Uncommon Sense

Prison guards deny food to political prisoner after he refuses to wear inmate uniform

Osvaldo Rodriguez Acosta

Officials at the Quivicán prison in Artesmia province have cut political prisoner Osvaldo Rodriguez Acosta from access to food because he refuses to wear the uniform of a common prisoners.

"I am a political prisoner and that uniform goes against my honor," Rodriguez said. "They are using this method with me so that I will obey, but I prefer dying than to submit."

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 in September 2012 raided their home, after the family refused to let the younger Rodriguez be inducted into the military. The elder Rodriguez was sentenced to 9 years in prison; 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.

The Hablemos Press news agency has more on Rodriguez.

3 Cuban activists sentenced to prison on bogus charges

Three Cuban activists in jail since May when they were arrested in Guantanamo province for protesting the arrest of another activist, this week learned their punishment after they were convicted of "public disorder" and "attempted murder."

Yoelkis Rosabal, 31, was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Ricardo Pelier, 28, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Ernesto Darián Duffo, 24, was sentenced to years in prison.

The trio, all activists with the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), were arrested after they protested the arrest of another UNPACU activist, Yohannes Arce.

Arce, also a member of UNPACU, was sentenced in September to 3 years in prison on a charge of "assault." He had been arrested in May after signs with anti-government slogans appeared in the town of Caimanera, in Guantanamo province.

Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, the head of UNPACU, said Arce has been on hunger strike for more than two weeks to protest the sentence, according to Martinoticias.com.

After 9 years, Uncommon Sense proud to be small part of struggle for Cuban freedom

Cuban activists Rosa Maria Paya, Tony Diaz Sanchez, a former prisoner of conscience, and me, in Hialeah, Fla., April 2013.

Nine years ago this month, when I started this blog, and soon afterward, when I devoted it almost exclusively to posts about Cuba, I had no idea what I was doing.

Originally, my goal had been to keep my writing skills sharp after I took an editing job at a newspaper in Florida. Never did I imagine that I had enlisted in a small but growing worldwide army of bloggers and other activists committed to exposing the truths about Cuba, the Castro regime and the crimes it commits daily against the Cuban people, and to giving voice to those frontline warriors on the island who risk what little freedom they enjoy to campaign for the demise of the dictatorship.

I'm careful to not inflate my own importance, but the fact remains : Uncommon Sense is one of the new English-language respositories with information about current and former Cuban political prisoners. I am dependent on the work of others to inform most of what I write, but I do think this blog has succeeded in making sure that those men and women locked away in the Castro gulag because of their opposition to the regime, are not forgotten. My goal, as always, remains to make sure the world knows their names and their stories.

Blogging, and my other activism that has come from it, have enriched my life in ways I never imagined before I started. I have reconnected with and been reinvigorated by my Cuban roots, and met people -- including several former political prisoners -- I never thought I would meet. I have made many, many new friends, some of whom have dared to tell me that my efforts have actually made a difference.

Cuban activist Jorge Luis Perez Garcia "Antunez" and me, Tampa, September 2013.

Marie and I will some of the friends we've made, Miami, May 2011.

Those of us who do whatever we can for the cause of Cuban liberty are a family. Even when we disagree with each other's styles or with a particular policy prescriptions, most of us realize we are united by our common goal: Freedom for Cuba. It can be lonely and frustrating at times to keep shouting via our blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, but I for one am inspired to know that I am not alone.

When I started blogging in late November 2005, there were only a few online bastions of anti-Castroism. It was before Facebook and Twitter even existed.

Today, the army, virtual and otherwise, fighting for Cuban freedom, continues to  grow. When victory will come, I don't know, but knowing there are so many of us aiming for the same goal, especially on the island, provides home that that victory will come.

These days, my tweets about Cuba @marcmasferrer are more frequent and more plentiful than posts on this blog, but Uncommon Sense is not going away. It remains committed to giving voice to those brave Cuban men and women who refuse to back down to tyranny.

As always, thank you for reading.

Speaking about Cuban political prisoners in Tampa, March 2010.

Marching for Cuban freedom in Tampa, May 2010.

Cuban independent journalist Juliet Michelena found not guilty of 'assault' (UPDATED)

Juliet Michelena Diaz

UPDATED, Nov. 10, 2014 -- Martinoticias.com has an interview with Juliet Michelena.

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After seven months of unjust imprisonment, Cuban independent journalist Juliet Michelena Diaz on Thursday was found not guilty of a bogus charge of "assault" filed after she was arrested while reporting an instance of police brutality that she witnessed.

Her release, however, will have to wait. When her husband went to the jail where she is being held, guards told him they had not received needed paperwork confirming that Michelena was to be released, according to Martha Beatriz Roque, head of the Cuban Community Communicators Network, for which Michelena reports.

She was suppose to be released on Friday, but reports are that it could be delayed by as many as 72 hours.

Michelena was arrested April 7, 2014, while reporting on an incident she witnessed in which a police dog biting a man.

Michelena was originally accused of threatening a neighbor, but on the day her report was published the charge was upped to attacking the neighbor, according to Reporters Without Borders, which along with the Committee to Protect Journalists has urged the Castro regime to release Michelena.

For the 4th time, Castro regime postpones trial of political prisoner Sonia Garro; dozens of activists arrested

Sonia Garro and Ramon Munoz

The Castro dictatorship is deathly afraid of Cuban political prisoner Sonia Garro Alfonso, and those who support her.

There is no other explanation for why for the fourth time since Garro, her husband and another man were arrested 31 months ago, their trial has again been postponed. News of the postponement was accompanied by the arrests of dozens of activists in Havana and elsewhere on the island unafraid to stand up on behalf of Garro and the others.

Afraid of such scrutiny by their own people, the dictatorship responded the only way it knows how, with fear and repression.

Amnesty International has more on Friday's developments and background on the case against them:

The trial of three people arrested in Cuba during a government crackdown on peaceful protests has been postponed for a fourth time in two and a half years, leaving the detainees in an unfair legal limbo, said Amnesty International today.

Sonia Garro Alfonso, who is a member of the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) a protest group, her husband Ramón Alejandro Muñoz González and their neighbour Eugenio Hernández Hernández have been in pre-trial detention since 18 March 2012. Their trial was finally due to start this morning but was once again postponed without explanation. No new trial date has been set.

“The Cuban authorities’ continual postponing of the trial without explanation raises concerns that the charges against the three may be politically motivated. They should now be released immediately and be allowed to await their trial outside of prison,” said James Burke, Caribbean Researcher, Amnesty International.

Amnesty International had been calling for the trial to go ahead in accordance with international standards, including the right of the accused to call defence witnesses and to challenge the evidence against them.

All three people were arrested on 18 March 2012 during a demonstration by a group of government supporters that had gathered in front of Sonia Garro Alfonso and Ramón Alejandro Muñoz González’s house. The government supporters, helped by state security officials, were attempting to prevent the couple from participating in in events to commemorate the anniversary of the crackdown on dissidence which started on 18 March 2003 and led to the imprisonment of 75 peaceful activists.

They were charged by the public prosecutor in September 2013 with public disorder (desórdenes públicos) and attempted murder (asesinato en grado de tentativa). Sonia Garro Alfonso faces the additional charge of using violence or intimidation against a state official (atentado). Their trial has been postponed previously on three occasions, in November 2013, June 2014 and October 2014, with no reason ever given for each postponement.

This morning across Cuba, members of the Ladies in White have been peacefully demonstrating in front of their local courts on behalf of Sonia Garro Alfonso, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz González and Eugenio Hernández Hernández. There have been reports of arrests of members in the city of Matanzas and the town of Palma Soriano in the province of Santiago de Cuba. There were also reports yesterday that officials from the Department of State Security summoned a number of members of the Ladies in White or visited their homes in order to threaten them not to attend demonstrations today.

Amnesty International calls on the authorities to cease their continual harassment and arbitrary detention of the Ladies in White and allow them to carry out their peaceful activities without fear of reprisals. 

No reason was given for the postponement, and no new trial date has been announced.

5 Cuban activists sentenced to prison for 'disrespecting' Castro dictatorship

Carlos Manuel Figueroa Álvarez

Santiago Roberto Montes de Oca

The roll of the names of Cuban political prisoners recently grew by at least five.

The Hablemos Press news agency/human rights monitor reports that on Oct. 22 in Havana, a court sentenced two activists, Carlos Manuel Figueroa Álvarez and Santiago Roberto Montes de Oca, to prison after they were convicted of charges of "disrespecting" Raul Castro, as if the dictator is deserving of anything more.

The two were originally charged in January During the trial last month, witnesses testfied they saw the defendants carrying signs with anti-Raul messages, including one that caused him the "anti-Christ," and another that declared: "Where are the political prisoners you have tortured and killed, like Laura Pollan and Oswaldo Paya?"

Figueroa was sentenced to 3 years in prison; and Montes de Oca was sentenced to 2 years.

Also in Havana, and by the same Cuban court, three human rights activists were recently convicted of charges of "public disorder," "disrespect" and "resistance," after they were arrested in May during anti-Castro protest. They were carrying signs declaring "Down with Fidel" and "Down with the Castro dictatorship," according to a report posted at Miscelaneas de Cuba.

Sonia de la Caridad González Mejí was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Rolando Reyes Rabanal was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Melkis Faure Echavarría was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Cuban human rights group reports 413 arrests in October; record pace of repression continues

The record pace of political repression in Cuba continued in October.

The unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported this week that Cuban police last month made at least 413 politically-motivated arrests. That's the second-lowest monthly count this year -- there were 411 arrests reported in September -- but already for the year, the number of arrests totals 8,012, according to the human rights commission.

The previous high for an entire year was 6,602 in 2012.

Apologists for the Cuban regime will note the apparent slow-down in the pace of repression on the island, and why it demands a change in approach toward Havana. The number of arrests last month was less than half of the 909 arrests reported in October 2013.

But whatever the exact count, the numbers show that the fundamental nature of the Castro regime, and how it treats its opposition, remains unchanged.

For more details about repression in Cuba in October, including details on each of the 413 arrests, read the human rights commission's report here.

* Photo via MartiNoticias.com