"Voice of the Resistance" -- Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet interviewed by Jay Nordlinger

A must read for any human being with a working brain on the face of Earth. Long, but worthy a million times. Really, nobody can describe better the real life in Cuba... someone should definitively pass this to Obama, just for his reading pleasure, ya know...

(Emphasis are mine.)

Voice of the Resistance
Dr. Óscar Biscet, in Cuba’s prisons for twelve years, speaks
BY JAY NORDLINGER

‘I NEED to get to work,” says Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet. Are you familiar with him? He is perhaps the foremost Cuban democracy activist, a symbol of the general resistance to the Castro dictatorship. Has he been neglecting his work? Not exactly. For the past twelve years, essentially, he has been in prison, suffering the things that the regime’s prisoners have always suffered. George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. The recipient could not accept it in person, of course. But he has now been released from prison. The day, so long hoped for, by so many of us, was March 11. I spoke to him three weeks after.

Biscet was born in 1961 and has a wife, Elsa Morejón Hernández, and two children, Winnie and Yan. The children have been in the United States for several years; Elsa, like her husband, is in Cuba. Biscet obtained his degree in internal medicine in 1985. A few years later, he embarked on human-rights activism. In 1994, he was charged with “dangerousness,” a very common charge. It means that the individual in question will not submit meekly to dictatorial rule. In 1997, Biscet established the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights (“Lawton” being the name of the Havana neighborhood in which he lived). The organization, of course, is banned. In 1998, he spoke out strongly against abortion, particularly late-term abortion: In his work as a doctor, he saw ghastly things. The authorities responded harshly to his protest.

After being detained repeatedly — 26 times — Biscet was arrested in 1999 and thrown in prison for three years. He was released on October 31, 2002, and had 36 days outside of prison. During this time, he worked on his “Democratic Principles for Cuba” and a civic project called “Club for Friends of Human Rights.” He was again arrested on December 6, 2002, and underwent his ordeal until last March 11.

I found it somewhat amazing to hear his voice, after reading about him and writing about him for many years. His voice was low, grave, and resolute. We spoke by phone, Biscet in Havana, his questioner in New York. Serving as translator between us was Aramis Perez, of the Directorio Democrático Cubano in Miami. Biscet has felt “a kind of ambivalence” in the last few weeks. Those are his words: “a kind of ambivalence.” “I’m happy to be able to return home to my wife, but I’m unhappy to see an entire people still without freedom.”

In his view, Cuba as a whole is “the big prison” while El Combinado del Este, where he and so many other dissidents have been confined, is “the little prison.” “We who live under this dictatorship look to the sea and know that the sea is our prison bars.” Biscet also says, “This great, beautiful island of Cuba has been converted by the Castro brothers into their own personal estate.”

Why, in his estimation, did the government choose to release him? “Because of the economic crisis, coupled with the social and moral crisis. The government offers false expectations of democratic change. They do this so that free countries will give them economic support. My release is part of the effort to create false expectations.” The government’s overriding goal is “to be financed. They want more money, even as they impoverish the Cuban people, and, with money, they will remain in power.”

In the weeks before Biscet’s release, a movement was building around the world to get him the Nobel peace prize. He was nominated by the prime minister of Hungary, U.S. congressmen, members of the European Parliament, and others. Did this movement have an effect on the Cuban government and its decision making? Biscet is less likely to get the prize outside of prison than he was inside. He cannot say for sure whether the Nobel prize played a part in the government’s calculations. But he can say this: “It was a political error for the regime to imprison the Group of 75,” an error that cost the regime in the court of world opinion. The 75 are the democracy activists arrested in the crackdown of March 2003, known as the “Black Spring.” These prisoners have now been released.

Almost all of them were exiled to Spain. This is what the regime wanted to do with Biscet, too, but he strongly resisted this fate. Instead of being exiled, he has been released on a kind of parole. He is serving out his prison term beyond the gates of prison itself. His continued freedom depends on his “good conduct.” Why was he so set against exile? “Because I love the people of Cuba and want them to be free. I want basic human rights to be respected, so that the Cuban people can develop themselves and their talents fully. They need freedom in order to develop themselves fully.” Men and women of Biscet’s makeup always resist exile, no matter how terrible are the conditions at home. Remember that Solzhenitsyn did not leave the Soviet Union voluntarily; he was expelled, a fate he considered a tragedy.

Somewhat gingerly, I ask what it was like inside prison. For years, we heard reports of the torture that Biscet was enduring. He answers me very, very briefly (and I don’t press him): “My experience was very traumatic. I was forced to live among criminals,” meaning common criminals, thugs, not prisoners of conscience, like Biscet himself. And he was indeed tortured — “primarily between 2002 and 2006.” He immediately adds, “I also gained a lot of wisdom, because I studied a great deal and drew closer to the Biblical God.” Biscet is a devoted Christian. The authorities allowed him a Bible, although he could not share it with anyone, or pray with anyone. If this happened, the other prisoner would be punished and transferred to another cell. Biscet also says, “I thought of Beethoven, who said, ‘There is no evil so great that no good can come of it.’”

Biscet is a steadfast advocate of nonviolence: a nonviolent struggle for political change. We have always heard that his models are Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama. Is this so? Yes, says Biscet, but there are others, ones who may not be as “universal,” because they come from the Bible, and not all “accept Biblical teaching.” He cites Moses — “who led the first nonviolent revolution.” Then he mentions the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. “When a king tried to force them to bow down before an idol, they refused. They knew that God would help them — and even if He did not, they would never bow down to an idol.” While in prison, Biscet “kept them close, because they are examples of freedom of expression and freedom of religion.” And they were, of course, delivered.

For the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biscet will not take any personal credit. “I felt honored, but I wasn’t the only person being recognized with the medal. The American people saw in me the suffering of the entire Cuban nation.” And the medal “helped change the way the world thought about Cuba.” One day, Biscet would like to meet Bush and “thank him for everything he has done for Cuba’s freedom.”

Why was abortion so important to him, early in his dissidence, and why is it important now? “The fundamental duty of a physician is to defend life.” And “life lasts from conception until natural death.” Biscet maintains that science makes clear that a fetus is “a human being distinct from the mother.” He regards abortion as “a crime against humanity.” And he links it to human rights more broadly.

What about the Cuban health-care system as a general proposition? One of the myths of the Cuban revolution is that it has provided health for all. This is not a myth that works on Biscet, who, as a Cuban doctor, knows too much. What about another myth, concerning race? The myth that Communist rule has been a boon to blacks? Biscet himself is black, as are many other leaders of the opposition. His contempt for this myth is unconcealed. “Completely false,” are the words he uses. “We know that the Cuban dictatorship is anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-black.” And if you would like to know what the dictatorship thinks of black Cubans, “you need only go to Cuban prisons.”

It is natural to ask Biscet what he thinks of a contentious issue in the United States: the longstanding sanctions on the Cuban regime, known collectively as “the embargo.” He says, “The embargo has helped the Cuban people both politically and morally.” He wishes that all “free and civilized countries would boycott Cuba, the way they did racist South Africa.” The world made South Africa a pariah state. The American embargo should be lifted, says Biscet, “when the embargo against the Cuban people’s human rights,” imposed by the dictatorship, “is lifted.” He believes that “civilized countries” have given the dictatorship “life” and “oxygen” for the past 20 years — in other words, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When he says “civilized countries,” does he mean Western Europe, which has supplied much cash to Havana? “I mean civilized countries in Europe, Latin America, and North America” (which is to say, Canada and Mexico).

Recently, Jimmy Carter was in Cuba, seeing the Castro brothers and others, including some democracy activists, Biscet among them. During his stay, Carter referred to Fidel Castro as an “old friend.” This is appalling to Biscet, as to other democrats. “One can have different ideas, and they should be respected. But to call a tyrant a friend is truly horrible.” Many in the world have tried to make a hero out of Castro. And “we should not encourage the creation of false heroes.”

By the way, who is really in charge of Cuba — Fidel Castro or Raúl, whom Fidel has pushed out front? Biscet says, “In our country, the Communist party directs the course of events and is above the law, and Fidel Castro is the general secretary of the Communist party.” Biscet says this as though Fidel’s continuing dominance should be the most obvious thing in the world.

Then there is the question of Biscet’s future: What will he do? He says that his immediate task is to “recover psychologically and physically” from his twelve years in darkness and hell. “I hope to be in the best possible condition,” to do the work he finds it unavoidable to do. Does he expect to be rearrested? “Anything is possible,” but he will work without fear. He believes that the island’s democrats are basically united, although “we do live under a totalitarian dictatorship that uses all of its resources to attempt to destroy us, which makes it difficult to progress as quickly as we would like.” That is the understatement of the hour — the hour of our time together. The Cuban people are “enslaved,” Biscet says, “but here in Cuba, the slaves will revolt,” as they have done elsewhere. He mentions China, Iran, and Libya. And he describes a great challenge of the opposition: to shape a transition to democracy without a Tiananmen Square. Without a massacre by the rulers, who will not give up power sweetly.

What does he want from America? He wants people to recognize just how bad the Cuban dictatorship is. And he wants solidarity. “The American people can help the Cuban people by drawing close to us in our suffering. Those of you who live in freedom have the ability to do this.” Above all, he says, do not provide the regime with the “oxygen” it needs to survive. He sees the Obama administration making concessions to the regime. And it is incomprehensible to him why “civilized and democratic countries” should lend a hand to such people: should give oxygen to the persecutors of so many, persecutors who are ripe for a great push.

After we hung up with Biscet, I talked for a while with Aramis Perez, who had translated. How did he think Biscet had sounded? “Serene and collected. He spoke out of such conviction that he did not need to emphasize his words” — they all had authority. Every now and then, you feel that you have encountered a great man. Someone who makes up for some measure of human iniquity and indifference. Perez and I felt this about Biscet. So will many others, around the world, if they get to know him.

Source:  National Review / Digital 
H/T to Valentin Prieto ;)

*BREAKING NEWS* -- Cuban government would freed two prominent political prisoners

Developing...

News broke today that the (c)astro's regimen might freed two prominent political prisoners that have staunchly refused to accept the regimen's offer to be released but exiled in Spain.

"The two men - Angel Moya and Guido Sigler - had refused a government deal to go into exile and insisted on staying in Cuba, along with the other nine dissidents who remain in Cuban jails nearly seven months after the government agreed in principal to free them. Under the agreement announced Friday, Moya will stay in Cuba while Sigler "has indicated a desire to go to the United States," church spokesman Orlando Marquez said in a statement."

Angel Moya Acosta, whose story as political prisoner I recently chronicled here, is one of them.

He has been jailed in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, serving a 20 years sentence. He was arrested on March 19th, 2003 –during the Black Spring where the Cuban government arrested and jailed 75 peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, librarians and human rights activists. He has served 7 years and 8 months of his sentence, enjoying a relative good health, considering the conditions where the government keeps political prisoners.

He is one of the 11 prisoners of conscience who didn’t accept the government’s offer to be released if they accepted exile in Spain, which they consider a deportation scam.

According to his wife, Lady in White Berta Soler Fernandez, Angel says he respects other political prisoner’s decision to accept the government’s deal, in order to have every body else respecting his. “He says no one can force him to leave his homeland and if he decides to do at some point in the future, it will be on his own terms, and to the country of his choice.”

The other is Guido Sigler Amaya, whose ailing brother, Ariel Sigler Amaya, arrived to the United States last year. Moya and the Sigler brother are from the same hometown of Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas Province, East of Havana.

H/T Babalu Blog

Love, Freedom and Human Rights --UPDATE

Welcome, Babalu Blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, Uncommon Sense and other fellow Cuban bloggers' readers.
Pasen, estan en su casa. ;)
Thank you all for spreading the word about Cuban political prisoners!


“¡A mí no me llevan preso por delincuente, ni por drogas ni por asesino! ¡Yo soy un hombre pacífico, defensor de los derechos humanos que Fidel le viola al pueblo cubano! ¡Vivan los derechos humanos! ¡Libertad para los presos políticos! ¡Abajo la dictadura!”

Ángel Moya Acosta, Alamar, Habana, Cuba

19 de marzo del 2003

“I am not being arrested for being a criminal, a drug dealer or a murderer! I am a peaceful man, a defender of the Cuban people human rights that Fidel violates! Long live Human Rights! Freedom for the political prisoners! Down with the dictatorship!”
Ángel Moya Acosta, Alamar, Havana, Cuba
March 19th, 2003

It was 4:40 pm on a breeze afternoon in the Eastern point of Alamar, the worker’s suburban neighborhood filled with Eastern-Germany block style buildings, East of Havana. Right in front of the ocean, it is during this month when the coldest temperatures are felt in the Caribbean’s island.

Luis Angel, 7, is coming home from the nearby school where he is in second grade, to the modest 1.5 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. As usual, Angel is waiting for the rambunctious kid to get home before heading to the old street near the shoreline for his daily jog, while the boy takes care of going to buy the daily ration of bread.

Berta Soler, Angel’s wife for 28 years, stays at home tackling the daily struggle of fixing dinner for the family of five. Angel and Bertica share the small apartment with their two children, Luis Angel and Lienys Caridad, 19.Maria Elena, Bertica’s sister, also lives with them.

Ten minutes later, Bertica sees Angel coming back from his jog. Too soon, she thought. And he is not alone; he is being escorted by five agents of the government’s state security.

“When I asked what was going on, another four agents entered the house like if it was their own, hauling huge video cameras and recording everything they wanted,” remembers Bertica. I asked again what was going on and they told me they have a search order and that they were coming with two witnesses from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).

“I asked what they were looking for”, she says, “and they replied ‘subversive materials.’”

Walking down the hill from the supermarket, with his family ration of bread, the seven year old boy sees a crowd gathering in the corner of his building. Quickly, a couple of neighbors stopped him, preventing him from getting closer to the scene. They convinced him to stay with them, sitting, in the water tank of the building right across from his, where he could see from the distance…

“From that distance [my son] couldn’t realized what was happening and all of the sudden, the only thing he sees is how is father is being arrested, handcuffed and dragged down the stairs by the state security agents, while shouting to the top of his lungs ‘I am not being arrested for being a criminal, a drug dealer or a murderer! I am a peaceful man, a defender of the Cuban people human rights that Fidel violates! Long live Human Rights! Freedom for the political prisoners! Down with the dictatorship!’”

Bertica remembers that Angel was taken away immediately, that he was not present while their house was being searched. “They told me to shut up because they had other two police cars ready and waiting for me,” she says, “and I told them that we had to scream and shout because there were near 300 people outside watching and they needed to know that all that was not related to drugs.”

Around those months of what is now called the Black Spring of 2003, Cuban authorities were also conducting anti drug operatives to halt the increasing drug traffic in Havana.

“We don’t want any confusion and I want them to know who (Angel) is. Besides, I am not afraid of you, if you want to arrest me, go ahead, but will have to take me away with my children.”

The search process in the tiny apartment started at 5:45 pm and ended at 1:45 am. They took a radio, a charger, books, manuscripts and a tape with some sort of war movie.

They left everything all messed up. They even searched the garbage cans. The children ate dinner that night thanks to some neighbors that fed them. They were allowed to enter the house again at 2 am, took quick bath and went to sleep some before getting ready for school in matter of hours. Then, Bertica started the long journey of being the wife of a political prisoner in Cuba, by trying to find out where Angel was jailed, to bring him some basic items.

It was the holiday’s season, December 1992, in Pedro Betancourt, a small town in the Matanzas province, East of Havana, Cuba. Berta Soler Fernandez, 19, was a Microbiology technician when she met Angel Moya Acosta, 18, at a popular party in their hometown. Angel was a cadet starting in the Armed Revolutionary Forces (FAR).

After six years on a long distance relationship (Berta got a job in Havana and had to move to the capital, while Angel was still stationed in Matanzas) they got married on October 16th, 1988. Angel was being sent on a mission to the war in Angola. They wanted to formalize their relationship before his deployment.

“Our relationship was like that since the beginning, long distance,” says Berta. “But it was the distance what gave us the strength to keep going and our love grew more each day we were apart.”

She remembers his family was very “communist” and blindly supporters of the regime. “I was the one that was always teasing him and making him uncomfortable criticizing the government while he was trying to justify it.”

That changed when Angel was deployed to Angola, fulfilled his mission and came back home. “He came back completely changed. He was not replying to my comments the same thing he used to say before. Angola changed his life.”

The couple bore two children, Lienys Caridad, born in 1991, and Luis Angel, born in 1995. A couple of years after Lienys was born, Angel was discharged from the military, (his sworn commitment was for five years) and got a job at a welding facility in his hometown, in the Matanzas province.

According to his wife, when Angel returned from his military mission in Angola, he started to meet people involved with the human rights movement in the island. . By 1995, he started visiting churches and develops relationships with members of a movement called “Pedro Luis Boitel”. Later on, Angel created the movement “Alternative Option” / Opcion Alternativa, filling the duties as hair of the movement in 1997. By then, he is a human rights activist and a supporter of civil and human rights for all Cubans.

“It was June 1999 when he first told me about what he has been doing,” says Berta. “He knew what was coming after him was not gonna be easy and he decided to tell me.”

She confesses she didn’t have the best of the reactions to the news. “I told him: ‘don’t get in trouble with the government, they have all the power and you are not going to solve the problems of the Cuban’s people.” “It was a shock for me. I told him he didn’t ask for my opinion before the fact and that now, our entire family would suffer the consequences.”

“To do this, I don’t need anybody’s permission,” said Angel. “My decision and my determination are important, and [I’m doing it also] thinking in my family. I am doing this for the well being of all of us, for the freedom of my people and that’s why I am telling you.”

He told her he wouldn’t pressure her to support him, nor did he ask her to continue to be married to him. “I love you and I love my children, but your [position] is not going to change my decision to fight…”

Berta says her love for him was so strong that she was able to overcome that initial shock and their relationship continue like it was since the first day they met. “I was not directly involved with any activity, but at least I was mentally prepared for whatever could come after us.” 

“I remember Angel as a decent and quiet man, sometimes borderline shy. Tall, athletic and with bright ebony skin, he didn’t talk much, but was always smiling. He and I would stomp into each other at the local gym, or jogging by the coastline. I would have never ever imagined he was having such courage…” --Cubanita, writer on this site and former neighbor of Angel and Berta.

“He used to tell me all Cubans sufferings were being caused by a horrible government that didn’t care about its people,” says Berta.

His wife describes him as a quiet man, respectful, who enjoys working out, reading, writing and someone who has never allowed anybody to violate his rights. “Even in the middle of the Special Period, he never complained in public places where he could cause trouble to bystanders. He protested in his workplace, in the face of the big bosses and where any government official could hear him.”

She said as a father, he is very good and caring. “A little strict, I would add, but he is the best father.” When Lienys was born, he was afraid to even hold her, but little by little he started to lose his fears and when the baby was five months old and Bertha had to return to work, he basically became a stay-at-home Dad. “When the boy was born, he was already a pro.”

“My children had suffered the separation from their father, but thanks God, they have not been traumatized [by these circumstances]. I talk to them a lot, so in the future, they can be good woman and man, and thanks to this suffering, they won’t be easily fooled.”

"Our Mom has been a Lady in White since the government jailed our Dad, when they decided to get together and walk the streets to ask the government to release their relatives. Little by little, the people have learned about the Ladies in White and our classmates and their parents are starting to show more respect towards them. They say ‘that’s a right they have to protest’ and they congratulate us for standing up for our father. We’re not saying they are better off, but they are indeed more recognized and respected." "We are both very proud of having the mother and the father we have, with the courage to raise their voices against the injustices this government is doing against our people."  --Luis Angel & Lienys, Angel Moya Acosta and Berta Soler Fernandez's children.

* * *
Angel Moya Acosta is jailed in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, serving a 20 years sentence. He was arrested on March 19th, 2003 –during the Black Spring where the Cuban government arrested and jailed 75 peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, librarians and human rights activists. He has served 7 years and 8 months of his sentence, enjoying a relative good health, considering the conditions where the government keeps political prisoners.

He is one of the 11 prisoners of conscience who didn’t accept the government’s offer to be released if they accepted exile in Spain, which they consider a deportation scam. According to his wife, Lady in White Berta Soler Fernandez, Angel says he respects other political prisoner’s decision to accept the government’s deal, in order to have every body else respecting his. “He says no one can force him to leave his homeland and if he decides to do at some point in the future, it will be on his own terms, and to the country of his choice.”

PS-This interview, originally in Spanish, was obtained, electronically, from a direct conversation between the blogger an Berta Soler Fernandez.

Wikileaks a-la-Cuban --UPDATE

UPDATE:
Oh, my!!! I SO need to get back on track!
Penultimos Dias has great compilation on the WikiLeaks and the Cuban Conexion, both in English and Spanish. Here.

I couldn't help the urge to share! Masterfully brought to us by Alfredo Pong:

 Yeah, I feel sorry for those flies...

"Let's talk once and for ever, you exiles!"

"The mask...is it for Halloween or for Wikileaks?"

Cubanita is back to the groove

Yep, I’m back.
Re energized, revamped and refurbished, as promised.

For the first time since I moved to colorful Colorado, I have enjoyed a summer and a seemingly endless fall reconnecting with things and people that were being left behind. But most importantly, I had time to take a look inside me while redecorating this life of mine. There was also some work-related travel + great professional experiences (#ata51) and it’s been… gooooood! 

Freedom Trail, Boston, MA

I’m still a busy working Mom, who day-to-day struggles to keep afloat my unconventional family, but I realized that I can not quit writing and blogging. A break? Yes. A good bye? Not so much…after all, writing helps me to keep my mental sanity.

Even though I was outta here, I never stopped learning lessons the hard way, most of the them from the chapter of “Never say never”... I know, "nunca digas de esta agua no beberé".

Insert here: yoga, kick boxing, dating in the US, mountain biking, zen living, hiking, meeting amazing people at unusually amazing places, getting inspiration from people that not even in my wildest dreams I thought I would agree with [at least in some common sense stuff] and much more…

Blue Sky Train @ Horsetooth Reservoir

I’ve learned the immense and powerful energy I can get when I pull a Warrior II pose or how I am able to root down to earth and forget everything when posing a tree. I’ve managed to deliver some useful jabs and kicks and I can pull a pretty mean Zumba with Pitbull’s “Sube, sube, hasta las nubes.” (OK, I"m kinda of cheating here because the rhythm sort of come the genes, but you get the idea.)

There has been butterflies and fireworks. And I’ve been bruised; both physically (try losing your bike’s brakes on a trail that was supposed to be for beginners and it wasn’t) and emotionally. But I have picked up my pieces, dusted off by butt and kept going. There is simply no other way around.

It is not that I didn’t know who I was or the things that were/are important for me; it’s that now I am more in sync with my inner self and more aware of my own virtues and flaws. Yes, I‘m also better equipped than ever to don’t give a crap when I don’t fit with someone else’s preconceived mold.

I have re discovered the priceless values of living a simple life, packed in 24 hrs chunks of “present”. After all, “the good thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” --Abraham Lincoln.

Truth to be told, I am a lucky & blessed woman who, stealing my friend’s line, does live a charmed life.

Now you might wonder, what’s up with all the whining and the exorcism?

Well, one more time I have realized that I have no reason to complain. There is always someone out there weathering something thousand times harder. It is all about perspective.

Case point: Reina Luisa Tamayo, mother of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died on a hunger strike last February in Castro’s dungeons.

She has been assaulted by Castro’s thugs; again. She’s being harassed in the streets. In the eyes of the dictatorship thugs, the mother of a dead political prisoner is a very dangerous entity.

And here I am, taking time off from blogging to redecorate this life of mine.
Seriously.

Cuban political prisoners will not accept conditioning of their release

Angel Moya Acosta, Cuban political prisoner sentenced to 20 years during the Black Spring of 2003 puts it simple: Dignity and Decorum - we will not accept any conditions to our release.

Moya is the president of the Movement for Democracy and Freedom for Cuba and is speaking up against the blatant attempt of blackmail the Castro regimen is trying with the Ladies in White, asking them to split from their support ladies if they want to see their loved ones among the released - which is still something to be seen anyway.

Blackmail anyone?

Via Baracutey Cubano, here his is original letter in Spanish.  A free English translation, courtesy of *yours truly*:

Combinado del Este prison, Havana, May 27th, 2010

* * *
If my freedom depends on the Ladies in White and the support ladies stop doing what they have been doing for the past seven years, because the repressive regimen is imposing this condition on the, I won’t accept it because it is humiliating, denigrating and immoral.

Whoever accepts freedom under this type of conditions, well, it his problem. We all have the right to fight and demand from the regime the freedom to all Cuban political prisoners, but we must do it with dignity and decorum.

To ask this from women that for seven tough venturesome years have fought for the freedom of Cuban political prisoners with courage, honor, dignity all the right moral reasons in this world, is totally unacceptable.

To accept this condition from the 21st department of the State Security’s police is immoral and embarrassing. The freedom of Cuban political prisoners will not bear any type of condition. The only ones who accept humiliating conditions in order to be free are pervert criminals.

Support ladies are an inseparable part of the Ladies in White; the represent the Cuban people that have joined us in this fight. Through their example, dignity and courage, they set a precedent for men to break loose from the chains of fear and join the struggle.

Click here to keep reading

“Shakiras”, torture and the “non-existent” political prisoners in Cuba UPDATE

Luis Felipe Rojas (Crossing the barbed wire) is a Cuban blogger that writes from Holguin about pretty much everything that happens in Cuba’s Eastern provinces.

Today, he bring us a heart-wrecking post with a conversation he had with a man who served four years in Guantanamo's Province Prison for trying to leave the country.

UPDATE:
English version of Rojas' post here.

Anderlay Guerra Blanco served four years in prison for trying to escape Cuba. Photo from Crossing the Barbed Wire

Yep, in case you haven’t notice, in Cuba you go to jail if you try to leave the plantation without the master’s permission.

The interviewed painfully describes the “Shakira”, who is not by any means the Colombian singer whose hips don’t lie. (The original post in Spanish is here)

No. He is talking about a method of torture currently used in several Cuban prisons, especially against political prisoners.

Here is a milder demonstration:

An excerpt, in my very own free translation:

"The "Shakira" is the worst method of torture that I saw in that place. Since the individual is handcuffed with both hands and feet tied to his back, and later is thrown in the dirty floor of a punishment cell, he is left in an extremely uncomfortable position. When he tries to make any movement, the only part of his body that moves are his hips. Can you imagine the irony?

They have established the parallel with the singer that happily dances, moving her hips in a very peculiar way, with the way the inmate copes with the pain and the uncomfortable position. I saw men there who urinated and defecated in that position because they were being held like that for 24 or 48 hours.

There is even a variation of the "Shakira" where the inmate is literally hung from the ceiling of the punishment cell, through the chains between the handcuffs. This lacerates the skin, leaving permanent scars in wrists and ankles.

When the guards decide they want to punish someone, first of all, they handcuff the man like that and then, beat him up before putting him in the punishment cell in that position. That's why I told you it is humiliating for everyone, but the cruelty is worse when it is a prisoner that it is there for political reasons, or when the inmate shouts off against the government or when they engage in hunger strikes to demand to be taken to a doctor or what they call "their [political] prisoner's rights.

Besides, there are different variations of that same torture. The chain that ties hands and feet can be lengthened or shortened. The shorter they leave it, the inmate can only rest his chest in the dirty, humid and putrid floor they share with insects and rodents."

I can’t help to wonder WHERE are those that over the world raised their voices against water boarding and the tortures against jihadists in Gitmo.

Not that I justify it – that’s a topic for a whole different conversation - but, WHERE are their voices when the victims are just Cuban political prisoners?

WHERE are their progressive, liberal, politically correct, humanitarian, considerate, just, fair and moderate voices condemning the tortures against Cuban political prisoners in the hands of Castro’s thugs?

And the United Nations and et-al?

And the MSM that have news bureaus there?

And the intellectuals, Michael “Sicko” Moores and Congressional Black Caucus that drool over the buttock-less old “dear leader”?

And all those that in the floor of the US Congress recently applauded Cuban legislators – completely out of scope – resolution against Arizona?

I better don’t even go there…like cheap whores – actually, worst than them - they always end up in bed with the dictatorship.

Your silence is deafening.

Cuba's escape's valve technique, revisited

I've come to dislike the word “reflection”. You can put the blame on Castro and his decrepit constant misuse of it – but that’s not important right now. After all the rumors and online buzz about the talks between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church to release the political prisoners, a reflection is a must.

I’d like to start stating that I am immensely happy for the (so far unconfirmed in its details) news that sick Cuban political prisoners will be transferred to jails located in their home provinces. That will be a huge relief for their families. Unofficial reports stated that by today, 15-18 sick prisoners would be transferred...

There are a lot of people who deserve credit for this news. (Sorry, personally I think the Catholic hierarchy and the government thugs are NONE of them).

The Ladies in White, Guillermo Fariñas and Orlando Zapata Tamayo – who paid the ultimate price giving his life for his position – are the first ones that come to mind. All of them who fought, and still fight, against the windmills deserve credit. 

Together, they’ve worked put Castro’s communist dictatorship on the spot, to destroy their fake PR-ready image that communist Cuba is a paradise. They have had to – at least indirectly – acknowledge the regime have political prisoners. Their useless kabuki theater is falling apart...

I hate to break up the celebrations but, please, make no mistake: this does not change an iota the fact that in Cuba, there is no freedom to dissent. Daring to think different is still criminalized by the Castro’s government. The unjust reasons why these men were jailed in the first place are still intact.

A full and complete celebration and honoring of Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s (and so many others’) death will take place only when freedom of speech, and freedom to dissent, returns to the streets of the island.

While there is intolerance and repression towards those who think differently, I can’t help to see this as just another move of smoke and mirrors. “But at least is some sort of relief for the prisoners and its families!” some will tell me. Yes. That it is true. But it is not over yet.

Unless all political prisoners are released, there are free elections and freedom to politically organize outside the government’s line, and freedom to dissent so Cubans don’t have to be imprisoned for daring to talk and think different, acts like this won’t be nothing beyond a valve for the regimen to release some of the steam that has been building up in Cuba for quite a few years now.

Almost fifteen years have past since the last rafter’s crisis – it’s an open secret that it is the regimen preferred method to release the steam that their failed society keeps building up. (It seems that, for now, they are not considering showering Obama with another “gift”, although I wouldn’t take for granted it).

As of Monday afternoon, via Penultimos Dias (Spanish), I learned that there are no official reports of the transfers yet and Europa Press is reporting that the Cuban government keep pushing the Ladies in White to split from their group of "support ladies" [Cuban women dress in white that accompany them in their Sunday's marches] in exchange of benefits for their jailed relatives. I don't know in Europe, but in plain cubano, that is called chantaje (blackmail).

On the other hand, sources from the Catholic Church in Cuba are saying they have "never talked about an specific timeframe" for this measures...

For me, this move only means a patch of low-dose Tylenol for a patient with a terminal brain cancer. Nothing will really change until you completely remove the sucker from the victim’s head. And if you aim to save his life, you better do it stat!

#ZapataVive on Twitter on May 15th - UPDATE

[scroll down for updates]

Please, join us!
This is our plea to the world and our call for solidarity:

Saturday May 15th is the birthday of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Had he been alive, he would have turned 43 years old, probably in one of those jails where the Castro regime tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress him and from where he escaped once and for all last February 23rd.

In Banes, in the eastern Cuban province of Holguín, the political police have a permanent siege on Zapata Tamayo’s mother’s house, to prevent her from celebrating the memory of OZT, his example of rebelliousness against totalitarianism and his total devotion to the cause of freedom in Cuba. In the cemetery where he rests, the political police have tried to erase his name from his tombstone and they have also posted surveillance guards at the foot of a nearby pine tree to prevent people from coming close to his graveyard and to make them forget he ever existed.

But we have bad news for the Castro brothers and their sinister police: starting on the eve and throughout May 15th, we will celebrate the life of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. And we are going to do it with the same words with which his mother and the Ladies in White invoke him:

¡Zapata Vive! (Zapata is alive!) These women carry in themselves the will of many Cubans of being free.

This is an open invitation, and the meeting point is Twitter: #ZapataVive will be the hashtag. We will also use #OZT y #Cuba. Let’s make the conversation about Cuba on May 15th a conversation about Zapata Tamayo. Let’s not allow his flame to go out until the dawn of a free Cuba.

Numbers do make a difference here. If you want to join us celebrating the life of Zapata on his birthday, we invite you to link in Twitter, between the 14th and the 15th, articles, comments, drawings, songs, videos and any other material that has appeared in traditional media, blogs, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook and other social networking sites. Post what you have written and what others have written as well. And don’t forget to add #ZapataVive, #OZT and #Cuba on each tweet. Let’s welcome May 15th, Zapata Tamayo’s birthday, with a message of freedom for Cuba.

Keep us posted on anything that is published on the subject by emailing us at ozt.prensa@gmail.com. We will post updates on the evolution of the event. The goal is for the #ZapataVive hashtag to become one of the “trending topics” on Twitter on May 15th.

Let our voices get to the Cubans who seek their freedom. And let them reach the ears of the tyrant. Starting on Friday, May 14th and throughout the 15th: ¡Zapata Vive! The hashtags: #ZapataVive, #OZT, #Cuba.

Spread the word!

H/T to Aguaya at Dessarraigos Provocados

UPDATE:
Orlando Zapata Tamayo's grave in Banes, Holguin, has been desecrated.
H/T Babalú Blog / Via Twitter #OZT #ZapataVive

Civic resistance lesson for Americans

For quite a few weeks now, a fellow blogger and I – both free Americans, after escaping from communist countries – have been ranting at the indifference so many people around us have towards the path this nation is going under the current administration.

We feel we are screaming to the top our lungs and nobody is listening.

There are bad days when we think that calling upon the red flags of American being heavily penetrated by socialism in Facebook, Twitter and blogs is completely useless.

There is the frustration of seeing so many young Americans taking their freedom and their rights for granted.

There are days when I personally think, “Darn it, should we really need to have a United Socialist States of America for people to learn the lesson the hard way?”

And there are that bad days when we just want to throw the towel and say: “I’m done.”

But then, unavoidably, I have an epiphany, usually dressed in plain white in the streets of Havana. It is when I look back and see the plea of the Ladies in White, relentlessly standing for their loved ones, against the powerful machine of the communist repression.

(Click here to keep reading)

Esto no se aguanta más - We can't stand this anymore

Solidarity NOW!



Have you done something for (c)astro's victims today?
Remember: Never take your freedom for granted.
You'll never know whether you'll be next...

It's not about Cuban Rights. It's about Human Rights - Updated

It's about Solidarity, NOW! H/T to Marti

And la Sra. Luza, being ready to roll, drags througth the floor the misconceptions that the Cuban exiles from fifty years ago and the recently arrived ones are two bands of divided people.

Besides, who needs idiots like Sean Penn when you can have Andy García!
;-)

UPDATE:
Along with the march in Los Angeles, more Cubans of all ages, hungry for change, are marching in Barcelona and New York today.