Uncommon Sense

Cuban independent journalist back in jail

Calixto Martínez Arias

Three weeks in a Cuban prison did not dissuade independent journalist Calixto Martínez Arias from getting back to work once he was released May 14. His intransigence, as Reporters Without Borders reports, has landed him back in jail:

Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, an independent journalist who works for Hablemos Press, was arrested again by State Security officials while covering a dissident demonstration in Havana on 25 May. Another independent journalist, Carlos Serpa Maceira, and six other demonstrators were also arrested but, unlike Martínez, they were quickly released.

Martínez was due to be transferred to Camagüey the day after his arrest but his present place of detention is not known. He had been released on 14 May after being held for three weeks in Valle Grande prison on a charge of “aggravated insult” at the time of his arrest by police on 23 April.

Reporters Without Borders is also concerned about the health of three journalists who have been held since the “Black Spring” crackdown of March 2003, when they were convicted on trumped-up charges of spying. They are Normando Hernández González (sentenced to 25 years in prison), José Luis García Paneque (24 years) and Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta (20 years).

What became of the humanitarian gesture that the Cuban government promised as a result of the Catholic Church’s mediation?

For more, read the report from Martínez's colleagues at CIHPRESS (en español).

And read the Uncommon Sense Political Prisoner of the Week profile of Martínez, here.

Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 5/30/10

An earlier version of this post appeared last week.

Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta

In a totalitarian society like Cuba's, obtaining accurate information about what the totalitarians are doing is never easy. Add the rural, impoverished nature of most of the island, and it can be doubly difficult to determine what is really happening.

That has been the case with the earlier apparent transfer of Cuban prisoner of conscience Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta from a prison to a psychiatric hospital.

There were reports last week that Villareal would be the first political prisoner to benefit under an arrangement reached between the dictator Raúl Castro and top Catholic Church officials to improve conditions for at least some political prisoners. Villareal, so went some of the reports, had already been transferred from a prison to a sanitarium for treatment of psychiatric ailments brought on by his more than seven years in the Castro gulag.

The I Accuse the Cuban Government blog is now reporting that Villareal is, in fact, still at the prison, that he remains held hostage to the whims of his captors:

Our campaign has learned, from opposition activists in Cuba, who are close to the Ladies in White, that the previously announced transfer to a mental health facility of political prisoner Antonio Villarreal has not happened.

Last Thursday, penal authorities at the facility where Villarreal is currently being held told his wife that he would be transferred soon, apparently in terms that made it sound imminent. This information was then relayed to members of the Ladies in White, and other opposition activists.

The family of Villarreal lives in a remote village in the central province of Villa Clara, and communication with them is sporadic and difficult. They can only be reached by phone at a communal telephone in the village, and only yesterday was it possible for Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz to contact Silvia Aguado, Villarreal’s wife. She told him that despite what the penal authorities told her last Thursday, she found him on Sunday at the same minimum-security facility or labor camp where he was on 20 May.

We will continue to monitor as closely as possible, and inform on developments in the situation of political prisoners in Cuba.  More importantly, we continue to demand the liberation of all Cuban political prisoner.

In fact, 10 days after the meeting between Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, there has not been a report of a single sick prisoner being transferred to a hospital. That is disappointing but not surprising.

Villareal, an economist and librarian, was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003 because of his involvement with the Varela Project and other opposition activities and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He was first profiled here in January 2007. You can read that report, here.

Without release, the torture suffered by some Cuban political prisoners is irreversible (UPDATED)

Cuban human rights activist/lawyer/journalist Juan Carlos González Leiva warned this week that as many as 10 Cuban political prisoners may be permanently incapacitated by their poor health if they are not soon released from the Cuban gulag.

In an interview with Radio Martí, González, himself a former political prisoner, highlighted the cases of four of those prisoners:

• Ariel Sigler Amaya, who has been left paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
• Antonio Villareal Acosta, who suffers from psychiatric disorders caused by his confinement.
• Normando Hernández González, who suffers from severe intestinal problems.
• Pedro Argüelles Morán, who is practically blind.

(For the names of the other six prisoners, see update below.)

Despite the anticipation of possible prisoner transfers under an arrangement reached between the Castro dictatorship and the Catholic Church, González said he has yet to detect "a change in the spirit of the government."

González added he does not anticipate that the Castro regime will allow a mass release of prisoners anytime soon.

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The fate of Cuba's most severely ill political prisoners has been central to Guillermo Fariñas' now 93-day hunger strike. He reiterated this week that his sole demand is the release of some two dozen sick prisoners.

For their names and more about their conditions,  read this list. (Microsoft Word document)

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UPDATED, May 28, 2010 — A report at Diario De Cuba includes the names of additional prisoners who are considered critically ill. They are:

• Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, who suffers various cardiac, respiratory, intestinal and other ailments.
• Dr. José Luís García Paneque, who suffers from spinal, kidney and respiratory ailments.
• Librado Linares García, who is partially blind and suffers from digestive and respiratory problems.
• Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, who suffers from kidney, circulatory, prostate and intestinal ailments.
• Próspero Gainza Agüero, who is nearly blind and suffers from intestinal and kidney problems.
• Fabio Prieto Llorente, who is hypertensive and suffers from allergies and digestive and respiratory problems.

Two Cuban independent journalists arrested

Two Cuban independent journalists were arrested and detained this week while they were covering an opposition demonstration at a Havana park, according to a report posted at Misceláneas de Cuba.

Independent journalist Roberto de Jesus Guerra reported that his colleagues Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias and Carlos Serpa Maceira were picked up on Tuesday in Havana.

Serpa, who has been arrested numerous times, was released the next day.

However, Martinez, who was released from jail May 14 after three weeks in custody, was ordered deported to Camagüey, since he did not have permission to be in the capital.

A prisoner's mom describe how Cuban officials tortured her

Noris Morales is the mother of Cuban political prisoner Egberto Escobedo Morales, who has been on hunger strike since April 16 protesting conditions in his prison.

In this video, Sra. Morales describes how Cuban officials tricked her into believing she might be able to win the release of her son. (An English transcript is below.)

My name is Noris Morales I am the mother of Egberto Escobedo Morales. My son is serving a 29 year prison sentence in the prisons of Cuba. He will have spent 16 years in prison as of June 11, 2010. 16 years suffering the worse things in life: beatings, hunger strikes, and struggling with hunger strikes.

I left Cuba.

In the year that I left Cuba they mislead me into leaving. They promised me if I was able to obtain a visa from any country that they would turn him over to me.

I went to Costa Rica. My family helped me. When I got there I began to struggle and had the visa denied on three occasions because he was in prison. They said they could not give it to me.

One day it occurred to me to go to the Government House of Costa Rica and when my nerves got bad. The first Lady became aware of my presence there. It was her office where she worked. Lady Lorena Clare was able to get me the visa and she helped me.

I believed in the communists. I believed that they had told me the truth. I took the visa and went to Cuba. I arrived in Havana with 150 pesos. When I got to Camaguey I was without a penny. I went there with the hope that my son would be turned over to me.

I get to Camaguey where the delegation meets, at the Ministry thats when they told me: "Oh..but you believed that? You can't be right in the head." They had told me that (about the visa) to leave the country and not be next to my son and when they told me this I said that cannot be. Now I will stay. If you do not give me my son I will stay on a hunger strike. Whatever - you need to turn him over to me.

When I told my son that I would remain imprisoned. I hadn't done anything. I had committed no crime but they told me that if I stayed it would be in prison. I would remain imprisoned but they had to give me my son.

But my son told me on his knees - He asked me on his knees: "Mom please get out - leave Cuba. You are my hope that I will stay alive that my voice will be heard outside. The hope that I get out of here is you mother.

That was a few years ago that I left. What I have accomplished until now? I have not been able to get him out of the prison not even for an hour. They tricked me. The only thing I have been able to do is to denounce this. That the world know about the situation of my son. I have him in a very grave state at this moment. He is vomiting blood. I don't know if he is going to be saved. My son is going to die just like Zapata. I don't want that to happen to my son. Help me please. Please help me. My son is going to die. I don't want him to die.

First prisoner transfered under deal between Castro, Catholic Church

Antonio Villarreal Acosta

After some earlier confusion on my part, it does appear Antonio Villarreal Acosta is the first Cuban political prisoner to be transferred to a medical facility, under an arrangement worked out between the Castro dictatorship and Catholic Church officials, according to the Spanish newspaper La Razon.

Villarreal, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003 and serving a 20-year sentence, was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, his nerves reportedly shot by the abuses he has suffered while in jail. Although at least one dissident questioned whether the move only shifted the location of where the dictatorship tortures Villarreal, according to the newspaper report.

As best as I can, I will try to keep track of which prisoners are transferred to hospitals or to jails closer to their homes as a gauge of the true significance of the new order between church and state in Cuba.

Fariñas: If all sick Cuba prisoners aren't released, my hunger strike goes on

Guillermo Fariñas vows to continue protest, even if it kills him.

The most remarkable aspect of Guillermo Fariñas' now-91-day hunger strike is that from the beginning he has demanded nothing for himself. Instead, his protest has been on behalf of some two dozen seriously ill prisoners languishing in the Castro gulag.

They may be forgotten by many in the world, but they have always had Fariñas as their champion.

So it is no surprise that even now, as the families of the prisoners and others wonder how exactly an arrangement between the government and the Catholic Church to improve conditions for some prisoners will be implemented, Fariñas is staying true to his original demand:

The release of the most seriously ill political prisoners.

Anything less, and his hunger strike will go

Fariñas, a psychologist and independent journalist, reaffirmed his intent to continue his protest, as he struggles in a Cuban hospital to recover from a vicious kidney infection brought on by his protest. Since Feb. 24, he hasn't eaten any food or drank any water, his only sustenance being what's running through his veins from an IV.

Fariñas told Europa Press he will not be satisfied if improved conditions for political prisoners stop with the transfer of some of them to hospitals or to prisons closer to their homes. A Catholic Church official informed Fariñas over this past weekend that the Castro dictatorship had agreed to such moves, starting this week, after talks between Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

The fact that Fariñas received such a visit at his hospital bed is testament to what his protest has already accomplished, that it has not been a futile effort, that he is not a man to be ignored.

If the government does not parole the ill prisoners, Fariñas vowed to continue with his hunger strike "because I didn't start this protest for transfers, but to demand the release of prisoners of conscience with health problems."

(H/T Penultimos Días, via Twitter)

Cuba political prisoner Ángel Moya: Beware Castro's motives

Ángel Moya Acosta

A Cuban with plenty to potentially gain from the recent rapprochement between the Castro dictatorship and the Catholic Church — that is, his freedom — is wary of the government's motives in its apparent willingness to negotiate the question of political prisoners.

In fact, Ángel Moya Acosta, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, said he will not accept a release if it means the Damas De Blanco ("Ladies In White") and their supporters vow to end their street protests for the release of political prisoners, he told Radio Martí.

Moya said he will also reject parole if it is conditioned on the release of five convicted Cuban spies being held in American prisons.

Read more about Moya, here.

Castro's bitch breaks her leash, bites camerawoman

The foul-mouth woman in orange — she reportedly is either the wife of the Cuban ambassador to Norway or a diplomat herself — was upset that a 19-year-old woman was videotaping a peaceful protest outside the Cuban embassy in Oslo this past weekend.

Like the untrained dog that she is, the woman broke free from her leash, spewed out a bunch of vulgarities and bit the camerawoman.

No word yet if the attacker — a real maricona, indeed — was up to date on her rabies shots.

Cuban political prisoner Antonio Villarreal transferred to psychiatric hospital (UPDATED x 2)

Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta

Cuban political prisoner Antonio Antonio Villarreal Acosta has been transferred to a sanitarium, or psychiatric hospital, according to a report posted at Diario de Cuba.

The move coincides as the Castro dictatorship prepares to move some political prisoners under an arrangement made with Catholic Church officials. However, Villarreal's transfer is apparently not part of that deal, as he was moved just hours after a meeting between the dictator Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega. (For an explanation for the strike-through, see below.)

Villarreal, who has been imprisoned since the "black spring" crackdown of 2003, reportedly suffers from psychological and other health problems.

Read more about him, here.

UPDATED, 6:20 p.m. EDT — The Damas De Blanco Association says the transfer is a precursor to Villarreal's eventual release.

UPDATED, May 26, 2010 — Subsequent reports, here and here, suggest I was probably incorrect earlier with my assessment that Villarreal's transfer was not tied to the discussions between the Castro dictatorship and the Catholic Church. Blame it on my limited Spanish abilities and the difficulty in sometimes determining what the dictatorship is doing.

As to the origin of Villarreal's psychiatric problems, Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez said it can be traced back to the time he spent in the punishment cells at the Boniato prison.