Uncommon Sense

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.

Family members speak out for their imprisoned loved ones (UPDATED)

                                          A. Pulido                        A. Sigler

The best witnesses to the suffering of Cuban political prisoners are their families. If only more in the world would heed their call to intercede with the Castro dictatorship on behalf of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons.

This week, Rebeca Rodriguez Souto is pleading for her husband, imprisoned journalist Alfredo Pulido Lopez, whose health she said is continuing to worsen.

And Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya is adding his voice to those of other family members pleading for his brother, human rights activist Ariel Sigler Amaya, to be released so that he can go overseas to receive medical care needed to save his life. (Their brother Guido Sigler Amaya also remains in prison.)

The voices of these family members are loud and clear.

Where is your voice?

UPDATED, 10:30 p.m. EDT

A fuller account of J.F. Sigler Amaya's description of his brother's condition has been posted at Payo Libre.

Ariel Sigler Amaya is bed-ridden in a military hospital, suffering from tremendous pain throughout his body. His legs are paralyzed. He cannot sleep, and an infection in his throat has made it impossible for him to swallow food. His weight has dropped to below 100 pounds, when Ariel, a former boxing champion, used to weigh 250 pounds.

On Monday, July 6, he suffered a sharp pain in his chest which caused him to pass out. Doctors performed an electrocardiogram, but they told Ariel there was nothing to worry about.

Nothing to worry about.

Right, except that Ariel Sigler Amaya is dying.

Which, I guess, is exactly what the Castro dictatorship wants.

International press group: Release Cuban journalists now

Omar Rodriguez Saludes

Cuban independent journalist Omar Rodriguez Saludes was arrested in March 2003 and sentenced to 27 years in prison, the stiffest punishment handed out to the 29 journalists arrested as part of the "black spring" crackdown on Cuban dissidents.

That the Castro dictatorship signaled Rodriguez like that makes it fitting that the International Press Institute has made Rodriguez the focal point of its renewed call for the Havana regime to release imprisoned Cuban journalists:

Speaking to IPI about recent changes within Cuba’s government and renewed hopes that Rodriguez may be granted leniency, the journalist’s wife, Ileana Marrero Joa, said, “The term ‘leniency’ is not correct, because what we need is ‘justice’ and he should be freed, since he did not commit any crime.”

Rodríguez began his journalistic career in 1995 as a freelance reporter and photographer. He later joined Nueva Prensa Cubana, where he wrote about political repression under the Castro regime, among other topics, and soon became the agency's director.

A new IPI video, featuring interviews with members of Rodriguez’s family and photographs taken by the journalist, is a powerful reminder that fundamental rights are still being violated in Cuba.

The right to free expression is one of the universal rights of men everywhere. That the Castro dictatorship violates it so harshly — whether by harassing, threatening or jailing journalists — is all the world should need to know about the vile character of the regime.

Of course, after 50 years of tyranny, after 50 years of jailing journalists who get too close to the real stories of the real Cuba, there are those who continue excuse or ignore the dictatorship's awful behavior.

The Vienna-based IPI on Tuesday called for the release of imprisoned Cuban independent journalists, in part, as a response to a United Nations Human Rights Council report last month that commended the Havana regime for its record in health, education and other areas, while giving short shrift to its record as one of the world's worst violators of the rights to free expression and to a free press:

“I am indeed glad to see that the report includes concerns about the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba as well as recommendations to lift restrictions on this fundamental right,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “However, I feel that these concerns are not given enough visibility in a report that also extensively commends Cuba’s achievements in the field of social and economic rights, providing a relatively positive assessment of the general human rights situation in the country.”

Noting the risk of disregarding the importance of freedom of expression and media freedom as pillars of any country’s political, social and economic stability, Dadge said, “Cuba’s suppression of dissenting voices, thoroughly and systematically carried out for so many years, strongly affects our ability to understand and assess the situation in the country. As many countries are reviewing their foreign policies toward Cuba, the need to listen to those suppressed voices becomes even greater.”

David Gonzalez of the New York Times penned the definitive story about Rodriguez in May 2002. Read his story here.

Read my May 2006 profile of Rodriguez, here.

And read about other imprisoned Cuban journalists, here.

Political prisoner's mom: 'His body is skin and bones'

José Luis García Paneque

Moralinda Paneque is demanding that the Castro dictatorship immediately release her son, political prisoner José Luis García Paneque, who has been imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, because of his deteriorating health.

"His body is skin and bones, and no meat," Sra. Paneque said.

Despite his poor medical condition, Sra. Paneque said her son, a physician and independent journalist, remains committed to the cause of Cuban liberty.

"The voice is very strong, but the body does not follow," she said.

José Luis García Paneque is serving a 24-year prison sentence.

A perfect award on the perfect day (UPDATED)

 

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera and Jorge Garcia Pérez "Antúnez"

UPDATED, 12:05 p.m. Antúnez, his wife and the others arrested Tuesday, were released from custody this morning.

Original post below.

You can criticize the Castro dictatorship for a lot of things, but you have to hand it to them — sometimes, their timing is perfect, helping those of us who keep a close eye on them make our case against them.

UPDATED, 12:05 p.m. Antúnez, his wife and the others arrested Tuesday, were released from custody this morning.

For example, on Tuesday afternoon, the Cuban police again arrested human rights activist Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez "Antúnez” and his wife Iris Tamara Perez Aguilar in their hometown of Placetas.

The police have made a habit of that since April 2007, when Antúnez resumed his opposition activities after more than 17 years in prison. Time in the gulag only hardnened Antúnez's will to oppose the Castro regime, reinforcing why his fellow prisoners nicknamed him "the black diamond." Frequent arrests and detention since, have failed to break him.

Whether the cops knew it or not, the most recent arrests came a day before the couple, along with three political prisoners, are to be honored in Washington, D.C., by the National Endowment for Democracy with its Democracy Award.

We should worry about Antúnez's fate and pray he is quickly released, but the timing of the arrest is impeccable. It again reveals the nature of the totalitarian system that Antúnez and the other honorees want replaced.

And it demonstrates, more than any citation written in Washington ever could, why Antúnez is deserving of the award.

The National Endowment for Democracy tonight will honor all Cuban dissidents by awarding its Democracy Award to Antúnez and his wife and three other  exceptional examples of character, courage and commitment to freedom and human rights among those on the front lines in the struggle against the Castro brothers' tyranny.

“The five brave Cubans we honor this year represent the future of their country,” NED Chairman Richard Gephardt said in a news release last month. “All of them have endured significant personal hardship for nothing more than standing up for basic rights and freedoms. With this award, we hope to express our solidarity with their struggle, and let them know that we share their dream of a free and democratic Cuba."

The five honorees, all of whom have been frequently mentioned on this blog, are:

Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez “Antúnez"

José Daniel Ferrer García

Librado Linares García

Ivan Hernández Carrillo

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

Click on their names, and you might rightfully conclude these are leading lights in the Cuban opposition and deserving of special recognition. But the real import of these awards is that if properly exploited — in the best sense of the word — more people will learn of the brave struggle in Cuba for freedom, democracy and human rights.

To read the whole National Endowment for Democracy news release, including more information on the honorees, go below the fold.

Guards meet political prisoner's protests with tear gas

Fabio Prieto Llorente

The Castro dictatorship, including the goons running the gulag, cannot handle the truth about themselves. So when political prisoners confront it about the miserable reality of Cuba today, they respond the only way they know how — with brutality.

Imprisoned independent journalist Fabio Prieto Llorente felt the full force of his captors' cruelty on June 8 when he started chanting anti-government slogans and renewed his demands for improvements in conditions at El Guyabo, a prison on the Isle of Youth Pines, where he is serving a 20-year sentence handed down during the "black spring" of 2003.

The guards' response?

They sprayed Prieto, who suffers from a variety of health problems, with tear gas.

"The toxicity of these gases irritated my skin and affected my eyes a little bit, and my breathing," said Prieto, 47. "This is one of the many violations being committed daily in the prisons of Cuba, in violation of the 'Mininum Rules of Care of Prisoners.'"

Most political prisoners, like Prieto, are continuing their struggle for Cuban freedom from behind bars, even if it's to just testify about the crimes they witness while in jail. And just because they are in prison, that hasn't stopped the dictatorship's desperate attempts to stop them.

But as long as they respond like Prieto did, with the truth, then victory is still theirs.

Cuban political prisoner: I'll sew my mouth shut if my protests aren't heard

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta

Don't listen to Cuban political prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta protest the deplorable conditions - increased repression and illness caused by contaminated water - at the Holguin provincial prison. It is a familiar litany.

Instead, consider how far he is willing to take his protest.

Herrera, who has survived numerous hunger strikes, said he is willing to take his protest a step further and once again sew his mouth shut to protest prison conditions, according to a Radio Marti report.

That's right, sew his mouth shut.

And still, people pretend not to hear the cries of protest coming from the Castro gulag.

The Castro gulag, in killing color

As part of its report this week describing the current human rights situation on the island, the Cuban Council of Human Rights Rappateurs included this map detailing the location of 50 maximum security prisons in Cuba, and the names of the Group of 75 political prisoners held

Just another way to fully understand the all encompassing, and horrific, nature of the Castro gulag.

(Click on the map to enlarge.)

Norwegian writers honor imprisoned Cuban journalist

Normando Hernández

From CubaNet, via Miami Herald:

HAVANA, May 27 (CubaNet) – Imprisoned Independent journalist Normando Hernández has been awarded the Norwegian Writers Association’s annual “Freedom of Expression” award.

Hernández, who is in poor health, was among 75 dissidents arrested, tried and convicted in 2003 for their interaction with the United States. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his writings.

The writers association said this marked the first time since 1999 that the award has gone to a Latin American. The winner that year was Yehude Simon Munaro, Peru’s prime minister. Like Hernández, he was imprisoned at the time under the government of Alberto Fujimori.

The award carries a 100,000 kroner (US$15,646) prize.

Read more about Normando Hernández here and here.

National Endowment for Democracy to honor 5 Cuban 'giants'

Any Cuban with the courage to publicly oppose the Castro dictatorship — whether by working as an independent journalist, gathering signatures on a petition, placing a CAMBIO sticker on their house or participating in any other act of resistance — is a hero. It is impossible, nor relevant, to place Cuban opposition activists in some sort of hierarchy of importance. Some are better known than others, but all are deserving of honor and respect.

But if there are "giants" of the Cuban opposition, the National Endowment for Democracy has identified five worthy of a spot in such a pantheon.

Iris Tamara Perez Aguilar and Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez "Antúnez” José Daniel Ferrer García Librado Linares García Ivan Hernandez Carillo The National Endowment for Democracy next month "will honor the courage and determination of five Cuban democracy activists with the presentation of its annual Democracy Award."

“The five brave Cubans we honor this year represent the future of their country,” said NED Chairman Richard Gephardt. “All of them have endured significant personal hardship for nothing more than standing up for basic rights and freedoms. With this award, we hope to express our solidarity with their struggle, and let them know that we share their dream of a free and democratic Cuba."

The five honorees, all of whom have been frequently mentioned on this blog, are:

Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez “Antúnez"

José Daniel Ferrer García

Librado Linares García

Ivan Hernandez Carrillo

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

Click on their names, and you might rightfully conclude these are leading lights in the Cuban opposition and deserving of special recognition. But the real import of these awards is that if properly exploited — in the best sense of the word — more people will learn of the brave struggle in Cuba for freedom, democracy and human rights.

To read the whole National Endowment for Democracy news release, including more information on the honorees, go below the fold.