Uncommon Sense

Press freedom group recognizes imprisoned Cuban journalist Calixto Martinez

Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias, on hunger strike since Nov. 10.

Worldwide, there are a record 232 journalists sitting in prison because of their work. Among them, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, is Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias, of the Hablemos Press news agency of Cuba:

State security agents arrested Martínez Arias near José Martí International Airport in Havana where he was reporting on two tons of medicine and medical equipment that had been damaged, according to CPJ sources and news reports. Martínez Arias, a reporter with the independent news agency Centro de Información Hablemos Press, was taken to a police station in Havana where he was interrogated and beaten, Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, the organization's director, told CPJ.

According to Guerra Pérez, Martínez Arias was accused of contempt under Cuba's archaicdesacato or disrespect laws for shouting anti-Castro slogans after he was harassed by authorities. Article 144.1 of the Cuban criminal code establishes that those who threaten, defame, insult, or offend the dignity of a public official can be jailed for up to three years.

On September 27, Martínez Arias was transferred to the Valle Grande Prison in the town of La Lisa, Havana province, Guerra Pérez told CPJ. The journalist began a hunger strike in November, according to Hablemos Press. Two people recently released from jail told Hablemos Press that Martínez Arias had been placed in solitary confinement.

At the time of his arrest Martínez Arias was looking into reasons why a shipment of medicine and medical equipment reportedly donated by the World Health Organization had been left to go bad, according to Guerra Pérez and news reports.

Martínez Arias, who has worked for the news agency since 2009, has reported on sensitive issues such as an outbreak of cholera in Granma province, according to CPJ sources and news reports. Prominent human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, president of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana, told CPJ that Martínez Arias was arrested for his journalistic work.

Martínez Arias has often been harassed by authorities for his reporting, Guerra Pérez said. In 2011, CPJ documented a string of arrests of journalists from Centro de Información Hablemos Press, which prevented them from reporting on the Communist Party Congress.

In an audio recording also posted by CPJ, Martinez describes the poor conditions under which he is being jailed and called for Cuban officials to declare the prison uninhabitable.

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Castro regime marks World Human Rights Day with big crackdown on human rights activists

You can always leave it to the Castro dictatorship to demonstrate how much human rights are at risk every day in Cuba.

Today, World Human Rights Day, was no exception.

The Miami Herald reports:

Cuban police have detained more than 100 dissidents and put another 100 to 150 under house arrest in an island-wide crackdown to block any gatherings marking International Human Rights Day on Monday, according to government opponents.

Among those detained were about 80 members and supporters of the Ladies in White, including dozens who were reportedly carted off roughly during roundups in Havana and on their way to the Our Lady of Charity Basilica in the eastern town of El Cobre.

Security agents also sealed off several homes in eastern Cuba to avert gatherings of dissidents to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, head of the opposition Cuban Patriotic Union.

The U.S. government swiftly denounced the arrests, saying it was "deeply concerned by the Cuban government's repeated use of arbitrary detention and violence to silence critics, disrupt peaceful assembly and intimidate independent civil society."

"We call on the Cuban government to end" the arrests and violence "and we look forward to the day when all Cubans can freely express their ideas," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

Cuban police and State Security agents usually round up scores of dissidents on or before Dec. 10 each year to keep them from staging any sort of events marking the day. The government critics are then released after a few hours or days.

About 45 Ladies in White and 10 supporters were arrested in Havana following their traditional march outside the Santa Rita church after Sunday Mass, said Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

The women usually are allowed to go home without incident after the marches, but this weekend were harassed by government agents. When they sat down in protest, police dragged them roughly to three waiting buses, Sanchez said. Most were released by Sunday night.

Ferrer said another 34 Ladies in White and two young girls were detained, 16 of them "with violence," over the weekend around eastern Cuba as they tried to make their way to El Cobre to pray for human rights. All had been freed as of noon Monday.

Police intercepted three more at the gates to the church on Sunday and tried to seize two others already inside, Ferrer told The Miami Herald by phone from his home in the nearby town of Palmarito de Cauto. But a priest in the church protected the women and drove them home after the Mass.

Read the rest here.

44 Damas De Blanco arrested in Havana while leaving Sunday Mass

On the eve of international Human Rights Day, the Castro dictatorship on Sunday unleashed a wave of repression against members of one of the nation's most effective opposition groups, the Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White."

In Havana, Castroite goons forced into buses 44 Damas who had just attended Mass.

State Security says the women were detained for their own protection from a mob.

With "protection" like that, who needs almost 54 years of repression.

Freedom House condemns wave of arbitrary arrests in Cuba

From Freedom House:

As the world’s eyes were turned on the U.S. election, Cuba’s regime unleashed a wave of arbitrary detentions, arresting 20-25 dissidents on November 8 and 9, as they were on their way to an organizing meeting for a campaign to end human rights abuses in Cuba. These detentions are in addition to another 520 arrests that took place in October, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, led by Elizardo Sanchez. Freedom House condemns Cuba’s crackdown and urges the regime to release these activists and heed citizen calls for greater respect for its human rights obligations under UN treaties.

The Cuban government began arresting activists on November 8 to thwart a meeting organized by activist and intellectual Antonio Rodiles on the Citizens’ Petition for Human Rights or “Demanda Ciudadana por Otra Cuba,” a civic campaign which raises public awareness about Cuba’s human rights record and calls on the Cuban government to recognize its obligations under UN treaties. These treaties include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Cuba signed in 2008 but has not ratified. Cuba will undergo its universal periodic review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2013, a critical time for activists to shine a light on Cuba’s human rights record.

Authorities first detained a young Cuban lawyer, Yaremis Flores, who provides free legal assistance to Cuba citizens. Other dissidents were arrested when they showed up at the police station to protest her arbitrary detention, including ex-hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas, Orlando Luis Pardo, Antonio Rodiles, Angel Santiesteban,and several former political prisoners from the Group of 75 who served long prison sentences during the Cuban Spring of 2003. Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was also detained, her second arrest in just over a month.  She was detained on October 5^th when she attempted to cover the trial of Angel Carromero in Bayamo.

Sanchez was released on November 9; however many others including Rodiles remain behind bars and activists claim that he was harshly beaten during his arrest.

Freedom House consistently places Cuba among the world’s most repressive societies.  Cuba is ranked Not Free in Freedom in the World 2012, Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2012. The island nation also received the second-lowest ranking in Freedom on the Net, a study of internet freedom in 47 countries released in 2012.

Cuban activist Eliso Castillo González sentenced to 2 years in prison

Cuban activist Eliso Cantillo Gonzalez last week was sentenced in Holguin to 2 years in prison, the result of confrontation with police during which officials violently pushed his elderly mother.

Cantillo, a member of the Eastern Democratic Alliance (ADO) in the town of Antilla -- my father's hometown --  was arrested Aug. 30 at the bus station in Holguin, where he and his mother, Rosa Elia Espinosa, had gone to collect a package of food sent to them by relatives in Havana. Police moved in to seize the package, starting an argument with Cantillo.

When his mother tried to intervene, a police officer shoved her, causing her to faint. Castillo responded by shouting anti-Castro slogans, which earned him a trip to a police station to face a supposed charge of "assault."

On Nov. 7, Castillo, a former political prisoner, was sentenced to 2 years in prison -- a punishment that as another activist said, is the Castro regime's payback to Castillo for his political activism.

"He is one of the most active members of the ADO here in Antilla," said Cristian Toranzo Fundichely.

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Regis Iglesias calls on Europe to be tougher with Castro

Regis Iglesias

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Regis Iglesias wants Europe to get tougher with the Castro dictatorship by demanding the regime respect the human rights of Cubans on the island, especially the right to free elections.

Catholic News Agency reports:

A leading Cuban dissident says the European Union should be firmer in demanding the Castro regime respect human rights on the island, including free elections.

“I think that an attitude at odds with the demands of the Cuban people for freedom – free elections and recognition of their individual and collective rights – definitely isolates Spain and the EU from the Cuban people and puts them more in line with Communist regime,” said Regis Iglesias, spokesman for the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba.

A former political prisoner himself who is currently in exile in Spain, Iglesias called on the EU to maintain the “common position” taken in 1996 that established that its economic relations with Cuba “would depend on improvements in the area of human right and fundamental freedoms.”

“To abandon the common position when human rights are still not respected in Cuba, when peaceful dissidents are imprisoned and even killed, is a very grave error,” he told CNA. “It would totally be the wrong message for the EU to send to Cuba.”

“Respect for human rights must be demanded, but also followed up with the holding of free elections, as more than 70 organizations in Cuba have requested in the declaration El Camino del Pueblo,” Iglesias added.

He noted that in addition to the more than 70 organizations that the support El Camino del Pueblo – which was started by the late dissident Oswaldo Paya – “There are more than 25,000 Cubans who have called for a referendum and the regime has simply ignored it.”

“The European Union should demand this of the Cuban regime every day: That rights such as freedom of expression be respected, that a referendum and free elections take place, instead of just lamenting the state of human rights in Cuba,” Iglesias said.

Yaremis Flores, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 11/11/12 (UPDATED)

Updated, Nov. 10, 2012 -- Soon after I posted this, I learned Flores had been released late Friday. She told CubaNet that she was in good condition and had not been physically abused by her captors. Her interrogators did warned to quit reporting "aggressively" about events in Cuba. 

Yaremis Flores

Numerous dissident bloggers, writers and other activists, including Yoani Sanchez, were arrested and temporarily detained this week.

Their crime?

Standing up for one of their own, Yaremis Flores, a lawyer, journalist and blogger arrested and charged with a made-up crime -- "disseminating false information against international peace" -- apparently in response to her recent accounts of detentions of other journalists and criticisms of the Castro government's response to Hurricane Sandy.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has more:

Cuban reporter Flores arrested on anti-state charges

New York, November 9, 2012--Cuban authorities charged journalist Yaremis Flores with anti-state crimes on Wednesday in connection with news articles critical of the government, an arrest that sparked two waves of protests and detentions outside a Havana police station. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to drop the charges against Flores immediately.

Flores, who is also a lawyer and former judge, had reported on the recent detentions of journalists and detailed local criticism of the government's response to Hurricane Sandy in articles published by the Miami-based news website Cubanet. On Wednesday afternoon at around 2 p.m. she was arrested and charged under penal code Article 115 with "disseminating false information against international peace," according to Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, president of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, and Laritza Diversent, a lawyer and blogger.

Later that afternoon, a group of journalists, and activists went to a police station in Havana to get information about Flores' status. At least 11 were arrested, including Diversent, according to the human rights commission.

The following day, another group of journalists and dissidents went the police station to protest the detentions. At least 16 were arrested, including bloggers Yoani Sánchez, Orlando Luís Pardo, Eugenio Leal, Julio Aleaga, Angel Santiesteban, and journalists Guillermo Fariñas and Iván Hernández Carrillo, according to the human rights commission.

Shortly before being arrested, Yoani Sánchez told CPJ that the protests were peaceful but plainclothes officers were trying to intimidate the demonstrators. A video shot by the independent news agency Hablemos Press shows Yoani Sánchez and other protesters arguing with the officers before being detained.

All but one of the protesters were released on Thursday. Diversent told CPJ that she was held for 23 hours in unsanitary conditions.

"Cuban authorities talk about reform, but they still treat simple criticism of government activities as a crime," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas. "Yaremis Flores should be released immediately, the charges against her should be dropped, and any protester still in detention should be freed."

Yoani Sánchez was briefly detained in October, along with her husband, the journalist Reinaldo Escobar, and the blogger Agustín Díaz. They were on their way to cover a trial related to the motor vehicle death of dissident Oswaldo Payá.

Despite fewer long-term detentions of journalists in recent years, Cuba remains one of the world's most censored countries, according to CPJ research. The government persecutes critical journalists through the use of arbitrary arrests, short-term detentions, beatings, smear campaigns, and surveillance, according to CPJ research. 

Read Flores' and Diversent's blog, here.

Cuban human rights group reports 402 political arrests in October

There's nothing like the numbers to reveal the profundity of the repression in Cuba.

The Centro de Información Hablemos Press, or CIHPRESS, reported Friday that there were 402 politically motivated arrests across the island in October, bringing the total for the year to 4,542. (By comparison, there were 3,835 such arrests in all of 2011, and 1,499 in 2010.)

Whether CIHPRESS has got it exactly right is uncertain -- the Castro regime doesn't release precise figures, because they don't have to. But the trend is clear: Despite the wishful thinking of the appeasers and ignorant alike, repression in Cuba under Raul Castro has only gotten worse.

In most instances, those arrested were released after a few hours or a few days, a type of low-grade repression designed to keep the terror in the shadows that has become Raul's trademark.

But there also are four activists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. They are:

• Emilio Plana Robert, a member of the Resistance and Democracy Movement, who was sentenced Oct. 6 to 42 months in prison after being found to be a "pre-criminal social danger."
• Reinaldo Castillo Martínez, a member of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Human Rights Movement, who was sentenced Oct. 11 to 1 year in prison on a charge of "disrespect."
• Rafael Matos Montes de Oca, a member of the Resistance and Democracy Movement, who was sentenced Oct. 15 to 30 months in prison after being found to be a "pre-criminal social danger."
• Alberto Ramos Prados, a member of the Brothers to the Rescue Human Rights Movement, who was sentenced Oct. 18 to 18 months in prison for "disrespecting the figure of Fidel Castro.

CIHPRESS has details on the others arrested in October.

Cuban dissident couple faces 2 years in prison for 'defecating on the mother of Fidel Castro'

Gertrudis Ojeda Suárez and Yoandris Naoky Ricardo Mir

The Cuban "justice system" is a farce, just another manipulation the Castro regime uses to target its opponents and to keep its grip on power.

This is clear when you recognize the dictatorship's nasty habit of charging dissidents with "common" crimes, like "assault" or "public disorder," as a way to get them off the streets and to silence their voice. By doing so, the authorities hope to diminish their targets' credibility by branding them as nothing more than criminals.

When targeting the married couple of Gertrudis Ojeda Suárez and Yoandris Naoky Ricardo Mir, the regime is being a little more creative.

At a closed-door hearing in the eastern Cuba town of Banes on Wednesday, prosecutors informed the couple they were being charged with "defecating on the mother of Fidel Castro" at a cemetery, a charge that apparently carries a punishment of two years in prison.

I shit you not.

Other activists say the couple is being targeted because of their opposition to the Castro dictatorship. In recent months, they were subjected to "acts of repudiation" after they hanged anti-Castro banners and posters on the walls of their residence.

Castro 'terror squad' besieges Cuban dissident Jorge Cervantes and his family

For more than two weeks a Castro-ordered mob has besieged the home of Cuban dissident Jorge Cervantes. At one point, goons entered his home, took several items and burned them, according to a report posted at Diario de Cuba.

"These are no longer the classic 'rapid response brigades,' who scream and offend. These people are covering their faces," said Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), of which Cervantes is a member. "We (UNPACU) are calling them 'terror squads."

Ferrer said the attacks are designed to try to force Cervantes, one UNPACU's most active members, to abandon his anti-Castro activism.

Cervantes said the mobs have traumatized his three children, as well as his neighbors.

Authorities have accused Cervantes, a former political prisoner, of painting anti-Castro signs, but Cervantes said they know that is impossible because he and his family have been besieged by the mobs for more than 15 days.

Cervantes has asked local government and Catholic Church officials to intervene on his behalf, but nothing has come from those requests.