Uncommon Sense

Castro regime again shows its fear with arrest of Damas De Blanco

How frightened is the Castro dictatorship of the Cuban people?

It beats and arrests women who without fear or reservation, dare to stand up to the regime. Even though more in Cuba and the outside world are starting to pay attention, the dictatorship's security forces are acting with increasing impunity to stamp out any opposition.

This weekend, the scene of some of the worst repression in recent months was again Santiago de Cuba, where since mid-summer the dictatorship has cracked down on the Damas De Blanco and other women activists who only want to go to Mass on Sunday to pray for their imprisoned loved ones.

Saturday night, police and other Castroite goons surrounded a home in Palma Soriano where 13 activists had gathered. When the women tried to leave Sunday morning so they could attend Mass at the cathedral in Santiago de Cuba, they were grabbed, dragged and thrown into a bus.

Most of the women were dropped off in various spots around town, but the whereabouts of at least one, Betha Soler, a leader of the Damas and the wife of former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya Acosta, were unknown.

History has shown that the dictatorship does not temper its repression when its opponents are women, so that the Damas are being targeted is no surprise.

But the brazen nature of what the Damas have suffered this summer, in Santiago, as well as in Havana, indicates the dictatorship's fear of what their demonstrations might lead to. As the Miami Herald noted in an editorial in response to a police crackdown on a protest by four women activists last week in Havana, any such protest might be the spark that leads to a revolution and to freedom.

That is a risk the dictatorship apparently is unwilling to risk.

So it is incumbent on the outside world to show its solidarity with these brave women, and to feed off their courage, by paying attention and denouncing the attacks on their safety whenever it happens.

Silence is no longer an option.

On Cuba's Capitol steps, 4 women speak the unthinkable

The Wall Street Journal editorializes on a spectacular scene this week in Havana:

The four Cuban women who took to the steps of the capitol in Havana last week chanting "liberty" for 40 minutes weren't exactly rebel forces. But you wouldn't know that by the way the Castro regime reacted. A video of the event shows uniformed state security forcibly dragging the women to waiting patrol cars. They must have represented a threat to the regime because they were interrogated and detained until the following day.

The regime's bigger problem may be the crowd that gathered to watch. In a rare moment of dissent in that public square, the crowd booed, hissed and insulted the agents who were sent to remove the women.

One of the four women, Sara Marta Fonseca, gave a telephone interview to the online newspaper Diario de Cuba, based in Spain, as she made her way home after being freed. Ms. Fonseca, who is a member of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights, said that the group was demanding "that the government cease the repression against the Ladies in White, against the opposition and against the Cuban people in general." The Ladies in White are dissidents who demand the release of all political prisoners.

Yet as Ms. Fonseca explained, the group wasn't really addressing the government. "Our objective is that one day the people will join us," she said. "Realistically we do not have the strength and the power to defeat the dictatorship. The strength and the power are to be found in the unity of the people. In this we put all our faith, in that this people will cross the barrier of fear and join the opposition to reclaim freedom."

Ms. Fonseca said her group chose the capitol because the area is crowded with locals and tourists and they wanted to "draw attention to the people of Cuba." In the end, she said that they were satisfied with the results because she heard the crowd crying "abuser, leave them alone, they are peaceful and they are telling the truth." This reaction, the seasoned dissident said, "was greater" than in the past. "I am very happy because in spite of being beaten and dragged we could see that the people were ready to join us."

For 52 years the Cuban dictatorship has held power through fear. The poverty, isolation, broken families and lost dreams of two generations of Cubans have persisted because the regime made dissent far too dangerous. If that fear dissipates, the regime would collapse. Which is why four women on the capitol steps had to be gagged.

Here's the video of the protest:

For more, read Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin's great post.

Cuban women bang pots and pans for freedom

Two Cuban women activists, Ivonne Mallesa Galano and Rosario Morales la Rosa, were arrested Friday when they went to a market, took out some pots and pans and started a protest to demand "food for the people."

As significant as their demonstration was, the bigger story is how bystanders took the women's side when police arrived on the scene.

The revolution in the making in Cuba will likely explode when sparked by an incident like this. What Cuba needs is more courage like that exhibited by these women in order to make that happen.

Watch the video for yourself.

Cuba 'Ladies In White' defy the Castro dictatorship

TrustLaw has a great piece on the Cuban Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White':

For the last five Sundays, Aimee Garces and other activists have been harassed by the Cuban police.

“We’ve been pushed around, hit and injured by the political police,” 41-year-old Garces told AlertNet in a phone interview from Cuba. “Some of us have been detained for up to 24 hours for no reason. We’ve been beaten while police have shoved us into vans, and some of us have ended up in hospital.”

Garces is one of dozens of women from Cuba’s prominent opposition group, Ladies in White, who have been campaigning for the last eight years for the release of all political prisoners in Cuban jails. Most of them are wives and mothers of former jailed dissents.

Since July, the white-clad dissenters have expanded their protests from the capital Havana to other parts of the island, gathering on Sundays outside the cathedral in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second city, to stage peaceful marches.

Since then, Garces says, the Cuban authorities have stepped up their crackdown.  

“Last week, the police surrounded my house and kept banging on my door in the middle of the night,” said Garces, who along with other activists was prevented by police from marching and attending mass in Santiago de Cuba last Sunday.

Over the years, the Cuban authorities have accused the Ladies in White of conspiring with the United States to subvert the government.

‘CLIMATE OF FEAR’

Rights group Amnesty International has condemned the latest bout of repression against the Ladies in White.

 “The ongoing harassment of these courageous women has to stop. The Cuban authorities must allow them to march peacefully and to attend religious services as they wish,” Javier Zuñiga, special advisor at Amnesty, said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable for the government under Raúl Castro’s leadership to perpetuate a climate of fear and repression to silence ordinary Cubans when they dare to speak out,” he added.

In 2003, the Cuban authorities imprisoned 75 of the women’s relatives, some for up to 28 years, for openly criticising the communist government.

Under a deal brokered with Havana by Cuba’s Catholic Church and Spanish officials, 52 dissidents were freed in July last year. In March, the last two political prisoners jailed in the 2003 crackdown were released.

Garces said the Ladies in White, who are often seeing carrying flowers while marching, will not stop protesting until all of Cuba's 60 or so dissenters who remain behind bars are released.

“I want to see a free Cuba where human rights are respected and where wives don’t have to live without their husbands, and children without their fathers, because the government imprisons people for their beliefs and opinions,” she said.

And despite the recent crackdown, the women remain defiant.

“We’ll march every Sunday, whatever it takes, despite the beatings from the political police,” Garces said, adding that the group plans another march next week involving more than 30 women. “We’ll stand firm, we’re not afraid of anything.”

4 Cuban women activists arrested on Capitol steps in Havana (UPDATED)

Four members of an anti-Castro group named after American civil rights icon Rosa Parks, were arrested Tuesday morning after they climbed the steps of the old Capitol building in Havana to demand that the Castro regime halts its repression of the Damas De Blanco.

The four members of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights are: Mercedes Evelyn García, Odalis Sanabria, Tania Maldonado Santos and Sara Martha Fonseca. The president of the group, Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera said police beat the women, threw them into patrol cars and drove them to State Security headquarters in Havana.

Perez called on the international community to demonstrate its solidarity with the activists, noting they were only protesting what has become the the regime's routine rough treatment of the Damas De Blanco -- which is made up of relatives of Cuban political prisoners -- in Havana and in Santiago de Cuba, as they try to attend church to pray for their imprisoned loved ones.

As of Tuesday night, there was no word on the whereabouts of the four detained activists.

Listen to Fonseca's account of the protest before she was arrested, here:

In the words of the protesters, "Down with the dictatorship," "We are all resistance" and "VIVA CUBA LIBRE!"

Here is a photo of the protest, via the Por ellevantamieno popular en Cuba website:

UPDATED, Aug. 25, 2011 -- The women have been released, and at least one of them, Sara Fonseca remains defiant.

This video includes footage of the women's protest, starting at about the 45-second mark (Note how some bystanders express their support for the demonstrators.):

Wishing for the Castros a week like Gaddafi's

Fidel Castro and Muammar Gaddafi, back when they were cogent.

The sooner the Castro brothers are dead and gone, the better.

But wouldn't it be grand if they lived long enough to have the kind of week their old friend and fellow murdering dictator Muammar Gaddafi is having?

That would be the best week ever.

Ruthless dictatorships have got to stick together

Syrian dictator Assad and Cuban dictator Castro

How bad is the recent repression in Syria, which has left an estimated 2,200 people dead?

The Castro dictatorship is using its position on the  United Nations Human Rights Council -- yes, it's still a member -- to defend the regime in Damascus against possible sanctions.

Havana, said the Cuban ambassador, "is confident in the ability of the Syrian people and authorities to resolve their problems, without the intervention of the international community."

Because, the ambassador said to himself, if opening fire on the people works in Damascus, it probably will work in Havana, too.

Amnesty International backs the Cuban Ladies In White

Amnesty International is on the side of the angels in the continuing struggle of the Cuban Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White," against the Castro dictatorship:

The Cuban authorities must end their intimidation of a group of women campaigning for the release of political prisoners, Amnesty International said after 19 of the group’s members were re-arrested yesterday.

The latest detentions took place yesterday in and near the south-eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where the women were due to march silently and pray for the end of political imprisonment.

Over the last month, the “Ladies in White” (Damas de Blanco) and their supporters have repeatedly faced arbitrary arrest and physical attacks as they staged protests in several towns in the region.

“The ongoing harassment of these courageous women has to stop. The Cuban authorities must allow them to march peacefully and to attend religious services as they wish,” said Javier Zuñiga, Special Advisor at Amnesty International.

The latest arrests took place as “Ladies in White” gathered in several locations to make their way to a planned march at the Cathedral in Santiago de Cuba.

Eleven of the “Ladies in White” gathered yesterday morning at the home of a supporter in the town of Palma Soriano. A crowd of some 100 people, including police, officials and government supporters, surrounded the house for several hours.

When the women attempted to leave, police pushed them and pulled their hair before forcing them into buses. They were driven a few kilometres away where they were transferred to police cars and dropped near their hometowns in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguín.

Police also surrounded the house of Tania Montoya Vázquez, another “Lady in White” from Palma Soriano for several hours yesterday, preventing her and two fellow protesters from leaving.   

Five other “Ladies in White” who live in the city of Santiago were arrested before they could reach the Cathedral and were held in police stations for several hours. It is believed that they have all been released.

Beginning on 17 July, groups of the “Ladies in White” have gathered on Sundays to stage silent protests and attend mass in Santiago de Cuba and several nearby towns.

The “Ladies in White” and the “Ladies in Support” (Damas de Apoyo) are a nationwide network of activists in Cuba that have recently escalated their peaceful protests in eastern provinces. In Havana and elsewhere, they have repeatedly suffered harassment from Cuban authorities for their peaceful protests.

In central Havana on 18 August 2011, 49 “Ladies in White” and their supporters were prevented from carrying out a protest in support of their members in Santiago de Cuba and other eastern provinces.

In 2003, Cuban authorities rounded up 75 of the group’s relatives for their involvement in peaceful criticism of the government.

The 75 dissidents were subjected to summary trials and sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years. Amnesty International considered them all to be prisoners of conscience, and the last of them were finally released in May 2011.

The “Ladies in White” and “Ladies in Support” continue to peacefully protest for the release of others who they believe have been imprisoned due to their dissident activities.

“It is unacceptable for the government under Raúl Castro’s leadership to perpetuate a climate of fear and repression to silence ordinary Cubans when they dare to speak out,” said Javier Zuñiga.

Yusilin Uranga Figuera, Cuba Political Prisoner of the Week, 8/21/11

Yusilin Uranga Figuera (Photo via PayoLibre.com)

Cuban human rights activist Yusilin Uranga Figuera has been imprisoned since Oct. 12, 2010, went she went to a police station to inquire about a friend who had been arrested.

Officials told her they had a case file charging her with "pre-criminal social dangerousess," and that she was under arrest. Later, she was sentenced to 2 years on prison on the charge, which the Castro dictatorship uses as a catch-all when it wants to put an opponent out of commission.

Since 2008, Uranga has been a member of the "Cubanos Libres" Human Rights Organization," which is all the excuse the dictatorship needed to jail her, even if by the definition of "pre-criminal social dangerousness," she has done nothing wrong except believe that Cuba can be a better place.

That she is a woman has not spared her the worst of the Castro gulag.

In July, she was thrown into a punishment cell in the “El Guatao” women's prison, after she demanded that officials provide her with needed medical care. Later, she was transferred to the Western Women's Prison, where an official threatened to "break her mouth" for her "undisciplined" behavior.

Castro police arrest more than a dozen Damas in Santiago de Cuba (UPDATED)

Sunday morning has become a dangerous time for members of the Damas De Cuba wanting to go morning Mass in Santiago de Cuba.

This morning, at least 15 women and three men were pushed, beaten, arrested and detained as they tried to gather for Mass at the cathedral in Santiago, according to Diario De Cuba.

"They dragged us, they beat us more than ever," said Belkis Cantillo Ramírez. "Every Sunday they increase the blows, but they will have to kill us because we will continue to attend Mass."

The women were loaded into a bus and later released their homes.

Reflecting the Castro dictatorship's fear of the Cuban people -- especially those, like the Damas, unafraid to confront the regime and to demand freedom -- the police and other goons have made it habit to threaten, beaten and arrest women who only want to go to church to pray for their imprisoned loved ones.

The thought of innocent women being attacked is horrific, but if you think like a desperate tyrant it makes sense.

The Damas De Blanco, which is made up of the family members of political prisoners, dealt a major blow to the regime last year when their protests in Havana contributed greatly to release of the remaining Group of 75 prisoners of conscience in jail. Their steadfast and nonviolent protests, along with outrage over the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, forced the regime to act.

The regime, weakened by that defeat and its continuing mismanagement of the economy, is now unwilling to take the risk of another embarassment thanks to these brave women.

Since most of the world is not paying attention to what is happening on the Cuban street and is instead planning their vacation to the island, the regime figures it can get away with whatever it does.

But as Cantillo indicated, the Damas are not giving up their struggle.

The challenge now is for more in the world to join their cause.

UPDATED, 6:40 p.m. EDT -- Dama De Blanco Caridad Caballero describes what happened.