Uncommon Sense

New campaign highlights religious repression in Cuba

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, which works around the world for religious freedom, is highlighting the situation in Cuba as part of its Cry Freedom campaign, by focusing on the story of Caridad Caballero Batista.

For years, Caridad endured hell just to get to church. Being a Christian in Cuba means being followed by spies, receiving threats of violence, being held in solitary confinement to stop you going to church... She tells her moving story in this short film. 

We can’t allow this to continue. Many people assume that Cuba is a relatively untroubled island paradise – but the truth is that Christians are routine targets for persecution by the Cuban Government. If more people knew about this, we could start to change things.

This year we’ve seen a dramatic rise in religious persecution – with over 100 incidents reported so far in 2012, compared to just 28 in 2011. Our sources say they’re experiencing the highest levels of intimidation and harassment of church leaders since 1980. We need you to take action!

Specifically, CSW is asking people to write the U.S. State Department to request that Cuba be added to its list of "countries of particular concern," as part of its monitoring of human rights around the world. Get more details here.

Cuban human rights groups report more than 500 political arrests in August

However you count it, the repression in Cuba does not let up.

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation reports there were 521 political arrests in Cuba in August -- more than twice the number reported in August 2011.

The Hablemos Press Information Center (CIHPRESS), an independent news agency that keeps close tabs on repression in Cuba, reports there were 538 political arrests last month, the highest monthly total since March.

The differing counts reveal the challenges that human rights activists face as they try to hold the regime for its repression.

But as important as the bottom-line numbers, are the trends.

Whatever the wishful, delusional thinking of those who believe that if we allow more money, in the form or travel or remittances or trade, to flow to Cuba, the more likely the Castros will change their ways, the repression is getting worse.

However you count it, the suffering in Cuba is getting worse.

As long as there are Cubans with the courage to resist, and with the blood-thirst of the Castros to stifle their opposition, that will not change.

On Cuba, Democrats, Republicans offer differing approaches but how would they help Cubans?

This is what the Republican Party platform says about policy towarads Cuba:

We affirm our friendship with the People of Cuba and look toward their reunion with the rest of our hemispheric family. The anachronistic regime in Havana which rules them is a mummified relic of the age of totalitarianism, a state-sponsor of terrorism. We reject any dynastic succession of power within the Castro family and affirm the principles codified in U.S. law as conditions for the lifting of trade, travel, and financial sanctions: the legalization of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally-supervised elections. We renew our commitment to Cuba’s courageous pro-democracy movement as the protagonists of Cuba’s inevitable liberation and democratic future. We call for a dedicated platform for the transmission of Radio and TV Marti and for the promotion of Internet access and circumvention technology as tools to strengthen the pro-democracy movement. We support the work of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba and affirm the principles of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, recognizing the rights of Cubans fleeing Communism.

This is what the Democratic Party platform says about policy towards Cuba:

Under President Obama, we have undertaken the most significant efforts in decades to engage the Cuban people. We have focused on the importance of the family ties between Cuban Americans and their relatives still living under oppression. Because of steps the President has taken, it is now possible for Cuban Americans to visit and support their families in Cuba, and to send remittances that reduce the Cuban people’s dependence on the Cuban state. We have taken additional steps to bolster Cuban civil society, expanding purposeful exchanges that bolster independent religious groups on the island and enhancing the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people. Going forward we will continue to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future.

The words are nice, and a dissection of the rhetoric does reveal two competing choices for how to deal with Cuba.

But as I read these planks, I wonder how if put into action, they would help improve the lot of political prisoners and others oppressed by the Castro regime.

When considering which party offers the best approach, that should be the only criteria.

Cuban political prisoner Enrique Figuerola on hunger strike for more than 35 days (UPDATED)

Updated, Sept. 11, 2012 -- Enrique Figuerola has ended his hunger strike after 42 days, after other UNPACU activists told him they feared for his life.

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Anti-Castro activists in Cuba are sounding the alarm about about the deteriorating condition of political prisoner Enrique Figuerola Miranda.

Figuerola, imprisoned since July 28, is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, which has been targeted with more and more repression as it becomes more active in opposing the dictatorship.

Almost immediately after he was arrested during a carnival in Santiago de Cuba on a charge of "assault," Figuerola started a hunger strike that according to his wife has left him looking like a cadaver.

"His family and the Patriotic Union of Cuba are preoccupied for the life of this peaceful defender of human rights," said UNPACU leader Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, himself a former political prisoner.

Meanwhile, another jailed UNPACU activist, Jorge Cervantes, ended his lengthy hunger strike after his family pleaded with him to end his protest.

Roelbis Coba Sendo, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 9/2/12

Led by former prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) has in the year since it was formed become one of the most active opposition groups on the island.

And in response, the Castro dictatorship has reserved for UNPACU some of its most aggressive repression, arresting and detaining the group's members in a futile attempt to stamp out its efforts.

Most recently, activist Roelbis Coba Sendo on Aug. 29 was tried, convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison on supposed charges of "contempt" and "resistance."

Opposition activist Yordi Garcia Founier said Coba was jailed in retaliation for his participation in a June 15 protest outside a Guantanamo police station to demand the release of two members of the Damas De Blanco who had been deported from Havana.

Coba was tried and sentenced two days after receiving a subponea. During the proceedings, police arrested eight other activists while they were trying to enter the courthouse.

In a separate incide, Interior Ministry officials assaulted Dama De Blanco Yudislaidis Travieso Garlobo when they tried to take her cell phone while she was walking to the courthouse.