Feb 24, 2010

RIP, Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Since yesterday afternoon, when the buzz on Twitter alerted me of the death of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo - after eighty something days on hunger strike - I've been trying to come up with a post up to the height of this brave young man.

But I am sooooooo mad (to use a PG audience language) , that it's been really hard to come up with a decent post to honor him. Twitter has been my best scapegoat since the news broke up.

Right there I saw the coverage of his death going viral, right there I received the request of followers that do not read Spanish trying to support us, right there we were able to uncover the communist cyberbrigade that castro's thugs call in full mode to discredit the independent reports from the island.

(Those that, hiding in Havana's IT college server, call us "worms" and try to put the blame on us, when they are twittering wearing masks in their avatars.)

It is also throught Twitter that we have been able to follow the transit of his body from the Forensic Institute in Havana to his hometown of Banes, Holguín, East of Cuba. And, trust me, we have seen (or read) it all.

The Cuban government got into a full mode operative, including the interruption of the cell phone signals because they know they can not block Twitter, and they needed to block the information within Cubans in the island. They also surrounded Zapata's house in Banes, in a effort to avoid a massive protest. And several dissidents were arrested also to prevent them from attending Zapata's funeral and visitation.

Zapata Tamayo was 42 years old. Single and without children. He was arrested before the Black Spring of 2003, merely for advocating for human rights for all Cubans. A peaceful dissident - no terrorrism or weapons were ever involved. A Christian and religious man. Recognized by Amnesty International as prisoner of conscience... during his hunger strike to protest the mistreatments he consistenly recived in the Kilo 7 prison in Camaguey, he was denied water for 18 consecutive days. Then they took him to the hospital when they knew he was gonna die.

They did with Pedro Luis Boitel in the late sixties.
They did with Zapata Tamayo yesterday.
They have blood in their hands, as Pong cleary puts it, right in the eve of the second year anniversary of the change of crown.


I can't help to repeat myself over, and over, and over:

Mandela, OEA, UN, EU, Obama, Black Congressional Caucus, singers of "We are the World", Juanes and so many other useful idiots that have been coddling with the communist tiranny for years: WE ARE YOU?!

For an entire recap:

Marc, at Uncommon Sense, has it all in English.

Babalú Blog posted the lousy statement from Obama's State Department.

Penúltimos Días has constant updates in Spanish.

Aguaya has also been covering the news in Spanish, in her blog and Twitter.

You can follow the news in Twitter:
#OZT
#Orlando Zapata Tamayo
#Zapata
#FreeCuba
I changed my Twitter avatar to use his picture. We did it for Neda.
We can do it again.

Several Cuban exiles tried to honor him with flowers in front of the Cuban Embassy in Madrid, Spain. Libertad Digital has this video:



I'm royally pissed off.
I don't know what to write.
I've tried several times now to see the videos smuggled out of Cuba with Orlando's mother comments. But I haven't been able to finish. I just can't.

What can one write about such a criminal assasination?

There are only two sure things:
First, mothers are not meant to bury their children. We are not meant to do that. WE ARE NOT!
Second, justice might be slow, but she always shows up. And payback is a damned b%$#&.

1 comment:

Sass said...

Jesus. This is heart breaking.