Uncommon Sense

Cuban rapper sentenced to 1 year in prison

 

El Dkano

Capitol Hill Cubans has another example of how Cuba uses its Orwellian laws to declare someone to be a "pre-criminal social danger":

Today, the Castro regime handed rapper, Maikel Oksobo (known as "El Dkano"), an arbitrary one-year prison sentence.

He was sentenced under a draconian charge known as "peligrosidad predelictiva" ("dangerousness likely leading to a crime"), which is used to imprison dissidents for long terms.

As part of the Obama-Castro deal of December 17th, another imprisoned rapper, Angel Yunier Remon ("El Critico") was recently released.

However, he has now been replaced in Castro's "revolving-door" of political prisoners by another dissident rapper.

Meanwhile, Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado ("El Sexto") remains imprisoned since Christmas Day and is currently in poor health, battling pneumonia in the Valle Grande Prison.

The Obama-Castro deal is clearly a farce-a-minute.

Cuban police block 30 activists from honoring Jose Marti

Jose Marti

Nothing is sacred to the Castro dictatorship, not even Jose Marti whose legacy has been claimed both by the regime and those who oppose it. Maybe it's because they realize the influence and inspiration that the Cuban Apostle holds to this day.

Cuban police on Wednesday, the 162nd anniversary of Marti's birth, blocked some 30 activists with the opposition group Cuba Independent and Democratic from marching and laying a wreath at a statue of Havana. In trying to make their tribute, the activists had ignored a warning from police a day earlier that they would not be allowed to march.

In assessing how much or how little things have changed in Cuba, it is best to remember days like today.

CubaNet has more details.

Report: Cuban repression of religion rises in 2014

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has the details on how the regime targets organized religion with repression:

Violations of religious freedom in Cuba continued to rise in 2014, according to a new report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) detailing 220 separate violations over the course of the year. Religious leaders and groups from all denominations on the island reported problems ranging from harassment and fines to confiscation and destruction of church property.

Throughout 2014 CSW received regular reports of severe harassment and sporadic reports of violent beatings of Protestant pastors and lay leaders in different parts of the country. Week after week, scores of women affiliated with the Ladies in White dissident group, most of whom are Roman Catholic, were violently dragged away by state security agents to stop them from attending Sunday morning mass. Many were beaten in the process and most were arbitrarily detained until after the conclusion of religious services.

Church leaders were also subject to arbitrary detention. Reverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso of the Western Baptist Convention and his wife Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez were both arrested and pressured to sign a pre-arrest warrant, or Acta de Advertencia, on separate occasions in 2014. In November, Reverend Edi Yanela Área, a leader of an Apostolic Movement-affiliated church in Santiago de Cuba, was arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned for three days.

The government gave contradictory signals in regard to property rights. Positive moves included official permission to construct two new Catholic churches in Santiago de Cuba and in Pinar del Rio. However, other denominations reported continued threats of confiscation or destruction of their property. These include the Cuban Methodist Church, which was permitted to build a new church in Ciego de Avila in 2013, but reported government threats in mid-2014 to confiscate a church building in Matanzas. Religious groups that the government has refused to register, effectively making them illegal, like churches affiliated with the Apostolic Movement, reported serious problems. One Apostolic Movement church in Santiago de Cuba was destroyed by state security forces in July. Apostolic Movement leaders Pastor Alain Toledano in Santiago de Cuba and Pastor Yiorvis Bravo in Camaguey both reported continued threats from the government to confiscate their churches and homes despite the fact that they hold the deeds and paperwork demonstrating legal ownership.

Read the wholel thing here.

Cuban police raid ex-political prisoner's home, threaten to return him to jail

Journalist Ernesto Diaz, left, interviews former Cuban political prisoner David Piloto. (Photo: Martinoticias.com)

The 53 Cuban political prisoners released under the Obama-Castro deal of Dec. 17, 2014, may be out of jail but they are not out of danger.

That was more than clear early Monday morning when at least 10 Cuban police officers raided the home of one of the 53, David Piloto, beat him and threatened to return him to prison if he continued with his activism.

"They broke down the door, went to where I was lying to beat me and an official name Camilo threatened me," Piloto said in an interview with Cuban independent journalist Ernesto Diaz.

Piloto and two other men were arrested Jan. 14, 2011, after they went into Revolutionary Square in Havana and tossed into the air leaflets loaded with anti-Castro and anti-communist messages. When police arrived, the men sat down on the ground, an act the prosecutor deemed "a defiant and provocative attitude...that interrupted the traffic flow," according to Human Rights Watch.

After a tria in Mayl-- which family members had been warned by the authorities not to attend -- Piloto was convicted of "disrespect" and "public disorder" and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

As part of the Obama-Castro deal, Piloto was granted a "conditional parole" -- even though he has refused to sign a document laying out its terms.

"They told me that there remains a year in my prison term and that if I don't sign the documents, they could revoke my freedom and imprison me anew," Piloto said.

Former Cuban political prisoner describes how he was tortured in 'concentration camp'

In an interview with the independent Hablemos Press news agency, former Cuban political prisoner Rolando Reyes Rabanal, released under the Obama-Castro deal announced Dec. 17, describes some of the tortures he suffered while at the Valle Grande prison.

"I was beaten for refusing to cut my hair. They hrew me to the floor and dragged me even though I was on hunger strike. And once I was sprayed with pepper spray, Reyes told Roberto de Jesus Guerra, director Hablemos Press.

Reyes described Valle Grande not as a jail but as a "concentration camp."

Reyes was one of three activists arrested May 8 after an anti-Castro protest in Havana. He was held without a trial until his release earlier this month.

Although he is no longer in jail, a lawyer advised Reyes that the terms of his release allow the government to re-file charges against him at anytime.

Another Sunday of repression in Cuba

Cuba may be "negotiating" with the United States, but political repression is still part of daily life on the island. In this Hablemos Press report, Cuban couple describes how they were arrested and detained Sunday while trying to attend Mass with the Cuban Ladies In White.

Cuban artist falls ill while in jail on charges he 'insulted' Castro brother-dictators

El Sexto

Despite the recent giddiness by some about Cuba, there remain in the Castro gulag numerous political prisoners, including at least one -- Danilo Maldonado -- arrested after the Dec. 17 announcement by President Barack Obama that the United States and Cuba were well on their way toward normalized relations.

Maldonado, a grafitti artist better known as "El Sexto," was arrested Dec. 26 while driving two pigs to a Havana park.

In Cuba, where pork for the masses is scare, that he had two pigs is probably a crime in itself. But El Sexto's worse transgression is that he had painted on the pigs the names "Fidel" and "Raul," and that they were to be used in performance piece.

Police charged El Sexto with "insulting" and threw him in jail, where he remains while awaiting trial.

Laritza Diversent, a dissident lawyer, tried to win El Sexto's release by filing a writ of habeas corpus arguing that El Sexto had been arrested aribitrarily. Also, she wrote that "Fidel" and "Raul" are common names and anyway, the government should not be so sensitive to criticsm.

Officials rejected her arguments.

Meanwhile, Diario de Cuba and other sources reported Wednesday that El Sexto has developed pneumonia and is not receiving needed medical care.

El Sexto at work.

Activist: Human rights situation in Cuba likely to worsen

Via Translating Cuba, which Monday posted a translation of interview conducted Dec.10  by independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar with Elizardo Sanchez, head of the non-official Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

The interview was done a week before President Barack Obama announced moves designed to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba; and about a month before the commission announced that it had recorded at least 8,899 politically-motivated arrests in 2014, almost 40 percent more than those counted a year earlier.

Elizardo Sanchez

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 10 December 2014* — Coinciding with the observance of International Human Rights Day today, we spoke with Elizardo Sánchez, spokesman for the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) in Havana to review the current situation on the Island.

Q:  Today the whole world commemorates Human Rights Day. What is the situation in our country at the close of 2014? Do we have reasons for hope or for worry?

A:  The general scene of civil, political, labor and other fundamental rights continues to worsen. Although the rate of detentions for political reasons has diminished in recent months, this is because the government has understood that this type of arrest portrays a very negative image. It did the same before when it decided to reduce the number of political prisoners, which is currently at around 110 persons.

Nonetheless, the government has not reformed any laws, and it has not given up its repressive and threatening mission against all of society. Therefore, it cannot be said that the situation has improved. Unless a miracle occurs, it will continue to worsen.

Q: What are the repressive methods which are most used at this moment?

A:  There has been a metamorphosis insofar as repression for political reasons is concerned. It no longer consists of lengthy prison sentences, or even of extended detentions. Instead, what occurs frequently are short-term arrests with the added element of other forms of intimidation, such as vandalism, including rocks being thrown at houses or residences being ransacked. There are also physical aggressions, which have increased throughout the year, be they overt or covert.

The repressive apparatus can be quite creative in its activities, such as taking the clothes off activists on some remote highway–or leaving them without shoes, which results in these people having to walk many miles barefoot to get home. This is in addition to the psychological effect inflicted on any individual when part of their clothing is taken from them.

Read the whole interview here.

Cuban man arrested after helping break embargo on Internet access

Leinier Cruz Salfran, a Cuban computer expert, recently got around financial and other limits on access to the Internet by turning his laptop into a "hot spot," allowing other Cubans high-speed access to the Internet.

The result?

Cruz, 34, was arrested.

Leinier Cruz Salfran

Photos via CubaNet.org.

When it comes to defending Obama's Cuba policy, there are lots of idiots

Trying to explain why President Obama's shift on American policy toward Cuba is wrongheaded is serious business, considering the stakes involved. But it also can be exhausting and mind-numbing, especially when trying to answer some of the more idiotic rationales for why Obama is right and anyone familiar with the history of the Castro dictatorship, and past efforts to appease it, is wrong.

Here's my favorite example of that nonsense, found, of course, on Facebook:

Since having read about the Cuban Revolution (and the benefits it brought to the guajiros, the illiterate and the indigent) and Cuban history, I have always admired and liked the Castro Brothers, Jose Marti and Che Guevara. Can Haiti, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala or Puerto Rico claim the following? A generally healthy population where the meat and the milk goes to the senior citizens and the babies, where illiteracy was wiped out, where medical care is free, where one can study all it wants for free, where housing costs very little, where the Constitution guarantees you a job, where democracy is practiced at the grassroots level, where no commercials are aired on TV polluting it and urging you to buy crap? Cuba libre, the only country in Latin America that told the USA to go to hell and got away with it. Cuba helped South Africa with its indepndence fight while the gringos supported apartheid. That is why Mandela visited Fidel as soon as he could before anyone else, to thank him. I could go on but this is FB after all and the suckers for US propaganda and years of misinformation can't wait to attack!

My response, again found on Facebook?

"Spoken like a fellow traveler."