Uncommon Sense

Nelson Vázquez Lima, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 11/8/09

This post will remain at the top of the page through Friday, events allowing. To read newer posts, scroll down.

Nelson Vázquez Lima in 1991 was convicted of "attack, disrespect and rebellion in penitentiary establishments," and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

I don't know what he allegedly did, but since being thrown into the Castro gulag he has been an active member of the opposition, protesting human rights abuses with hunger strikes and other demonstration and bearing witness to what he knows about the cruelty of the regime.

Cuban prisons are full of freedom fighters like Vázquez. They may not have been imprisoned for political reasons, but once in jail, they fully understand what the dictatorship is doing to them and their fellow prisoners, and they have exhibit the courage to act.

Most recently, Vázquez, an inmate at a prison in Guántanamo, on Oct. 10 started a hunger strike to demand he be transferred to a prison closer to his home in Cienfuegos. He was transferred to Guántanamo in July 2008 after he requested permission to visit his mother, who was ill.

The regime responded by transferring Vázquez to a prison farther away from his home.

No longer willing to put up with the abuse, Vázquez started a hunger strike.

Don't beat me, I'm only a blogger

Yoani Sánchez, a few days she and two other Cuban bloggers

were kidnapped and beaten by Cuban secret policemen.

(Photo: Fotos Desde Cuba)

Letter from Cuban political prisoner Antonio Díaz Sánchez

Antonio Díaz Sánchez

There is a miracle at work at the Canaleta prison in Ciego De Ávila, one of the hellholes in the Castro gulag:

One of the political prisoners there, the independent journalist Pablo Pacheco Ávila, has a blog, Voz tras las rejas ("Voice Through the Bars" is also published in English).

No, he doesn't have a computer and Internet connection in his cell. Instead, he dictates his dispatches by telephone to fellow blogger Claudia Cadelo, and from there it is posted and sometimes translated into English and Portuguese.

Yesterday, the translator e-mailed me to give me a heads-up about one of Pacheco's more recent postings, in which he quotes extensively from a letter he received from another political prisoner, Antonio Díaz Sánchez, who currently is being held in solitary, also at Canaleta.

Like I said, it's a miracle.

Here is Pacheco's posting in its entirety (note that in the sections in bold, Díaz asked that supporters write to him in prison. He even includes his address):

Between tedious days and thinking of his family, especially his oldest daughter Jenny who traveled to the US in April, Tony spends his days of captivity in a cell of the provincial prison of Canaleta in Ciego de Ávila. Today I received a letter from Antonio Díaz Sánchez (Tony), sent clandestinely from the isolation zone of the prison.

In it he states that the visit went well. "Those present included my wife, my youngest daughter, my sister, and her husband.  In other words, the same people as usual. When I asked to go up to the pavilion, as is the custom for prisoners from Havana, the officer on guard left and, upon returning, stated that Reineiro told him that today was not my turn. Then I told him that he was right; the time had already passed. In reality, I wanted to appeal to the conscience of this soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Reineiro of Canaleta. Otherwise my wife would have to come back within eight days so we could be together for three hours of conjugal visit. 

“I knew what the answer would be but I wanted to force the guard to answer me as did Pablo Manuel by saying ‘I am very bad’ so I could then send him to hell, and that is exactly what I did. When the officer on guard and in charge of penal control returned, he told me that Reineiro had denied my request, that the visit would have to be on the 20^th of the following month. I told him in a friendly tone: ‘That is not a problem. He is chief and even in the dumpster on 100^th street there is a chief, and the chief is chief even if it’s in a dumpster.’

“This has become my slogan in the face of the intimidation that is supposed to coerce me. I must clarify that the guard doesn't do any of this on his own initiative, denying me the cigars brought by Julita, the right to religious meetings, etc. etc.  This is all thought up by the G-2, or perhaps they gave him a blank check that permits him to act as he wishes from now o

“Early that same Wednesday I was visited in my cell by a uniformed major. This man claimed to be a security official from the prison.  He reminded me that he was the one who brought me the medicine sent by Pablito during my first days here. The conversation was interrupted by the inspection. I don’t know if he came just before the inspection to entertain me or if he really wanted to make conversation with me, but he promised to continue the dialogue, though I doubt he will return, because my wife brought a series of writings and photocopies which were collected for inspection.” I should point out that Pedro Arguelles says the photocopies were returned to Antonio Díaz Sánchez’ family.

 

In another part of the missive Tony comments: “I hope that you all understand my strategy. They try to distract me by tightening the screw, but I pretend like nothing is happening, and while their methods keep failing and they keep making it more difficult, I make it more difficult, too. I only ask God to grant me strength and health in order to continue resisting.” In the same way, Tony reasons in his own words: “Meanwhile the solidarity is increasing and I notice that they, with all their actions, play the role of victimizers, while every moment with my peaceful resistance, I am the victim. This has not been my intention but instead has been the result of prison procedures. For example, in these past two months I have written six letters to my family, and none arrived. Also, it would be a very good idea if people inside and outside Cuba write to me. The address is Provincial Prison Canaleta, Carretera de Sanguily, kilometer 2 ½, isolation zone, hall 1, cell n.1, Antonio Díaz Sánchez, Ciego de Ávila. I should receive these letters so the dirty tricks used in this prison could be more publicly uncovered, shedding light on the darkness where they operate.” 

 

Tony ends his correspondence suggesting: “I also think that people could write to Reineiro Díaz Betancourt at the same address demanding that he allow me the right to religious assistance and being able to go out in the sun without shackles. Please, these things may seem insignificant, but they have a tremendous effect.

“Hugs for Felix, Alonso, Pedro and Pablito, and also my respect and love to all those people of goodwill who show solidarity with me.”

You can also read the post in the original Spanish and in Portuguese.

Show your support for a Cuban human rights hero

Dr. Darsi Ferrer

Dec. 10, one month from today, is International Human Rights Day, which commemorates those fundamental freedoms that unite — or should unite — people around the world. Respect for those human rights is not equally enforced around the world, and while they are repressed at any time, anywhere, we are all less free.

In Cuba, one of the most forceful, most effective spokesmen, for human rights, and how that respect from the Castro regime is absent on the island, has been Dr. Darsi Ferrer.

Ferrer has exposed how the reality of Cuban health care falls far short of the myth, and he has organized marches to demand that the human rights of all Cubans are protected and respected. He has been assaulted by the dictatorship's goons, only to return to the streets again the next year.

This year, however, Ferrer may not be able participate.

Since July 21, he has been in prison. No formal charges have been filed, but apparently he has been accused to buying a couple bags of cement on the Cuban black market to make some repairs to the home he shares with his wife and young son.

No one who knows Ferrer, and knows the Castro dictatorship, believes that.

Ferrer, and his ideals, and his willingness to act on those ideals, make him very dangerous to the regime. After years of trying less severe methods to silence him, a frustrated dictatorship dropped the hammer it holds over all Cubans, and threw him in jail.

If Ferrer is still imprisoned on Dec. 10, he needs you to pick up his banner.

An easy, but powerful way to do that is by participating in a blogburst, in which supporters will use the Internet — whether it's a blog, a Twitter feed, a Facebook status, a comment on a blog — to demand two things:

Human rights for Cuba.

And the release of Darsi Ferrer NOW!

As Ferrer has demonstrated, the slogans can be that simple.

And if we unite to express that message, it can be that powerful.

For more about the planned blogburst, go here.

Yoani Sanchez: Dictatorship is afraid of blogs

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Monday was still nursing her wounds, three days after Castro's secret policemen kidnapped and beat her. The swelling around her left eye has shrunk, but as revealed in a report on CNN, she can move only gingerly with the help of a cane.

Her mind, and her words, however, are as sharp as ever.

In an interview with Jose Simian posted at Mediaite.com, Sanchez said she is convince that the thugs' target on Friday was much bigger than her or her blog:

I don’t think they are afraid of me, because I’m just a little person that they can easily eliminate. What they are afraid of is the phenomenon of the alternative blogosphere, the phenomenon that more and more young people are projecting their voices: that is tremendously contagious. This is why they may be attempting to make a sort of ‘prevention,’ applying some sort of vaccine, so the blogger virus, the virus of opinions, does not spread. I don’t think their attack is against the person of Yoani Sánchez, but rather against the blogger phenomenon, a phenomenon of different opinions that is taking place in Cuba. They want to paralyze as many people as possible with a preventive strike.

That fear leads to acts of desperation like what happened to Sanchez and fellow bloggers Claudia Cadelo and Orlando Pardo on Friday in Havana.

Sánchez's courage, in writing her blog and in fighting back when grabbed off the street, is admirable.

But what makes her a historic figure is how she is inspiring other Cubans to find their own voices and to use the technology she has mastered in only a short time, to tell their own stories, for themselves and for the world. Recently, she and others opened an academy to train new bloggers, and how she responded to Friday's attack will only increase her following.

Indeed, Yoani is very "contagious."

The Castro dictatorship has nothing — no ideas, no courage, no freedom — with which it can compete.

That is why Yoani is so "dangerous," and why the dictatorship is so afraid.

Yoani Sanchez: Don't blame me

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez reports that she is recovering from the physical and psychological injuries she suffered when she was assaulted by Cuban police on Friday.

She also wants to world to know she is not to blame for what happened:

After an attack there are certain myopics who blame the victim herself for what happened. If it is a woman who has been raped, someone explains that her skirt was very short or that she strutted provocatively. If it is a robbery, there are those who will say a flashy purse or shiny earrings provoked the criminal’s greed. In the case of someone who has been the object of political repression, there is no lack of people who will justify it, saying that imprudence was the cause the such an “energetic” response. In the face of these attitudes, the victim feels doubly assaulted.

The dozens of eyes that watched as Orlando and I were forced into a car with blows would prefer not to testify, and so they put themselves on the side of the criminal.

The doctor who does not make a record of an act of physical mistreatment, having already been warned that in this “case” there must be no document to prove the injuries received, is violating his Hippocratic oath and, with that wink, becomes the culprit’s accomplice. To those who feel there should be more bruises and even fractures before they can feel compassion for the person attacked, not only are they quantifying the pain, they are also saying to the attacker, “You have to leave more signs, you must be more aggressive.”

Nor is there any shortage of those who are always going to assert that the victim inflicted the wounds upon herself, those who don’t want to listen to the screams or the laments right next to them, but who emphasize and publish what happens thousands of miles away, under another ideology, another government. They are the same non-believers who thought that UMAP* was an enjoyable camp, combining military preparation and farm work. Those who still continue to believe that executing three men* was justified to preserve socialism, and that when someone punches a nonconformist it is because the latter was asking for it with her critiques. The eternal justifiers of violence are not convinced by any evidence, not even the brief initials R.I.P. on white marble. For them, the victim is the cause, the aggressor the mere executor of an obligatory lesson, a simple judge and corrector of our deviations.

Read the whole thing here.

Click it up for Cuban freedom

The Internet has shrunken the world, making neighbors of people who are hundreds, if not thousands of miles apart, but who share a common belief or interest.

That's why the Cuban police assault Friday on bloggers Yoani Sanchez, Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Pardo and others was such an affront to those of us who only know these brave souls through their words. Not only did it confirm what we already knew about the thugocracy in charge in Havana, but what really pissed us off was that these were our friends, and they were in trouble.

The physical distance, and the fact that Cuba is a police state mean that most of us cannot protect Yoani, Claudia and Orlando from the policemen's blows, but God bless the Internet, we can still let them know they are not alone, and the travesty committed against them, will not go unforgotten.

How exactly?

Just click it up for Cuban freedom.

Click up Yoani's blog.

And Claudia's blog.

And Orlando's blog, too.

And the blogs of other Cubans on the island. You can find links for many of them on the left sidebar.

If you have a blog or a Twitter feed or a Facebook page, just publish their names and a link to one of the numerous accounts of what happened Friday.

That's what you can do.

Absolute immunity against the Castro goon squads is impossible, but you can provide Cuban bloggers with an ounce of protection by giving them a moment of your time.

Just click it up for Cuban freedom.

Yoani Sanchez describes 'gangland style kidnapping'

An English version of Yoani Sanchez's account of what happened to her and other Cuban bloggers on Friday has been posted on her blog.

My favorite section:

In the back seat a rare spectacle was taking place: my legs were pointing up, my face reddened by the pressure and my aching body, on the other side Orlando brought down by a professional at beating people up. I just managed to grab, through his trousers, one’s testicles, in an act of desperation. I dug my nails in, thinking he was going to crush my chest until the last breath. “Kill me now,” I screamed, with the last inhalation I had left in me, and the one in front warned the younger one, “Let her breathe.”

And breathe, Yoani is, again through her blog denouncing and ridiculing what the Castro dictatorship is doing to Cuba and to Cubans.

If the dictatorship wants to stop her, they are going to have to kill her.

To read the entire post, go below the fold.

And be sure to read blogger Claudia Cadelo's account, as well.

53 House Democrats get it right on Cuba

The "inevitable" softening, if not the outright lifting," of American sanctions on Cuba, is not much of a sure thing, especially after 53 House Democrats this week wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they oppose any change in American policy as long as there is no change in how the Castro dictatorship oppresses and represses its own people.

"A dictatorship and state sponsor of terrorism that has no regard for civil rights, religious freedom, open media, or any of the democratic ideals that we cherish, cannot be rewarded with legislation in Congress that would remove U.S. sanctions and subsidize the Castro regime's human rights abuses," the letter states.

Some of the names on the letter are not a surprise. Several of the signatories are from South Florida, and one, Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, is running for the U.S. Senate.

But Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., the son of Ted Kennedy?

Since President Barack Obama took office, I think fears that the United States was about to abandon the almost-50-year "embargo," and the cause of freedom in Cuba, have been unfounded.

As the letter notes, Obama has been clear that any further changes in U.S. policy will come only after Cuba moves to loosen the grip of its dictatorship.

It is good to see so many members of his own party ready to hold him, and their leader in the House, to that.

You can read the letter here.

Claudia Cadelo: 'They lost'

Read Claudia Cadelo's account of how she, Yoani Sanchez and their friends were assaulted and arrested by the thugs from Cuban State Security, and you realize the police never had a chance against these brave women:

Friday at the Blogger Academy, we ended the day with a class on Cuban culture with Miriam. Relaxed atmosphere: the Tainos and their myths. Before leaving Ivan told me, “See you at five-thirty.” We had found out from friends we knew that Aldo, Luis Eligio, Amaury and other young people were going to walk today from 23rd and G Street to L Street, with signs against violence. A civic march in a country where citizenship has been kidnapped by the totalitarianism, where power has grown old and the ultimate death rattles of a collapsing system are a blind response, pure temper tantrum.

We stayed, Orlando Luis (Pardo Lazo), his girlfriend, Yoani and I, cleaning up until it was time for the march. We left the house nervous, but confident that we wouldn’t be alone. By G Street Orlando was making jokes that I don’t remember but I was falling out laughing. A man was masturbating in broad daylight in Zapata, Havana looked the same as always.

The bus stop for the P11 was full, at 27th and G, the only corner from where you can catch something to take you to Alamar. The car appeared from nowhere, yellow plates, a new Chinese model: money for repression. “Let’s go in comfort,” Yoani said to me jokingly, and the guys got out with faces that were not pleasant, it must be sad to be a thug. We refused to get in the car, there were three of them and they threatened us:

"Get in the car, now."
"Let us see your documents, or wear a uniform."

Orlando had his cell phone in his hand. “Pardo, don’t record,” said the said the one in the orange shirt, and I got my cell out. Nobody noticed me, I sent the first Tweet…

In less than three minutes a patrol car came up with a couple of cops—a woman and a man—completely dumbstruck by the scene. The carried out their orders almost in slow motion, the woman told me:

"Don’t resist."
"They are undocumented," it occurred to me to enlighten her.

Yoani was clinging to a bush, I was clinging to her waist, and the woman was pulling me by the leg. They had already dragged Orlando off, outside my field of vision. A man stopped, looking on with an expression of terror, people didn’t say a single word. The officer, very young, got me in an armlock that immobilized me, I could have kicked a little but I was too astonished at seeing Yoani’s legs sticking out of the rear window of the State Security car.

They shoved me into the patrol car while I was screaming, “Yoani! Yoani!” But I realized that no one could hear me, everything was hermetically sealed, Orlando’s girlfriend was struggling with the police, Yoani’s body was being pushed headfirst into the car, and Orlando’s telephone flew out through the window… I sent the second Tweet hoping someone would be able to understand it with my terrible typing. The girl cop got in the patrol car and said to me,

“Why did you resist? We don’t want to hit you.”
“You almost ripped my shirt,” said the other PNR (National Revolutionary Police), meanwhile putting Orlando’s girlfriend in the car.

They looked embarrassed, for a moment I thought they were going to apologize:

“Do you have your identity cards handy,” she said, almost sweetly, and passed us Orlando’s phone which wouldn’t stop ringing.

Unfortunately, the one in the orange shirt got in and shut the door… I fell over. The police fell silent and started the dialog.

“Claudia, turn off the telephone.”
“Forget it.”
“How disgusting,” said Orlando’s girlfriend.
The rest pure insult, a surrealistic rage.

“Your name is not going to go down in history,” he said.
“I don't care, you don’t even have a name.”
“Then it will be worse.”
“Your threats are your fear. That’s their purpose.”
“Comedian.”

Stepping foot on the corner by Yoani’s house made me dizzy, there was no light in the building, I couldn’t get anyone’s cell, and I was losing my balance. Then the first call came with a 00 international prefix and I knew nothing had been in vain, even if we had all been arrested and the march suspended. When, later, I saw the video that Ciro brought me I knew for certain: They lost, it’s the countdown

Read Yoani's version, en español, here.

Yoani Sanchez describes being arrested, beaten by Cuban police

Read more at:

Miami Herald

Associated Press

Reuters

Radio Marti (including interview with Sanchez and fellow blogger Claudia Cadelo)

Yoani Sanchez, other Cuban bloggers arrested

Cuban bloggers Yoani Sanchez, Claudia Cadelo and others were arrested and assaulted late Friday afternoon, apparently to block them from participating in a street demonstration in Havana, according to Penultimos Dias. (You can read an English translation of the report here.)

Subsequent reports are that they have been released. One report since Sanchez suffered an injury to her eye, but she was at home.

Sanchez, Cadelo and the others have attracted so much international attention and acclaim, that complacency might set in.

Not in the bloggers - no one knows better than them the risks they are taking with their safety and relative freedom - but in those of us overseas who presume that because Yoani, Claudia and the others are so well known, the Castro dictatorship would never dare arrest them.

Of course, we should never be surprised at what the regime does when it comes to trying to silence its opposition on the island. The secret police would rather operate under the cover of ignorance and indifference, but sometimes the daring and the obstinancy of brave souls like Yoani Sanchez, Claudia Cadelo and the others, becomes too much to bear, so like it did today, it strikes back.

The lesson of today's events are twofold: We should never overestimate the tolerance of the dictatorship for Cuban freedom fighters, including those who fight their battle for liberty in cyberspace. There is always the risk of arrest, and worse.

And we should never underestimate the importance of the protection we provide every time we read one of their blogs. Obviously, it doesn't provide them absolute immunity, but it is conceivable that someone like Yoani Sanchez would have a long ago been locked away in the Castro gulag were it not for the fact that she is so well known.

What you provide them with each click is the moral support vital for their continuing struggle for freedom.

Jorge Ferrer has more.

(You can find links to several Cuba-related blogs and news sites on the left sidebar, under "Blogs from Cuba," and "News from Cuba.")

Imprisoned Cuban journalist is very sick

Ricardo González Alfonso

Imprisoned Cuban independent journalist Ricardo González Alfronso has been diagnosed with pneumonitis in his right lung, a condition likely contracted and/or aggravated by the fact that he is being held in a damp cell with no windows or other ventilation, according to a story posted at CubaEncuentro.com.

Despite receiving antibiotics, González, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, has not been able to shake the flu-like symptoms associated with penumonitis, according to his wife, Alida Viso Bello.

Viso said her husband also is suffering from glaucoma, high blood pressure and general fatigue. She said she holds "the Cuban government, as well as State Security for the precarious state of Ricardo's health, and everything that can happen."

For more about González, read my March 18 Project profile.

Antúnez demands world help save his wife's life

Antúnez and Iris

Cuban human rights activist Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" has a simple request of the world — Please help save his wife's life.

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, the leader of the Rosa Parks Women's Movement, on Oct. 29 started a hunger strike to protest the refusal by authorities to let her visit with her imprisoned brother, and according to Antúnez, her health already has begun to deteriorate. Still, Iris has vowed to continue with her protest until the authorities life the "absurd prohibition policy" blocking her from seeing her brother, according to a statement released to Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, imprisoned since 2006, has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 5 to protest the abusive treatment he has received while in jail. After two months, he reportedly is near death.

Antúnez called on the international community to intercede with the Castro dictatorship on behalf of his wife and brother-in-law.

Antúnez, who in April 2007 was released after more than 17 years as a political prisoner, knows whom to blame for what is happening to his family.

"I am blaming the Havana government," said Antúnez, which is criminal, insensitive, a torturer and responsible for the consequences of these hunger strikes for Mario and Iris."

6 Cuban gays jailed as 'pre-criminal social dangers'

The Castro dictatorship does not discriminate — all Cubans are subject to being sent to prison if they stray too far out of the mainstream, as defined by the regime, even if they do not commit a real crime.

Six Cuban homosexuals learned that this week when they were sentenced to prison terms of 2 to 3 years, after they were convicted of "pre-criminal social dangerousness," according to a Spanish gay rights group.

Like Tom Cruise in "Minority Report," the dictatorship apparently has the power to look into the future and determine who will commit a crime, so it locks them up before they can offend. Almost always, the "offenders" are Cubans opposed to the political, economic or other policies of the Castro dictatorship, which has no tolerance for opposition.

In the most recent case, their real "crime" — like that committed by all Cubans, gay or straight, labeled as "pre-criminal social dangers" — is that with their lifestyle, the six newly convicted Cubans have chosen to not conform with the "revolutionary ideal."

An ideal that for more than 50 years in Cuba, has demanded that all notions of individual freedom, including the right to sleep with whomever you want, be kept in the closet.

CubaEncuentro has more details.

Led by Spain, Europe ready to deal with Cuba

Most nations in the European Union favor the restoration of normal relations with Cuba.

None of these Cubans were available for comment.