Uncommon Sense

Why isn't the dissident movement relevant to the average Cuban?

Cuban blogger Ivan asks and answer an important question:

My neighbors think exactly the same way as many in the opposition. They are as unhappy with the government of the Castro brothers as any dissident. Many a night I have to listen to loud complaints and criticisms leveled against the regime of General Raúl Castro.

The causes for this disgust are numerous. They vary from the cost of putting food on the table, low wages and the absurdity of having two currencies to sky-high prices for basic commodities and corruption at every level.

At least people have not taken to the street to protest as in Brazil. In Cuba the escape valve is the living room of your house, where people never tire of grumbling and bemoaning their bad luck.

When workers are asked why they do not form independent trade unions or housewives are asked why they do not bang their pots and pans in the street to complain about overpricing, they look at you as if to say, “Do you think I am stupid?” Invariably the response is almost always, “I’m not going to play the hero,” or “If others do it, I will too.”

“Why don’t you join an opposition group,” I ask. No one admits to being afraid; they prefer to say they do not want to put their families at risk. Others claim they do not trust dissidents. Or that no one from the opposition has approached them with a proposal.

This is an interesting point. It is odd that in no neighborhood of Havana — I should mention I happen to live in the capital — can anyone find a dissident, especially since most of the opposition suffers from the same shortages as the average citizen. Actually, they suffer even more if you consider they are often harassed by the special services.

In my opinion the opposition has not figured out how to take advantage of this obvious discontent to attract followers. They live in their own world — one of discussions, meetings, debates among themselves and now trips overseas. Their initiatives are unknown inside Cuba. The average Cuban is not even aware of what they do.

Read the whole thing here.

Cuban Damas De Blanco demand the release of political prisoner Sonia Garro and her husband

Sonia Garro and Ramón Alejandro Muñoz

Almost 16 months after they were arrested Cuban political prisoners Sonia Garro Alfonso and her husband Ramón Alejandro Muñoz remained imprisoned, even though they never have been charged or tried. Accused of "public disorder" hey were arrested March 18, 2012, during an anti-government demonstration in the days leading up to a visit to Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI.

You may have not heard of Garro and Muñoz, but they remain unforgotten by the Cuban Damas De Blanco, of which Garro is a member, and other activists on the island.

Radio Marti has the latest:

Castro-organized mobs again target Cuban Ladies In White in Matanzas

Another Sunday in Matanzas, Cuba, another Sunday of government organized thuggery against some of the most valiant opposition activists on the island.

Martinoticias.com reports that seven members of the Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White," and nine other human rights activists have been be unable to leave the Catholic church in the town of Cardenas because of a siege by a mob organized by Cuban police and the local "rapid response brigade."

Similar repression against the Damas was also reported from Holguin.

Lady In White Leticia Ramos Herrería said the operation in Cardenas is larger than what was seen the two prior Sundays when the Damas and their supporters went to Mass and then took to peacefully marching through town. In response, government goon squads assaulted and arrested the activists.

"This will be a massacre today," Ramos said. "We hold responsible the Castro brothers and State Security for all that might happen, for our physical safety.

Twitter offers more details:

Nothing to celebrate in Cuba on the 26th of July

The 26th of July, is just another day of misery and tyranny in Cuba.

May this 26th of July be the last one like that.

Illustration by Rolando Pulido.

In the spirit of rock and roll and freedom, Cuban heavy metal band Hipnosis defects

I've never heard of the Cuban rock band Hipnosis, but then I make it a habit of not listening to musicians who bear the imprimatur of the Castro dictatorship.

Well, that's no longer a barrier after members of the group marked their arrival in Miami, from where they were secheduled to fly to Oakland, Calif., for a music event, by defecting.

Capitol Hill Cubans has the story:

Famed Cuban heavy metal band, Hipnosis, defected upon arriving in the U.S. this week.

They had been invited to a music event in Oakland, but asked for asylum upon arriving in Miami.

The band, which was subject to the Castro regime's official Cuban Rock Agency, had an official censor from the Ministry of Culture accompanying them on the trip.

(Why did this official get a U.S. visa?)

Cuban state media revealed in shock: "Hipnosis was completely affiliated with the governmental system of cultural promotion."

The band members have a different opinion, which they can now freely express. 

Here are their first quotes in freedom:

"Things for us were closed in Cuba and this [Ministry of Culture official] began to place all sorts of rules on what we could and couldn't do on the trip."

"Uncertainty about the future exists everywhere, but I'd rather face uncertainty in a place with options and opportunities, than in a place where there is nothing and no one aspires to anything."

"We didn't have enough space and there were too many limitations to perform in Cuba, and we want to think big."

We wish them luck and success.

Here's an interview with the band after their defection:

Words, video and photos show the truth about repression in Cuba

The Castro regime's brand of repression was especially brutal this past weekend.

From Cuba, independent journalist Roberto de Jesus Guerra has the photos of what Castro goons did to dissident hip-hop musician El Primario:

From exile, Raul Garcia at Pedazos de la Isla has more photos:

There's also this video:

From exile, human rights activist and blogger John Suarez has the words:

On Sunday, July 21, 2013 they were both brutally beaten by agents of the Cuban government for their dissent and suffered lasting physical damage. It takes time to get images out of Cuba, but unlike years past now it can be accomplished in hours and days instead of months and years.

Over twitter the images were posted today by her daughter Sayli Navarro who tweets: "my mom Sonia Álvarez Campillo, shows x-rays and fractured arm by repressors on Sunday" and independent journalist Ivan Hernandez Carrillo tweeted: "This is Lady in White Sonia Álvarez Campillo after first act of repudiation against Ladies in White."

There for everyone to see, a woman with a her left arm in a cast holding up her x-ray showing where the breaks are following a savage attack on Sunday by regime agents. This is not an isolated case but a disturbing pattern of increasing violence against nonviolent activists that is primarily but not only targeting women. 

Sonia Álvarez Campillo is a victim of government violence

For example on the same day a young rapper was brutally attacked and Pedazos de la Isla broke the story and information and images are excerpted below.

Rodolfo Ramirez badly beaten on Sunday suffering memory loss

 Rodolfo Ramirez, known by his rapping name as El Primario, member of the hip-hop duo El Primario y Julito, was the victim of a brutal beating which left him with memory loss and serious injuries on his head. The attack occurred on Sunday, July 21st, at the Malecon (Sea wall) of Havana.

Julio Leon Fonseca “Julito”, offered declarations to ‘Radio Republica’ in regards to the situation, explaining that the repression was part of a series of hostile actions against both rappers that week. Fonseca had been verbally threatened in his neighborhood of Boyeros, in Havana, by a person at the service of State Security on July 16th. But the presence of various friends that came out in his defense forced the agent to flee.

Read the rest here.

Jay-Z's stands his ground against Florida, but he will party in Cuba (UPDATED)

UPDATED, July 24, 2013 -- Maybe Jay-Z hasn't joined a boycott of Florida, but he did go to Cuba, which means he helped finance the repression of fellow musician El Primario and millions of other Cubans. That may not make him a hypocrite, just a useful idiot. |---|

American hip-hop musician Jay-Z and wife Beyonce during their vacation to Cuba earlier this year.

Cuban musician El Primario after he was vicioously beaten in Cuba this past weekend.

Jay-Z won't play Florida, to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin and the state's "stand your ground law."

But he will vacation in Cuba, where anyone who dares to stand their ground against the Castro dictatorship -- like rap musician  Rodolfo Ramirez, or "El Primario" -- puts at risk not only what little freedom they enjoy but their very lives.

Jay-Z can do whatever he wants, protest any "injustice" that he wants. Maybe his disdain for the Sunshine State is sincere.

But it does not absolve him of his hypocrisy.

A member of Congress on Tuesday called out Jay-Z and other anti-Florida musicians for their simultaneously much-softer stand towards the regime in Havana.

"Look, thank God we live in a free country, and people can opt to be silly and foolish, but that’s a contrast — they go to Cuba, and that's okay,” U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said Tuesday on the Laura Ingraham radio show.

“They hobnob with the regime; that’s okay. But they won’t go to Florida, where we're free. That's their choice, but I think their priorities are a little bit off.”

All would be forgiven if Jay-Z's distaste for politics and justice in Florida was accompanied by at least a mininum level of acknowledgement of conditions in Cuba. Even better would be if he were to use his celebrity to draw attention to Cuba by vowing not to return until Cubans are free.

But let's not go crazy.

Expecting such a reveral would require an egomaniac like Jay-Z to look beyond his own navel and acknowlege that Cuba is not just a vacation spot, but a nation broken by 54 years of tyranny and dictatorship, where basic rights -- like the right of expression through speech and music -- are violently repressed.

Jay-Z won't play Florida, and maybe his is a just cause. But he will party in Cuba, where just this past weekend El Primario, a member of the hip-hip duo El Primario y Julito,  was viciously beaten by some of the dictatorship's goons.

By going to Cuba, Jay-Z helped finance an attack on a fellow musician.

Jay-Z probably has never head of El Primario, but that's no excuse. Cuba's record of human rights abuses and other injustices is well documented, all lhe had to do was punch a few extra key strokes while booking his and Beyonce's trip to Havana.

Of course, that presumes that Jay-Z could ever give a damn.

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Read about the assault on El Primario and watch a related video at Pedazos de la Isla.

 

Castroite mobs attack Cuban Damas De Blanco, other activists

For the second consecutive Sunday, mobs doing the bidding of their Castroite slave masters in the province of Matanzas attacked and arrested members of the Damas De Blanco and other opposition activists.

Via Twitter, numerous activists reported that the Damas, or "Ladies In White," and members of the Cuban Patriotic Union, or UNPACU, marching in the cities of Colon and Cardenas were arrested and taken to numerous police stations in the province, according to Martinoticias.com.

To learn more, read the following Storify compilation of various tweets about today's events:

The legacy of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero lives

Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero

The deaths of Oswaldo Paya, founder of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and Harold Cepero, head of the MCL's youh win, in a car crash on July 22, 2012, have not been in vain. Instead, they have inspired many to pick up their legacy and to carry on with the struggle for Cuban freedom.

The Castro dictatorship may have indeed murdered Paya and Cepero, but it has not stamped out their legacy and the desire of their successors to continue with their struggle for peaceful, democratic change in Cuba.

None have demonstrated that desire to carry on and to complete what Paya started more than his daughter, Rosa Maria Paya.

Here is what she had to say this week on the eve of the first anniversary of her father's death.

For another reminder of Paya's legacy, read the speech he gave when he accepted the European Union's Sahkarov Prize for Freedom of Thought in December 2002:

You have awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize to the people of Cuba. I say “the people of Cuba” because they are the ones who so richly deserve such an award. I say it without excluding any of my fellow countrymen, irrespective of their political stance, because rights have no political, racial or cultural hue. Nor have dictatorships any political color: they are neither right-wing nor left-wing, they are merely dictatorships. In my country there are thousands of men and women who are fighting in the midst of persecution for the rights of all Cubans. Hundreds of them have been imprisoned solely for having proclaimed and stood up for those rights, and this is why I am receiving this award on their behalf.

I say that this prize is for all Cubans because I believe that, in awarding it, Europe wishes to say to them: “You too are entitled to rights.”

This is something which we have always firmly believed, but there are times when this truth has seemed to be less than self-evident to many of the world’s people.

I have not come here to ask you to support those who oppose the Cuban Government or to condemn those who persecute us. It is of no help to Cuba that some people in the world side with the country’s government or with the latter’s opponents on the basis of an ideological standpoint. We want others to side with the Cuban people - with all Cubans – and this means upholding all their rights, supporting openness, supporting our demand that our people should be consulted via the ballot box regarding the changes we are calling for. We are asking for solidarity so that our people can be given an opportunity to speak through the ballot box, as proposed in the Varela Project.

Many people have linked this prize to the Varela Project, and rightly so, since the thousands of Cubans who, in the midst of repression, have signed the petition calling for a referendum are making a decisive contribution to bringing about the changes which Cuba needs. Those changes would mean involvement in cultural and economic life, civil and political rights, and national reconciliation. That would constitute a genuine exercise in self-determination by our people. We must reject the myth that we Cubans have to live without rights in order to support our country’s independence and sovereignty.

Father Felix Varela has taught us that independence and national sovereignty are inseparable from the exercise of basic rights. We Cubans – whether we live in Cuba or in the diaspora – are a single people and we have both the determination and the ability to build a just, free and democratic society, without hatred and without the desire for revenge. In the words of José Marti, ‘With everyone and for everyone’s benefit’.

Read the rest here.

Dissidents: Cuban State Security preparing mobs to again attack Ladies In White

Twitter erupted Friday with warnings that the Castro dictatorship is plotting to attack Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White," and other dissidents when they march in Colon, Matanzas on Sunday. It would be a repeat of last Sunday when pro-dictatorship mobs grabbed and punched women marching peacefully after Mass and detained several of their supporters.

Pedazos de la Isla has details on the latest developments:

Since Thursday, July 18th, State Security agents have been visiting a number of work centers in the cities of Colon and Cardenas, in the central province of Matanzas, recruiting “tall and strong” people to participate in violent actions against the Ladies in White and other dissidents this upcoming Sunday, July 21st, when these activists have plans to participate in Mass to pray for the liberation of all political prisoners.

The news has been made public on the Twitter account of Ivan Hernandez Carrillo (@ivanlibre), independent unionist and former political prisoner.  The renown dissident hast sent out various messages of warning.

“Colon, Matanzas: State Security tells administrators of work centers to send strong and tall men to beat up the Ladies in White at 9 AM, this Sunday”, says one tweet.

The threats are also directed to other independent unionists.  State Security has plans to send more corpulent men “to the headquarters of the independent unions” at the same time.

On Sunday, July 14th, State Security carried out a violent operation against Ladies in White and other activists from Matanzas.  This resulted in broken heads and ribs, injections with unknown substances, and arrests.  The demonstrators were also threatened with death.  Lieutenant Coronel Joaquin was the official who ordered these actions.

“Ladies in White from Colon and Cardenas will go to Mass and march despite the threats of being ‘cut up with knives’ by the political police and State Security”, affirms Hernandez Carrillo.

He concludes his series of messages asking for solidarity with these dissidents who are facing serious threats to their lives.

“Please, we are asking for solidarity in light of this announced repression for this upcoming Sunday”, he expresses.

Ivan Hernandez was one of the dissidents arrested, beat, and injected with strange substances last weekend.  Other names of victims include Leticia Ramos Herreria, Marisol Fernandez, and Javier Erbello.