Uncommon Sense

Cuban activists arrested after restaurant sit-ins

One of the major fronts in the opposition to the Castro dictatorship is an ongoing campaign to have the Cuban peso, a practically worthless currency used to pay most workers,have the same value as the convervetible currency (CUC), which has a more exclusive circulation but is all that is accepted at the better stores and restaurants. Lead by the Federation of Latin American Rural Women (FLAMUR), the "With The Same Currency" campaign is a grassroots effort to break the economic apartheid of the Cuban people.

This week, FLAMUR, inspired by the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, has taken its campaign to the next level:

La Habana, February 27, 2009. Dozens of human Rights activists participated in sit-ins at restaurants in 4 of Cuba’s provinces launching the third phase of the “Con la Misma Moneda” (With the Same Currency) campaign. The unprecedented sit-ins took place in Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, and Santiago de Cuba.

A total of 36 activists took part in the sit-ins which were modeled after those held during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, where civil rights proponents protested against Woolworth and Company’s segregation policies. In each of the Cuban cities where the sit-ins were staged, three couples entered each of the restaurants and cafes, ordered food, and instead of paying in convertible currency (CUC) attempted to pay with the Cuban peso, the currency with which wages are paid to Cuban workers. The couples entered one at a time, once the first couple had attempted to pay, the second couple would go in and order food, and then the third.

As a result of these actions, three activists were detained by State Security police in Havana: Alejandro Jose Botello Valdes, Georgina Noa Montes, and Manual Jose Linares B

ermudez. In Matanzas, four individuals were detained, they are: Daraisi Garcia Mendez, Armando Delgado Valdez, Yaima Gomez Tara, Roberto Lazo Gonzalez. As of this time, there whereabout are unknown. In Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Rio, the sit-ins were successful as the management of the establishments accepted pay in Cuban pesos.

“The level of coordination demonstrated by these actions demonstrate not only the courage but also the capabilities of those promoting this campaign and the popular support that they enjoy,” expressed Magdelivia Hidalgo, International Representative of FLAMUR in Miami, Florida. “These actions speak for the more than 20,000 who signed the petition that was turned over by FLAMUR to the Cuban National Assembly asking for the right to pay for goods and services in Cuban currency,” said President of FLAMUR, Belinda Salas, from Matanzas, Cuba. “We will not cease until this discriminatory policy that relegates us to second-class citizen status in our own country is eliminated. The government is in violation of its own laws, paying With the Same Currency is our right,” she concluded.

Cuban protesters on hunger strike for human rights (UPDATED)

See update below.

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, in her hospital bed. (Photo: Directorio.org)

More than 130 Cubans gathered in front of a hospital in the town of Placetas, in Villa Clara, to show their support for human rights activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. Pérez Aguilera, who has been on a hunger strike since Feb. 17, was hospitalized Tuesday with hypoglycemia.

Pérez Aguilera and three other hunger strikers - her husband, Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez," Diosiris Santana Pérez and Segundo Rey Cabrera González - started their protest not for their own benefit but for the benefit of their fellow Cubans.

Specifically, they are demanding:

• The end of torture and other repressive measures against political prisoner Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, who is Iris's brother.

• Better housing for "thousands and thousands" of Cubans in need of shelter.

• The end of repressive measures against peaceful human rights activisits, and that the Cuban government ratify and publish the various international human rights agreements to which Cuba is a signatory, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Despite her illness, Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, president of the Rosa Parks Feminist Civil Rights Movement, said she will continue with her protest.

In a recording played to those standing vigil outside the hospital, Pérez Aguilera said, "I just want to tell the world that I have the strength to keep fighting not only for my brother but for each and every political prisoner and the rights of all Cubans. For the end of the violations, and an end to impunity, and to cease the abuse of dissidents. ¡Viva Cuba libre!."

UPDATED March 3, 2009

The protest is continuing.

Cuban journalist threatened with jail

Lamassiel Gutiérrez

Independent journalists like Lamassiel Gutiérrez are on the front lines of the struggle for liberty in Cuba, risking what little freedom they enjoy every time they try to break the Castro dictatorship's blockade on real news and information about the real Cuba. Despite the ever-present threat of prison — and the fact that some two dozen of their colleagues are currently in the gulag — they persevere, and in fact, thrive.

Gutiérrez, the wife of political prisoner Rolando Jimenez Pozada and a former political prisoner herself, is one of Cuba's more intransigent independent journalists, continuing her work despite numerous threats and other obstacles in her way. The latest threat came this week when a secret policeman confronted her on a street near her home on the Isle of Youth Isle of Pines and threatened her with prison if she continued her work as a journalist.

"We read all your news, and know all your activities," the goon said.

For her part, Gutiérrez told her colleague Mario Hechavarria Driggs that she would "continue informing the world of the cruelty and violations being committed daily in the streets and in prisons in our society."

Remembering the BTTR Four

Please take time this afternoon to remember Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena and Pablo Morales. Thirteen years ago today, they were murderered by the Castro dictatorship as they flew over international waters looking for rafters fleeing Cuba. Just as awful as the crime, is that the perpetrators of this outrage - Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and others in the Cuban military command - have not been brought to justice.

Read more at http://www.shootdownvictims.org/

Report: Political prisoner may face more jail time

Cuban political prisoner Miguel Ángel López Herrera is scheduled to be released in May, after serving a 3-year sentence for "disrespecting" Fidel Castro - as if there is anything else to do to Fidel Castro.

But reports now are he may have 2 years added to his sentence, for his refusal to follow certain prison rules.

Independent journalist Ismaris Salomón Carcaces, of the newly formed Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIHPRESS) has the details.

Read more about Miguel Ángel López Herrera, here.

José Manuel de la Rosa Pérez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 2/22/08

UPDATED, April 9, 2011 — José de la Rosa was released from prison and took exile in Spain.
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José Manuel de la Rosa Pérez

Cuban independent lawyer José Manuel de la Rosa Pérez has been sentenced to 5 years in prison, after he was convicted last month of "resistance," "disobedience" and "assault."

Details of his supposed crimes were not available — it appears they arose from a confrontation de la Rosa Pérez had with a police officer — but it is clear that his "trial" was a sham. On the day of the proceedings, about 60 police officers surrounded the Holguin courthouse as de la Rosa Pérez arrived bound in chains. Guards also filled the courtroom, with only the defendant's father the only relative or friend allowed to witness the "trial."

"The lawyer who defended my son offered an excellent defense, but it might not work," said José de la Rosa Góngora.

It didn't. A few days later, de la Rosa Pérez was sentenced to 5 years in prison, as recommended by prosecutors.

3 4 political prisoners on hunger strike (UPDATED)

Late last week, I reported that Cuban political prisoner Alfredo Domínguez Batista had started a hunger stike.

He has since been joined in his protest by two other plantados, <strong>Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and José Daniel Ferrer García - both independent journalists.

Payo Libre has the details.

UPDATED, 9:30 a.m. EST

Make that four political prisoners on hunger strike.

Another Payo Libre dispatch describes Jorge Ramírez Calderón's protest.

On the mend

I'm slowly getting back to 100 percent, after a nasty cold knocked me out of commission for a few days. I'm still a little groggy, but I should be back to normal blogging shortly.

Political prisoner protests the dictatorship's lies

Alfredo Domínguez Batista

Lies, whether about its "celebrated" health care system or the "evils" of the American embargo, are the fuel that keep the Castro dictatorship running. The truth is inconvenient — after all, who wants to visit an island gulag — so the goons in charge in Havana churn out the lies to keep the dictatorship running.

Speaking truth to this illegitimate power is why so many Cubans, like Alfredo Domínguez Batista are jailed as political prisoners. Even behind bars, they continue to stand up for their rights, and those of their fellow countrymen.

Independent journalist María Antonia Hidalgo Mir is reporting that Domínguez earlier this week started a hunger strike to protest lies about Cuba's human rights record, as published in the official state media. What Domínguez was specifically reacting to wasn't clear, but even the United Nations Human Rights Council — no friend of the Cuban people — acknowledged that Cuba denies violating basic human rights.

Hunger strikes are tragic — protest by suicide is never acceptable — but so is silence in the face of lies and injustice. It is too much for men of conscience like Domínguez to stomach, and it should be too much for you, too.

Read more about Domínguez, who in 2003 was sentenced to 14 years in prison, here.

Ramiro Valdes is full of horse****

Cuban communications minister Ramiro Valdes, one of the original architects of the communist dictatorship, is a lot of things, and none of them good. His current job, in charge of Cuba's technological and communications infrastructure, is just cover for his real responsibility: Acting as Cuba's chief censor in the Internet age.

Valdes, a veteran secret policeman, said as much in early 2007 when he called the Internet "a wild colt" that needed to be tamed. Not a very realistic assessment of the power of the 'Net, but a neccesary one if you are part of a dictatorship for whom the free exchange of ideas and information - part of the Internet's very essence - as a mortal threat to its own survival.

At best, Valdes' success has been mixed. The right of most Cubans to freely access the Internet is nonexistent - remember, Cuba under Castro 2.0 is as vile a tyranny as ever -but all of the dictatorship's repressive ways have not been enough to stifle Yoani Sanchez and others on the island who are riding the "wild colt" to spread the truth about life on the island.

Two years after his debut as communications minister, Valdes is spreading a new line of crap, about how if the big, bad United States would just lift the embargo, millions of Cubans would all of sudden have cheap and easy access to the Internet so they could read the truth about Cuba and share their stories with the world. (OK, I made up the second part of that.)

It's economics and technology, not politics and oppression, that keeps Cubans off the 'Net. Just wait, Valdes said, until a new fiber-optic cable from Venezuela, goes on line.

The truth is, that even after the Venezuelan upgrade - now there is an oxymoron! - access to the Internet will not be cheaper and easier. Yoani Sanchez and other new age journalists don't have to sneak around now to get their stories out because they can't find a Wi-Fi hot spot. Guillermo Farinas didn't almost die because he didn't have the cash for a connection.

They are treated as outlaws because they dare to use the limited Internet access they are able to scrounge up to challenge and break the dictatorship's stranglehold on information - a grip that is quickly loosening and which one day will turn on it and help bring about its demise.

Valdes, Raul Castro and the others in the dictatorship know that, so expect more of their futile efforts to keep the wild colt in its pen.