Uncommon Sense

Ángel Frómeta, Bismark Mustelier, Dany Lopez, Omar Naranjo and Yordanis Gomez, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 7/1/12

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The anti-Castro Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) has in recent months been one of more active opposition groups on the island. Lead by former Group of 75 prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, the group has organized protests and adapted Internet technologies to spread its message of resistance and hope.

A best measure of UNPACU's effectiveness is how the regime has responded with repression. At least five activists this year have been summarily tried on trumped up charges and sentenced to prison terms.

In the most recent case, Ángel Frómeta Lovaina on June 25 was found guilty of "resistance" and "assault," and sentenced to 2 years in jail. Another activist, Yoanni Beltrán Gamboa, said the Castro dictatorship had "invented" the charges as an excuse to send Frómeta to jail, according to Diario de Cuba.

A week earlier, another UNPACU activist Bismark Mustelier Galán was convicted of identical charges and received an identical punishment

Ferrer told Diario de Cuba that the other members of his group recently sentenced to prison terms were:

• Dany López de Moya, 18 months for "disrespect" and "resistance" after he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the names of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and other political prisoners murdered by the Castro regime
• Omar Naranjo Borges, 4 years for "dangerousness."
• Yordanis Gómez Mejías, 2 1/2 years for painting signs denouncing Fidel and Raul Castro.

New Cuban exile Dr. Darsi Ferrer to Cubans: 'Take to the streets and reclaim freedom'

Cuban human rights activist Dr. Darsi Ferrer arrived in Miami on Thursday, another freedom fighter sent into forced exile by the Castro regime.

Here is TV Marti's report on his arrival, which includes Dr. Ferrer's first media interview on free soil.

Ferrer, who in 2010 was declared by Amnesty of International to be a prisoner of conscience, said he is saddened by his exile, but he also made clear he has not given up a struggle that up to now, has cost him time with his family and so much more.

"I say to the Cuban people, take to the streets and reclaim freedom and demand your rights," Ferrer said.

As part of a settlement program for political refugees, Ferrer will be reunited with his wife and son in Chattanooga, Tenn., where they have been living since April.

Read more about Dr. Ferrer here.

And read my 2006 interview with him, here.

Here is a video tribute to Dr. Ferrer I produced while he was imprisoned in 2009-2010.

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Cuban independent journalists work to break the Castro embargo on news from the island

The Centro de Información Hablemos Press just posted a video in which its reporters and editors describe their work and how the Castro dictatorship targets them with repression.

They are true journalists, speaking truth to power and refusing to back down despite the many challenges they face in reporting and writing about events in Cuba.

Cuban activist Bismark Mustelier sentenced to 2 years in prison

Bismark Mustelier Galan

Cuban activist Bismark Mustelier Galan on Tuesday was sentenced to 2 years in prison on trumped up charges that he assault a Cuban Interior Ministry.

The trial, like the entire Cuban "justice" system, was a farce, but to make sure it got the verdict and sentenced it demanded -- and with as little public scrutiny as possible -- the dictatorship rounded up about 30 other dissidents to prevent them from attending the trial.

Mustelier, a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, was charged with "assault" and "resistance" after an incident at a hospital in Palma Soriano, in eastern Cuba, where he had gone to request medical care for his daughter. Several government agents testified that Mustelier choked the Interior official.

But Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, head of the Patriotic Union said all Mustelier tried to do was "defend himself against repression."

Which in Cuba makes Mutelier a very dangerous man.

Diario de Cuba has more details about Mustelier's case.

 

Forced exile is yet another tragedy of Castro's Cuba

One of the many tragedies that is Cuba today is how so many brave men and women have been forced into exile because of their opposition to the Castro regime. In the United States or elsewhere, they arguably are safer, but they are away from the land and the people they love, for whom they have sacrificed so much. It is sad and infuriating to consider how they have been driven from their home.

Darsi Ferrer

Last week, activist Darsi Ferrer said he would be joining his wife and son later this month  in exile in Tennessee. Ferrer, a veteran of many anti-Castro protests, would have preferred to stay in Cuba, but the regime insisted on his departure from the island as a condition of it allowing his wife to travel to the United States for needed medical care.

On Sunday, it was learned that activist and former political prisoner Francisco Chaviano would be leaving for Miami for needed medical care. Cuban doctors have told them he needs surgery for a painful back condition, "but I fear such surgery in Cuba, for obvious reasons," Chaviano said.

Francisco Chaviano

The exile of men like Ferrer and Chaviano is a great loss for the struggle for freedom in Cuba, but they are deserving of no criticism or scorn for their decisions. They have sacrificed much, they and their families have paid a heavy price because of their commitment to building a free Cuba. No one has the right to ask them to do more, while putting their lives and those of their families at further risk.

Instead, save your scorn for the Castro dictatorship, which uses forcible exile of its opponents as just another weapon of its repression.

Cuban human rights group reports more than 400 political arrests in May

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Thursday reported there were at 432 politically motivated arrests in May, bringing the total for the year to 3,218.

Each arrest, proof that Cuba under Raul Castro is as repressive as ever, proof that Cuba under Raul Castro has not changed.

For more details, including information on each arrest, read this.

Castro regime backs down, releases Antunez from jail 4 days after brutal arrest

Cuban dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" was released from jail Wednesday, four days after he was arrested in obvious retaliation before his testimony last week to a U.S. Senate committee.

What also is obvious are two factors that contributed to Antunez's release, namely:

His own reputation as a tireless advocate for freedom and human rights in Cuba, earned through years of activism and uncomprising resistance against the Castro dictatorship. Antunez is one of Cuba's best-known dissidents, a reputation earned during the many protests he has lead and the many arrests he has suffered.

And the immediate response of other activists and supporters of Cuban freedom, lead by two U.S. senators, to demand Antunez's immediate release. They raised a stink -- we all raised a stink -- on television and on the Internet to show the dictatorship that its exercise of raw, brutal repression would not go unanswered.

Like cockroaches exposed to the light, the regime retreated once it realized that at least time, it would not be able to act with impunity.

Thousands of other Cubans without the public stature of Antunez remain in jail because of their opposition to the Castros. Unfortunately, we will never know most of their stories.

But Antunez's release is a small victory in the struggle against the dictatorship for it demonstrates that if we make sure to challenge the regime when it moves against its opponents like it did against Antunez, freedom will prevail.

Jailed Cuban activist Antunez faces 'assault' charge

Cuban activist Jorge Luís García Pérez "Antúnez" faces a charge of "assault" after he was arrested Saturday in apparent retaliation for his testimony during a U.S. Senate hearing last week, according to a report posted on Payo Libre.

Antunez's wife Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera said Tuesday that when she went to a Santa Clara police station to check on her husband, a police captain told her Antunez had been charged with assaulting an official with the Cuban Interior Ministry.

Charging its political opponents with crimes like "assault," is a common tactic by a Castro regime always trying to legitimize its repression.

But in most instances, such as what is currently happening to Antunez, the dictatorship's true intent is clear.

With his testimony before the Senate, which was delivered from Cuba via teleconference, Antunez obviously struck a nerve in the halls of Havana. And obviously was decided that his testimony would not go unanswered.

In response, U.S. senators and others must maintain the pressure to force Antunez's immediate release.

CNN has more:

 

Unhappy with his truth-telling, Castro regime arrests human rights activist Antunez

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" long has proven himself one of the bravest and most valiant members of the Cuban opposition, unhesitating at any moment to denounce the Castro dictatorship and to demand that his rights, and the rights of all Cubans, be respected.

Which is what he did last Thursday, when during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Cuba, Antunez testified via telephone about repression on the island and his opposition to relaxation of the American sanctions on Cuba.

On Thursday, the Castros got their revenge, ordering their secret police to brutally arrest and detained Antunez. As of Monday, his whereabout were unknown.

Capitol Hill Cubans has the details:

Pursuant to last week's testimony in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cuban pro-democracy leader Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" has been arrested and brutally beaten by the Castro regime.

According to Antunez's wife (in testimony this morning to Radio Republica), Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, he was arrested on Saturday afternoon, brutally beaten, doused with pepper spray until unconscious and violently removed from his cell by the authorities that evening.

Antunez has not been heard from since.

His wife believes this is in reprisal for Antunez's testimony in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This serves as a stark reminder of what happens to Cuban activists who dare speak the truth. 

The two senators who heard Antunez's testimony, Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., demanded the United States and the United Nations act to force the Castro regime to release Antunez.

"The arrest and beating of Antúnez clearly as a result of his Senate testimony is further proof of the continuing brutality of the Castro brother's regime and further evidence of the need for the United States and other Democratic nations to stand up against tyrants and realize that the nature of the regime won't' be altered by increasing tourism to the island," Menendez said. "Today I am calling on the United States Department to cease providing any non-essential visas for travel to the United States by Cuban officials."

Rubio said what happened to Antunez will not be forgotten.

"Antunez is a courageous human rights activist. It is clear that he has been jailed and savagely beaten by criminals working for the Castro regime because he testified before the Senate last week," Rubio said in a statement. "The regime’s thugs will eventually be held accountable for these crimes. History will not wipe away the blood they have on their hands."

The average salary in Cuba climbs to $19 a month

Yes, in 2012.