Uncommon Sense

Cuban political prisoner Juan Rivera on hunger strike

Cuban political prisoner Juan Ramón Rivera Despaigne, co-founder with the late Orlando Zapata Tamayo of the Alternative Republican Movement, has been on hunger strike since Sept. 10 to demand his immediate release from prison, according to a statement by the group.

Rivera and Zapata have followed similar paths in their respective struggles against the Castro regime, paths that took both of them into Cuba's gulag.

Zapata was imprisoned during the "black spring" of 2003, and Rivera in 2009 was sentenced to 2 years in prison on a charge of "assault" after he was arrested for selling a few tomatoes. (Presumably, this won't be a crime under the "free market" version of the Castro dictatorship, but you never know.)

This past March, officials retaliated for an earlier strike by Rivera by adding six months to his sentence for a charge of "disrespect."

How far Rivera will take his protest is not known.

The Alternative Republican Movement (MAR) is acting to prevent the same outcome for Rivera as for Zapata, who died Feb. 23 after an 86-day hunger strike that was aggravated by his jailers' abuses and cruelty. In its statement, the MAR implored the international community to intervene with dictatorship on Rivera's behalf.

"We hold the dictatorship of Fidel Castro and his aide, his brother Raúl, responsible for what might happen, as at the same time we demand his immediate liberation," the group's statement reads.

Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos, Sr. Pérez de Alejo

Former Cuban political prisoner Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, after his release in July.

As 21 of the 36 recently released Cuban political prisoners ask for the United States to allow them to move here from Spain, one formerly imprisoned dissident, his wife and their daughter will travel to Miami on Monday.

Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez arrived in Spain on July 21 after his release and expulsion from the island, under a deal struck by Spain, the Catholic Church in Havana and the Castro dictatorship. He would be the first of the released prisoners to come to the United States, not counting Ariel Sigler Amaya who was allowed to travel to the United States for medical treatment.

Call me biased, but I do believe the former prisoners and their families — and the cause of Cuban freedom — are better served if they are allowed to settle in the United States. Many of them already have relatives here, and if they so choose, their testimonies about their experiences would go a long way to informing the uninformed and/or the ignorant about the realities of Cuba today.

I hope Pérez de Alejo, with the assistance of the United States, is the first of many of these heroes to come to America.

Welcome to the U.S.A., Sr. Pérez de Alejo.

Read more about Pérez de Alejo, here.

I want to visit Cuba but not until the Castros are gone

I've been asked many times if I ever want to visit Cuba.

The short answer: "Of course, I do, hopefully with my parents as tour guides. But I won't until the Castros are gone and Cuba is free, as I do not want any of my hard-earned money ending up in their pockets."

For the longer answer, I turn to famed Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera:

Going to Cuba, What For?

Everyone knows that in a totalitarian regime like the Cuban is, absolutely everything is organized, coordinated and controlled by the state, including, and very mainly the arts. So a few days ago when my colleagues at Jazz at Lincoln Center naively told me that "Good thing we're going to Cuba for musical, not political reasons”, I immediately, kindly but firmly replied: I’m sorry, but there is not such a thing as a non-political event in Cuba, and sadly enough, great artists like my dear friend Chucho Valdés are nothing else but tools of that lamentable regime. You should ask Chucho why his own father's many achievements as well as Cachao, Julio Gutierrez, Celia Cruz and so many of us Cuban exiled artists has been silenced and banned from the official history books in our own land. And please take the opportunity to ask also about the Ladies in White, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet–a follower of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Guillermo Fariñas, Yoani Sanchez, and so many other Cubans (most of them blacks), discriminated against, harassed or even left to die or serving up to 30 years in prison just for speaking their minds. And believe me that this is just the very tip of the iceberg about the horrors hidden behind those so publicized Castro's free schools and health (or rather HELL) systems. Everybody should know by now that every single activity there, is related and connected to a political goal, and relevant names–like Wynton Marsalis or Tania León, for example– will be used, no doubts about it, for propaganda matters, help legitimizing the 50 year plus old dictatorship, and against those of us, fighting for a better future for our people. On the other hand, three times already this year I turned down pretty juicy propositions to go to Communist China, the same way so many artists refused to perform in a racist South Africa in the past. I simply refuse to visit cages to play for prisoners with no crimes committed. How would it feel to criticize Cuban tourism while sending post-cards from Tiananmen Square?!

So quoting Cuban exiled journalist Miguel Pérez: “I tell my non-Cuban friends that I probably have much better reasons for wanting to go to the Island. But sarcastically, I also explain that I've managed to resist the temptation because I suffer from an illness called "principles" and that traveling to my country under the hideous regime from which I fled is bad for my health. Until Cuba is truly free, I'm not going to be traveling with them.”

So, bon voyage!

Paquito D’Rivera

Iván Álvarez Mosqueda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 9/26/10

The Group of 75 — those independent journalists, librarians and other activists and dissidents covered by the much ballyhooed agreement between Spain, the Catholic Church and the Castro dictatorship for their release — are Cuba's best known political prisoners, and perhaps rightly so, for how they have drawn attention to the human rights situation on the island.

But it is important to never forget the less recognized political prisoners languishing in the Castro gulag, men Iván Álvarez Mosqueda.

I could find very little about Alvarez, except that he was first imprisoned in 2003 — the same year as the Group of 75 — on charges of "acts against the security of the state," "illegal exit," and armed robbery. At age 17, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

We can only imagine how many others there are like him in Cuba.

'Oscar's Cuba' to play in Tampa

"Oscar's Cuba," a documentary about Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, will make its premiere in Tampa on Thursday, Nov. 4, on the campus of the University of South Florida.

Biscet, the best known political prisoner in the Castro gulag, remains in jail, even though he supposedly is covered by an agreement between Spain, the Catholic Church and the Cuban dictatorship for the release — and expulsion from the island — of 52 prisoners. Biscet is one of about a dozen prisoners who have let it be known they will not accept forced exile in exchange for their release.

Here is a trailer for the film, which already through screenings around the world has become a powerful weapon in spreading the message about this brave man and the continuing struggle for freedom in Cuba.

Here is another sneak peek at the film:

For more details about the screening, read this.

And for more about Dr. Biscet, visit the website for the Lawton Foundation, the human rights organization he founded.

3 more Cuban political prisoners released (UPDATED x 2)

UPDATED, 7:25 p.m. EDT — Radio Martí has reports on comments by former political prisoner Hector Valle and Miguel Galvan in which they honor the sacrifices of Cuban heroes like Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Guillermo Fariñas and the Damas De Blanco, without which the recent releases would not have happened. Read and listen to the reports, here and here.

UPDATED, 4:10 p.m. EDT — Miguel Galvan Gutierrez has been released and arrived today in Spain.

Three more Cuban political prisoners were released and kicked off the island, thanks to the deal between Spain, the Catholic Church and the Castro dictatorship.

The three, who arrive in Madrid on Friday are:

• Nelson Molinet
  
• Hector Raul Valle
• Jose Miguel Martinez

A fourth prisoner, Miguel Galvan Gutierrez, was expected to be released and arrive in Madrid today.

This is a moment to celebrate, especially for these brave heroes and their families. The circumstances of their release — a morally flawed deal with the bastard regime in Havana — should not take away from that.

But also remember there are some prisoners still in the Castro gulag because they refuse to accede to an agreement that requires they leave Cuba in exchange for their freedom. Their intransigence reveals how bad a deal the Spain-church-Castro agreement really is.

They still may be behind bars but they know what real freedom is about.

Vladimir Alejo Miranda may be Cuban freedom's next martyr

Vladimir Alejo Miranda

The last thing the cause of Cuban freedom needs another martyr, because the cause of Cuban freedom needs men like Vladimir Alejo Miranda.

The Miami Herald has the latest on his 60-plus-day hunger strike and his worsening health:

A Cuban dissident who sewed his lips shut after doctors made fun of his hunger strike was taken to a hospital Wednesday suffering from convulsions and blackouts, an independent journalist reported.

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, 47, stopped eating 62 days ago, sewed his mouth Sept. 5 and stopped drinking water Tuesday, journalist Heriberto Liranza Romero told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Havana.

Alejo's wife, Rita Montes de Oca, joined his hunger strike and also sewed her lips Sept. 12 with regular sewing thread and a needle, the journalist said.

Alejo was taken to a hospital in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa on Wednesday after he blacked out and went into convulsions, Liranza added. No independent confirmation was immediately available.

Read the rest here. Radio Martí also has details.

Read one of my previous posts about Alejo's hunger strike, here.

An interview with Paneque

An interview with journalist and former Cuban political prisoner Dr. José Luis García Paneque.

Cuban police threaten to take activist/journalist's children

Katia Sonia Martín Véliz

The desperation of the Castro dictatorship and its agents has no bounds, as evidenced by what happened last week to political activist/independent journalist and blogger Katia Sonia Martín Véliz.

Martín on Friday was summoned to a Havana police station, where a State Security official accused her of being a "terrorist" and "CIA agent," because of her activism with the Cuban Independent and Democratic Party, which has ties to former Commandante Huber Matos.

To further embarrass himself, the officer, whose name is "Pedro," threatened to take Martín's 7-year-old twin daughters into state custody, according to a report posted at Misceláneas de Cuba, for which Martín is a correspondent.

This was at least the second time since early August that officials had threatened Martín and her husband, the former political prisoner Ricardo Santiago Medina Salabarria, with the loss of their children.

So this is what the Castro dictatorship has resorted to: Trying to intimidate its opponents by threatening their children. What a bunch of cowards.

After two hours of interrogation, officials photographed and fingerprinted Martín, telling her they were completing a file so they could send her to prison.

Show your support for Martín by reading her blog, here.

Freedom for Oscar Elias Biscet and all Cuban political prisoners

Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet has often been called "the Nelson Mandela of Cuba," to signify his significance and stature in the Cuban dissidence.

The comparison should humble Mandela, as Biscet, unlike the South African leader, has while in prison steadfastly remained committed to nonviolent change and resistance to the Castro tyranny. That has extended to his rejecting the terms of a deal between the dictatorship, Spain and the Catholic Church that would give him his freedom — but only if he accepts expulsion from Cuba and exile overseas, as some 30 other prisoners already have.

Biscet, and a dozen or so other prisoners covered by the agreement, have said they would rather stay in prison than be forced from their country.

On Monday in Miami, several exile organizations will launch a new campaign to demand the unconditional release of Biscet and other political prisoners.

What can you do?

You can start by signing this petition that demands that Biscet be released but allowed to stay in Cuba.

And then learn all you can about Oscar Biscet and other political prisoners — click on their names on the right — and tell and re-tell your stories until they are released.