in "Cuba's Reasons" is so obvious that people quickly incorporated it into the repertoire of jokes that characterizes the Cuban people. "Did you see the third season of Castro's espionage soap opera?" asks one friend to another. And there is no shortage of newspaper vendors who use the show to encourage a sale: "Hey! The agent in Granma!" a proclamation that at the same time expresses a covert irony: the real "agent" is the official press.
However, beyond the ill-fated attempt to "stuff" viewers, the price of this staging is expensive in other equally counterproductive ways, because fabricating imaginary enemies from the screen also has promoted the activism of dissidents, which is gaining recognition. In a country where the media is in the hands of the ruling class it could be argued that facts do not exist until they are reported by the media. If we add to this the increasing loss of credibility for that class and the social need of finding new spaces of expression — as developed in the sustained growth of the alternative niches of civil society — it could be argued that disinformation as a new government policy is doomed to defeat.
Now we must wait for the new episodes already being advertised on Cuban television. Surely in some of the chapters to come they will try to keep the promise, so often postponed, of showing us the actual payments of imperial emoluments on the part of the greatly debased home-grown mercenaries, be it a leader of the opposition, an independent journalist or a blogger.
They will need more than the reliable testimony of their own paid agents and, of course, they will have to completely renovate the production team for the series to see if they can give us a more finished product. Still, it won't do to create too many expectation, the genre of suspense requires, in principle, a range of possible finales that the Cuban government is unable to offer. It turns out that the end of this process — a few chapters more or less — is already known by nearly everyone. In short, the ideological architects of the amendment to the Constitution were right in 2002 when they decided that socialism in Cuba is irreversible: it's true; precisely in the static nature of its sentence.
April 18 2011
Will More Political Prisoners Be Released?
Cuba: Will More Political Prisoners Be Released?Church Says There Is Still More to Do
HAVANA, Cuba, APRIL 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Cuban President Raúl Castro is stating that the process of releasing "prisoners of conscience" has ended, though the archbishopric of Havana noted that there is still work to be done.
On April 8, 37 former Cuban prisoners arrived in Madrid, Spain, after being released from prison according to an agreement initiated last July between the Cuban and Spanish governments, mediated by the Catholic Church.
On the day the prisoners arrived in Madrid, the Spanish foreign affairs ministry published a note in which it stated that the liberation process had been concluded as agreed upon.
At the end of the process, a total of 115 former prisoners arrived in Spain, accompanied by 647 relatives.
Castro also noted the fulfillment of this commitment in his address to the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) in Havana. He expressed gratitude to the Spanish government for its part in the process.
However, in a note published April 12, the archbishopric of Havana suggested that a similar dialogue could continue with governments of other countries that are prepared to receive former Cuban prisoners.
In addition to receiving the former prisoners, the Spanish authorities are providing aid in the form of economic assistance, housing, legal advice, psychological assistance, schooling of minors, including facilitating the approval of school and university titles, assistance in work integration and health care.
Three NGOs are also aiding the Cuban exiles: The Red Cross, the Spanish Commission of Aid to Refugees (CEAR), and the Spanish Catholic Commission of Migrations Association (ACCEM).
Many of the former prisoners are still waiting to receive work permits, Europa Press reported, and in the meantime are pursuing sporadic jobs in plumbing, masonry and carpentry.
In Castro's address, the president also invited his political party to engage in "severe self-criticism," so as to correct the deficiencies in the progress of the country.
Former prisoner of conscience Miguel Galbán Gutiérrez commented on the president's address, noting on his blog that Castro "has made some adjustments, some slight adjustments in his plans to avoid the riots of the Arab world splashing him and his angering the population."
Gutiérrez observed that Castro "is moving with caution, very well advised; the announced dismissals are partially blocked and the elimination of rationing has been slowed down."
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