Uncommon Sense

Former political prisoner dies in Miami

Mario Chanes de Armas, who fought along side Fidel Castro but then spent 30 years in prison after he criticized Castro for betraying the ideal of the revolution, died Saturday in Miami, according to the Miami Herald.

The Herald reports:

Considered one of the founders of the Revolution, Chanes de Armas survived the Moncada attack, trained in Mexico, came over on the yacht Gramma and lived to greet Castro in Havana on Jan. 9, 1959, when the conquering heroes arrived on top of a U.S. Sherman tank.

Instead of joining the revolutionary government, Chanes de Armas chose to his work in a brewery. Two years later, after watching Castro betray their movement, he spoke out against communists and was tried as a counterrevolutionary.''

On July 17, 1961, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, longer than any other Cuban political prisoner. It included six years in solitary confinement.

''I watched men get shot, point blank, beaten with bayonets, arbitrarily pulled out and punished. But we were alone. The world didn't know,'' he told the Miami Herald in a 1999 interview.

Thirty years to the date of his imprisonment, he was released and reunited with his four sisters in Miami.

He later traveled to Washington and met with then President Clinton for 20 minutes. Following the meeting, Clinton issued a statement praising Chanes as ``a living testimony to the unbending will to strive for liberty and dignity.''

For more on his background, read this and this and this.

Do not forget these martyrs for liberty

Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and others in the dictatorship must be made to account for the murders of these four brave men — three of them United States citizens — on Feb. 24, 1994, over the Florida Straits.

For more, visit Brothers to the Rescue.

Interview with a hero

Pedro Argüelles

Cuban independent journalist Pedro Argüelles was one of the Group of 75 journalists, human rights activists, librarians and other dissidents arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003. Argüelles, who wrote for Cuba Free Press, Nueva Prensa and other news agencies, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

However, his wife Yolanda Vera Nerey — a Dama de Blanco, or "Lady in White" — is confident he and other political prisoners will soon win their freedom.

"I am of good spirits. I have hope that this nightmare will end soon. I hope that after four years, everything will be finished, and the prisoners will be set free," Nerey said. "I hope that Pedro leaves prison soon. ... Maybe I am mistaken, but that is what I hope."

Read the whole interview with Nerey, in Spanish, at DamasDeBlanco.com.

A dictator's greatest enemy

The Cuban dictatorship's greatest enemy is information.

It is why there are more than two dozen journalists imprisoned in the Castro gulag.

It is why the Internet, decried by chief censor Ramiro Valdes as a "wild colt" — and like all wild horses, it is born to run free — is so heavily restricted.

And it is why three foreign news correspondents, a number sure to rise, are being kicked out of the country.

The Cuban dictatorship knows exactly what it is doing. It knows what it is at stake if it doesn't move against those, Cubans and non-Cubans alike, who seek to tell, and learn, the truth about its rule — especially at this pivotal moment in the nation's history.

In the hands of the skilled and the brave and those with just a litttle bit of tech savvy, information has the power to change the world. No one knows that better than a dictator, whose power, in part, is a product of his ability to control and keep hidden what the people know about his dictatorship, their nation and the world. They must operate in the shadows, pushing and pulling the levers of repression — which includes the power to censor — because they know that if their regime, and their people, are exposed to the sunlight of truth, their power cannot last.

The truth can be fatal for a dictatorship, and those who seek to learn it and spread it, whether from a wild horse or a more traditional means, are the greatest threats to its survival.

Two more journalists ordered out of Cuba

The Miami Herald has the story on the expulsion of reporters for a Mexican newspaper and the BBC. Earlier, Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune said he, too, had been kicked out of the country.

Apparently, Raul Castro's presumed willingness to allow public discussion of Cuba's problems — which I think is just a smokescreen as he consolidates his power — does not include allowing foreign correspondents to do their job unfettered by pressure from the government.

The Herald reports:

The sanctions come at a tense time for foreign journalists in Cuba. Although Cuba has always restricted news coverage of its affairs, reporters on the island say the pressures against filing negative reports intensified after leader Fidel Castro became sick in July and was replaced by his brother, Raúl.

Raúl had been widely expected to be more pragmatic and open to reforms than his brother, but journalists in Havana have said several have been called in for extended questioning about their stories since Raúl took over.

Former Associated Press reporter Vanessa Arrington said when she arrived in Havana in 2004 she initially didn't feel any direct censorship -- just difficulty getting information. But after writing two articles the government disapproved of late last year, Arrington was barred from high-level government events and news conferences, including the weeklong celebrations in December to honor Castro's 80th birthday.

''Since Fidel Castro got sick, the pressure has increased, and my punishment for writing stories the government disliked was, in my opinion, clearly an attempt to silence other reporters by way of warning,'' she told The Miami Herald.

''Foreign correspondents walk a very fine line in Havana. . . . An ethical journalist must portray all sides of the story, which will almost inevitably lead to some conflict with the government,'' she added. Arrington left Cuba last month after almost three years and now lives in Arizona.

A 2003 survey by the France-based Reporters Without Borders slammed the Cuban government's control of the foreign news media, saying the government regularly exerted pressure through warnings, rebukes and surveillance.

Read the whole thing here.

Each of Castro's victims has a story

The true measure of a tragedy that takes a great number of lives, whether a terror attack like 9/11 or a tyranny like Fidel Castro's, is not in the number, no matter how great, but in each life lost. Consider each victim, one at a time — and the effect of that loss on their family and friends — and the magnitude of the tragedy is almost incomprehensible.

That realization enveloped me Sunday as I visited the Cuban Memorial on display this past week in Tamiami Park in Miami. As I walked up on the wind-swept field of white crosses planted into the ground — each one, for a victim of the Castro dictatorship — I was overwhelmed by how the crosses seemed to go on forever. The wide-shot only reinforced what I already knew about the evils of the Castro regime.

But it wasn't until I got close up and started reading the names attached to each cross did I realize that we are called not to remember the number of Cubans lost to Castro — whether 10,000 or 100,000, or greater — but to remember that each cross represents one victim, one family, one story.

As far as I know, I did not have a close family member represented in the memorial. Most of my relatives, on both sides of my family, made it out before they could suffer greater harm.

But that does not diminish my responsibility as a Cuban, as a journalist, as a blogger, as a human being, to never forget, and to do what I can to make sure the world never forgets what each one one of those crosses represents. Visiting the Memorial helped me re-commit to the work I do on this blog.

As I walked back to my car, I wished every member of Congress would have come to Miami this past weekend, so they can understand what truly is at stake before they even consider weakening the "embargo" or making other accommodations to the Castro regime.

Fidel Castro is a criminal, and each name on each cross, his victim. There must be no reward for his treachery.

|—————|

Several of the crosses I saw caused me to pause in prayer and memory.

Cornelio Rojas, the police chief of Santa Clara and a cousin of my grandfather's, executed on Jan. 7, 1959.

Elizabeth Broton Rodriguez, who died in the Florida Straits in November 1999, trying to take her son, Elian Gonzalez, to a better life.

And the several who died on Aug. 14, my birthday.

In 1965, it was Felipe Bocanegra. A year later, it was Pedro-Raúl Chacon Orellana. And in 1993, Gilberto Guirnera Rivas.

And many, many more.

Each one, with a family and friends — maybe someone who went to the Memorial over the weekend to lay flowers or a Cuban flag in their memory. Each one with a story that must never be forgotten.

Prisoner's daughter asks, "When will it end?"

Via the Cuban Democratic Directorate, Rufina Velázquez González updates the world on her father, journalist and human rights activist Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, who was imprisoned last month after he started a cross-country March for Dignity to protest the violation of human rights on the island.

The Directorate reports:

Rufina Velázquez González is daughter of the human rights activist Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, who was detained on January 24th after carrying out the March for Dignity in protest for human rights violations in Cuba. The march began at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity in Santiago de Cuba, on December 10, 2006 – Human Rights Day – and was set to finish in Havana. The activist marched along with his wife Bárbara González and his daughter Rufina Velásquez Toranzo.

At this moment, my father, Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, is in good health, although he is recovering from the hunger strike he carried out from January 24 to February 9 to protest his unjust imprisonment. My father was condemned to 3 years of prison for a supposed antisocial conduct.

I don’t know if he is in the prison hospital or if he was already transferred to a jail cell, and they are still evaluating whether he will be taken to a work camp or to a prison of minimum severity.

This imprisonment was carried out by State Security in collaboration with the National Revolutionary Police in order to impede the March for Dignity, which despite some obstacles, we completed up to Ciego de Ávila.

When my father finished his hunger strike after having continued it for 16 days, he was transferred to the prison hospital. My family took the opportunity to take food to him while he was in the hospital, and after seven days, the prison authorities said we could no longer take food to my father. My father will have to recover in harsh condition, with whatever food they provide in the prison.

On Wednesday the 14th, my father was allowed to see my mom, and like other visits, it took place in an office. The following day, one day before he was to receive medical treatment, he was allowed to see my mother and grandmother.

Personally, this affects me tremendously because I have not been allowed to see my father since January 24th, because they think I might impact him negatively. This shows the repressive extremes to which the regime will resort. I would like to know: when will it end?

Egyptian blogger gets 4 years in prison

Bad news for Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, for Egypt and the for the cause of free expression.

And Muslims and Arabs wonder why so many people they are all nuts.

"This sentence is a disgrace,” said Reporters Without Borders. “Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”

For a great persepctive on what is at stake in this case, read this op-ed column published Wedneday in the Washington Post. (H/T to Malkin.)

Then sign this petition.

Reporters Without Borders has more.

Imprisoned journalist is beaten

Victor Arroyo

Imprisoned Cuban journalist Victor Arroyo, 55, went on a hunger strike earlier this month, after a prison official assaulted him, according to a story by journalist Juan Carlos Linares Balmaseda posted at Payo Libre.

On Feb. 6, as he left the dining room at the Yayal prison in Holguin, he was stopped by a guard who asked him Arroyo where he was going. Arroyo said he was returning to his cell with some food, as allowed by prison administrators, because he suffers from a medical condition that requires he eat slowly. The guard then began hitting Arroyo about the head and knocked him to the ground.

Three days later, Arroyo was summoned to a meeting with several prison officials. Arroyo, according to the story, expected he would be given an explanation for the beating, but instead, he was subjected to further insults and told he was responsible for what had happened.

Arroyo then went on a hunger strike, which he ended after six days because of his poor health.

The week after the assault, Arroyo had what can only be described as a curious meeting with a counterintelligence official based at the jail.

According to the story, the official told Arroyo: "I don't understand why they beat you, as you are a good prisoner, disciplined and respectful."

Arroyo was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 26 years in prison for "undermining the national independence and territorial integrity" of Cuba.

No room in Cuba for this Marx

I always suspected many of Gary Marx's stories for the Chicago Tribune were stories the dictatorship would have preferred be left untold.

On Wednesday, the dictatorship confirmed that by informing Marx that his press credential would not be renewed and that he and his family would have to leave the country.

His work was that of a courageous journalist. He repeatedly demonstrated an ability and willingness to go beyond the propaganda — from both sides of the Florida Straits — to report stories about the real Cuba during this pivotal moment in its history.

"They said I've been here long enough and they felt my work was negative," Marx said. "They did not cite any examples.''

For possible examples of Marx's "negative" stories, go here.