Uncommon Sense

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.

The first family of Cuban freedom

Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat writes at Capitol Hill Cubans about what is arguably the first family of fight for Cuban freedom, the Siglers:

One courageous family, the Siglers, is at the forefront of the growing civic non violent challenge to the regime. And they have paid a high price for it.

Gloria Amaya was one of the daughters of Matanzas whose spirit would not be broken. She was too small and frail to take up arms, and she wasn't sent to the UMAP's, but she turned the inside of her home into free territory, raising her children on Christian love, democratic principles and anti Communism. Castro had turned Cuba into a Soviet puppet, Gloria taught her children, but the Sigler Amayas would remain a sovereign family.

So it would be that her young sons would lead a new generation of their fellows in the struggle for freedom.

Ariel Sigler, the youngest of her five children, was a tall, strong young man who excelled in sports and became a regional boxing champion. He was expelled from his job as a physical education teacher because he voiced his discontent with the government. On November 16, 1996 he founded the Independent Alternative Option Movement. He led his brothers and scores of other youths into the sugar fields and the countryside, organizing workers to defend their rights against the State as the sole employer, carrying out public peaceful demonstrations, setting up soup kitchens for the poor and hungry supposedly non existent under a "people"s dictatorship," and establishing an independent library in their family home where the books censored by the government could be accessed by the population.

Emboldened by Ariel's leadership and the unshaken support of his family, dozens of Matanceros joined the movement. Eventually Ariel met and collaborated with Havana-based Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner serving a 20-year sentence in a Castro prison for his commitment to freedom.

The regime retaliated ruthlessly against the Siglers. A gang of thugs invaded the family home, hurled Gloria Amaya, now more than 80 years old to the floor, and beat her, breaking her ribs. Police repeatedly arrested the Sigler brothers, earning Ariel the recognition of prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Finally, on March 18, 2003, the Castro dictatorship tried to use the US invasion of Iraq as cover for its attempt to destroy Cuba's civic resistance with one fell swoop. Seventy-five activists were arrested. Ariel and his older brother were sentenced to 20 years each. Weighing 250 pounds at the moment of his arrest, Ariel is now at less than 100 pounds. He lies in a prison hospital suffering from a battery of illnesses he did not have before being imprisoned. His family is convinced that, as has been the case with other Castro opponents in the past, the regime is using a combination of induced illnesses and medical negligence to get rid of one of its most tenacious foes.

Read the whole thing here.

Read more about Ariel Sigler's current condition here, his family here and my profiles of him and his brother Guido, who also is in jail, here.

Coming Soon: 'Oscar's Cuba'

There are a lot of movies I am looking forward to seeing, none more than "Oscar's Cuba," about political prisoner Oscar Elias Biscet and others fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights to prevail on the island.

Here is a sampling of the film:

Watch the full preview and get other information about the film at www.oscarscuba.com

Read my profile of Oscar Elias Biscet, here.

Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Alejo may finally get day in court

After more than 19 months in jail, Vladimir Alejo Miranda may be near to finally getting his day in court.

Of course, it will be a secret trial.

Alejo, a human rights activist and independent librarian, was arrested in December 2007 for carrying through a public park a sign calling for the release of Cuban political prisoners. Although imprisoned since, Alejo has never been formally charged with a crime.

This week, RIta Maria Montes de Oca told independent journalist Lilvio Fernández Luís that her husband has been transferred from Agüica prison in Matanzas to the Combinado del Este prison in Havana. Officials told her the move was made so that Alejo could receive needed treatment for a heart condition, and so that he could stand trial on a charge of "disrespect," according to Luís's report.

The trial, an official told Montes de Oca, would be behind "closed doors."

"We will not allow any provocations," the official said.

Read my December 2008 profile of Vladimir Alejo, 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.

Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses, Political Prisoner of the Week, 9/16/07 (UPDATED)

Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses

Republishing this post from September 2007. For update, see below.

Cuban political prisoners come from all walks of life:

Doctors. Lawyers. Journalists. Librarians. Farmers. Students. The only thing many of them have in common, is their opposition to tyranny.

And where they currently reside.

Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses comes from a very different part of Cuban society.

He used to be a cog in the machinery of dictatorship in Cuba. He was a lieutenant colonel in a coast guard unit operated by the Ministry of Interior (MININT).

But at some point, and for some reason we probably can understand, he grew disllusioned with Castroism, and joined with others with similar views. I could not find a lot of information about Ruiz, except that in 1991 was arrested, tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison, for the "crimes" of desertion, espionage, illegal exit, disrespect and dishonest behavior.

I also found this picture of his wife, Maria Josefa Cabezas Gutierres:

To see more photographs of family members of Cuba's political prisoners, visit the online exhibit posted here.

UPDATED, July 7, 2009

I don't know when it happened, but Omar Ruiz has been released from prison.

But the dictatorship is still keeping its evil on him, threatening five human rights activists who recently visited him at his home.

One of the surest indicators of the repressive nature of the Castro regime is the jailing of more than 300 political prisoners. To illustrate that reality, Uncommon Sense each week profiles one prisoner. There also is a Political Prisoner archive on the right sidebar. To suggest a prisoner for a profile, send me an e-mail.

For profiles of imprisoned Cuban journalists and related information, read the March 18 Project.

Antonio Díaz and Ariel Sigler, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 7/5/09

    

                                          A. Díaz                           A. Sigler

With the Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week profiles, I try each week to put a name and a face to one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of Cubans imprisoned because of their opposition to the Castro dictatorship and their faith in freedom, human rights and their fellow Cuban. By educating readers about these brave men and women, I hope to create empathy for their suffering and sympathy and support for their cause.

This week, I want you to remember their families.

Antonio Díaz Sánchez and Ariel Sigler Amaya were two of some 75 Cuban journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents rounded up during the "black spring" of March-April 2003. Targeted because of their beliefs, and willingness to act on them, the Group of 75 stands as an example that it is possible to stand up to tyranny.

I have previously profiled Díaz and Sigler, and I usually try to avoid encore designations as Political Prisoner of the Week. Díaz and Sigler, however, this week deserve the honor, not because of anything they did or have had done to them — although it seems as if their jailers have a reserved an especially horrible brand of repression for them.

They deserve the honor because of the courage of their families, and their willingness to testify to what their respective loved ones are suffering. This week, I stand with their families, and so should you.

Yenysel Díaz Sánchez

This past week, the week after Father's Day, Yenysel Díaz Sánchez wrote a letter to the international community, imploring governments and others to intercede on behalf of her father, who is being held in isolation because of his refusal to wear the prison uniform of a common criminal.

I ask all persons of good faith, on my behalf of my 10-year-old sister Lázara Massiel Díaz Sánchez, to prevent the death of our father in a Cuban dungeon at the hands of persons incapable of respecting the rights of a man that has dedicated his life to the defense of the human rights of an entire nation.

A point of full disclosure: I have developed a friendship, if only "virtually," with Sánchez's nephew, Yenysel and Lázara's cousin, who blogs about his uncle here. It's hard to explain, but that has friendship has brought be a level of understanding of what is happening Sánchez that I otherwise might not have. Tony Sánchez is much more than just a name to me.


Ariel Sigler's family, his brother, his cousin and his mother, have gone viral with their pleas for his life, producing and releasing videos in which they beg viewers to do whatever they can to help Ariel, who has been left a cripple by his more than six years in the Castro gulag.

Their respective messages are in Spanish, but even if you don't understand what they are saying, you can hear their pain and their desperation if you just listen.

Family pleads for Ariel Sigler's release from Castro gulag

Ariel Sigler Amaya

The family of Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya is pleading for the world's attention. Otherwise, their brother, their uncle, their son, may die forgotten behind the bars of the Castro gulag.

Sigler has been imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, and recently was transferred to a military hospital in critical condition suffering from a numerous ailments. In six years, the gulag has turned a former boxing champion, standing 6 feet tall and weighing more than 200 pounds, into a cripple.

If he does not receive a medical parole and permission to travel to the United States for adequate care, he will die in the gulag.

In these videos, Sigler's brother Miguel and nephew Michel in Spanish make their pleas for Ariel's release.

Castro gulag is killing political prisoner Efren Fernández

Efren Fernández Fernández

Cuban democracy activist Efren Fernández Fernández has been imprisoned in the Castro gulag since the "black spring" crackdown in 2003, and like for so many other political prisoners, the gulag has taken a heavy toll on Fernández's health.

In fact, Fernández , who suffers from kidney problems and a skin infection, is so sick that even some of the guards at the Guanajay prison have joined with other inmates to complain to authorities about his condition, according to a report from Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, president of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL).

Of course, the pleas have gone ignored.

As a member of the MCL, Fernández helped lead the Varela Project, which gathered and in 2002 presented to the Cuban government the names of thousands of citizens asking for democratic change in Cuba. For his efforts, in 2003 Fernández was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Payá implored international governments and human rights groups to intercede with the Castro regime in Havana "to stop the abuse and inhumane conditions" in which Cuban political prisoners like Fernández are held.