Uncommon Sense

Former prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Biscet predicts more repression in Cuba

Dr. Oscar Biscet and his wife Elsa.

Former prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is taking time to heal, physically and emotionally, after more than eight years in the Castro gulag. But as a new interview with Radio Marti reveals, he has been paying close attention to recent events in Cuba, especially the increased repression by the regime against its opponents.

The dictatorship's time is up and so is its fear of the Cuban people, which Biscet said means its repressive ways will only get worse.

"The Cuban government is very afraid that the people will join in peaceful activities to demand their inalieanable rights," Biscet told Radio Marti. "And to avoid this, they have to exercise state terror, which will continue to grow."

Biscet added: "We have to be prepared and strong to face these acts."

The more repression there is, the more the secret police resort to beating women, said Biscet, the more clear is the failure of the Castro regime.

"It has nothing to offer the people," he said. "When you have to resort to repression of this type, it  means the system is in agony."

4 Cuban dissidents face up to 4 years in prison

Before you pack your bags for that long-awaited vacation to Cuba or applaud the Castro regime's latest "reforms," you might want to consider this:

Four Cuban dissidents could be sentenced to jail terms of up to 4 years each when they are tried Tuesday on charges related to their distribution of leaflets last January near the "Palace of the Revolution" in Havana and the El Cerro neighborhood in the capital city, according to a report posted at Payo Libre. The four have been in jail since their arrest in January.

Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said Amnesty International should recognize the four -- Luis Enrique Labrador, 33, Yordani Martínez, 23, David Piloto, 40, and Walfrido Rodríguez, 42 -- as prisoners of conscience because they neither used violence nor advocated violence. Their only crime said Sanchez, is a "crime of opinion."

This is further proof that despite the regime's propaganda ploys and the best efforts of its apologists to insist that things are changing in Cuba, nothing has changed.

The repression is the same, if not increasing, as the regime's fear of real change -- a change that will mean its demise -- rises.

Anyone able to get into the courtroom on Tuesday will be witnesses to that unfailing truth about Cuba today.

Cubans take to the streets of Guantanamo to demand their freedom

Cubans in Guantanamo take to the streets to demand their freedom. It is inspiring.

Predictably, the police respond with force. It is not surprising.

This is how true revolutions begin ...

In Cuba, the dictatorship's goons beat up women

Pedazos de la Isla has details of recent repression in Placetas against Cuban freedom activists:

In the island of Cuba, the act of peacefully commemorating national heroes who have lost their lives while they have fought for the countries freedom- as has been the case with Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo- results in detainment, arrests, beatings, and large scale violence on behalf of the regime.  That dictatorship’s status quo allows and defends such actions.

As a result of the protests and demonstrations which took place from May 13th on, under the title of Boitel & Zapata Live On Protest, dozens of dissidents were violently confronted by agents of Castro’s regime.  Perhaps one of the most brutal of these events took place in Placetas, Villa Clara.

Activists from the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front and from the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights were arrested during the afternoon hours of May 25th, right when the Boitel-Zapata Protest was culminating and after a public march.  Among these dissidents were Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez”, Idania Yanes Contrera, Alcides Rivera Rodriguez, Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, and also Adriano Castaneda Meneses, an active member of the Orlando Zapata Civic Front who, in conversation with this blog, narrates, “During the closing of the Boitel-Zapata Live On Protest (which we also dedicated to Juan Wilfredo Garcia Soto who we lovingly referred to as ‘The Student’), we were carrying out a completely peaceful and silent march in which the participants were wearing their clothes inside out as a form of protest“.

Despite just how peaceful this march was, the authorities of the regime rapidly responded.  “State Security really just feared other actions so they militarized the entire city of Placetas because they became very scared knowing that the people would join the opposition,” says Castaneda Meneses.  As it tends to happen on the island, upon seeing that the dissidents were not giving in, regime officials began to carry out the beatings.  “The women were beat, especially Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera.  She was excessively beat by the State Security official whose last name is Veliz and who goes by the nickname of ‘The Weightlifter’.  This agent is nothing else than a criminal who receives orders to beat defenseless women.  Imagine that, if they beat innocent women what can we expect?  We already know how this dictatorship behaves“, states Adriano.

Read the whole report here.

Armando Valladares: Double standards on Cuba only help Castros

This is why it was such an honor for me earlier this month when I met former Cuban prisoner of conscience Armando Valladares.

Cuban activists Caridad Caballero and Martha Diaz released from jail

Cuba activists Caridad Caballero and Martha Diaz have been released from jail, according to a report filed Sunday afternoon by another brave Cuban woman, Reina Luisa Tamayo.

Diaz had been in jail since Saturday, and Caballero had been in custody since Thursday. At one point Saturday, a secret police official had even denied that Caballero had been in arrested, which as independent journalist and blogger Luis Rojas noted is how they disappear you in Cuba.

Reina Luisa Tamayo's report:

The Castro dictatorship does not discriminate: It targets all who oppose it, whether they are men or women, with the vilest forms of repression. But it does appear in recent days to have particular disdain for the women who dare to challenge its authority.

In addition to what happened to Caballero and Dias, former pollitical prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" reported Sunday via Twitter that his wife Yris continues to suffer symptoms of an apparent concussion suffered when she was beaten and arrested by Cuban police last week during an event held to honor Tamayo's murdered son, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and other prisoner of conscience who died after a hunger strike, Pedro Luis Boitel.

Cuba activist Caridad Caballero missing since arrest on May 26 (UPDATED)

  Caridad Caballero Batista

Numerous Cuban dissidents have been arrested in recent days to coincide with, well, another week in the life of Cubans under the Castro dictatorship.

Most have been released, but at least one -- Caridad Caballero Batista -- remains in custody, her whereabouts unknown.

The longer she is missing, the more the worries about her welfare grow.

And the more it becomes clear how afraid the regime is of her.

Where is Caridad Cabaellero Batista?

Free Caridad Caballero Batista NOW!

|---|

UPDATED, 10:20 EDT -- Via Twitter, Luis Rojas, who has been reporting on Caballero's arrest, reports that another activist, Martha Diaz Rondon, was arrested Saturday.

Marcos Maikel Lima Cruz and Antonio Michel Lima Cruz, Cuba Political Prisoner of the Week, 5/29/11

UPDATED, May 3, 2013 -- Marcos Maikel Lima was released from prison in April 2013.

UPDATED, Oct. 24, 2012 -- Antonio Lima was released from prison in October 2012.

This post first appeared May 25, 2011.

Two brothers, Marcos Maikel y Antonio Michel Lima Cruz, were sentenced to prison terms last week after they were convicted of "public disorder" and "insulting national symbols."

Their actual "crime" was marching through the streets of Holguin, complete with the uban flag, and chanting anti-government slogans while listening to the music of the Los Aldeanos. They have been in jail since last Christmas day.

Security officials blocked various dissidents from approaching the courthouse.

Marcos Maikel, 33, was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and Antonio Michel, 28 was sentenced to 2 years.

They are both human rights and political activists and independent journalists.

CubaNet has more.

On 2nd thought, State Department will let Reina Tamayo stay in Miami

Whatever the reasoning, bureaucratic, diplomatic, political or otherwise, the initial news that Reina Luisa Tamayo was to settle not in Miami, where there are many Cubans ready to help her, but in Arizona, where there are not, was perplexing.

A day later, thanks to a phone call from one of the more powerful Cuban Americans in the United States to the U.S. State Department, the decision has been reversed. Tamayo, the mother of murdered political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and a dozen family members, will be allowed to remain in Florida when their plane arrives at Miami International Airport on June 9.

"I am extremely pleased to receive information directly from the State Department that our efforts on behalf of Reina Luisa have been successful," U.S. Rep. Illena Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the  House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The outpouring of support and compassion from the South Florida community to welcome Reina Luisa with open arms is a sign of the strong links between the U.S. and the Cuban people."

Tamayo was grateful to learn that she was being allowed to settle in Miami.

"I am pleased by the struggle and sacrifice of our brothers so that we can get to Miami," she told El Nuevo Herald. "I felt bad (about settling in Arizona) but now I am extemely grateful for the news. In Arizona, we would have been very isolated."

I predict the outpouring of support that Tamayo will arrive to in Miami, will make her feel right at home.

But only so much better.

Farinas leads the crowd at funeral for Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia

Just saw this video, taken at the funeral for Cuban dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia who died earlier this month after a brutal beating by Cuban police.