Uncommon Sense

The Boston Globe's Bella English: See Cuba before freedom changes everything!

A scene from the Cuba that Bella English of the Boston Globe hopes doesn't change anytime soon.

When it comes to Cuba, I know many Americans share the willful ignorance/malignant indifference of the Boston Globe's Bella English. The big difference is that she actually had the ignorance/indifference -- I suspect more of the latter than the former -- to put her disregard for the suffering of the Cuban people under the Castro dictatorship into words published by her newspaper:

I recently spent a week in Cuba, visiting Havana and the countryside before checking out the beach. Because the country remains under US embargo and travel by US citizens is limited — journalists and academic researchers can go, and certain “cultural exchanges” are allowed — I wanted to get there and write about it before the floodgates open and tourists overrun the place.

That's right, she actually said it: She wants to go to Cuba before it is free from the lying, thieving, murdering Castro dictatorship, she wants to go to Cuba while she, with whatever spending her employer allowed her to cover with her expense account, still has the chance to help the regime finance its repression of the Cuban people.

Bella English wanted to go to Cuba before freedom is allowed to flourish.

Well, she didn't say that, but the meaning of her words -- which in total amount to one of the most disgusting displays of journalistic masturbation written recently about Cuba -- is the same.

The idea of visiting Cuba before it "changes," before it become another non-descript vacation spot overrun with chain hotels and trinket-seeking tourists, has always been ridiculous. Because along with the quaintness -- which covers everything from the old American cars to the bars Hemingway used to haunt -- comes the reality of the suffering of the Cuban people.

But as English illustrates, this tragic delusions remained ingrained in the American media and elsewhere.

English and others of her ilk, with their indifference, with their ignorance, with their disregard for the interests of the Cuban people, are only contributing to the continuing tragedy that is Cuba.

Because until Cuba truly changes to a point where tourist flights are routine, where Cuban beaches are dotted with luxuorious resorts, where Cubans can determine their own futures, Cuba and the Cuban people will still be suffering under one of the most horrific dictatorships in human history.

Good for the indifferent, the ignorant Bella English that she got to see that before things change.

(H/T Babalu Blog.)

Update on imprisoned Cuban musician/activist/political prisoner 'El Critico'

Pedazos de la Isla has the latest on imprisoned Cuban musician Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga:

Yudisbel Roseyo Mojena, wife of dissident rapper and political prisoner Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga “El Critico”, has been passing through some very difficult moments during these three months in which her husband has been behind bars.  She has had to raise their newborn child (only 4 months old) on her own, while she has had to go through countless difficulties to try and visit Remon Arzuaga in Las Mangas Prison of Bayamo.

The musician was violently arrested by the political police on the 26th of March because he handed out pro-freedom pamphlets, painted anti-regime messages outside his home and carried out a public discourse in favor of human rights.  Friends have also assured that Remon’s protest music within the hip-hop duo Los Hijos Que Nadie Quiso (The Unwanted Children) is another of the reasons why he has been taken to prison, considering that his music has attracted much attention from locals, especially the youth.

Inside of Las Mangas Prison, El Critico has been confronting numerous complications.

“Right now, Angel Yunier is not receiving medical attention although he suffers from an ulcer and chronic gastritis“, explains Yudisbel to this blog, “his jailers are also refusing to grant him minutes of phone access which he is supposed to receive“.

In addition, the young mother denounces that when she travels to the prison to visit her husband, “State Security always forms a problem.  Each time I visit him it’s a different scenario.  Sometimes they say they can’t bring him out at that moment, other times they tell me I have to leave first, etc“.

Another tactic of the authorities is to try and blackmail and involve the rapper into committing a common crime, a practice often employed by regime authorities against prisoners of conscience.  He has been completely resisting these pressures.

Read the rest here.

Cuban activist: Living as free men 'is the natural condition of every human person'

My friend Regis Iglesias spent more than seven years in Cuban prisons because of his opposition to the Castro dictatorship and his work to build a better in Cuba.

Now in overseas exile, Iglesias rejects the notion that he is anything special, but to me and I suspect many others, he is a hero, for the courage he displayed before and during his imprisonment, and his continued efforts to build a free Cuba.

"I cannot be called a 'hero' when we only do what we must do," he told me via Facebook. "There is no heroism in our actions. It is simply living as free men and that is not heroic.

"This is the natural condition of every human person, although we sometimes forget it," he said.

Iglesias responded after I posted a video of an interview he did in which he talked about his heroes.

First, they were rock musicians like Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix and the members of Led Zeppelin.

Later, they were Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and most of all the late Oswaldo Paya, founder of the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement, each of whom inspired Iglesias to exercise his rights as a free man and to work for a better, freer Cuba.

Is Iglesias a hero?

Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Regis Iglesias and me, Miami, April 2013.

Cuban political prisoner Niorvis Rivera Guerra sentenced to 18 months in prison

More that 15 months after he was arrested and thrown into the Castro gulag, Cuban political prisoner Niorvis Rivera Guerra last week was sentenced to 18 month in prison on a trumped-up charge of "damage to state property," according to a report posted at PayoLibre.com.

Whether Rivera, a political and human rights activist, will be released in three months or he has to serve another 18 months in prison wasn't clear. But his wife reported that Rivera had been transferred out of high security section fo the Combinado de Guantanamo prison, and that his rights to receive visitors and other privileges had been restored.

Osvaldo Rodriguez Acosta, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 6/17/13

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

Cuban political prisoner Osvaldo Rodríguez Acosta, who in April was sentenced to 9 years in prison, has been on hunger strike since May 10 to demand a retrial.

Rodriguez, leader of the Patrioic Alliance Movement in the town of Bejucal, and his son, Osvaldo Rodríguez Castillo, were convicted of trumped-up charges, after police last year raided their home. The younger Rodríguez was sentenced to five years in prison, and the pair's wife and mother was sentenced to 5 years of labor without incarceration.

Human rights activist Sara Marta Fonseca said Rodríguez Acosta started his protest after he spent several days in an isolation cell for demonstrating against the Castro dictatorship.

His captors returned him to the punishment cell, but his wife was able to see him on May 16. On June 4, he was transferred to the prison hospital, and later to the National Hospital, where he remains.

For more, read the report from Diario de Cuba.

'My name is Roberto de Jesus Guerra and I am an independent journalist'

Roberto de Jesus Guerra, director of the Hablemos Press news agency is one of the most accomplished independent journalists in Cuba.

During a recent visit to Europe, Guerra told his story:

Here is a translation of the opening statement of his speech:

"When I was 14 years old, I participated in a meeting in my neighborhood, organized by the Cuban Communist Party. The Party delegate said that 'we should be grateful to the Revolution for the food they sell us through the ration card.' I responded telling him that 'with 5 pounds of rice and 10 ounces of beans we can't live.' A few days later, I was arrested and imprisoned for pre-criminal social dangerousness, together with 196 other teenagers from my region. I was sentenced to one year-and-six months of forced labor at a center for minors where I was forced to cut sugar cane. My story was never published in the media. My name is Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez and I am an independent journalist."

Residents of Antilla, Cuba denounce Castro dictatorship

My father was raised in Antilla, in eastern Cuba, so that there are people there willing to stand up for their rights and to denounce the Castro dictatorship is a point of pride:

From Pedazos de la Isla:

A number of signs with messages in favor of the everyday people and against the Cuban dictatorship appeared in different parts of the municipality of Antilla, Holguin province, this Sunday June 9th.

Mildred Noemi Sanchez Infante, a member of the Ladies in White and also of the pro-freedom groups Eastern Democratic Alliance (ADO) and the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) said that the majority of the signs read “Down with Hunger“.

She explained that the mentioned slogan is something which demonstrates the discontent and desperation of the citizens on the island, as well as one of the main concerns of Cubans: finding food.

Among the places where the signs appeared was the popular cafeteria known as “La Popular” located in Maximo Gomez Street and on the walls of the Cuban Women’s Federation office on Maceo Street.  These said “Down with Fidel”.

Sanchez Infante said that the apparition of the signs led the National Revolutionary Police to worry.

“The PNR agents quickly showed up and erased the signs on the Federation’s office“, said the activist, “the messages reflect the true feelings of the people of Antilla“.

Sometimes, signs are hung by members of the internal opposition while other times they are placed by neighbors and everyday citizens who express themselves in this manner.

Other common messages on the signs are “Down with Unemployment”, “Fair Salaries”, and “Food for our Children”.

 

Cuban independent news agency reports 323 political arrests in May

Roberto de Jesus Guerra, one of the most accomplished independent journalists on the island, returned to Cuba last week after visits to Europe and the United States where spoke about his work with the Hablemos Press news agency.

Hablemos Press journalists report the stories the Castro dictatorship would rather not be told -- especially those that serve to hold the regime to account for its repression of the Cuban people.

One way Guerra, the director of the agency, does that is by each month compiling a list of those arrested and detained, whether for an hour or more, by the police because of their political opposition to the dictatorship.

In the month of May, Hablemos Press reported this week, there were at 323 such arrests, bringing the total for the year to 1,867.

The numbers differ from those compiled by another human rights group, but the point remains: repression in Cuba is as pervasive as ever. And it's only getting worse.

To read Hablemos Press' latest report, including details about each arrest in May, go here.

Cuban human rights group reports at least 375 political arrests in May

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation reports that there were at least 375 politically motivated arrests in May, the second-highest monthly total so far this year.

As of May 31, there had been a total of 1,963 such arrests. In most instances, those arrested were held for a few hours or a few days, long enough for the Castro dictatorship to deliver a dose of repression while lessening the chance that anyone might actually notice what is happening.

Fortunately, the human rights commission does notice, each month compiling a list of those who have been arrested, detained, imprisoned, etc. because of their political opposition to the regime.

The numbers are depressing, each arrest representing an example of how nothing in Cuba under Raul Castro has changed, each one a reason why it's a mistake to concede anything to his regime.

If there is a positive in the numbers, maybe it is: For the fifth month in a row, the monthly total is lower than the corresponding number from 2012. At this point last year, the had been a total of 3,218 arrests, or 64 percent more than so far this year.

But that trend is hardly worth mentioning because even one politically motivated arrest, even one detention of a political opponent is not acceptable.

For more details on each arrest in May, read this.

Castro dictatorship drives family of murdered Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya into exile

Oswaldo Paya and his family.

Forget all the talk about Raul Castro's "reforms" in Cuba.

Most Cubans are free to travel overseas, and those who can afford it can buy a car or even real estate.

But anything that might indicate real change, such as end to the systemic repression that has been the hallmark of the Castro dictatorship for more than 54 years, has not happened.

The regime still murders its opponents, like Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, last July, and when his survivors try to carry on his legacy, it goes after them, as well.

This weekend, we learned that Paya's widow, Ofelia Acevedo Maura; and their children Rosa Maria and Reinaldo, last week took exile to escape persistent threats to their safety by thugs doing the bidding of those they hold responsible for Oswaldo's death in a suspicious car crash.

It is good that they now will be safe from the Castro regime. No one should have to tolerate that type of abuse, especially a family that already has given and lost so much. Cuba will miss the Payas, especially Rosa Maria, who has blossomed into a charismatic spokeswoman for her father's cause, but they have vowed to stick with the fight from exile.

But there also is sorrow in seeing yet more patriotic Cubans like the Payas forced to flee their patria because of the Castros. It is a familiar tale but as painful as ever.

Nothing has changed under Raul Castro. He is the lying, thieving, murderer his brother was.

That Cubans like the Payas are still taking exile in Miami or in Spain or in elsewhere because of their opposition to the Castros and their faith in a better, freer Cuba, is proof of that.

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Read my account of Rosa Maria Paya's visit in April to Miami, here.

Rosa Maria Paya and me, April 2013, Miami.