Uncommon Sense

Independent journalists scare the Castros to death

Whether by coincidence or coordination, a crackdown on Cuba's independent journalists seems to be underway, based on various recent reports. As I have written, for example, here and here, the Castro dictatorship's secret police recently has put the squeeze on those Cubans committed to breaking the regime's attempted blockade on information about what is happening on the island. Throw in their suspected politics — they are for freedom and against tyranny — and the police have all they need to make their move.

The latest to be targeted is independent journalist Ainí Martín Valero, who had the audacity, the nerve, the journalistic resourcefulness to report on the murder of a Spanish priest in Havana — before the dictatorship had issued an official press release about the slaying.

To make its point, the dictatorship sent over a couple of its goons in a hapless attempt to convince Martín that it is the government, not her, who gets to decide when a story gets published.

Ha, ha, said Martín, who lives in the Havana neighborhood where the priest was killed.

"I had to clarify again for them about my role as independent journalist who has nothing to do with the government press organs," Martín said.

This episode again illustrates how vital Cuba's independent journalists are to the struggle for liberty, and not just because they may share the same politics as those they cover. Independent journalists matter because they are on the front lines of that struggle, going mano-a-mano with those who try to censor them and with those who pull their strings, in order to reveal the true failings and the true horrors of life in Cuba today.

The dictatorship knows the risks they pose, so it is no coincidence that journalists are targeted for repression. We don't have to take the goons, all the way up to the Castro brothers, at their word. Just pay attention to what they do, and you will understand how afraid they are of Ainí Martín Valero and other independent journalists on the beat.

Read my 2006 interview with Martí, here.

Cuban journalist detained, threatened with prison

Julio Beltrán Iglesias

Julio Beltrán Iglesias is a multi-tasking dissident in Cuba.

He is a member of the Republican Party of Cuba.

He is director of the Pat Tillman Independent Library. (Yes, that Pat Tillman.)

And perhaps most dangerously for the Castro dictatorship, he is an independent journalist.

So it's really no surprise that on Friday, July 10, a thug with the National Revolutionary Police grabbed Beltrán for a little chat down at police headquarters.

Well, it was much more nefarious than a "chat."

In typically cowardly fashion, the thug warned Beltrán that he risked being sent to prison for up to 4 years if he continued his "counter-revolutionary" activities, including meeting with "terrorist elements" at his house.

"We already have a case opened against you, and this will be the final warning," the officer said.

Several hours later, Beltrán was allowed to go home.

Catch. Threaten. Release.

And probably fail to change Beltrán's "counter-revolutionary" ways.

After all, he has too much work to do.

I am Cubamerican ...

... which is why I can't wait to see all of this movie.

In fact, all Americans should see it.

Cuban political prisoner denied parole

Ricardo Silva Gual

Dr. Ricardo Silva Gual, sentenced to 10 years in prison during the "black spring" crackdown of 2003, has been denied parole, according to his mother.

Elina Rosa Gual said her son, one of six medical professionals jailed during the crackdown, was denied a release because of "disicipline" problems, and because he has refused to wear a prison uniform — which is one way political prisoners tell their captors that they are not the boss of them.

Silva is currently being held in the Aguadores prison in Santiago de Cuba.

Cuban political prisoners have each other's backs

                             V. Arroyo                   E. Díaz                       H. Piña

Cuban political prisoners draw moral support from various quarters, among them, their families, fellow dissident activists and friends overseas.

But the most loyalty may come from their fellow political prisoners.

This week at Kilo 5 1/2 provincial prison in Piñar del Rio, political prisoners Eduardo Díaz Fleitas and Horacio Piña Borrego started hunger strikes to show solidarity with fellow prisoner of conscience Victor Arroyo Carmona after he was sent to a punishment cell for getting into an argument with a prison official.

Family members said Díaz and Piña were not sent to the dungeons, because to do so would have meant officials were acknowledging their protest.

Imagine that. You already are a prisoner in the Castro gulag, suffering the worst the dictatorship can throw at you. But you still find it in yourself to sacrifice your health to show your support for and solidarity with a brother.

It is that kind of courage and commitment that should assure those of us who care for these men of conscience that eventually, and despite the great odds against them, they will prevail

Cuban journalist: Nothing has changed in Cuba

Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez

Catch. Threaten. Release.

That's how the Cuban secret police under Raúl Castro tries to blackmail into silence those Cubans that oppose his dictatorship.

On Saturday, that's how it happened to independent journalist and human rights activist Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez.

He and a colleague, Carlos Manuel Hernández Reyes, were leaving a meeting at the home of a dissident political activist, when they were grabbed off the street and thrown in a patrol car.

While riding to a local police station, Guerra's cell phone rang. Officers responded by punching Guerra and handcuffing him.

Guerra was released about 4 hours later, but not before the officers seized his Canon digital camera, his Sony audio recorder, his Motorola cell phone, his memory flash drive, his silver tripod, and his pen!

They also reminded him that he already was facing previous charges that could send him to prison for up to 8 months, and that he would be better off if he just quit his journalistic and other dissident activities.

That's not going to happen, said Guerra, who as a former political prisoner has to know the threats are not entirely empty.

Catch. Threaten. Release.

The bottom line, said Guerra, is that under Raúl nothing has changed.

"Once more it is proved that since Raúl Castro took the power ceded by his brother, the rights to the freedom of expression, assembly and association continue to be repressed, with no noticeable changes," he said.

The face of the Castro dictatorship

Dr. Darsi Ferrer, after he was beaten by Castroite thugs

The Real Cuba has more photos.

Sigler: My body may be weak, but my spirit is strong

Ariel Sigler Amaya

Earlier today, someone from the "Executive Office of the President USA" visited Uncommon Sense during a search for information about Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya, who is in a Cuban military hospital in critical condition suffering from a variety of health problems.

Hopefully, whoever it was also found this interview with Sigler, conducted by a reporter with Radio Martí.

Sigler's voice sounded strong, but he also described how he has been confined to a wheelchair for nine months after he lost use of his legs, and how his weight has dropped to 122 pounds, after he weighed 205 pounds when he was imprisoned during the "black spring" of 2003.

Still, Sigler said he remains "steadfast in his conviction in favor of democracy and in opposition to the regime of the Castro brothers," Radio Martí reported.

Hopefully, that's a message that gets spread around the "Executive Office of the President USA."

Cuban activist Darsi Ferrer, out of jail, describes police brutality

Dr. Darsi Ferrer and family

George at The Real Cuba today spoke with Cuban human rights activist Darsi Ferrer, three days after he and his wife were arrested at their home in Havana.

Here is George's report:

July 12 - I was able to reach Dr. Darsi Ferrer this afternoon. He was in Pinar del Rio because a younger brother, who has been in jail for 3 years for political reasons, had a visit scheduled for today. It was the first time in the last 3 years that Darsi has been able to see him.

He told me about the brutal aggression that he and his wife suffered on Thursday.

Around noon on that day, about 8 thugs from State Security went to his house and took him and his wife to a police station.

After being there for about eight hours, they were told that they could leave.

They refused to leave the station because they said that on previous occasions they have been arrested for a few hours and when they go back home they find that the police has stolen many of their possessions.

They wanted to have someone of authority to tell them why were they arrested and what were the charges, since all they wanted to do was to take a walk on the Malecon with several friends.

Darsi said that he lied on the floor and grabbed the leg of one of the desks and refused to move. A group of about five thugs jumped on him and started kicking and beating him.

One of them grabbed Darsi by the neck and almost strangled him. He only let go when Darsi's wife jumped on his back and began to yell hysterically to let him go.

After they finally left the police station, they went directly to a hospital where a doctor certified the injuries that both of them had received from "these animals," as Darsi described them.

When they finally got home, past midnight, they found that the police had broken the front door of their house and also, believe it or not, had stolen two of their windows!

They also stole some iron bars that he was planning to use to make his front home more secure.

Darsi plans to return to Havana tonight.

He has photos of everything and has made several copies to make sure that he can get them to me, even if the police confiscate the ones he has.

When I get them, I will publish them and send them to every news outlet, national and international that I can think of.

The world needs to know the brutality of the Stalinist regime in Cuba.

They can continue to ignore it, but they will not be able to say later that they didn't know what was going on.

His release, while welcome, is not really a surprise. Under Raúl Castro, the practice has been less to throw dissidents in jail to serve long prison sentences and more such "catch, threaten and release," as experienced by Ferrer and his wife. They get to go home, but the repression is just the same — and as George wrote, the world isn't wiser for it. Chalk up another "victory" for the dictatorship.

But what the dictatorship doesn't understand that it, not Ferrer, is the real loser. Men of courage and action like Darsi Ferrer are not easily intimidated by the thugs of the Castro dictatorship, no matter how many times they break into their homes and carry them off into the night.

You may not read this story in the MSM — but hey, did you hear the New York Philarhamonic has been invited to playin Cuba?!?!?!?! — but rest assured that outlets like The Real Cuba and this blog will continue to tell the stories of Darsi Ferrer and other Cubans shouting from the mountaintops about the horrors of today's Cuba.

St. Maximilian Kolbe: A political prisoner for all times

St. Maximilian Kolbe

My birthday is Aug. 14, but no, this is not a solicitation for you to start shopping now.

It's just that I realized a coincidence about my birthday, or maybe it's really something not so easily explained.

My birthday, Aug. 14, is also the feast day for St. Maximilian Kolbe.

Canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982, Kolbe was a Polish priest murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz, after he volunteered to take the place of a Jewish prisoner condemned to death by starvation as a reprisal after another prisoner escaped.

Held in punishment cell with nine other condemned prisoners, Kolbe regularly lead the group in songs and in recitations of the rosary. "I had the feeling I was in a church," one eyewitness, a janitor at the prison, later said.

After two weeks of torture, Kolbe was the only survivor, and since the cell was needed for other prisoners, he was brought to another room, where on Aug. 14, 1941, he was injected with carbolic acid and died.

Back to me.

A little more than three and half years ago, not too long after my 38th birthday, I started blogging about Cuba, especially those imprisoned because of their political beliefs, and their faith in democracy, freedom, human rights and their fellow Cubans. It's not a subject I had planned to cover when I started Uncommon Sense, it's just the direction, I am convinced, I was lead in by an invisible hand. Besides the fact that I am Cuban, I have no other explanation for why at times I have been consumed by the task of their telling their stories.

As a somewhat faithful Catholic, I have known for some time that St. Maximilian and I share the same feast day. But just today, I learned something I didn't know about this martyr of the church.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, as his own story might suggest, is the patron saint of political prisoners.

Coincidence?

Or, as my faith suggests, something not so easily explained?

I am no St. Maximilian Kolbe.

At times, the plight of Cuban political prisoners seems hopeless, and I want to give up.

But as the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe shows, in the face of evil, whether at Auschwitz in Poland or Combinando del Este or Kilo 5 in Cuba, we are each called to love another, we are each called to act, whether it be with a prayer or a blog post, to demonstrate the faith that goodness will prevail.

Otherwise, our birthdays are nothing special.

Here is the Prisoner's Prayer to St. Maximilian Kolbe:

O Prisoner-Saint of Auschwitz,
help me in my plight
Introduce me to Mary, the Immaculata,
Mother of God. She prayed for Jesus in
a Jerusalem jail. She prayed for you
in a Nazi prison camp. Ask her to comfort
me in my confinement. May she teach me
always to be good.
If I am lonely, may she say "God is here."
If I feel hate, may she say "God is love."
If I am tempted, may she say "God is pure."
If I sin, may she say "God is mercy."
If I am in darkness, may she say "God is light."
If I am unjustly condemned, may she say "God is truth."
If I have pain in soul or body, may she say "God is peace."
If I lose hope, may she say: "God is with you all days, and so am I."
Amen

Even though we are not political prisoners, this is a prayer we all can say.

Other prayers to and by St. Maximilian Kolbe can be found here.

Cuban political prisoner's blog available in English

Cuban independent journalist Pablo Pacheco Ávila, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, for several months has been blogging from the Canaleta prison in Ciego de Ávila at Voz tras las rejas, or "A Voice Through the Bars."

It's not like he has a computer and a reliable Internet connection. Instead, he uses a telephone to dictate his posts to a friend on the outside.

Pacheco's blog is now being translated into English, here.

Here is a sampling from June 21:

Here in Canaleta Prison, in the Cuban province of Ciego de Ávila, as in prison in Morón where I was previously housed, an excellent deal exists, for some. I have become aware that some of the guards prevent, at all costs, the prisoners taking their food from the galley.

The prisoners are in the habit of trying to take the disgusting food from the galleys so that they can find ways to improve it, adding flavor, spices, slices of tomato or anything else, just to make it digestible. So when I became aware of the guards’ practice, I became suspicious of this extreme behavior!

Besides being deprived of our freedom, the food here is unpalatable and the prisoners are only trying to find ways to stomach it. But the answer to my suspicion was right in front of my eyes. After every shift, I saw the civil servants leaving with their slop buckets full of the leftovers.

As it turns out, the food that is wasted or left uneaten becomes bribes for the warden. Since it happens quite often that there are leftovers, owing only it’s truly inhuman foulness, the civil servants get free reign over the leftovers and they are used to feed their ‘darling’ pigs.

It’s important to mention too that in this jail, ‘supper’ is served at 4 pm forcing many prisoners to take it as is. This is also the time when the day guards are getting ready to leave.

Thanks to my curiosity I given my fellow captives something to meditate on. I have figured out how the guards have managed through the financial crisis that permeates Cuba, making out of it a very lucrative business for them. I know it is extra money on top of the pittance the guards make working at the prison, since I know many of them sell my leftovers. So, in 2009, leftovers have become a lucrative enterprise in Canaleta Prison. If I didn’t blow the whistle on these people, who would?

Read my April 2006 profile of Pacheco, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, here.

Yoani Sanchez: Culture for a group of the chosen ones

They may be able to keep her and her friends out of a concert, but agents of the Castro dictatorship cannot keep Yoani Sanchez from writing the truth about her country:

We were going to spend Reinaldo’s birthday listening to the songs of Pedro Luís Ferrar at a concert titled “Velorio” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Vedado.  But it happened that the culture police didn’t let us enter, using their bodies like a barricade between the door and the seating area.  They accused us of wanting to organize a supposed provocation there even though, for us, they and the official television cameras they’d called to film us provoked the major commotion.  I believe these anxious boys of State Security are watching a lot of Saturday movies, since our plan was rather familiar—we even took our son—and consisted of listening to the songs of the well-known musician and then dropping in at a friend’s house.

At the Museum entry a real repudiation meeting* was waiting for us, all it lacked to be complete was the eggs and the blows.  A man who didn’t identify himself—continuing the style of not showing one’s face—yelled at me that I wanted “to destroy Cuban culture” and that that space was “only for the people.”  It seems that what happened at Tania Bruguera’s performance has rubbed the nerves raw among the bureaucrats who saw the spectacle.  They fear we’ve returned to seize the microphones, as if it weren’t better to put a loudspeaker on every corner for everyone who wants to say something.  I must point out that many of those who witnessed this abuse of institutional power avoided greeting us, in view of the huge operation surrounding the place.  Nevertheless others, whose names I withhold to protect them, showed solidarity and weren’t afraid of being seen with us.

We stayed outside the railings and in the patio a strange audience full of retirees and men with military haircuts seemed not to know the songs of Pedro Luís to be able to hum along.  Some friends, among them Claudia, came to show solidarity with our forced “exile” and we stayed outside until the last chord was played.  When all the musical instruments were in their cases and the troubadour came out he was surprised by what had happened and said he would speak to the vice-minister about it.  We didn’t want to disabuse him of the idea, but I don’t think this high-ranking official could do anything to prevent the actions of a repressive body which is superior to him and of which he’s perhaps even a part.

Since I know they read my blog—all those who prevented me from going inside the railing seemed to know me—I want to tell them that they are not going to force me to withdraw into my house.  I do not think I’ll stop going to concerts, clubs, cultural or humorous events.  I’m a cultured person, even though they want to reserve such an appellation for a group of ideologically-screened chosen ones.  They will have to stand guard in the doors of every theater, club and music room.  I could show up at any of them.  Who knows if I might climb to the dais and take the microphone?

Sanchez's husband, Reinaldo Escobar, writes more about what happened, here.

And Claudia Cadelo has her take, here.

Darsi Ferrer, wife released from custody

Human rights activist Darsi Ferrer and his wife Yusnaymi Jorge Soca, who were arrested Thursday, have been released from custody, according to an overseas source.

More details as they become available.

Antonio García Reyes, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 7/12/09

Antonio García Reyes, a member of the 8th of September Movement in the province of Camagüey, was sentenced earlier this month to 5 years in prison for the supposed crime of "assault," according to a report from independent journalist José Agramonte Leyva.

Darío García Quintana said his son, who is being held at the Cerámica Roja prison in Camagüey, was prosecuted because he was protesting human rights abuses by the Castro dictatorship.

"That is why he was punished unjustly," Darío said.

I don't know was the 8th of September Movement is about, but that date is significant in Cuban history and Cuban life. It is the feast day of Cuba's patroness, the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Charity.

Castro gulag covers up political prisoner's grave condition

Radio Martí this afternoon is broadcasting an impassioned plea by Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya, on behalf of his brother Ariel Sigler Amaya, a political prisoner since 2003 currently in grave condition in a Cuba military hospital.

Juan and two other family members were able to visit Ariel on Friday and found him, according to Juan, as little more than skin and bones.

Juan tried to take a photograph of his brother so the world can see how sick he is; after all, American authorities don't have a problem with allowing photographs of five convicted Cuban spies in U.S. prisons.

Ariel's guards, of course, said no.

Which even more than the impassioned pleas from Juan and other family members, should tell you how sick Ariel Sigler Amaya really is.