Uncommon Sense

Notes from the Castro gulag, 8/17/08

Here's the latest updates on several Cuban political prisoners:

Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta

The Cuban Council of Human Rights Investigators on Aug. 13 issued an urgent plea to the international community on behalf Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta. Villareal, according to the council, is suffering severe mental illness because of his imprisonment, according to council president Margarito Broche Espinosa.

Broche, a former political prisoner released because of his poor health, even offered to trade spots with Villareal.

Villareal, president of the Independent Democratic Front, was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, ever the journalist, reports that guards at the Holgúin Provincial Prison, have kept the pressure on him since he ended his most recent hunger strike on July 31. They encourage other inmates to assault him, and they keep him locked in a tiny cell to try to break his will.

Herrera, an independent journalist, was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Juan Bermúdez Toranzo
Juan Bermúdez Toranzo on Aug. 12 was transferred from the Canaleta prison in Ciego de Avila to the "El Pre" prison in Santa Clara, apparently as punishment to refusing to adhere to the punishment regime at Canaleta, according to a report posted at Payo Libre. Before the move, guards had pummeled Bermúdez, leaving him bruised about his body, and on Aug. 7 he had been thrown into a punishment cell.

Bermúdez, national vice president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, earlier this year was sentenced to 4 years in prison, after being found guilty of "attacking." He had been arrested in November while participating in a fast to show solidarity with Cuba's political prisoners.

Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo

Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo on Aug. 9 was transferred from the Agüica prison in Matanzas to the 1580 prison in Havana, which is closer to his home.

An independent journalist, Barzaga was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco

Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco, who was returned to prison earlier this month after his parole was revoked, is being treated severely by guards at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, his wife told independent journalist Juan Carlos González Leiva.

Prieto was able to see his wife only after he abandoned a hunger strike in protest of his incarceration. Also, guards forcibly dressed Prieto in a prison uniform, and keep his hands and feet chained in a tiny cell, according to the report.

Prieto, a human rights activist, is completing the remainder of a 4-year prison sentence handed down in November 2004, after he was convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger."

Augusto Guerra Márquez

Augusto Guerra Márquez, vice president of the New Catholic Party, has been kept in total isolation for three months, deprived of all his inmate rights, including access to a telephone, family visits, correspondence and religious assistance.

Guerra, who is being held at the Agüica prison in Matanzas, was arrested in July 2006 and sentenced to 6 years in prison for the supposed crime of "attacking."

Leodan Mangana López and José Luis Rodríguez Chávez, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 8/17/08

UPDATED, Feb. 27, 2011 — The Catholic Church announced Feb. 26, 2011, that José Rodríguez would be released and deported to Spain.

José Luis Rodríguez Chávez

Cuba's government is a dictatorship, reserving for itself all power and discretion, so it doesn't need to rule of law to justify throwing people in jail, especially those who dare to challenge and oppose the Castro regime. But it goes through the motions just the same, charging its political opponents with "disobedience" or "disrespect," as if they were children in need of "re-education" more than criminals.

The most bizarre of these "charges" is "pre-criminal social dangerousness." You can give yourself a wicked headaches trying to dissect this bit of Orwellian double-speak: So people charged with this are dangerous but not criminal? And how can the dictatorship tell when someone is at risk of slipping into "criminal social dangerousness?"

Relax, because the answers to those questions really don't matter. It's just a term the dictatorship made up to silence and to treat as "criminals" its opponents, complete with a punishment of up to 4 years in prison.

The Castro gulag holds plenty of these "dangerous" men and women in its dungeons. They includ human rights activists Leodan Mangana López and José Luis Rodríguez Chávez, who were each arrested this past February, tried before a secret court, convicted and sentenced to 4 years in prison.

There is not too much available on the Internet about these two men, both members of the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights. Mangana also operated an independent library, and Rodríguez, vice president of the human rights group's Havana chapter, last year hosted a "fasting center" where activists could demonstrate their support for Cuban political prisoners with hunger strikes.

"Dangerous" activities, indeed — at least in Cuba.

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.

Dissidents arrested in Havana's 'Revolution Square'

The thuggery of the Cuban police has no bounds.

Cuban Democratic Directorate reports:

At least ten Cuban opposition activists were detained this morning, Friday August 15, as they demonstrated at Havana’s Revolution Square, formerly the Civic Square. The opposition activists were demanding freedom for all political prisoners and respect for human rights, as well as the lifting of a fine unjustly leveled against activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera for interceding during a brutal police beating on behalf of the young victim.

Pérez Aguilera, arrested along with the other activists, is in a precarious state of health due to her hunger strike begun on August 6 over the 500 Cuban peso fine. The last known location of the arrested activists is the police station on Zapata and C street in Havana.

The human rights defenders, members of the Central Opposition Coalition, called upon Cuban opposition activists and citizens to join their demonstration for freedom and “to save the life of activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, who is about to faint, and urinating blood,” according to former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez."

Independent journalist/human rights activist Juan Carlos González Leiva reports that those who were arrested were expelled from the capital and returned to their home provinces.

To listen to the arrests as they were happening, click here.

Everything, including Fidel Castro, comes to an end

Whew.

That's all I could say when I realized how close I came to sharing the same birthday as the decaying dictator, Fidel Castro. I'd rather share a birthday with "The Jerk," than with one of history's tyrants, but maybe that's just me.

For Castro's birthday, writes Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, is nothing to celebrate:

On the morning of August 13, 2001, I turned on the radio very early. In a pompous voice an announcer intoned,“Today is the Fatherland’s birthday,” and then proceeded to read an interminable panegyric on the Maximum Leader. Lying in bed I had the impulse to catapult myself to another galaxy, to escape from this Island where the anniversary of a birth has become the founding date. That day I made the decision to emigrate from my country and eleven months later I boarded a plane destined for Europe.

It has been seven years since that outburst. I have left and returned but I continue to hear phrases similar to what was said on that day. I notice the same attempts to associate the questionable actions of a man with something more enduring: the Nation. What has changed is that this ridiculous cult of personality no longer makes me want to escape, instead I want to stay; it doesn’t confuse me, it makes me see more clearly what we must not tolerate. In the future, no person should be confused with the Fatherland. No birthday candles on any cake should be blown out in the name of us all.

Cuban woman on hunger strike

Former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) is one of the giants of Cuban dissidence. He survived more than 17 years in the gulag, and ever since his release, he hasn't missed a beat in setting an example of courage and commitment to liberty that other Cubans would do well to follow.

But in his home, Antúnez may not be the bravest person. That might be his wife, Iris Pérez Aguilera.

Please keep Pérez in your prayers tonight, as she is into the second week of a hunger strike after being fined 500 pesos by the Cuban police. She was punished after she intervened to protect a young man who was being beaten by police, according to a report from independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas.

To protest the fine, Pérez, 32, started her hunger strike on Aug. 6.

"It is important to recognize that all the activists are in solidarity with Iris," said Georgina Noa Montes, president of the Martiana Civic League. "We are talking about a woman who hasn't eaten in more than seven days. Her health is deteriorating and her life is in danger. ... We are entrusting God, our Father, will put his hand on her and guard her."

Notes from the gulag, 8/13/08

With hundreds of political prisoners in the Castro gulag, the stories never stop:

More details have emerged about Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco's return to prison last week. Independent journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez reports that Prieto on Aug. 6 declared a hunger strike and is refusing to wear an inmate uniform. In turn, his jailers refused to allow Prieto's wife to visit him in prison.

Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger is worried about her son, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Zapata was one of four prisoners to go on hunger strike at Holguín Provincial Prison, and apparently he is the only one to not contact family since the protest concluded. In fact, Tamayo Danger told independent journalist Caridad Caballero Batista she suspects her son is still on hunger strike and that he is receiving beatings from his guards. One of the other protesting prisoners, according to the report, told Tamayo Danger that her son also planned to sew his mouth shut to show his resolve.

All of his medical training has not cured political prisoner Dr. Ricardo Enrique Silva Gual. For more than three months, he has experienced bumps or swellings on the skin all over his body, according to a Payo Libre report. Silva said a doctor told him it might be an allergic reaction to something he ate, but a steroid treatment has failed to relieve the symptoms. Silva also suffers from glaucoma, migraines and chronic allergies.

In Norway, they love Cuban freedom, too

If a recent e-mail I received is any indication, friends of Cuban freedom have allies in Norway:

Thank you for updating the world on what happens on Cuba. Today I and the ... conservative party in Norway had a campaign where we collected signatures from people that wish democracy in Cuba and want the release of political prisoners. The petition with 250 signatures was sent to the Cuban goverment and the Cuban embassy in Norway. We wore t-shirts with a photo of Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, on which it stated, "Free Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta" on the front and on the back it stated, "Free Cuba".

I wish the best for the people of Cuba.

Keep up the good work ... we are fighting the same match.

Cuban gulag is more than a numbers game

As of July 20, the unofficial Cuban Commmission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation was monitoring the cases of 219 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. That was down from 234 at the beginning of the year, but as the commission acknowledged, the true figure is certainly higher, as the Castro dictatorship allows to true domestic or international scrutiny of its prisons or its twisted sense of "justice."

For the commission's latest report, including the names of Cuban political prisoners, go here.

Of Cuba's political prisoners, at least 27 are in jail because of their work as independent journalists. (Only Olympics host China imprisons more journalists than Cuba.) To demand their release, sign this petition.

Reuters has more about the report here.

The Cubans-cannot-do list

Despite all the so-called "reforms" of dictator Raúl Castro, there is still a long list of things Cubans cannot do.

Cubans cannot:

• Travel abroad without government permission.

• Change jobs without government permission.

• Change residence without government permission.

• Access the Internet without government permission (the Internet is closely monitored and controlled by the government. Only 1.67% of the population has access to the Internet).

• Send their children to a private or religious school (all schools are government run; there are no religious schools in Cuba).

• Watch independent or private radio or TV stations (all TV and radio stations are owned and run by the government). Cubans illegally watch/listen to foreign broadcasts.

• Read books, magazines or newspapers, unless approved/published by the government (all books, magazines and newspapers are published by the government).

• Receive publications from abroad or from visitors (punishable by jail terms under Law 88).

• Visit or stay in tourist hotels, restaurants, and resorts.

• Seek employment with foreign companies on the island, unless approved by the government.

• Run for public office unless approved by Cuba’s Communist Party.

• Own businesses, unless they are very small and approved by the government and pay onerous taxes.

• Join an independent labor union (there is only one, government controlled labor union and no individual or collective bargaining is allowed; neither are strikes or protests).

• Retain a lawyer, unless approved by the government.

• Choose a physician or hospital. Both are assigned by the government.

• Refuse to participate in mass rallies and demonstrations organized by the Cuban Communist Party.

• Criticize the Castro regime or the Cuban Communist Party, the only party allowed in Cuba.

83 days

Eighty-three days in a punishment cell at the Kilo 5½ prison in Piñar del Rio. Somehow, whether of his own will or God's grace, Cuban prisoner of conscience Nelson Molinet Espino just survived that.

Eighty-three days without sunlight or fresh air.

Eighty-three days without his belongings.

Eighty-three days without religious assistance.

Eighty-three days without his letters.

Eighty-three days without a phone call to his family.

And to top it off, a threat from a guard/piece of excrement named "Yusmani" that at any moment he will be killed.

Eight-three days in a dungeon.

And all because Molinet requested a transfer to a jail closer to Havana, so his ailing father could visit him.

Whether 83 days in a punishment cell or 50 years everywhere else on the island, life in Cuba, especially for those who know there is a better, freer way to live, is hell.