Uncommon Sense

Prisoner on hunger strike to force release

Cuban political prisoner Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco is on hunger strike to force authorities to release him from the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, according to a dispatch posted at Payo Libre.

Prieto, who is being held in a punishment cell at the prison, started his protest Nov. 18 — exactly 4 years after he was sentenced to 4 years in prison for being a "pre-criminal social danger."

Prieto had been released earlier this year, but his parole was revoked because of his continuing "socially dangerous" ways — defending human rights and that sort of thing.

Of course, it's probably too much to ask for a dictatorship that unjustly condemns its citizens to prison because they dare challenge the status quo to adhere to its own pronouncements.

Human rights scare the Castro dictatorship

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, so you might think it is an exercise in futility for a Cuban opposition group to petition the Castro dictatorship for official permission to present activities to commemorate the day. After all, this year's day will mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that represents everything the dictatorship is not.

But the move by the Agenda for Transition, made up of some of Cuba's most prominent dissidents, was not a wasted effort, because it revealed, again, what a bunch of cowards make up the dictatorship. They not dare allow activities that celebrate the value of human rights — and reveal how respect for those rights is so sorely lacking in Cuba —because to do so would undermine their own legitimacy.

Meanwhile, expect the dissidents will have plenty to say and protest on Dec. 10.

Cuban activist gets 3 years in prison

Julián Antonio Monés Borrero

Cuban youth activist Julián Antonio Monés Borrero, who recently ended a 43-day hunger strike to protest his arrest, was sentenced this week to 3 years in prison for "offenses against authority," according to Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Monés, who had been released from prison earlier this year, was arrested on an assault charge after a communist thug on Sept. 27 objected to the T-shirt he was wearing proclaiming CAMBIO, or "change," and the two got into a scuffle. Monés immediately began a hunger strike and ended his protest only when authorities set a trial date.

The "trial" was a sham, complete with conflicting testimony from the supposed "victim," and the lack of any eyewitness testimony, according to Moné's wife.

Most tellingly, the communist authorities took detained or placed under house arrest several human rights and political activists to prevent them from attending Monés' trial.

“Once more we see the lying, deceptive, unethical, and cowardly conduct of State Security when it comes to a political trial, said Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, president of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy.

Read more about the Monés trial here.

Read more about Monés, a former Political Prisoner of the Week, here

Political prisoner wins medical parole

Abel López Pérez, who started a hunger strike after authorities threatened to level additional charges against him, has been granted a medical parole, according to Cuban Democratic Directorate.

López, whose hunger strike lasted 39 days, had been jailed earlier this year after an earlier parole was revoked. He originally had been sentenced in November 2005 to 3 years in prison for "disrespecting" Fidel Castro.

The hunger strike ravaged López's body, but he said his protest was worth the sacrifice.

“This positive result, apart from my sacrifices, is also due to the spreading of news about my protest throughout Cuba and abroad as well," López said.

Female political prisoner honored

María de los Ángeles Borrego Mir

Cuban political prisoner María de los Ángeles Borrego Mir, sentenced in December 2005 to 4 years in prison for being a "pre-criminal social danger," has been named an honorary member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Political Prisoners organization.

"We have named this woman an honorary member for the qualities she possesses as a tireless defender of human rights, for her activism for the freeing of political prisoners," said Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), the organization's national coordinator. "Prison is the toughest test throughout history for those who have defied the dictatorship. For a woman, confinement prolongs the suffering, and we seek the immediate release of this sister. We call for the solidarity of those who identify with the political prisons in Cuba."

Meanwhile, independent journalist Belinda Salas Tápanes reports that guards at the "Manto Negro" women's prison are relentless with their pressure on Borrego. She is housed with common criminals, and she has been denied needed medical attention, according to Borrego's daughter.

Read more about Borrego, now 49 years old, here.

An offer for Sean Penn

I won't pretend to be an actor, if he just quits pretending to be a journalist.

Fidel Castro is falling ...

... and he can't get up.

WARNING: You may waste a lot of time having this much fun.

H/T Penultimos Dias.

At least Cubans have free, universal health care

Dengue fever has reappeared in Havana.

Maybe it has something to do with this.

Cuban brother to be beatified

It's another step closer to sainthood for Jose Olallo Valdes.

Catholic News Agency reports:

Born from unknown parents, Jose Olallo Valdes was born on February 12, 1820 and a month later was left at the Orphanage of San Jose in Havana. He was baptized just days later on March 15.

Br. Olallo Valdes joined the Order of St. John of God at a very young age and was soon moved to Camaguey to assist the victims of the 1835 cholera epidemic as a nurse.

During his time in Camaguey, he suffered the consequences of the anti-religious laws that suppressed all religious orders in Spanish territories. Nevertheless, he remained faithful to his vows and, due to his popularity with the people, the civil authorities allowed him to remain at the hospital, thus becoming the only remaining Brother of St. John of God remaining in Cuba.

After 54 years of devoted service to the sick and the poor, which included times of both famine and war, Br. Olallo Valdes passed away on March 7 1889. His death so moved Camaguey's citizens, that a vast multitude attended his funeral and mourned his passing.

Br. Ollalo’s beatification will take place at 8 a.m. on November 29 in the Plaza de la Caridad of Camaguey, Cuba. It will be the first beatification to ever take place on Cuban soil.

Beatification is the second-to-last step before the Catholic Church canonizes someone as a saint.

Read more about Jose Olallo Valdes here.

Journalist group honors Cuban political prisoner

Hector Maseda Gutierrez

The Committee to Protect Journalists tonight honored imprisoned Cuban journalist Hector Maseda Gutierrez with the International Press Freedom Award. Maseda, 65, was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

His "crime?"

"(D)oing what everyone here today is doing — his job as a reporter," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The same goes for other Cuban journalists in the Castro gulag.