Uncommon Sense

Castro cop to protester: 'You know that this is Cuba, and that you cannot do that here'

From Cuba, the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy reports on a recent clash between the Castro police and a large crowd of Cuban citizens who in one instance, said no to repression.

It was only one instance, but it does provide some hope in a place where it almost always is nonexistent.

Cubans from Havana Protest Against Police Abuse

During the afternoon hours of this past 16th of April, more than five-hundred people joined a heated protest in the centric Fraternity Park in Havana.  They were protesting against the manner in which members of the PNR (National Revolutionary Police) carried out the arrest of a young citizen who had been detained because of a quarrel with another citizen.  The abuse carried out by the officials was sufficient to detonate a display of popular discontent.

While the police officers violently handcuffed and transferred the young Cuban, the people there started to scream: “abusers, assassins, release the young man, stop mistreating him”.  The police officers, upon seeing that they were outnumbered, decided to start releasing the Cuban from his handcuffs.  The marks of the cuffs on the young man’s hands provoked further rage.  A man who seemed to be older than seventy shouted, “you are all a bunch of abusing henchmen”.

During the incident, Jorge Castorbery Dias Dias, president of the Democratic Voice of the People Movement, was detained.  Dias was at the scene taking photographs.  One State Security official rushed up to the human rights activist and shoved and handcuffed him, then introduced him into the police vehicle.  However, he was taken by other officials of that same oppressive entity.  During the arrest, Jorge received physical blows on the head as he was shoved against the roof of the vehicle.

Amid the denouncements of the activist which stated that his arrest was arbitrary, the response from the official was “you know that this is Cuba, and that you cannot do that here.  Besides, I know who you are, I know you’re a well known counter-revolutionary”.  Jorge was taken to the Dragones Unit of Old Havana and locked away in a dungeon for more than three hours.  He was threatened by the political police and then was released.

Photos and Report courtesy of Eriberto Liranza Romero; Information and Press Commission of the CYMD. 

Yoani Sanchez's dream of leaving Cuba

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez nails the Castro regime for one of its most nefarious practices: Preventing Cubans like her, Cubans who insist on thinking and acting for themselves, from leaving the country.

Via the New York Times:

Oustide the sun is blindingly hot, and in the immigration office 100 people are sweating profusely. But no one complains. A critical word, a demanding attitude, could end in punishment. So we all wait silently for a “white card,” authorization to travel outside Cuba.

The white card is a piece of the migratory absurdities that prevent Cubans from freely leaving and entering their own country. It is our own Berlin Wall without the concrete, the land-mining of our borders without explosives. A wall made of paperwork and stamps, overseen by the grim stares of soldiers. This capricious exit permit costs over $200, a year’s salary for the average Cuban. But money is not enough. Nor is a valid passport. We must also meet other, unwritten requirements, ideological and political conditions that make us eligible, or not, to board a plane.

With so many obstacles, receiving a “yes” is like hearing the screech of the bolts pulled back on a cell door. But for many, like me, the answer is always “no.” Thousands of Cubans have been condemned to immobility on this island, though no court has issued such a verdict. Our “crime” is thinking critically of the government, being a member of an opposition group or subscribing to a platform in defense of human rights.

In my case, I can flaunt the sad record of having received 19 denials since 2008 of my applications for a white card. I left an empty chair at every conference, every award ceremony, every presentation of my books. I never received any explanation, only the laconic phrase “For now, you are not authorized to leave the country.”

Read the whole thing here.

Cuba actors' apparent defections is case of life imitating art ... imitating life

The Huffington Post reports:

The Tribeca Film Festival premiere of "Una Noche," a film about three Cuban teens trying to escape the Communist island nation for a better life in the U.S., was marred by the disappearance of two of the film's lead stars -- who went missing as soon as their plane from Cuba touched down in Miami.

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Javier Nunez Florian, the 20-year-old Cuban-born actors, were flown from Cuba to the United States on Wednesday and were supposed to make their way to New York on Friday in order to promote the film. But instead, the pair stayed in Miami, according to 20-year-old Dariel Arrechada, the third star of the film who traveled with them.

"I'm here alone in New York, " Arrechada said.

The Cuban actor also told The Huffington Post that he and his colleagues are unable to reach the two actors, and do not know of the pair's current whereabouts. But Arrechada, who said his visa will expire "in a few days," insisted he will be returning to Cuba after the Tribeca festival wraps up.

"Well, at the very least, I will go back to Cuba," Arrechada said, explaining that he "has [his] reasons."

"I have my family there, my friends, my girlfriend," he said. "Here, I don't know anyone. Here, I don't know the way of life. I also don't know English very well," he said in Spanish.

This is the first time any of the Cuban-born actors have been to the U.S., the director of the film, Lucy Mulloy, tweeted in late March.

"First time out of Cuba to the US!" her tweet read.

Mulloy told The Huffington Post that she's disappointed and surprised by the actors' decision, but understands it.

"I really was thinking that they were going to come here and enjoy the festival, and I thought they would love to participate in it," Mulloy said. "They made a decision, I guess."

Mulloy, who wrote the film after visiting Cuba and meeting "so many people [who] had connections to stories about people who had left," said she's also concerned about the well-being of her actors. "I just hope that they're safe and well," she said.

But the movie stars' apparent choice to flee Cuba is not unique to the island's history. In 2008, the number of Cubans trying to escape to United States was at its highest point in more than decade, according to a report by The Economist. In the 2007 fiscal year, nearly 8,000 Cubans sought to flee to the United States and more than 3,000 were intercepted at sea, according to the same report.

Many Cubans have recently resorted to coming the U.S. by way of Mexico, while others travel in speed boats, paying up to $10,000 a head for the trip.

And it's not only movie stars who have defected. Cuba has a history of losing its Olympic athletes and baseball players when they are sent abroad to represent their country. At the 1993 Central American Games in Puerto Rico, 40 athletes from the Cuban delegation never made it back to their homeland.

Arrechada said he doesn't judge people who flee Cuba.

"That's their choice, you know?" he said of his co-stars. "That's their way of thinking. No one is forced to stay. And no one is forced to go back. If you want to stay in the United States, I think, well, stay. If you want to go back, go back. Not all of us have to stay and not all of us have to go back. It's about what you want to do with your life," he said.

But choosing to leave Cuba is not so simple for the thousands who have lost their livesescaping the island nation, which is still classified as a totalitarian communist state by the U.S. government. Historically, political dissidents have been imprisoned for making statements that contradict the communist government, and to date, the average Cuban's salary hovers around just $20 a month.

Asked if he thinks his co-stars will go back to Cuba, Arrechada said, "Well, to be sincere, I think they're going to stay."

Before "Una Noche" premiered at Tribeca, Mulloy was already developing a sequel to the film. But she said things are now more complicated.

"Yeah, it's kind of heartbreaking," Mulloy said. She added that the two actors were "absolutely" part of her plan to make a second film.

"I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe we can work something out. I'm not sure yet. It's such fresh news to us," she added.

Mulloy said she didn't foresee events unfolding as they did.

"It is surprising," she said. "I mean, they had all of their family there and it's surprising. But things can be difficult in Cuba. There's an embargo and so there's a lot of challenges for people living in Cuba."

3 Cuban dissidents arrested for talking politics with foreign visitor

Advocates of lifting all remaining restrictions on Americans' ability to travel to Cuba argue visitors will serve as ambassadors for capitalism, democracy and freedom, changing Cuba for the better in ways not seen during more than 50 years of embargo.

The reality on the ground, in Cuba under the iron fist of the Castro dictatorship, is much different.

An example of this was evident earlier this week when three dissidents -- Pablo Morales Marchant, Denis Peña Leyva and Gustavo Arabito -- were arrested in Old Havana and detained for about 90 minutes when police caught them talking politics with a foreigner.

PayoLibre.com has more.

Danny López de Moya, Cuba Political Prisoner of the Week, 4/22/12

Cuban activist Danny López de Moya was sentenced to 18 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the names of three political prisoners murdered by the Castro dictatorship -- Pedro Luis Boitel, Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Vilar Mendoza.

Lopez, a leading member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), had been arrested in February while a T-shirt declaring, "Boitel, Zapata, Wilman Live and UNPACU." He was released without charges being filed, but he was re-arrested Wednesday, April 18, and charged with "disrespect" and "resistance," catch-all charges the dictatorship frequently uses to target members of the opposition.

The trial was Friday.

Members of UNPACU recently have come under special scrutiny by the Castro regime. The group's leader, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, a former prisoner of conscience, has been in jail since his most recent arrest April 2.

Radio Marti has more.

Cuba prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia in solitary confinement

Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia

FoxNews.com has the latest on one of Cuba's most valiant freedom fighters, Jose Daniel Ferrer, who is being held without charge after his arrest April 2:

The opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Thursday denounced the fact that former political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer remains in jail without any charges being filed against him more than two weeks after being arrested.

"He continues to be detained, allegedly under 'provisional imprisonment' in the political secret police station in Santiago de Cuba, where he has remained interned, under cruel and subhuman conditions, since April 2," commission spokesman Elizardo Sánchez said in a communique.

Ferrer, who was among the "Group of 75" dissidents sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the spring of 2003, heads the illegal Patriotic Union of Cuba and was arrested in Santiago along with other opposition members.

The commission said that as of early Thursday the formal charges against Ferrer had not been made known and he had not been assigned a defense attorney.

According to the text of the communique, the opposition figure is in "solitary confinement" and is being subjected to "a particular form of biological torture" given that he is being exposed to an "enormous plague of mosquitoes."

The commission also emphasized the "provisional imprisonment" of Bismarck Mustelier, whom it said is also a member of the Patriotic Union and "has been held in the high-security Aguadores prison" in Santiago.

As a member of the Group of 75, Ferrer was released on parole in March 2011 and was among the 12 opposition members of the Group who refused to travel to Spain as a condition of their release from prison.

In recent months, Ferrer has been briefly arrested several times in Havana and Santiago, the province where he resides.

Cuba's communist government considers dissidents to be counterrevolutionaries and mercenaries in the service of the United States.

Learn more about imprisoned activist Bismarck Mustelier, here.

A message to Cuban prisoners of conscience: 'You are not forgotten here'

This is dedicated to Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Andres Carrion Alvarez, Anyer Antonio Blanco Rodríguez and other prisoners of conscience in Cuba suffering because of their faith in freedom, their faith in God and their faith in their fellow Cubans.

Though you may disappear, you're not forgotten here.
And I will say to you, I will do what I can do. We will do what we can do.

Expelled from Cuba, exiled journalists languish in Spain

Committee to Protect Journalists reports on the difficulty that Cuban journalists and former prisoners of conscience are experiencing in their exile in Spain.

Ricardo González Alfonso (left) and Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez at a press conference in Vallecas in July 2010. 

In 2010, following midsummer negotiations between the Catholic Church and the government of President Raúl Castro, Cuban authorities began releasing imprisoned journalists, sending them into forced exile with their families. In April 2011, the last of more than 20 journalists arrived in Spain. They had been granted liberty and respite, and were promised support from Spanish authorities while they settled into the new country. But almost two years after the first crop of journalists arrived in Spain, the four who remain in the country are living under extremely difficult conditions, struggling even to feed themselves.

Mijaíl Bárzaga Lugo, Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, Ricardo González Alfonso, and Omar Rodríguez Saludes were among the 29 reporters and editors scooped up by Cuba during a 2003 massive crackdown on the island's dissidents and independent press. Bárzaga Lugo, a reporter for the independent news agency Agencia Noticiosa Cubana, was handed a 15-year prison sentence; Gálvez Rodríguez, a veteran journalist, was also given 15 years; Ricardo González Alfonso, a freelance reporter, poet, and correspondent for Reporters without Borders, got 20 years; and photographer Rodríguez Saludes was handed a whopping 27 years in jail. The inhuman conditions in which they lived behind bars included rotten food, withheld medical attention, and overflowing toilets, just to name a few. At home, their families were continuously harassed by authorities and neighbors for being linked to Cuba's dissidence.

The four journalists arrived in Spain in July 2011. They travelled with their immediate and extended families. Before leaving, they were promised financial support to cover rent and other basic needs such as food, utilities, and transportation, the journalists said. Government support, explained Rodríguez Saludes, was initially to last one year. However, if the journalists and their families were still unable to support themselves by the end of this period, assistance could be extended for up to 12 additional months, the photographer told CPJ. None of the four families have been in Spain longer than 24 months, and yet, they have all stopped receiving financial aid.

Gálvez Rodríguez, 67, said he has applied for 22 job openings since he arrived in Spain. "Every time, they tell me the same thing -- that I am very qualified and have an incredible résumé, but that, unfortunately, I am over the retirement age." Rodríguez Saludes, 46, has not stopped looking either, but he has also been unable to find a job. His wife and sister-in-law, he said, have jobs as domestic workers. Each works only two hours a day.

Children continue to receive a free education. However, with no income coming in and other basic needs, such as food, taking precedence, some of the children have stopped attending school. The journalists explained that they are no longer able to pay school lunch fees, or for the metro trip from home to the school. "A one kilometer walk might be nice if you're doing it for pleasure," said Gálvez Rodríguez of the distance between his apartment and his seven-year-old son's school. "It is simply undoable for a child every morning and evening." Last week, Gálvez Rodríguez simply stopped taking his son to school.

As with education, the journalists and their families continue to have access to free health care. Medications and other medical necessities, however, have to be paid for out of pocket. Bárzaga Lugo, for instance, said he is liable for a series of medical expenses -- including a wheelchair -- needed for daily support of his 74-year-old mother, who is senile.

By CPJ's latest count, 15 of the journalists forced into exile have now traveled to the United States in search of better situations. (One more, José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, went immediately to Chile from Spain.) Of the four who remain in Spain, Bárzaga Lugo, Gálvez Rodríguez and Rodríguez Saludes said they are also looking to leave.

A fifth journalist who was in Spain, Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, killed himself last month. Although no one knows exactly what drove Du Bouchet Hernández to this desperate action, friends said he had been experiencing many difficulties.

"We are living very difficult times right now," said Bárzaga Lugo via e-mail yesterday. "In the two houses that my family shares, the refrigerators are empty, there is no food. We have also not paid the last month's rent, not to mention electricity and water bills. Whatever I tell you couldn't possibly describe our situation."

Free Cuban prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia NOW!

Read about this brave man here.

Cuban human rights group reports almost 2,400 political arrests in first 3 months of 2012

In 2010, the opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported there were 2,074 politically motivated arrests on the island.

Already in 2012, the Castro dictatorship has shattered that mark, with 2,393 political arrests and detentions of hours, days or longer, as of March 31, the commission said Tuesday.

Sparking a bulk of this year's arrests -- including 1,158 in March alone -- was Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the island. Commission head Elizardo Sanchez said more than half of the arrests happened before and during the pope's visit, during which he said nothing publicly about the human rights situation in Cuba.

Many of the arrests and detentions, according to Sanchez, were of beggars and homeless people taken off the streets so not to embarass the Castro regime. The level of repression matched that seen in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs invasion, he said.

1,158 arrests in March, one of the worst months of repression in the past 51 years.

2,393 arrests in the first three months of the year, more than in all of 2010 and more than half of those in 2011.

Each arrest, a reason why the pope was wrong to go to Cuba.

And each one an example of how under the Castro regime, despite all you hear about so-called "reforms," nothing has changed.

For the commission's latest reports, including the names of those arrested in March, read this.

The Miami Herald has more.