Uncommon Sense

Trash collection in Havana?

Not so much.

Cuban political prisoner demands respect

The Castro dictatorship has taken plenty from the political prisoners in its gulag.

But try as it might, it cannot take their dignity, as Luis Campos recently demonstrated.

CubaNet, via the Miami Herald, reports:

The mother of Luis Campos says her son, serving a 25-year sentence for trying to divert a passenger launch to the United States, is ill but refuses to go to the prison clinic with his hands manacled to his waist.

Gregoria Corrales said her son cannot keep down food, has dizzy spells and blurred vision. She says he refuses to go to the clinic because he would be humiliated before other prisoners if he were manacled.

Campos has served 15 years of his sentence for trying to divert the Havana-Regla launch.

Read more about Campos here.

Greetings from the gulag to journalists around the world (UPDATED)

Sunday, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day.

Even in the Castro gulag — which imprisons some two dozen journalists — it is a day to celebrate the power of the press, and those who bear the consequences of the privilege of the press to speak truth to power.

Cuban journalist Ricardo González Alfonso, the president of the Manuel Márquez Sterling Society of Journalists and in jail since the "black spring" crackdown of March-April 2003, sends his greetings:

"The Manuel Márquez Sterling Society of Journalists congratulates all members of the media, on the occasion of May 3, World Press Freedom Day.

"We send a message of solidarity to those reporters who risk their lives in conflicts overseas; those foreign correspondents accredited in Cuba, often far from their countries; and ordinary citizens who feel the right to inform and to stay informed.

"Finally, a special salute to independent journalists in Cuba, imprisoned or not, who face the repression of a freedom-killing regime, as well as those in exile. ..."

Ricardo González Alfonso

Independent journalists, imprisoned or not, are at the front lines of the fight against tyranny and for freedom in Cuba. They bear witness to the reality of life in Cuba, and advocate for those working for change, which makes them very dangerous for the Castro regime.

They need and deserve your support and solidarity.

To learn more about them, read this.

UPDATED, 4:20 a.m.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez's group calls for the release of all political prisoners.

Cuban independent journalist arrested

Santiago Du Bouchet

Cuban independent journalist and former political prisoner Santiago Du Bouchet is sitting in a jail cell in the town of Artemisa, in Havana province, facing charges of "contempt" and "enemy propaganda," according to a report posted at Miscelaneas de Cuba.

Du Bouchet, of the Nueva Prensa Cubana news agency, was arrested this past Saturday afternoon while visiting relatives. Independent journalist Mirian Herrera said officials were not allowing anyone to visit Du Bouchet.

Du Bouchet has been in and out of trouble with Castro dictatorship since at least 2005 because of his work as a journalist. He has served at least two stints in prison, including time for allegedly stealing a hankerchief that at one point belonged to Fidel Castro.

For more about other independent journalists imprisoned in the Castro gulag, go here.

Yoani Sanchez nails the Castro dictatorship

Once again, Yoani Sanchez reveals an ugly truth about the Cuban dictatorship:

Note: Edgar Lopez is the leader of a youth pro-democracy group in Cuba. The U.S. government has issued him a political refugee visa to join his wife and family in Florida, but the Cuban government refuses to allow him to leave.

This morning, some of us who are friends of Edgar Lopez went with him to deliver his appeal to his denial of permission to leave the country. A few steps from the office of Legal Counsel is the site of the national Immigration and Emigration office. I already know the place, having been there just a year ago with a similar claim, which ended with the confirmation that I could not, "travel for the moment." Uniformed officers and quiet people hoping to have their cases revisited set the stage at this branch of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).

The signatures collected among Cubans here and outside were handed over to the duty officer, who confirmed that they now had sixty days to reply to his request. On Friday, two Section 21 officers had "suggested" to Edgar that he should desist from presenting himself at the place where we went today. The insinuation was that if he was quiet, they would allow him to travel by August. After this young man's hunger strike, the immigration authorities couldn't--according to the anxious officers--"act under pressure," because it would seem that they had been forced to let him get on the plane.

As if it were the most common thing that we citizens would bring pressure to bear and in response the politicians would amend their actions. As if it is precisely for this that they occupy their positions, to yield--again and again--before the demands of society. Hasn't it been said already--by enough voices--that the requirement for permission to leave and enter Cuba has to be repealed? What more has to happen to stop them from hijacking this right from us?

Mijail Capote Aranda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 4/26/09

Every great struggle for freedom has its rallying cry.

"Give me liberty or give me death."

"Remember the Alamo."

"Remember Pearl Harbor."

In Cuba today, the rallying cry for many opposed to dictatorship and tyranny, is simpler and much more personal.

"Abajo Fidel."

"Down with Fidel."

Short and to the point.

And very, very dangerous.

Just ask Mijail Capote Aranda.

In February 2008 when on a public street in Manzanillo Capote gave his voice to what certainly many more Cubans are thinking: "Abajo Fidel!"

The Cuban secret police heard his shouts and arrested and beat him, charging him with "disrespect" and "resistance."

More than two months later, Capote was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Down with Fidel, indeed.

Cuba and a tale of two cities

The brand remains the same

In Buenos Aires, the U.S. Embassy hosted a forum on a new book that explains the otherwise inexplicably continuing fascination with that Argentine scourge of Cuban history, Ernesto "Che´" Guevara.

In Havana, the U.S. Interest Section remains silent when the Castro secret police arrests aspiring independent journalists — who reject everything Guevara was about — after they visit to sit in on classes on how to be a better reporter or editor.

Maybe it's just diplomats being diplomatic, but I can't help but think that in either city, this is not the kind of "rebranding" or "change" we — and the Cuban people — need.

(H/T Babalú)

Police increase the pressure on Antúnez

The Cuban secret police for several weeks have surrounded the home of human rights activist Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" to limit his contact with supporters as he, his wife and three other protesters carry out a liquid fast to protest abuses by the Castro dictatorship.

This week, the police upped the pressure on Antúnez, threatening to evict him from his house and charge him with "disobedience" if he did not kick out the three other protesters — Osiris Santana Pérez, Ernesto Mederos Arrozarena and Carlos Michael Morales Rodríguez. The thug delivering the warning said Antúnez and his wife were hosting an illegal gathering.

Antúnez, who survived more than 17 years in the Castro gulag, was not impressed, saying that "under no circumstance" would he turn out his fellow protesters.

Female political prisoner released from Castro gulag

María de los Ángeles Borrego Mir

Cuban political prisoner María de los Ángeles Borrego Mir, perhaps the best known female political prisoner in Cuba, was released from prison April 21, eight months shy of completing a 4-year sentence handed down in December 2005 after she was convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger," according to a report from independent journalist Belinda Salas Tapanes.

Cuban law generally allows for parole in certain cases, but Borrego, who has suffered a variety of health problems while in jail, said prison officials did not give her a reason for her early release. There are reports that Borrego was regularly beaten while an inmate at the "Manto Negro" prison in Havana.

"I never expected kindness from them, and I do not know what lies behind it," said Borrego, a member of the Rural Federation of Latin American Women (FLAMUR), one of the more active opposition groups in Cuba, especially on economic issues.

Nothing probably lies behind it, other than the fact that Borrego was nearing the end of her sentence. Her release is welcomed, but it would be a mistake to interpret the dictatorship's action in her case as anything more.

Cuban prisoner: Don't trade me for spies

Add Ángel Moya Acosta to the list of Cuban political prisoners who want nothing to do with Raúl Castro's "offer" to trade prisoners of conscience in his gulag for five Cuban agents convicted of espionage, conspiracy to murder and other charges in American courts.

Such an exchange would be "immoral, humiliating and degrading," Moya said. "Raúl Castro has to know that Cuban political prisoners ... tremendous honor and much dignity."

Which, of course, begs the question of whether Castro could ever recognize "honor and dignity."

Read the rest Moya's comments, in Spanish, here. He also wrote this letter.

Read more about Moya here.