Uncommon Sense

Journalist Guillermo Fariñas kidnapped by Castro's goons

Guillermo Fariñas

At its core, the Castro dictatorship — as led first by Fidel Castro and now by his little brother Raúl — is a band of gangsters. Like the Corleones or the Sopranos, they use fear in too many forms to count to enslave, intimidate and oppress the Cuban people. They may dress up their tactics in the rhetoric of the "revolution" — and Hollywood and other allies and useful idiots may romanticize their record — but cut through the lies and the propaganda, and you find little more than extortionists, kidnappers and killers.

Independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas, a victim of the dictatorship many times over, experienced that reality last week in a very scary fashion.

Fariñas on the morning of Dec. 18 was at a Havana bus stop — he had plans to go to the Dutch Embassy to use the Internet — when a couple of military agents forced him into a car, ordered him to place his head between his legs and drove him to what presumably was a police station.

The agents told Fariñas that they would not tolerate any further protests like those seen in Cuba on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. More ominously, they threatened to charge Fariñas with "revealing state secrets," if he continued to report about the dictatorship's intelligence and counter-intelligence methods.

Once they had delivered their message, they packed Fariñas back into their car, drove him to a deserted street in a Havana neighborhood and released him.

Fariñas, 45, is one of the giants of the Cuban opposition. Not only has he chronicled the reality of Cuba today as a journalist. He also has put his life on the line to challenge the dictatorship and to expose its true repressive nature.

In 2006, Fariñas went on a lengthy hunger strike, after the dictatorship's censors barred him from using the Internet to transmit his stories after the Miami Herald quoted him as criticizing the regime. Fariñas quickly expanded his protest to demand that all Cubans have unfettered access to the Internet.

Fariñas ended his protest before the dictatorship gave in to his demands, but he was successful in raising awareness about how the dictatorship's repressive ways had extended attempts to control the Internet.

More than two years later, the gangsters of the Castro dictatorship are still trying to silence him.

The other Gitmos

Cuban political prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta has the perfect riposte to President-elect Barack Obama's stated plan to close the terrorist detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The world, said Herrera, needs to pay attention what is happening in prisons across the rest of the island.

"When will the world open its eyes and say that the other Guantanamos must be closed?"

Cuba: World's biggest jailer of journalists

Twenty-one of the 125 journalists imprisoned in the world because of their work as of Dec. 1 is in a Cuban jail, according to Committee to Protect Journalists. Only China, with 28, is a bigger jailer of journalists, but factor in the large population difference — China has about 1.3 billion people; Cuba, about 11.3 million — and Cuba takes the gold medal as the world's worst oppressor of a free press.

CPJ is one of the staunchest advocates for Cuba's independent journalists, but I think it undercounts the number of journalists in the Castro gulag. By my estimate, as detailed in the links on the right sidebar under "March 18 Project," there currently are 27 journalists in Cuban jails.

According to CPJ's survey, three Cuban journalists — Alejandro Gonzalez Raga, Juan Ramon Castillo and Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez — were released from prison since Dec. 1, 2007, when its survey showed 24 journalists in Cuban jails. I have not been able to independently confirm Espinosa's release — he was sentenced in November 2006 to 2 years of house arrest — but if true, the more accurate count is 26.

And doesn't take into account the harassment and repression the dictatorship and its agents dole out to independent journalists working the Cuban streets today. For instance, one well-known journalist last week had his camera confiscated by police because his work was judged to be a threat to national security, according to an e-mail I received from the island.

Whatever the true number — and in fact, the difference is morally insignificant — there is no denying Cuba's status as one of the most dangerous places on Earth for journalists.

Cuba Idiot Alert: Ted Turner

I'm not sorry I missed it - both men bore me to tears - but Bill O'Reilly of FOX News recently scored an interview with CNN founder Ted Turner, who is pimping his autobiography. Billo the Clown is as big a pompous ass as Turner, but kudos to him for so easily exposing Turner as an idiot about Cuba and the murderous record of the decaying dictator Fidel Castro:

O'REILLY: Fidel Castro, do you admire the man?

TURNER: Yes.

O'REILLY: Now he has murdered people. He's imprisoned people. There are political prisoners now. He won't let his people use the Internet. Nobody can use that. And you admire the guy?

TURNER: Well, I admire certain things about him. He's trained a lot of doctors, and they've got one of the best educational systems in the developing world. And you know, he's still popular with a lot of people down there. He's unpopular…

O'REILLY: But he's a killer. He's a killer. He's a guy who…

TURNER: But that has never, to my knowledge, that's never been proven. I mean…

For proof that that is a lie, visit the Cuba Archive.

(H/T Babalu)

Payá denied permission to travel to Europe

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. — Article 13.2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Castro dictatorship was determined to prevent Cubans from commemorating International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And, really, it wasn't a surprise. After all, human rights get no shrift from the dictatorship, since they represent everything — freedom and respect of individual liberties — that Cuba under its tyranny is not. In fact, if the rights promulgated in the Declaration were allowed to be promulgated in Cuba, the dictatorship would wither away.

So if only for its own survival, the dictatorship is dedicated to stamping out any attempts by Cubans to exercise their human rights.

For instance, it has refused to grant Oswaldo Payá, head of the Christian Liberation Movement, permission to travel to France for ceremonies this week commemorating the 20th anniversary of the European Parliament's Andrei Sakharov Freedom of Conscience Award, of which he is a previous recipient.

Europe, which has bent over backwards to accommodate the Castro dictatorship despite its atrocious human rights record, must demand that Havana reverse its decision and allow Payá to travel.

If Europe remains silent, it is not worthy of Payá's company.

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 12/14/08 (UPDATED)

UPDATED, Oct 28, 2009 - Vladimir Alejo was released from prison on Oct. 23.

There is no justice in Cuba.

Consider the case of Vladimir Alejo Miranda.

It is bad enough that Aljeo, a 45-year-old independent librarian and human rights activist, was arrested Dec. 2, 2007, for carrying through a public park a sign demanding the release of Cuban political prisoners.

Adding to the travesty is that in the year since, he has remained in prison but has not been given his day in court — such as the courts are in Cuba — on charges of "contempt of authority and offending the figure of the commander-in-chief."

Alejo's arrest was part of a government crackdown in the days and weeks leading up to last year's International Human Rights Day — a crackdown that was repeated before this year's commemoration last week.

That Alejo has not been released, like most of the others who were detained, is not surprising, considering how active he has been in opposition to the dictatorship and how familiar the dictatorship was with his activities.

For example, on Jan. 14, 2006, police raided his library and seized some 300 "subversive books. And just weeks before his arrest, several members of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Pro-Human Rights Popular Movement, of which Alejo is the chairman, marched through Havana handing out CAMBIO bracelets and copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Cuba is a signatory of the Declaration, among whose provisions state: "Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him." (Article 10)

Until Alejo gets his "independent and impartial tribunal," only the Castro dictatorship is guilty of any crime in this case.

Despite threats, independent journalist back on her beat

Cuba's independent journalists are on the front lines of the struggle for freedom. Not only are they committed to democracy, freedom and human rights — yes, they are biased. But they also have the courage to stand witness to the many crimes of the dictatorship and to tell their stories to their fellow Cubans and to the world.

Back on her beat after a bout with hepatitis, Licet Zamora Carrandi, chief editor of the Cubanacan Press Agency, this week received the requisite visit from the secret police. They wanted to know about her work and her involvement with other dissidents, most notably the "counter-revolutionary" Guillermo Fariñas, her colleague at Cubanacan. They also asked about a recent visit to her home by a Polish member of the European Parliament.

If she continued with her activities, the thugs warned Zamora that she would not be allowed to leave the country.

Zamora was unimpressed, reiterating that she would continue her pro-democratic activities regardless of the cost.

Torture at Guantanamo

The United States may be guilty of wrongdoing in its detention and interrogation and so forth of suspected terrorists at the Guantánamo naval base.

But is nothing compared to the sins committed by the Castro dictatorship on the rest of the island, starting at the Combinado de Guantánamo prison.

As elsewhere in Cuba, officials at the prison were determined to prevent any commemorations of International Human Rights Day. They warned political prisoners that demonstrations would be greeted with "severe punishment."

To emphasize their point, guards used a technique known as "Shakira" or "Balancín" to torture prisoner Jesús Manuel Peña. His arms were chained behind his back, and he was then suspended off the ground in his cell for several hours.

News from the Cuban street

Miscelaneas de Cuba has posted numerous first-hand accounts, in Spanish, of this week's events in Cuba to commemorate international Human Rights Day and attempts by the Castro dictatorship to stop them.

The photographs alone are worth a visit.

The face of the Castro dictatorship

Cuban independent journalist Lázaro Alonso Román was one of the scores of dissidents rounded up this week to block them from participating in marches, vigils and other events commemorating International Human Rights Day.

For good measure, the Castro secret police severely beat Alonso — knocking him unconscious — before taking him to a local police station.

Forty-eight hours later, these photos were taken.

The truth of the Castro tyranny is written all over his face.