Uncommon Sense

Castro regime moves against Cuba prisoners who revealed death of Salvardor Ferrer

So what killed Cuban prison inmate Salvador Ferrer Rodriguez?

Was it TB or was it a beat down by his jailers?

One indicator may be the reprisals being carried out by the Castro regime against those other prisoners who dared to inform the world of what they saw and heard, as reported by the CIHPRESS news agency.

The coverup includes threatening prisoner Norberto Muños Palomino with removal from the mininum security area of his prison; and throwing prisoner Alexander Suárez Torres into a punishment cell. Suárez started a hunger strike after guards informed him that any privileges he had been enjoying had been revoked.

I guess we now know the truth about what happened to Salvador Ferrer Rodriguez.

Report: Reina Luisa Tamayo will take exile in Arizona

Arizona is a beautiful state, home to one of my Cuban aunts and my uncle, but the Cuba of the desert, thousands of miles both from Havana and Little Havana in Miami, it is not.

So it was perplexing and almost infuriating to learn that Reina Luisa Tamayo, the mother of murdered Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, had been told by American officials that she and a dozen family members set to leave Cuba on June 9 would settle not in the Miami area -- where she has numerous friends and supporters ready to help -- but in Arizona.

Why Arizona? I don't know and the American government is not talking. Some may argue the Obama administration is doing a favor for the Castro regime, getting Tamayo as far away from Cuba and Miami as possible, but that borders on the ridiculous -- especially when considering the numerous political prisoners released last year and this who have been allowed to settle in Florida after first taking exile in Spain and elsewhere overseas.

It is tempting to imagine what role in the opposition-in-exile Tamayo, who has inspired many with her courage and commitment to her son's legacy, will play once she is out of Cuba. That  is why some saw the news of her impending move to Arizona, which will include a layover at the Miami airport, as a victory for the Castro regime.

This sounded like another indignity, on top of all the sacrifice and suffering she has endured since her son was imprisoned in 2003, during his 86-day hunger and since his death. Whether because of its innate cruelty or its fear of this old woman and what she represents, the Castro dictatorship has targeted Sra Tamayo with some of its most vicious repression -- including limiting when and how she can mourn her son at his grave.

Which is why what matters most is not that Tamayo will settle in Arizona and not Miami, but that she will soon be able to escape, finally, the island for some place safe -- and with her son's ashes, too. Cuban restaurants and Cubans may be a rarity in Arizona, but what she and her family will find in ample supply -- even in a state with a demonstrated hostility to Hispanic immigrants -- is freedom.

A freedom that certainly one day will allow her to move to Miami or anywhere she wants.

And to properly mourn and remember and honor her murdered son.

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Here is a video tribute I produced last year to honor Orlando Zapata Tamayo and his mother:

2 prominent Cuban activists arrested in Santa Clara

Two prominent Cuban anti-government activists -- Guillermo Farinas and former Group of 75 prisoner of conscience Librado Linares -- were among 17 dissidents arrested Thursday when they took to the streets of Santa Clara to protest the arrest of other activists.

And you still wonder why the dictatorship tried so hard to force Linares and other Group of 75 prisoners to take overseas exile?

The arrests were part of a vicious series of repressive moves by the dictatorship to target the opposition.

There was no information tonight on the whereabouts of the those arrested.

Cuba activist Yris Tamara Perez missing after violent arrest by police

Cuban activist Yris Tamara Perez tonight is missing, not seen since mid-day Wednesday ter Castro thugs knocked her unconscious during a protest and she was taken to a hospital, according to Diario las Americas.

Pedazos de la Isla has more on anti-Castro demonstrations led this moth by Perez and her husband, the former political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez”, and a summary of other repression in Cuba this week.

The Boitel-Zapata Live On Protest began on May 13th and culminated on the 25th. The objective of this annual protest has always been to pay tribute to Pedro Luis Boitel, and this year it also had the purpose of marking the birth of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, both dissidents who were murdered by the Cuban regime.

From the moment the protest was announced various anti-government activities took place throughout the entire island. The protest kicked off with a “pots and pans” demonstration (where participants ring their pots and casseroles with spoons and sticks) in Placetas and continued on with much solidarity and many demonstrations, and also with a high level of repression against each participant of the protest.

The Cuban Democratic Directorate is reporting on their web page that dissidents Jorge Luis “Antunez”, his wife Yris Tamara Perez, and activists Idania Yanez and Alcides Rivera Rodriguez were all violently arrested in Placetas after they all participated in a public march. According to the report, Yris Tamara Perez was then taken to the hospital in a state of unconsciousness after her brutal arrest. Afterwards, three other activists arrived to the hospital to check on Yris but were quickly arrested in the same manner.

In Pinar del Rio the dissident Raul Risco Perez explained, also to the Cuban Directorate, that various activists from the zone also carried out a “pots and pans” protest to mark the conclusion of the tribute, only to quickly be surrounded by political police agents in a matter of a few minutes.

In the early morning hours of the 25th Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia was reporting through “Hablalo Sin Miedo” (an automated voice message system which allows dissidents to record denouncements of acts of repression against them) that an oppressive crackdown was unleashed on numerous dissidents in the Palma Soriano area. Various mob attacks and arrests would later occur here.

In the afternoon, the Eastern activist Marta Diaz Rondon walked to the cemetery where the remains of the Cuban martyr Orlando Zapata Tamayo reside, in order to take a floral arrangement and to pray for his soul. We were able to speak to her for this blog.

“A repressive crackdown has been carried out against all peaceful dissidents in Cuba. During morning hours the homes of various dissidents were surrounded. Here in Banes, Ariel Cruz Meneses and Rafael Cruz Meneses were both detained as they were walking towards my house. Ariel was beaten and they fractured his forehead; all of this was done by the political police“, explained Diaz Rondon.

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Ariel Sigler Amaya is alive and well and strong!

After his release after more than 7 years in the Castro gulag, Ariel Sigler Amaya looked like this when he arrived in Miami in July 2010. His spirit was strong, but his body appeared broken.

Ariel Sigler Amaya, upon arrival at Miami International Airport, July 2010.

Less than 10 months later, he looks like this — a testament to the power of freedom, the human spirit and American, non-Castro health care.

Ariel Sigler and Ziva Sahl at Cuba Nostalgia, Miami, May 2011.

Report: Cuban prisoner dies after guards beat and throw him down the stairs

Salvador Ferrer Rodríguez

The blood of another Cuban who dared to demand his rights is on the hands of the Castro dictatorship.

Earlier this month, police officers murdered Juan Wilfredo Soto García after they arrested him at a park in Santa Clara.

On Sunday evening, prison inmate Salvador Ferrer Rodríguez at a Havana hospital after guards beat and threw him down a staircase at the Quivicán prison, according to the CIHPRESS news agency.

Ferrer reportedly was suffering from tuberculosis. Several inmates told CIHPRESS that guards, who apparently believed Ferrer was faking his illness, attacked him after he complained of not receiving adequate medical care.

The beatings continued after he was moved to the hospital, according to the report, which quoted a prisoner, Alexander Suárez Torres, who had talked to a nurse at the hospital.

Ferrer eventually died about 5 p.m. Sunday.

The CIHPRESS report recounted a conversation Suárez had when he asked a guard about what had happened.

"He told me (Ferrer) was fine. I clarified, telling him that those who had beaten him at the prison and here at the hospital had killed him. He called me aside and told me, 'Coño, Alexander, don't tell anyone that. Don't tell the masses, it will get worse and the beatings will continue."

No comment, of course, from the dictatorship. But the regime's defenders have taken to Twitter to insist that Ferrer died from tuberculosis, and that again an "unscrupulous campaign" has been launched against Cuba.

It's a defense similar to the one the dictatorship used in the Soto case.

So again, the world has a choice to make:

You can believe the accounts provided by several prisoners who as Suárez's account reveals, are risking their own lives by speaking out.

"National and international public opinion must be made aware of the death of a prisoner named Salvador Ferrer Rodríguez ... who was hospitalized because of a beating that guards had given him in recent days," said political prisoner Norberto Muños Palomino, who is serving a nine-year sentence for "enemy propaganda."

Or you can believe mouthpieces for a regime that for more than 52 years has made a habit of killing Cubans, and then lying about it to cover up the crime.

Luis Felipe Rojas is on the Castro dictatorship's blog roll

On Sunday, Cuban independent blogger Luís Felipe Rojas published a post denouncing police for the beating of three women. (You can read it here in English.)

On Monday, the Castro dictatorship responded by sending its cops to surround Rojas' home in Holguín.

Not surprisngly, Rojas remained undaunted, taking to Twitter to report what was happening and to name the name of the head thug.

Show the Rojas, and the dictatorship, on which side you stand  by reading his blog.

 (H/T Punt de Vista)

Guillermo Fariñas' wife says his hunger strike almost killed him

From Cuba Money Project:

Clara Pérez, wife of Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, says her husband’s hunger strike was a key factor that led to the Cuban government’s decision to release dozens of political prisoners.

She said Fariñas nearly died during the hunger strike, which ended after Cuban authorities announced they would begin freeing more than 50 prisoners still in jail since the Black Spring crackdown of 2003.
Pérez said she asked Fariñas to quit the hunger strike, but in the end had to respect his decision to continue the protest.

She said she knows that Cuban authorities consider her and her family to be “mercenaries” in the pay of the U.S. government, but said the accusation is not true.

See 4-minute interview on the Cuba Money Project’s Vimeo channel.

Clara Perez from Tracey Eaton on Vimeo.

 

Armando Valladares teaches to never give up hope

More than 23 years ago, when I was in college, I wrote this column about former Cuban prisoner of conscience Armando Valladares and his prison memoir, "Against All Hope."

This past Saturday, the Cuba Nostalgia festival in Miami, I finally was able to meet him.

It was an honor.

Me and former Cuban prisoner of conscience Armando Valladares.

Cuban pastor committed to the truth about how Juan Wilfredo Soto García died

The Castro dictatorship responded to condemnation of its murder of dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto García with a vicious campaign of denials and lies  — Soto, so goes the cover story, died of "natural causes" — designed to shirk any responsibility and to blame the victim and those committed to defending Soto's legacy.

However, the inconvenient truth for the regime is a Cuban pastor named Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso.

The truth is that at a moment between when police savagely beat and arrested Soto and when he returned to a hospital to die, Soto ran into his pastor and recounted what had happened:

I am in terrible pain, said Soto, because the police beat me.

And the inconvenience for the regime is that in the almost two weeks since Soto died, Lleonart has remained loyal to his faith, to his vocation and to his congregant by telling anyone who will listen what really happened.

Lleonart first reported what he knew via his Twitter feed, and has continued to his testimony on his blog, "Confessing Cuban."

Here is Lleonart, in his own words:

Despite how much the government may try to terrorize me with those outlandish editorials, I will continue to raise my voice for Juan Wilfredo. I will not be known as the pastor or the Levite who quietly walked by a man who was beaten and thrown on the floor. My goal is to be the Samaritan who took care of him. And although I can no longer heal his wounds, his words still resonate within me. On that morning of Thursday, May 5th God made it so that our paths cross in time and space for the last time so that, in the words of Soto himself, I would find out about the severe beating which they had carried out on him with their batons.

It is inadmissible that, in their attempt to dust off this death from their shoulders, the Cuban government has referenced the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the prisons of Abu Ghraib, and the Guantanamo Naval Base, in addition to thousands of other problems. The fact that crimes are being committed throughout the world does not mean that they are justified in Cuba. The difference is that the death which I came in close contact with was that of my friend Juan Wilfredo. He considered me to be his pastor and he had no reason why to lie to me. And, aside from that, more than his words, his expressions of pain were what really spoke to me, as they also did to thirty other referential witnesses who, just like me, are willing to give declarations, without mentioning those who are not willing to do so because they feel a fear which I will not judge them on.

 

What is most alarming about the situation is that the case of THE STUDENT is not an isolated case. Every week their are reports about beatings and mob attacks. I recall one case in specific where I was denouncing the violent acts being carried out against Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo in the Rio Verde neighborhood of Havana which were occurring at the same time that the 6th Communist Party Congress was taking place. In fact, the report established by the Congress even provides an initiative for carrying out such mob attacks in their second to last paragraph. The only difference in this situation is that Sara Martha did not die from the beatings, at least not from the instant wounds, but no one can tell what the other traumas they inflicted upon her will cause through slower repercussions. If she would have died, the government would have also tried to dust off their responsibility and would have evoked another death by natural causes. And, of course, this is because there is nothing more natural than to die after a beating.

I am not in favor of anyone coming an bombing Havana, but I am also not in favor of anyone beating a man with impunity, as occurred with Juan Wilfredo after they burst his pancreas. In respect to the dispute between Cuba and the United States, I have always been a believer that the problems we Cubans face must be solved by Cubans. And this is one of those problems where, by product of the work and grace of Providence, and not of an international campaign which seeks to fabricate some sort of excuse, I find myself involved. I would only like to point out that the words which I am saying were not spoken after the death of Juan Wilfredo, but instead on that very morning when the beating took place, as can be proven on the internet by anyone who wishes to check my Twitter account: @maritovoz.

I was not the only religious minister to have had a close relationship with Wilfredo. And I’m not talking only about Cuban pastors. THE STUDENT already made up a part of the normal urban landscape of the Vidal Park in Santa Clara. Various distinguished international evangelical ministers who had visited the city also met with him and established a cordial relationship with him. I will not mention their names, for I do not have the permission to do so, but from afar, I am well aware of their state of emotion towards the subject. From abroad, and also from very near, I am receiving various displays of worry and credibility because of my words. I do not feel like I am alone.

I feel that the Cuban government, which is always unwilling to to open its doors to international investigations, could turn to some sort of specialized and neutral commission which would corroborate in this very lamentable situation. But neither the threatening editorials or the condemnations of half the world will strike fear in me, and neither will their attempts to try and prove the innocence of a desperate government. As the popular saying goes, “Tell me what you brag about and I’ll show you what you lack”. With that said, this village priest will continue repeating with all the power vested on me by justice and truth, that the blood of Wilfredo, like that of any other person whose life was snatched from this world by force, cries out for God from down here in this land.

In an earlier post, Lleonart describes how the regime's lies are not holding up.