Uncommon Sense

Amnesty International designates Cuban journalist Calixto Martinez as a prisoner of conscience

Calixto Martinez Arias

The case of imprisoned Cuban independent journalist Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias received a much-deserved boost in profile Wednesday when Amnesty International designated Martinez as a prisoner of conscience, "solely detained for peacefully exercising his freedom of expression."

Martinez, a correspondent with the Hablemos Press news agency, was arrested Sept. 16 at Jose Marti International Airport, where he had gone to report on a shipment of donate medical supplies that had become ruined. Earlier in the summer, Martinez had broken the story about an outbreak of cholera.

Amnesty International reports:

 Independent journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias has been detained since September 2012 in Cuba in relation to his work. Amnesty International believes he is a prisoner of conscience solely detained for peacefully exercising his freedom of expression. On 16 September 2012 Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a journalist working for the unofficial news agency Hablemos Press, was arrested by the Cuban Revolutionary Police (Policía Revolucionaria de Cuba) at José Martí International Airport in Havana. He had been investigating allegations that medicine provided by the World Health Organization to fight the cholera outbreak (which began in mid-2012) was being kept at the airport instead of being distributed, as the Cuban government was allegedly trying to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak. Upon his arrest, Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias was taken to the Santiago de las Vegas police station, located near the airport.

According to Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias’ relatives, when complaining in his cell at the Santiago de las Vegas police station about his detention, he was beaten and pepper-sprayed in his eyes, and then called out “down with Raúl”, “down with Fidel” (“abajo Raúl”, “abajo Fidel”). Although neither he nor his lawyer – who has not been allowed access to his casefile – have been informed of any official charges against him, Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias is reportedly being accused of “disrespect” (“desacato”) towards President Raúl Castro and Fidel Castro. The Cuban criminal code provides sentences of up to three years’ imprisonment in this case.

After being held for 10 days at the Santiago de las Vegas police station, Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias was transferred to Valle Grande prison until 10 November. Since then he has been detained at Combinado del Este prison on the outskirts of Havana. On arrival at Combinado del Este prison he went on hunger strike, apparently to protest against being forced to wear a prison uniform and having his personal belongings confiscated. The hunger strike reportedly lasted 33 days.

Amnesty International believes Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias’ detention is politically motivated and related to his peaceful exercise of freedom of expression.

Read the whole thing, including how you can help Amnesty International win Martinez's release, here.

You can also join Hablemos Press' petition campaign, here.

Read the Uncommon Sense profile of Martinez, here.

Unfortunately, not all Cuban political prisoners are treated the same

This blog strives to treat all Cuban political prisoners the same, presuming that their imprisonments are equally unjust and equally reflective of the repressive nature of the Castro dictatorship.

But I am not naive. Despite my best efforts, not all Cuban political prisoners receive the same level of attention, whether from overseas, from other anti-government activists on the island or this blog.

Exiled blogger Luis Felipe Rojas explains how this is reflected in the case of political prisoner Sonia Garro and her husband:

The case of the arbitrary arrest of Sonia Garro and her husband Ramon Alejandro is confusing for several reasons. That she belongs to the well-known group the Ladies in White and he to an independent Afro-Cuban organization, highlights lack of tactics or support (or both) by our internal dissent.

Recognized international institutions have raised the alarm at such injustice, but what has happened inside Cuba? The recent case of a protest against the police for the arrest of well-known figures like Yoani Sánchez, Antonio Rodiles and Angel Santiesteban (respectively: a receiver of many awards, a new rising star and prize-winning writer) among others, demonstrated what a nonviolent force can achieve pushing back against a repressive government.

In the case of Garro and her husband there has been a lack of actions to pressure the government from the dissident circles where they were recently active before being imprisoned, that is specific actions, specific public planned demands with the idea of exposing their situation to international public opinion.

Just because they are two almost unknowns they should not be neglected, left to their fate; a demand organized in stages, starting with the issuing of letters to the authorities, appearing before every police station, and a call by a considerable part of the internal opposition could pressure the authorities with a different urgency.

Read the whole thing, here.

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Sonia Garro Alfonso and Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 1/20/13

Osvaldo Rodriguez Acosta, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 2/3/13

This post will remain at the top of the page through Friday, events allowing. To read newer posts, scroll down. And more Cuba-related news and information, follow Uncommon Sense on Twitter @marcmasferrer.

A version of this post appeared earlier.

Osvaldo Rodríguez Acosta, right, and his wife, Juana Castillo.

Cuban political prisoner Osvaldo Rodriguez Acosta on Jan. 24 started a hunger strike to demand that prosecutors invesigate police for stealing money from him and his family, according to a report posted by the CIHPRESS news agency.

"I demand they open an investigation because that is a violation," said Rodriguez, head of the Cuban Patriotic Alliance Movement.

Rodriguez, his wife Juana Castillo and their son Osvaldo were beaten and arrested Sept. 23. They were charged with assaulting an Interior ministry official during an earlier raid.

Castillo was released Jan. 1 after more than three months in jail. The couple's son remains held, facing charges of attempted murder and destroying state property after someone damaged the windshield on a police vehicle.

The family has denied the charge.

The elder Rodriguez is currently an inmate the El Combinando del Este prison in Havana.

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Desperation leads another Cuban political prisoner to start hunger strike

Orlando Triana González, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 1/27/13

Orlando Triana González

The dignity of many in the Cuban opposition is exhibited when they risk what little freedom they enjoy to stand up on behalf of their imprisoned compatriots. With such courageous acts, they elevate and confirm the moral stature of the struggle for liberty.

That quality was on display this past week in the town of Camajuani, in Villa Clara province, on behalf of anti-Castro activist Orlando Triana González.

Triana, a member of the Cuban Reflection Movement, on Jan. 23 was sentenced to a prison term of 2 years, 8 month because of his political activism, according to a report on the Pedazos de la Isla blog.

In addition, numerous other activists were detained by police while trying to make it to the court for Triana's trial. Among those arrested was Librado Linares Garcia, leader of the Reflection Movement and one of the Group of 75 prisoners of conscience jailed in 2003 and released in 2010.

Another act of solidarity with Triana took place in the town of Quemado de Guines, also in Villa Clara, where four actvists displayed signs and chanted slogans demanding Triana's release.

Watch the protest, by activists Maydelis González Almeida, Nosbel Jomolca, Juan Carlos Fernández Morales  and Yosmel Martínez here:

This is not the first time Triana has been imprisoned because of his political opposition to the Castro regime. Read an earlier profile, here.

Human rights group releases names of 106 Cuban political prisoners

Don't believe the hype, don't believe the lies: Despite highly publiczed releases of dozens of prisoners in 2010 and 2011 and other so-called "reforms," there remain dozens of prisoners in Cuban jails whose only crime is their political opposition to the Castro dictatorship. Each one witness to the repression that goes to the essence of the regime.

The very unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Tuesday released their names -- 106 in all, plus 17 more on parole under "extra-penal licenses."

(Not on the list are the thousands of other anti-Castro activists arrested and subjected to shorter-term detentions designed to neutralize the opposition out of the glare of the scrutiny that might come if the regime resorted to lengthy prison sentences.)

The human rights commission said its list only includes those prisoners it was able to confirm with family members and others as being held because of their politics. Other names were omitted because of a lack of sufficient verification.

Learn the 106 names and the details about their respective cases, here.

Read more, here.

Cuban police threaten anti-Castro activist with electroshock

Omar Suarez Campos, in front of his home.

No threat or intimidation is beyond the pale for the Castro dictatorship when it seeks to threaten or intimidate Cubans with the courage to challenge its rule. But what a Cuban State Security agent threatened to do to Omar Suarez Campos was especially despicable.

Suarez, a delegate with the Cuban Independence and Democratic Party in Pinar del Rio, on Jan. 8 was arrested in his home and taken to a police station.

During an interrogation, a State Security lieutenant colonel ordered Suarez to remove anti-Castro and pro-human rights slogans written on the outside walls of his home and threatened him with a year in prison on a pending charge of "pre-criminal social dangerousness," the Orwellian "crime" the regime often uses to target its opposition.

But the most despicable moment in the interrogation came when another State Security agent, a Major Maria Elena, identified herself as a psychologist and threatened to deliver electroshock treatments until he forgot his name, as punishment for leading a branch of the Cuban Independence and Democratic Party in his area.

Suarez was released after 24 hours in custody.

Sonia Garro Alfonso and Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 1/20/13

Ten months after she was arrested during a violent police raid on her home, Sonia Garro Alfonso, a member of the Cuban Damas De Blanco ("Ladies In White"), remains unjustly imprisoned in the Castro gulag. Her husband Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, who was arrested the same day, also remains jailed.

Through her sister, Garro last expressed disappointment that she has not received more support from others in the Cuban opposition and international groups like Amnesty International.

"She has been very active in the opposition and at first, there was a lot of support," said Yamilet Garro. "But that has fallen, has cooled off ... that she feels they have forgotten about her."

Sonia Garro is currently being held in the Manto Negro women's prison, facing pending charges of "attempted murder" and "public disorder."

Garro and her husband were arrested March 18, 2012, during a nationwide crackdown against the opposition in advance of Pope Benedix XVI's visit to the island.

According to Amnesty International, the couple was arrested at their home in Havana after 50 police forced their way into the house and fired rubber bullets at them. Sonia Garro Alfonso was wounded in the foot.

Her sister said last week that Sonia is poor health, suffering from kidney and skin ailments. A priosn doctor has told Sonia that she is in need of specialzed care, according to a story published by Diario de Cuba.

 

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Cuba: We cannot forget Lady in White Sonia Garro who remains imprisoned

Lady in White and husband imprisoned in Cuba for ten months

Castro dictatorship targets Baptist church, apparently for its support of dissidents

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports on yet another example of religious repression in Cuba:

Church leaders in the Cuban city of Santa Clara have condemned the Cuban government’s refusal to allow Trinidad First Baptist Church access to its bank account. The accounts for the historic local church, with funds amounting to approximately US$27,000, were frozen by government officials in 2010.

In an open letter published in October 2010, the longstanding pastor of the church, Reverend Homero Carbonell, expressed hope that his retirement would convince the government to restore the church’s access to its accounts, which were opened with the International Finance Bank in 1988. He and other church leaders believe the church was targeted in part because of his refusal to acquiesce to demands from state security that he bar members of the Cuban dissident movement, including Sakharov Prize winner Guillermo Fariñas, from attending the church.

According to another local Baptist pastor, Reverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, who authors the blog Cubano Confesante and is also a professor at the Luis Manuel González Peña Seminary, housed on the Trinidad Church’s property, the retirement of Reverend Carbonell did not have the hoped-for effect. The funds, the majority of which were donated by churches abroad for essential repairs to the 105 year-old church, remain inaccessible more than two years later.

Read the whole thing here.

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Castro dictatorship siezes Cuban church's bank account, refuses to release money

Wilman Villar Mendoza, RIP (UPDATED)

Cuban political prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza died Jan. 19, 2011, succumbing to "multi-organ" failure brought on my a lengthy hunger strike.

Wilman Villar Mendoza was yet another victim murdered by the Castro dictatorship.

A year later, he is not forgotten.

Like Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo before hime, Wilman Villar Mendoza VIVE!

UPDATED, 9:45 p.m. EST -- Other Cuban activists took to the streets Saturday to pay tribute to Villar's menu.

The regime responded by unleashing its goons to deliver a brutal attack.

The video and photographic evidence of what happened can be found href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYJsxw1gP4" target="_self">here.

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4 months after he was arrested, Cuban independent journalist Calixto Martinez remains in jail

Calixto Martinez

One way the murdering, unjust Castro dictatorship maintains its grip on power is with a healthy amount of irony.

For instance, the regime finally conceded this week that cholera was posing a threat to residents of Havana.

The admission came several months after independent journalist Calixto Martinez last summer first broke the story about a cholera outbreak.

How did the Castro regime reward Martinez for his resourcefulness in informing his fellow citizens about this grave risk to their health?

By arresting him Sept. 16 and holding him with no formal charges.

Four months later, Martinez remains imprisoned, suffering some of worst torture and other cruelties his jailers can throw him

And all because he did his job as a journalist.

You can show your support for Martinez by signing this petition asking the Cuban government to release him.

For more on the campaign for his release, visit the website for the Hablemos Press news agency.

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For previous posts about Martinez, go here.

 

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