Uncommon Sense

Spain shows its true colors on Cuba

I will make this as simple as I can, so you can understand who's who, and what's what, so you won't be confused again.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos goes to Havana to talk nice with government officials, and refuses to meet with the wives, mothers, sisters, etc. of political prisoners unjustly jailed by the Castro dictatorship.

The wives of two of five Cuban intelligence convicted in American courts — complete with due process, the right to appeal, etc. — of espionage go to Madrid, and get an audience with the aforementioned Spanish foreign minister.

Any more questions about where Spain stands on Cuba?

Sign petition to support Cuban political prisoner

Dr. Darsi Ferrer

If it was as easy as starting an online petition and gathering a few signatures in order to win the release of each and every Cuban political prisoner, I would dedicate whatever I could to make it happen.

Unfortunately, it is not so easy, because of the time it would take, and because the Castro dictatorship, a brutal regime operating one of the largest, most cruel gulags on the planet, is not so easily swayed.

Still, such petitions, in print and especially online, have their important purpose because: A) They remind the prisoner that they are not forgotten, that their continued resistance to tyranny is being witnessed and supported by supporters around the world.

And B) They remind the prisoner's captor of exactly the same.

A petition may not convince the Cuban government to release a political prisoner, but it should remind officials that they are being held accountable in the court of political opinion.

The petition may only be a symbol, but the more signatures attached, the more powerful a symbol it is.

So with those caveats, I would encourage you to view and add your name to this petition in support of Cuban political prisoner Dr. Darsi Ferrer, who has been imprisoned since July 21 on trumped-up charges of assault and receiving stolen construction materials.

Show Darsi, and his captors, that he is not forgotten.

And who knows, maybe there is a magic number that will convince the dictatorship that it has no other choice but to release Ferrer.

If there is, I know what I will be doing with my spare time.

Cuban activist starts hunger strike to support imprisoned brother

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

Cuban human rights activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera on Thursday started a hunger strike to show her solidarity with her brother, the political prisoner Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, according to a report today from independent journalist Aini Martín Valero.

Mario, who in 2006 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a supposed "common" crime, has been on his own hunger strike since Sept. 5 to protest his treatment by his captors. Reports are that he is gravely ill because of his protest, but the authorities have refused to provide his family any information about his condition or whereabouts. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States, earlier this month intervened with the Cuban government on behalf of Mario.

Iris is one of the leading lights of the Cuban human rights movement. She heads the Rosa Parks Women's Movement, and earlier this year the National Endowment for Democracy honored Iris and her husband, the former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," as co-recipients of its Democracy Award. The Cuban police have arrested Iris numerous times, but so far have spared her the same fate as her brother or her husband, who was released from prison in April 2007 after more than 17 years in jail.

According to journalist Martín Valero, Iris is conducting her protest at her home in Placetas, in Santa Clara province.

For more about this brave woman, watch this video, produced by the National Endowment for Democracy:

The Courage To Be Free: Tribute to Cuban Democracy Activists from National Endowment for Democracy on Vimeo.

Cuban political prisoner: Keep up the fight!

Arnoldo Herrera Campoalegre

Despite the challenges he faces as a political prisoner in Castro gulag, Cuban political prisoner Arnaldo Herrera Campoalegre implored members of a Martiana Commission, the organization of which he is vice president, to keep up their struggle just as he is from behind bars. (Martiana Commissions are unofficial groups whose members' goal is to educate the Cuban public about the social teachings of José Martí.)

"Although I am a prisoner, you have to continue the work of the commission. From a distance, you will receive my support. You cannot stop the struggle for freedom for our country," Herrera wrote.

"No matter the repressive methods State Security takes against me, nothing or nobody can stop us. The end of our war will come when there is freedom and democracy. God bless you all."

The day before a recent visit by family members, the "re-education" officer at the "1580" prison warned Herrera he might lose certain benefits because he refused to participate in a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos.

For more about Herrera, who recently was sentenced to 1 year in prison, read my Political Prisoner of the Week profile.

By saying, 'No' to his captors, Cuban journalist proves himself a hero

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez

Imprisoned Cuban journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez last month won a small victory in his continuing struggle with his captors to preserve his human rights, and proved again he is a hero.

Maseda, who suffers from high blood pressure, and 17 other inmates at the Agüica prison in Matanzas province, were lined up for a visit to the prison doctor, when a guard instead directed them to a bivouac area considered to be a punishment area, according to a letter written by Maseda and reviewed by independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceria.

Maseda said as much, but the guard said it wasn't, they were just using the area to isolate prisoners waiting for medical care.

Maseda was not convinced, telling the guard, according to the letter:

"You can euphemistically call it what you want, but it is a punishment area because there is no light, no water, it is dirty with bad smells, and you can barely breathe because of the stale air. At night, there are thousands of mosquitoes that won't let you sleep. You take to that area inmates who are discipline problems and who cause bloodshed or get into fights. I am not going to the bivouac. You are doing this to annoy prisoners and to prevent them from receiving medical care."

Maseda said he then turned around and returned to his cell, and that guards never asked for an explanation for his actions because they knew he was right.

The transfer of the inmates to the bivouac, wrote Maseda, was "a violation of the prisoners' rights," especially when what they needed was to see a doctor.

Speaking truth to power on behalf of the powerless, through stories, photographs, etc., is one of the bedrock precepts of journalism.

It is heartening that even in Castro gulag, one of the truly hellish places on Earth, there are journalists like Maseda remaining true to that ideal.

And what makes Maseda heroic is that he is not doing for himself, but for his fellow prisoners.

Read my 2006 profile of Maseda, here.

Human rights panel intervenes with Havana on prisoner's behalf (UPDATED)

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States, has intervened with the Cuban government on behalf of political prisoner Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, who reportedly is near death because of a hunger strike he started Sept. 5.

Pérez Aguilera, who is serving a 10-year sentenced handed down in 2006, started the hunger strike to protest how his human rights were being abused in prison.

The IACHR asked the Cuban government to keep it informed about what was doing to protect Pérez Aguilera's rights.

I am not sure of the practical effect of this — especially when it comes almost simultaneously with a United Nations vote condemning the United States embargo against Cuba — but it is encouraging to see an international agency like the IACHR step up on behalf of an individual political prisoner.

There needs to be more of that.

Read my profile of Pérez Aguilera, here.

UPDATED, Oct. 30, 2009 — Three activists were arrested and detained for about 6 hours at a Havana police station after they went to State Security headquarters and demanded information about Pérez's whereabouts.

United Nations ignores the real Cuban embargo

For the 18th year in a row, an almost-unanimous United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday condemned the so-called "embargo" against Cuba by the island nation's fifth biggest trading partner, the United States.

And for about the 50th year in a row, not a word from the General Assembly about the real embargo — no freedom of expression, no freedom to travel, no freedom to make a living, no freedom, period — enforced against the Cuban people by the Castro dictatorship.

Men of good faith and goodwill can disagree about the merits of the embargo — after all, it has not brought down the Castro regime after all that time.

But for the United Nations to chastise the United States while ignoring the suffering of the Cuban people brought by the Cuban government, only reveals how it has been co-opted by Cuban diplomatic foolery and how morally bankrupt an institution it really is.

And how far the cause of Cuban liberty has to go before the nation is free.

Castro's bully threatens independent journalist

A Cuban cop named "Carlos" delivered some grim news to independent journalist José Guillén Pérez on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 25:

If he continued with his opposition activities, which presumably include his work as a journalist, he would be sent to prison.

It is not an empty threat, as there are some two dozen journalists imprisoned in the Castro gulag, but it is such a tired story.

Opponent upsets the dictatorship.

Dictatorship threatens opponent.

If you want an easy way to think of the Castro dictatorship, those in its ranks are a band of hoods, no better and no less cowardly than a common street gang, running a protection racket based on fear.

Threats. Assaults. Blackmail. Imprisonments. None of it, even since Raúl Castro was elevated to head of the family, is beneath them.

But as the dictatorship's thugs learn almost every time, independent journalists and other dissidents in Cuba today are not so easily cowed.

The report detailing how Guillén was threatened did not include his response to police, but I think we can take heart that since Guillén was probably the source for the story posted at the Miscelaneas de Cuba Web site, he, too, was not scared into submission.

If 33 Cuban prisoners have a problem with Spanish appeasement ...

... then we really do have something to worry about.

When it comes to Cuban freedom, it looks like it will be a very long year in Europe.

Cuban political prisoner Alejo released from jail

Vladimir Alejo Miranda (Miscelaneas de Cuba photo)

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, a human rights activist and independent librarian, was released from prison Oct. 23, about 2 months shy of completing a two-year sentence handed down after he was arrested for carrying a sign demanding the release of political prisoners in Cuba.

The Castro dictatorship gets no credit here when it releases a political prisoner upon completion of their "sentence." Men and women imprisoned because of their political opposition to the regime are guilty of no real crime -- Alejo was convicted of "contempt of authority and offending the figure of the commander-in-chief -- so that regime gets no special consideration when it follows its own unjust laws and frees a political prisoner.

That said, his release is welcomed news.

In prison, said Alejo, he witnessed the "hell" the dictatorship has created in its prisons. At one point, it almost killed him when he suffered a heart attack. (For details on exactly what he experienced, read this and this.)

Read more about his release, here; and my Political Prisoner of the Week profile of Alejo here.