Uncommon Sense

Cuba activist Sara Martha Fonseca, family arrested again

Via Twitter, Antunez has the disturbing news about the dictatorship's latest move against one of Cuba's leading opposition activists, Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo.

Former Group of 75 political prisoner Angel Moyá beaten, arrested by Castro police

Angel Moyá, after his release from prison earlier this year.

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Angel Moyá Acosta was arrested Saturday morning as part of a crackdown by the Castro dictatorship in advance of May Day festivities on Sunday, according to Radio Martí.

He was released later in the day but not before the secret police kicked his ass.

"They beat him terribly, they kick him about the head," said his wife Betha Soler.

Numerous other dissidents have been detained. At least one opposition leader, Eriberto Liranza Romero, was beaten as he was taken into custody.

"Castro fears ... protests on the first of May," tweeted activist Jorge Luis García Pérez, who reported that police were swarmed in his hometown of Placetas.

Read more here.

(H/T Lester Gonzalez Penton)

2 Cuban dissidents on hunger strike to force release of Alan Gross from Castro gulag

Alejo

Fernandez

Two Cuban dissidents on hunger strike for a month are demanding the Castro dictatorship release American political prisoner Alan Gross and improved human rights on the island.

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, 48, and Angel Enrique Fernandez Rivero, 45, both former political prisoners, have partially sewn shut their mouths, and say they will refuse medical treatment as their condition weakens.

Why are they speaking out on behalf of Gross, an American government contractor imprisoned since late 2009 and serving a 15-year sentence for helping Cubans gain access to the Internet.

Why are they risking their lives on Gross's behalf?

"We are defenders of human rights, no matter from which country is the person unjustly jailed in Cuba," Fernandez told Reuters.

"If we have to give our life for this demand, we are going to give our lives," Alejo said. "We will be a new Orlando Zapata Tamayo," referring to the prisoner of conscience murdered by the Castro regime in February 2010 after he started a hunger strike.

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Apparently taking their cue from Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, who said they are not well known in Cuba, the Reuters reporters dismiss Alejo and Fernandez as "obscure dissidents."

As if that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that most foreign journalists in Cuba ignore most Cuban dissidents.

Whatever their stature, the characterization belies the fact that A) Reuters, a major Western news agency, chose to write about their protest; and B) with their protest, they are doing more for Gross than the American's own government.

Theirs may be a futile protest but with their demonstrated courage and sacrifice, Alejo and Fernandez do not deserve to be called "obscure."

Darsi Ferrer, other dissidents released from jail

A day after they were arrested for demanding their rights, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, his wife and three other activists were released from jail.

Efe reports:

Leading Cuban dissident Darsi Ferrer was released Friday after spending about a day in jail for mounting a peaceful protest in this capital.

Ferrer, wife Yusnaimi Jorge and two colleagues were detained after standing on a Havana street corner for around 25 minutes with signs demanding that Cubans be allowed to travel freely both inside and outside their country, the dissident physician told Efe.

Some people granted visas by foreign nations have been waiting as long as two years for permission to leave the Communist-ruled island, Ferrer said.

One such person, he said, is his wife, who wants to travel to the United States to receive medical treatment for a chronic "cerebrovascular ailment that has caused hypertension and is a threat to her health."

He said he and the other protesters were arrested by "a score of police with excessive use of force," taken to separate precincts and held until around midday Friday, when they were released without charge.

Ferrer, 41, has been complaining for months about Cuban authorities' refusal to permit him, Jorge and their son to travel to the United States.

Thursday's incident was the fourth time this year Ferrer has been briefly detained during protests and or while trying to meet with other government opponents, Ferrer said.

It has been less than a year since Ferrer was from custody after spending 11 months in jail without charge.

Castro regime arrests Darsi Ferrer, launches smear campaign (UPDATED)

For the update, scroll down.

Darsi Ferrer

Leading Cuban dissident Darsi Ferrer, his wife and other activists were arrested today in Havana during a protest in which they were calling for the Castro dictatorship to allow Cubans to travel freely, among other demands. There whereabouts were currently unknown.

Almost simultaneously, the regime's mouthpieces on Twitter and other social media launched a disinformation campaign alleging that Ferrer, a medical doctor, human rights activist and independent journalist, was moonlighting as a CIA agent.

You can almost smell the fear and desperation from the sewers from where these scum dwell.

Here is a video tribute to Ferrer I produced last year while he previously was in jail awaiting trial on trumped-up charges.

FREE DARSI FERRER NOW!

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UPDATED, 8 p.m. EDT — The other activists detained were Ferrer's wife, Yusnaimi Jorge; Juan Mario Rodríguez; Ricardo Aguilar; and Joaquín Sarduy.

Elizardo Sánchez, head of the unofficial Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the protest at which the activists were arrested was especially courageous because of recent comments by dictator Raúl Castro that such demonstrations would not be tolerated.

Cuba and Syria: Let's hope they don't become more similar

Castro and Assad

The dictatorship of Bashar Assad has cracked down hard on revolt in Syria.

Don't think the lesson has not been lost on his ally, Raúl Castro of Cuba.

Cuba quote of the day

Claudia Cadelo

"Social inequality in the world does not justify Raul Castro getting to decide that I can’t open my Facebook whenever I want. Isn’t it obvious? Or am I going crazy?" -- Claudia Cadelo, Cuban independent blogger, on restrictions on Internet use in Cuba infringes on her freedom.

Yes, Claudia, it is obvious.

Read her fantastic blog, Octavo Cerco, in English, here.

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet: La voz de la resistencia

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet

Jay Nordlinger of the National Review recently penned one of the more important expositions on the Cuban freedom movement, with his interview of former prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet.

The article gave Biscet the largest audience yet for his clearly defined, uncompromising views on what a free Cuba should and can be. It reaffirmed the stature that Biscet has earned with his courage and commitment.

Now that it has been translated into Spanish, thanks to the efforts of Cuban Canadian activist Nelson Taylor Sol,  it is even more powerful because of the audience it can now find on the island.

I am proud to help make that happen.

La voz de la resistencia

Habla el Dr. Oscar Biscet, luego de doce años en las cárceles de Cuba.

Por Jay Nordlinger

'Tengo que ir a trabajar, "dice el Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet. ¿Está familiarizado con él? Es, quizás, el activista pro democracia más importante de Cuba, un símbolo de la resistencia popular a la dictadura de Castro. ¿Ha estado descuidando su trabajo? No exactamente. Durante los últimos doce años, ha estado en prisión, sufriendo lo que los prisioneros del régimen siempre han sufrido. George W. Bush le otorgó la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad en 2007. El destinatario no podía aceptarlo en persona, por supuesto. Pero ahora ha sido liberado de la prisión. El día tan ansiado, por tantos de nosotros, fue el 11 de marzo. Hablé con él después de tres semanas.

Leer el artículo completo debajo de la tapa

Interview with former Cuban political prisoner Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina

Via Cuban journalist-in-exile/former prisoner of conscience Pedro Pacheco Ávila:

Entrevista a Nestor Rodrigues Lobaina from Pablo Pacheco on Vimeo.

Video of Castroite mob attack on Cuban human rights activist Sara Fonseca and family

This happened April 18, in case you somehow missed the coverage while reading all about the "reforms" and "changes" in the Cuban communist dictatorship.