Uncommon Sense

Raul Castro's 'reforms' designed to keep him and other communists in power

The least surprising news out of Cuba so far this year is Raul Castro's to-the-death defense of the communist party's and his dictatorship's preeminent role on the island. There was lip service given to various economic reforms, but with his speech Castro confirmed what realistic observers of Cuba have known all along:

Raul Castro is no reformer.

At certain moments, maybe he talks the talk but only to the extent that talking about and even implementing certain reforms protect and enhance his regime's murderous grip on power. They are designed not to improve the lives of most Cuban citizens but to ensure, as Castro pronounced today, that the dictatorship survives.

Anyone -- whether the naive or uninformed' the "experts" who ought to know better; or prospective "people-to-people" tourists who only want to "help"  -- who believes Raul Castro promises hope of real change, is helping his evil cause.

Pope Benedict XVI shouldn't reward Castros with visit as long as Damas De Blanco are under siege

If you have doubts about how afraid the Castro regime is of the Damas De Blanco, the brave woman who since 2003 have stood up the dictatorship to demand justice, consider how the political police and other goons targeted the women for repression this weekend.

In Caimanera and Guantanamo.

Again in Guantanamo.

And today in Havana, where Castro thugs rounded up 40 Damas and took them away in buses, when after Sunday Mass they tried to place a wreath at a statue of Jose Marti.

The Castro police always know where the Damas are, especially on Sunday when they go to Mass. The goons act with impunity.

Which is why Pope Benedict XVI should postpone his planned visit in late March to Cuba. The visit was part of a quid pro quo between the regime and the church, but continued repression of women trying to go to Mass should not have been part of the deal.

If you agree that the pope should postpone his visit until human rights conditions improve in Cuba, sign this petition.

'Anonymous' attacks home of Cuba independent journalist @alambradas

Luis Rojas is one of the most-accomplished independent journalists and bloggers in Cuba.

Which is why the Castro dictatorship is hell-bent on blocking his reporting from being distributed.

This repost of a recent post by Rojas is the least I can do to help it break the blockade.

Terrorist vandalism in my house, 20th Street No. 1303 & 13 and 15. San German, Holguin, CUBA. @alambradas (twitter)/ @alambradas_en

This happened last night in my house.  “Anonymous” did it.  The police, which is so effective when it comes to arresting free-thinkers and beating defenseless men and women when they go out to the street to scream FREEDOM, did not find the culprits.

I wasn’t in San German and when I arrived this morning I found this.  I couldn’t put it on my Twitter account or send a picture via Twitpic because the service on my cellphone has not been re-activated.  I prefer not to fall into the thievery of CUBACEL which, during these days, has robbed me of SMS and photos in my @alambradas account.

A friend of mine lent me his cellphone and, thanks to him, I was able to send an email to another friend with this photo and this note, so that it be published on my blog or wherever else possible.

That’s how internet without internet works from San German, Holguin.

Castro regime eager to keep the truth about the Cuba gulag behind bars

The most effective weapon against tyrannies like the Castro dictatorship is the truth, which is why the regime and its agents work so tirelessly to cover up its many crimes.

The coverup extends to the Castro gulag.

Independent journalist Dania Virgen Garcia reports that 10 of 19 phones in a building that houses many political prisoners at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana don't work, and calls are being limited to 6 minutes, to control the ability of inmates to report to independent journalists what really is going on behind bars.

Such reports have long been key to revealing the truth about the gulag, and exposing the dictatorship for the cruelty it represents.

So it's no surprise how afraid the regime is of those without fear of telling the truth.

Cuba human rights activist Jorge Cervantes starts hunger strike to protest arrest

 

Jorge Cervantes

 

Cuban dissident Jorge Cervantes spent the better part of 15 years in the Castro gulag, so when he steps out against the regime, he does it with the full force of his will and convictions.

That's exactly what he did this week.

Cervantes and another activist, Guillermo Cobas Reyes, were arrested after police in Contramaestre, the hometown of murdered political prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza, caught them putting up posters protesting Villar's death.

Soon afterward, Cervantes declared a hunger strike to demand his release.

Considering what the regime did to Villar after he started an identical protest with an identical demand, that truly is courageous.

A commenter says I am inconsistent about Cuba policy, I plead guilty

A commenter detected what to him appeared to be an inconsistency in my position on travel and remittances to Cuba.

It is an inconsistency I have long admitted.

Previously, I have concluded that allowing, without limits, Cubans and Cuban Americans in the United States to travel to the island and to deliver financial aid to family members is acceptable, even if the Castro dictatorship does benefit financially from the transactions. That is a compromise that despite my personal discomfort with the arrangement, I can excuse because of the humanitarian benefits.

On other dealings with the island designed to undermine the "embargo," such as it is -- for example, "people-to-people trips" disguised as vacations --  I am not forgiving. Those tour groups visiting the island are only lining the pockets of the dictatorship, with no evidence that it is changing the regime's behavior or bettering the lives of Cubans.

All that money is doing is killing Cubans like Wilman Villar Mendoza.

Which is why it was so disturbing and offensive last week when President Barack Obama used an otherwise welcome statement about Villar's death to promote and defend how he has relaxed sanctions on the Havana regime. Wilman Villar and all Cubans -- and all Americans -- deserved better from the president.

The most disappointing part about the president's statement is that it reveals an American arrogance that if we just change our behavior, that will bring about needed change in Cuba. Of course, there are things we can do to help and support those fighting for freedom in Cuba, but bankrolling their oppressors is not one.

What needs to change most in Cuba is the dictatorship. It must be destroyed.

Only then, and not with American tourists, will Cuba have a chance to be free.

Americans, from President Obama on down, need to be more consistent about that.

Human Rights Watch: Cuba represses 'all forms of political dissent'

When it comes to Cuba, you cannot re-state the obvious enough.

Human Rights Watch sums up conditions in Cuba today:

Cuba remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent. In 2011 Raúl Castro’s government continued to enforce political conformity using short-term detentions, beatings, public acts of repudiation, forced exile, and travel restrictions.

In 2011 the Cuban government freed the remaining 12 political prisoners from the "group of 75" dissidents — human rights defenders, journalists, and labor leaders who were sentenced in 2003 in summary trials for exercising their basic rights — having forced most into exile in exchange for their freedom. Also in 2011 the government sentenced at least seven more dissidents to prison for exercising their fundamental rights, and human rights groups on the island said dozens more remain in prison.

The government increasingly relied on arbitrary arrests and short-term detentions to restrict the basic rights of its critics, including the right to assemble and move about freely. Cuba’s government also pressured dissidents to choose between exile and continued repression or even imprisonment, leading scores to leave the country with their families during 2011.

Read the whole HRW report here, starting at Page 236.

The truth about Cuba, in black and white

American policy helped pay for the murder of Wilman Villar Mendoza

President Obama’s thoughts and prayers are with the wife, family, and friends of Wilmar Villar, a young and courageous defender of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba who launched a hunger strike to protest his incarceration and succumbed to pneumonia.

Villar’s senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans. The United States will not waiver in our support for the liberty of the Cuban people. We will remain steadfast in our outreach to the Cuban people through unlimited Cuban American family visits and remittances, purposeful travel, and humanitarian assistance to dissidents and their families in support of their legitimate desire to freely determine Cuba’s future. -- White House statement on the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza.

The White House did the right thing Friday in acknowledging the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza, and condemning the repression he died fighting.

But the White House also ignored how the policies it saw fit to promote as part of its statement, contributed, at the very least indirectly, to Villar's death.

Where's the connection? Just follow the money.

Out of every dollar sent to the island, whether as a remittance or in the pocket of a "people-to-people" traveler, a piece ends up in the coffers of the regime.

And from there, the dictatorship pays its secret policemen, its jailers, its informers and anyone else who keeps the machine of repression running.

Including those who followed their orders from the top and killed Wilman Villar Mendoza.

Obama's policies have delivered more cash to the Castro dictatorship, which coincidentally or not, has corresponded with a spike in repression.

The Cuban people cannot afford much more "outreach" like that.

Amnesty International on the murder of Wilman Villar

Amnesty International had been set today to name Cuban prisoner of conscience Wilman Villar Mendoza a prisoner of conscience.

But then he died Thursday evening, murdered by the Castro regime.

Here is Amnesty's statement on what happened:

The death in custody of a Cuban prisoner of conscience after a hunger strike is a shocking reminder of the Raúl Castro government's intolerance for dissent, Amnesty International said today.

Wilman Villar Mendoza, 31, died this morning in Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in the city of Santiago where he was transferred from prison on 13 January due to health problems allegedly arising from a hunger strike protesting at his unfair trial and imprisonment. 

He was serving a four-year prison term on charges related to his participation in a public demonstration against the government.

“The responsibility for Wilman Villar Mendoza’s death in custody lies squarely with the Cuban authorities, who summarily judged and jailed him for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” said Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International. 

“His tragic death highlights the depths of despair faced by the other prisoners of conscience still languishing in Cuban jails, who must be released immediately and unconditionally.” 

“The Cuban authorities must stop the harassment, persecution, and imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators as well as political and human rights activists.”

On 14 November 2011, police arrested Villar Mendoza and eight other members of the Cuban Patriotic Union dissident group in the eastern town of Contramaestre for taking part in a protest against the Cuban government. 

While he was in detention, police intimidated Villar Mendoza, telling him he would be disappeared or face imprisonment on criminal charges stemming from an earlier arrest if he did not stop his protests and leave the dissident group. 

He was released after three days in police custody but was then summoned to Contramaestre Municipal Tribunal on 24 November. Judges tried him in private and refused to accept testimony from his wife or other defence witnesses. 

The judges sentenced the activist to four years' imprisonment and immediately transferred him to Aguaderas prison, in the provincial capital Santiago. The same day, he began a hunger strike in protest at the ruling. 

As Villar Mendoza’s health deteriorated over recent days, members of the Cuban Patriotic Union and the Ladies in White opposition group organised a vigil outside the hospital. On 18 January, state security officials broke up the gathering and detained more than a dozen people. 

Wilman Villar Mendoza is not the first prisoner of conscience to die in Cuban custody. 

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience jailed after the “Black Spring” crackdown on opposition groups in March 2003, died in prison on 23 February 2010 after several weeks on hunger strike.