Uncommon Sense

From behind bars, Cuban journalist pleads for fellow prisoner

Adolfo Fernández Saínz

Cuban independent journalist Adolfo Fernández Saínz has enough of his own problems. Arrested during the "black spring" of 2003, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and is currently in the Canaleta prison in Ciego de Ávila. Like other prisoners, Domínguez has been subjected to various brutalities, and as a result, his health has suffered.

In his most recent dispatch from the gulag, however, Fernández worries not about himself, but about another "black spring" political prisoner at Canaleta, Antonio Díaz Sánchez, who, for lack of better description, is being tortured to death because of his continued resistance and intransigence in the face of attempts by his captors to break his will, to break his spirit.

Antonio Díaz Sánchez

Here is my translation of Fernández's report, entitled "Where is the line?"

How many times will they punish Antonio Díaz Sánchez for not wearing a prison uniform? He is a political prisoner, a member of the Group of 75 sentenced to 20 years in the Canaleta provincial prison.

In September 2008, he was taken to Havana for medical reasons. He was in the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital, in the penal ward. There, the State Security police offered that if he were to wear a prison uniform, they would let him complete his sentence in Havana. He refused. He said he was a political prisoner. They threatened to return him to Canaleta, but he continued to refuse so they returned him here. This was his first punishment.

They took him to solitary confinement for the same reason. This was his second punishment. There, the conditions worsened. They do not let him go out in the sun, because he refuses to be handcuffed, given his status as a political prisoner.  They do not let him see his wife in the solarium 12 meters away, which is the third punishment. They do not let him use a telephone, which is a fourth punishment. ... He has passed six letters for his wife to the guards, and she has not received any of them. This constitutes a grave violation of the right to correspondence. Smith, the chief of re-education, said he would not be able to receive religious assistance. That is another serious violation of his rights.

Recently, my wife brought a carton of cigarettes and some crackers that his family sent him from Havana. They did not let him receive them. His wife brought him some newspapers on her last visit, but he was not allowed to receive them. That is a violation of his right to be informed, to read the press.

I wish for human rights organizations in Cuba and abroad to demand that if they are to keep him in a punishment cell, that they demand that they respect his rights as a prisoner. Write to the prison warden Lt. Col. Reinerio Díaz Betancourt and demand that he respect the rights of Antonio Díaz Sánchez.

Prisión Provincial de Canaletas
Carretera Sanguily, KM 2 ½
Ciego de Ávila, CP 65 100

Fernández is right to implore the international community to stand up for Sánchez, who is being punished severely because of his character and commitment to his cause.

And with this act of selflessness, Fernández shows why it is right for the world to also stand up for him.

H/T to CAPPF/CDHD-2506 for the original Spanish-language version of this report.

Happy Birthday to 'El Terrible'

Cuban political prisoner Juan Antonio Bermúdez Toranzo would be so proud of his little boy Raúl — his little big man, really — if he could see him marching through Havana, with his mother and the other Damas De Blanco ("Ladies In White"), demanding that their imprisoned loved ones be freed.

"Freedom for political prisoners!" the boy shouts each Sunday as the Damas gather for Mass and then a silent vigil march through the capital city.

The Damas, as Cuban women are to do, have adopted Raúl — affectionately nicknamed "El Terrible — and on Sunday held a party to celebrate his 5th birthday.

Already, Raúl has spent almost half of his life apart from his father, a lawyer sentenced to more than 4 years in prison because of his human rights activities, including a hunger strike to show support for political prisoners. Just add that separation to the list of crimes committed by the Castro dictatorship against the nation's people, against the nation's children.

Happy Birthday, El Terrible. My wish is that next year, your father will be with you to celebrate.

Cuban secret police targets independent journalist

Miguel Amado Reyes Fonseca

Independent journalists scare the hell out of the Castro dictatorship.

What else can explain the move by State Security on Aug. 20 to block Miguel Amado Reyes Fonseca from attending a free journalism class offered by the U.S. Interest Section in Havana?

Police officers played Reyes under house arrest, which, I guess, is better than what happened to Reyes when the goons came calling on July 9. That day, they drove Reyes to a police station and beat him, again for going to the U.S. Interest Section to learn some of the nuts and bolts to being a journalist.

Independent journalists are on the front lines of the struggle for liberty in Cuba, both for how they exercise their God-given right to free expression and for how they shine the light on the reality of Cuba today.

For both reasons, the Castro dictatorship has reason to be very afraid.

Adel Ramón López Nápoles and Santo del Pozo Rodriguez, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 8/30/09

 

There are many facets of Cuban life that testify to the cruelty of the regime that has enslaved the island for more than 50 years.

For instance, it is illegal for a Cuban to leave the country without the permission of the government.

Most nations, with varying degrees of success, concentrate on protecting its borders from outsiders.

But Cuba, like its former totalitarian cousins in Eastern Europe used to, devotes as much effort to keeping its people from leaving their tropical gulag, resorting at times to measures as extreme as murder.

And Cuba's prisons holds dozens, if not hundreds, of people convicted of "illegal exit," a "political crime" if there ever was one, because those guilty of it, are not just trying to leave the country without permission, they are rejecting everything about the dictatorship that enslaves them.

Of course, sometimes, the dictatorship uses the supposed crime of "illegal exit," to silence its critics, to lock them because of their politics.

Observers say that is what happened to human rights activists Adel Ramón López Nápoles and Santo del Pozo Rodríguez. Members of the Cuban Human Rights Foundation, López and del Pozo were arrested Sept. 11, 2007, on charges of illegal exit. During 10 days of detention, they were subjected to "rigorous" interrogations, according to one report.

On March 25, 2008, they were tried, convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison. After their appeal was rejected, they were imprisoned Aug. 21, 2008, in a prison in their home province of Piñar del Rio.

I could not find any information about events leading up their arrest, but even if they actually were trying to leave Cuba — after all who could blame them? — their case illustrates the fundamental cruelty and illegitimacy of the Castro regime and to what lengths it goes to maintain its grips on the Cuban people.

The "illegal exit" law is nothing about preserving the national security or integrity of the island.

It is all about dictatorship maintaining its control, its power over the Cuban people.

Those who break that grip by trying to flee are, indeed, very, very dangerous.

Diane Watson is Fidel Castro's woman in Congress

The longer the debate about health care reform goes on, the more likely we are to hear from idiots like Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., about how lucky Cubans are that Fidel Castro brought them health care reform and other glories of the revolution more than 50 years ago.

Which, I am sure, is news to the millions of Cubans who have fled the island, and those unfortunate to be stuck behind paying the consequences of that revolution.

At a recent town hall in her district, Watson advised that we go to Cuba to see what "Fidel Castro put in place," extending her admiration of the Cuban health care system to a blanket approval of everything Castro and his dictatorship have brought to Cuba.

Well, congresswoman, I don't have to go down to Cuba to see what he put in place.

I don't have to go to Cuba to understand the economic mismanagement and outright theft by a communist dictatorship that has left most Cubans hungry and with barely a roof over their heads.

I don't have to go to Cuba to understand the security apparatus that the communist dictatorship put in place that has citizens spying on each other, even their own family members, so that the dictatorship can stay in power.

I don't have to go Cuba to understand that the communist dictatorship represses all basic human rights for the sake of its own power, and how if any Cuban dares challenge it, they bring on themselves harassment, threats and possible imprisonment in the worst thing Fidel Castro put in place, a gulag where his regime sends its opponents to be tortured, to be silenced, to be forgotten.

You could ask Oscar Biscet, Darsi Ferrer, Normando Hernandez, Antonio Diaz or any other Cuban whose name is listed on the right side of this blog, about what Castro has meant for Cuba. But wait, you can't, because they have been imprisoned, because they understand too well what Castro put in place, and had the courage to try to change it.

It is inaccurate, and too kind, to call you an "idiot."

You are nothing but a shill for Castro and the evils he has committed against the Cuban people, and all of humanity, for more than 50 years. In a Congress where there are many examples of mediocrity, you may be the worst, and not just because you failed history, but for how you applaud one of the great tyrants, one of the great monsters of our time.

You have no moral stature to lead. In fact, I am certain your kind, which sees nothing wrong in applauding evil and encouraging others to do the same, would be much more comfortable in the halls of power in Havana.

So the next time you go to Cuba to see Castro's latest "gift" to Cuba, do us all a favor and stay there.

Just don't forget to your toilet paper.

Visit shows Dr. Darsi Ferrer is not forgotten (UPDATED)

The European Union, at best, has a mixed record when it comes to holding the Castro dictatorship accountable for its deplorable human rights record. It imposed sanctions after the "black spring" of 2003, but it has since lifted them, with no discernible change by the Havana regime.

Earlier today, some European diplomats — specifically, from Sweden, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland and Germany — took new steps in the right direction when they visited the wife of imprisoned Cuban dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer.

It was a small gesture — the diplomats disavowed any political significance — but an important one, because it demonstrated that freedom fighters, that human rights activists like Dr. Ferrer are not forgotten, that they are not alone, that there are those overseas who hear their cries for justice and for liberty.

Hopefully, the diplomats will make such gestures on behalf of Cuban political prisoners and other dissidents, a habit.

UPDATED, 9 p.m. EDT

Reuters reports the Cuban government is upset with the Europeans.

Good.

For still photographs of the visit, go here.

And for CNN En Español's report, watch this.

Cuban activists: Our fight is in Myanmar, too

The Cuban Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs this week called on the international community to stand in solidarity with the victims of dictatorial repression — in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Again demonstrating that the lack of freedom, and efforts to restore it, in one country, is a struggle for all the world.

"It is a crime not only against that naion, but against all of humanity and its essential rights," said Juan González Leiva, the Cuban council's executive secretary. "Because of that, the international community ought not cross its arms. The military junta should immediately release Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi and all political prisoners of Myanmar, and permit free and democratic elections supervised by international observers."

Now only if more in the international community would stand up for freedom in Cuba, the way some Cubans are standing with freedom fighters in Myanmar.

That won't happen, unfortunately, until more in the world realize what truly is at stake on the island.

Political prisoner may get more time in jail

A Cuban Interior Ministry official has filed charges accusing political prisoner Yordis García Fournier of "public disorder," for allegedly planning a prison protest to coincide with Fidel Castro's 83rd birthday on Aug. 13, meaning García may remain imprisoned when his 1-year sentence ends Sept. 1.

Cuban Democratic Directorate has the story:

Guantánamo. 24 August 2009. Cuban Democratic Directorate. Cuban political prisoner Yordis García Fournier is currently being threatened by Cuban authorities of being processed under new charges of “social dangerousness” due to supposed acts of “public disorder” according to reports from his brother, Niobert García Fourner. Yordis will have served the entirety of his unjust, politically motivated sentence in September of this year.

According to reports provided to the Cuban Democratic Directorate by independent journalist Jorge Corrales Ceballos, the Ministry of the Interior Operations Unit’s “instructor” for Guantánamo prison known as Officer Odely drew up a “social dangerousness” charge on August 10th with the intention of processing García Fournier under new charges due to “disorder” during his prison sentence. According to the officer, García Fournier planned to carry out a protest inside the prison on Fidel Castro's birthday.

“This is the second time in less than one month that the officer went [to see García Fournier] for the same purpose. The previous time was last July 26th,” stated Corrales Ceballos. Yordis García Fournier was incarcerated in September of 2008 and sentenced to one year in prison on spurious charges of “resistance”. He will complete his sentence on September 1, 2009. García Fournier is currently under unjust imprisonment at the Combinado de Guantánamo Prison. He led a hunger strike from October 11, 2008 until November 1, 2008 demanding his right to wear civilian clothing and refusing to wear a common prisoner's uniform.

Read my Political Prisoner of the Week profile of García, here.

And read more about Combinado de Guantanamo prison, here.

At the 'real Guantanamo,' guards beat political prisoner

When it comes to torture and holding prisoners incommunicado, the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay has nothing on the Castro gulag's outpost on the other side of the base's boundary, the Combinado de Guantanamo prison. Read this great piece by Mauricio Claver-Carone, and then decide where the real crimes are being committed, and by whom.

Coincidentally, Cuban human rights activist/independent journalist Juan Carlos González Leiva filed a report describing how guards at Combinado de Guantanamo recently assaulted political prisoner Ricardo Galván Casal.

Galván, who in April was sentenced to 3 years in prison, was beaten after he wrote on the walls of his cell, Abajo Fidel and abajo tiranía — "Down with Fidel" and "down with tyranny." Galván was protesting the removal from his cell a water heater that had been prescribed by government doctors.

In response, several guards grabbed Galván and rubbed him against the walls, in some bizarre attempt to erase the slogans.

Sloganeering was the "crime" that landed Galván in the gulag. A member of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, Galván was arrested and convicted of "disrespect," after several bumper stickers and other signs proclaiming CAMBIO, or "change," started showing up around the town of Baracoa, in far eastern Cuba.

There's only one prison with the word "Guantanamo" in its name, where you will find inmates guilty of that.

Read my Political Prisoner of the Week profile of Galván, here.

Cuban activist Nelson Curbelo sentenced to 2 years in prison

Cuban political activist Nelson Curbelo Rodríguez was sentenced to 2 years in prison after a Castroite "court" found him guilty of "attacking" and "disrespecting" four state agents, according to a report posted at Payo Libre.

Curbelo, 48, had been arrested in March after a confrontation with two of the offended agents. Other activists said they believe Curbelo, who had previously been imprisoned for "disrespecting Fidel Castro," was targeted by police because of his human rights work.

For more about Curbelo, read my Political Prisoner of the Week profile.