Uncommon Sense

Cuban hunger strikers need your support (UPDATED)

See update below.

The plight of four Cuban political prisoners on hunger strike at the Holguín Provincial Prison — Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Alfredo Domínguez Batista, Luis Mariano Deliz Utria and Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta — is capturing the attention and support of dissidents across the island.

Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world doesn't have a clue as the health of the prisoners suffers because of their protest.

Early this morning, 14 dissidents, including former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez," arrived in Holguín to stand vigil outside the prison, according to a dispatch from Martha Beatriz Roque, herself a former prisoner. They worry that the dictatorship's continued refusal to acknowledge the hunger strikers' demands — better living conditions and greater respect for their human rights — may eventually cost them their lives.

"We are very concerned about the lives of these four men," said former political prisoner Joaquin Lazaro Alonso Roman. "We know that the government's brutality towards them is merciless. We are appealing to all men of goodwill to join the call of these men who are demanding nothing more than their rights, which are constantly violated by the prison authorities."

Who are those "men of goodwill" willing to stand up on behalf of these four brave men suffering in Holguín? Who is willing to stand up to the tyranny in Havana and do whatever they can to save their lives?

Is that you, Arlen Specter?

Is that you, John Parke Wright?

Is that you, Jorge Gonzalez?

Is that you, reading this from the comfort of your home or office?

There are at least 14 people in Holguín doing whatever they can.

"We are here to support our brother Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and the other three brothers who have joined this hunger strike demanding respect for their rights," Antúnez said. "It does not matter to us here whether they repress us, or whether they beat us. What matters to us is the situation of our brothers on strike, especially Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta,” who has been transferred to a prison hospital.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world couldn't give a damn. Type in "Cuban political prisoners" and "hunger strike" into Google News, and you get nothing in return, except ignorance and indifference.

Ignorance and indifference. Two of the Castro dictatorship's greatest allies in its 50-year campaign to vanquish the rights of free men and women.

But Juan, Orlando, Alfredo and Luis will not be vanquished, even if their protests cost them their lives. They know what they are doing, and have accepted their cup willingly. They suffer not just for themselves, but for a nation held captive. Victory may not be theirs, but it will come for those for whom they suffer.

Just, please, do not let them suffer or, God forbid, die in the shadows, in the silence. Share this story with those around you: THERE ARE FOUR MEN ON HUNGER STRIKE DEMANDING THE RIGHTS THE REST OF US TOO OFTEN TAKE FOR GRANTED. THEY ARE STANDING UP TO ONE OF THE WORLD'S WORST TYRANNIES, AND THEY DESERVE YOUR SUPPORT. You may have to shout it just like that, just to make sure they hear you!

And then shout it again!

You are called by God and your commitment to freedom — if you really have such a commitment — to do nothing less.

UPDATED, 11:15 p.m. EDT Just as I was posting this entry, I read the latest dispatch from Cuban independent journalist/activist Belinda Salas Tápanes, who reports a Castroite goon squad broke up the vigil and forced most of them to leave Holguín.

Ever-more reason not to remain silent.

Hunger-striking Cuban prisoners in critical condition

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta

Four Cuban political prisoners on hunger strike at the Holguín Provincial Prison are critically ill, but the dictatorship continues to refuse to give into their demands for better living conditions and greater respect for their human rights, according to a report posted at Payo Libre this morning.

The prisoners are suffering from fever, hypoglycemia and low blood pressure, brought on by not eating for more than a week now. Also, prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta — who began his protest on July 18, and a few days later sewed his mouth shut to show his resolve — has contracted infections near his mouth.

The other three prisoners — Alfredo Domínguez Batista, Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Luis Mariano Deliz Utria — joined Herrera in protest on July 21.

Despite the refusals by prison officials to give into the prisoners' demands, family members of the prisoners continue to try to develop a formuala that would save their lives, according to the Payo Libre report.

Read more about the protesting prisoners, here, here and here.

(Cross-posted at Babalú.)

A daily must-read

Now that her posts are being translated into English on a more frequent basis, Yoani Sanchez's Generation Y is ever more a daily must-read. Here is her most-recent post, in which she in her inimitable style dissects the sad reality of life in Cuba today:

The Havana Malecón is getting ready for Carnival. On the Piragua, tents have been set up for restaurants serving international food and colorful kiosks rise throughout the area. One can already see, on the pavements and in the portals, the metal structures used for reviewing stands, while groups practice the choreography they will show off beginning on Friday.

Because of the successive changes in dates that our popular celebrations have been subject to, we are a people who are never sure when carnivals start. The announcements that they are about to begin surprise us, and we aren’t even all that frustrated when we hear they have been suspended. I remember the summer of 2006, when we were left with the painted floats, having been told that Havana’s conga drums didn’t fit with the somber conditions surrounding the illness of Fidel Castro.

Luckily, this year the bands might play. We continue living in a schizophrenic carnival: most of the products are sold for convertible pesos, with a small portion of the pleasures set aside for those who only have Cuban pesos. Due to violence and poverty, our revelries have ceased to be a place for the whole family. But even so, it is a time to shrug off the slogans, the shortages and the frustrated expectations. Dancing is a magnificent way of forgetting.

And so we will have a festival along the same perimeter where, fourteen years ago, Havanans demonstrated their discontent in a social explosion. We will drink, all along the wall that has felt the weight of makeshift rafts heading north. We will enjoy salsa and reggaeton, on the same ocean front avenue that hasn’t seen ‘official’ demonstrators chanting slogans and waving flags in months. To this Malecón, that has witnessed our shouts, our departures and our feigned sentiments, we will go, for a few days, to amuse ourselves.

Considering the importance of her work, and the uncertainty of how long the Castro dictatorship will allow her to continue, I will reproduce Yoani's postings here as often as possible.

More Cubans with balls

Here are more examples of Cuban men — and women — with the cojones to take on the Castro dictatorship:

— Carmelo Díaz Fernández, Alfredo Suárez Leandro, Juan Mario Rodríguez Guillén, Roberto Rafaeel Larramendi Estrada, Jorge Olivera Castillo, Roberto Miranda Díaz, Heriberto Portales Rodríguez, Soledad Rivas Verdecia and Roberto de Miranda Hernández, who signed a letter to the Cuban foreign ministry demanding that they be free to travel overseas, as called for by the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights of Man and other international agreements to which Cuba is a signatory.

— Líder Díaz Campos, who describes the poor conditions at a special prison for inmates with AIDS.

— The 30 or so members of the Frank País November 30 Democratic Party who gathered last week for a vigil to pray for the release of Cuban political prisoners.

— Magaly Norvis Otero Suárez, Ludis Rodríguez Díaz, Belinda Salas Tapanes and other members of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR), who are continuing with their campaign to abolish Cuba's dual monetary system, which is used to economically repress most Cubans.

— FLAMUR member Maykel Osorio Martínez, who organizes support activities on behalf of Cuban political prisoners in the eastern part of the country.

For more about FLAMUR and other women in the Cuban dissidence, read this Christian Science Monitor story.

Cuban men with balls

No one has the right to question the courage of the Cuban people, for it is not in doubt. Those who would question the testicular fortitude of the Cuban people, specifically, its men, are wrong on two points.

First, the doubters of Cuban manhood ignore the bravery it takes to just survive the daily tortures — the economic deprivation, the political repression, etc. — of life during dictatorship. I know I cannot imagine it, and I expect the same holds true for most of the people reading this. I sometimes share the frustration of those waiting for a mass uprising, for ultimately, it is the Cuban people's fight. But it borders on the immoral to suggest that they are not deserving of liberty because they choose not to carry out an uprising or other suicide mission. Honestly, if I lived in a police state as brutal and effective as Cuba's, I might stay at home, too.

And secondly, the doubters of Cuban manhood ignore that there are plenty of Cubans who have chosen not to stay at home. They work as journalists and librarians and human rights and democracy activists, battling against tremendous odds to challenge the dictatorship and to testify to its brutality. Their spirit is strong, and their courage is unmatched. The respect they are due is not lessened just because they choose to fight and live.

In fact, it is their responsibility to live for it is they who one day will lead a free Cuba.

Few Cubans on the island are braver than those prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners locked away in the Castro gulag. They fight with courage and dignity against the worst of a dictatorship committed to extinguishing the light of good that each one of them represents.

Tonight, please remember political prisoners Alfredo Rodolfo Domínguez Batista ,Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Luis Mariano Delís Utria and Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta who are on hunger strike at the Holguín Provincial Prison to demand better living conditions and greater respect for human rights in Cuban prisons. Herrera has even sewn his mouth shut to demonstrate his resolve.

Without question, they are Cuban men with balls.

(Cross-posted at Babalú.)

Castro dictatorship quote of the day, 7/27/08

"There are a lot of people on the street who talk about change, but we haven't had even one economic or political reform that counts, nothing we hoped for with Raul. ... Being able to openly criticize things is something else we can only hope for." — Oswaldo, a 69-year-old Cuban retired construction worker.

Life during the Castro dictatorship: A survivor's story

Who better to describe the tortures of the Castro dictatorship than Bertha Antúnez Pernet, whose family has survived the worst of the regime. Antúnez, the sister of famed Cuban dissent Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," spoke earlier this week at a human rights event at the United Nations in New York.

Via Cuban Democratic Directorate:

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide my testimony as a human rights activist and as a defender of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in my country, Cuba. I have only been in exile for five months and for many years I struggled in Cuba for freedom for all Cuban political prisoners, and especially for the freedom of my brother, Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”, and my struggle continues although I am off the Island.

I would like to summarize the situation in my country with respect to human rights. In Cuba, hundreds of people serve prison sentences for their ideas, for thinking differently from the Castro brothers’ communist ideology. These people are arbitrarily detained, submitted to psychological and physical torture, and in many cases their families are harassed. They are tried without legal guarantees, and later confined in prisons, in most cases, hundreds of kilometers from their places of residence and under inhumane conditions.

Fidel and Raúl Castro have said publicly that there are no political prisoners in Cuba and have affirmed that no one is tortured in Cuba. This is false and I say this from my own experience.

Read the rest, here.

Jorge Ramírez Calderón, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 7/27/08 (UPDATED)

UPDATED, July 5, 2010 -- Jorge Ramírez Calderón was released from prison June 28.

Jorge Ramírez Calderón has had a target on his back for at least the past 15 months. As he actively opposed the Castro dictatorship, the regime continually cranked up the pressure to shut him up, with no success.

In May 2007, Ramírez, an activist with the Frank País 30th of November Democratic Party, was sentenced to 2 years of house arrest, after he filed a complaint against the police chief in Trinidad, in Sancti Spiritus province. He could leave his home only to work his job mowing grass — a job he lost last December, because of his continued anti-government activism.

In February, Ramírez and six other members of the M-30-N, were arrested and threatened with prosecution under the notorious Law 88, before being released. Police also warned Ramírez that his status as a "parolee" could soon be revoked.

Earlier this month, the dictatorship made good on that threat when it arrested Ramírez on a charge of "disrespecting of authority," after he intervened on behalf of a street vendor being abused by police officers in front of Ramírez's house a week earlier. On July 10, he was tried by a secret court — only 4 family members were allowed to attend — convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Nélida Lima Conde was able to visit her husband at the Nieves Morejón prison in Trinidad on July 16. She reports that her husband was being kept in a tiny cell — 1.5 meters wide by 2 meters long (about 5 feet by 7 feet) — apparently as punishment for his bad behavior during his trial, including a hunger strike and a refusal to sign a record of the proceedings.

Ramírez also encouraged his wife to continue with the struggle for liberty and democracy in Cuba, as he is more committed than ever to the cause.

Try as it might, the dictatorship has failed to break Jorge Ramírez Calderón.

One of the surest indicators of the repressive nature of the Castro regime is the jailing of 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 at [email protected]

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

The legacy of July 26

Today in Cuba, the dictatorship will celebrate its history, and make more promises about a future that will never come.

To understand the true legacy of July 26, 1953, just click on any of the names on the right, and then visit this site, and then this one.

Hunger strike in Holguín

Four Cuban political prisoners at the Holguín Provincial Prison have started hunger strikes demand better living conditions and greater respect for their human rights. Specifically, they want to be allowed to use the full amount of time alloted to make telephone calls; access to religious assistance; and better food and medicine.

The protest started July 18 when Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta declared himself on hunger strike; he later upped his protest by sewing his mouth shot. Three days later, Alfredo Domínguez Batista, Luis Mariano Deliz Utria and Orlando Zapata Tamayo joined the protest by starting hunger strikes.

I do not advocate protest by suicide, but these measures demonstrate how desperate conditions are inside the Castro gulag.