“The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic.”― Rod Serling
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| Sirley Avila Leon after testifying at the UN Human Rights Council |
“On May 24, 2015 living in Cuba I suffered an attack orchestrated by agents
of the state, I was attacked with a machete to kill me cutting off my left hand
and right shoulder while I covered my head with them, then cut my knees leaving
me disabled for life, This was not the first attack I suffered, I was
previously attacked several times, physically and verbally by the political
police in Cuba: they burned my bed, I suffered arbitrary arrests, death
threats, economic damages. Only for demanding better living conditions
for the peasants and their children in a rural area of Las Tunas. My case is
not isolated. In Cuba, the state continues to violate the human rights of
Cubans, murders, imprisons and banishes those who demand rights and repress
their families. To save my life, in 2016 I escaped from Cuba, since then my son,
Yoerlis Peña Avila, has been threatened with death and repressed on several
occasions. At this moment I fear for his life.”
Sirley
had been elected to a local peoples’ power assembly at the municipal level. She
thought she could help those who needed help, but the reality of the existing
system demonstrated otherwise.
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| Sirley Avila Leon following the May 24, 2015 machete attack |
The
existing constitution in Cuba was not decided in a free and democratic vote nor
the “reforms” that are being drafted now. It is taking an existing
anti-democratic document and making it even more restrictive. For example, in
the old constitution there existed a clause that a citizen initiative required
10,000 signatures for it to be officially recognized, now under the draft of
the proposed constitution it raises that requirement to 50,000 signatures. They
never thought 10,000 Cubans would sign a document calling for human rights
reforms, because of the consequences to the signatory and their families, but
with the Varela Project over 30,000 signatures were gathered. In the existing
constitution there is a freedom of religion and conscience clause, but in the
new draft it is just freedom of religion. Although, in practice, religion in
Cuba remains subject to Communist Party control and discrimination.
Raul
Castro handed over the office of the presidency to his handpicked successor
Miguel Díaz-Canel on April 19, 2018. This was done to give the impression that
a transition is underway in Cuba. This is not the case. General Raul Castro
remains head of the Cuban Communist Party and in control of the government.
General Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas, Raul's son-in-law, runs the economy.
Raul Castro's son, Colonel Alexandro Castro, who negotiated the normalization
of relations with the Obama Administration is an intelligence officer with
close ties to the secret police. Diaz-Canel, like Osvaldo Dorticos who was president of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, answers to General Raul Castro. The
succession does not empower Miguel Díaz-Canel but maintains the Castro dynasty
in power.
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| Blanca Reyes, of the Ladies in White with other activists and members of the IACHR |
“Under the decree, all artists, including
collectives, musicians and performers, are prohibited from operating in public
or private spaces without prior approval by the Ministry of Culture.
Individuals or businesses that hire artists without the authorization can be
sanctioned, and artists that work without prior approval can have their
materials confiscated or be substantially fined. Under the new decree, the
authorities also have the power to immediately suspend a performance and to
propose the cancelation of the authorization granted to carry out the artistic
activity.”
Despite
the government of Cuba being a long time and active member of the UN Human
Rights Council it has missed opportunity after opportunity to address key human
rights issues constructively and worked with other bad actors to weaken
international human rights standards and silence human rights defenders.
Thankfully, they do not always succeed.
Over the past two weeks at the UN HumanRights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland and the Inter-American Commissionon Human Rights (IACHR) in Boulder, Colorado the human rights situation in Cuba
was addressed by Cuban human rights defenders. The testimony and information
provided point to human rights worsening in the island nation.
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| Sirley Avila Leon addresses the UN Human Rights Council on September 24, 2018 |
UNHRC
For
decades, international human rights monitors have been and continue to be
barred from Cuba by the government to evade scrutiny and isolate Cubans. During
the adoption of the Universal Periodic Review outcome of Cuba, June 21-25,
2018, Amnesty International raised the issue that Cuba was the only country in
the Americas that was closed to them. Later on Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta,
Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations Office at Geneva replied
to Amnesty International’s comment on the refusal to accept monitors in the
island, that Cuba did not require such instruments.
In
addition to not allowing credible international human rights monitors into the
island, the Cuban government has not permitted the existence of an independent
national human rights institution in Cuba.
Furthermore, Cuba’s courts remain
subordinated to Raul Castro, head of the Cuban Communist Party. This is has had
repercussions on the human rights situation in Cuba.
The World
Evangelical Alliance informed the UN Human Rights Council that in 2015,
two thousand places of worship of a single church union had been threatened
with demolition and several places of worship had been destroyed.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that Cuba used a range of measures against
religious leaders and human rights defenders. Arbitrary detention
remained a common tactic.
There are
prisoners of conscience in Cuba today. Dr. Eduardo Cardet of the Christian
Liberation Movement, jailed since November 30, 2016, under terrible conditions,
for his human rights and democracy advocacy for Cubans is one of them.
Tomás Núñez
Magdariaga who has been on hunger strike for over 50 days protesting his unjust
imprisonment is another. Prisoners of conscience, such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo
in 2010 and Wilman Villar Mendoza in 2012, died on hunger strikes.
Extrajudicial
killings by the State continue in Cuba, and they are not limited to opposition activists. The case of Mr. Alejandro Pupo Echemendia is a recent and high
profile example. Police detained Mr. Pupo Echemendia and took him to a police
station in Las Villas Cuba, allegedly for participating in illicit horse races.
Eyewitness Abel Santiago Tamayo said Alejandro suffered a panic attack on
August 9, 2018, and asked for help. A guard handcuffed Alejandro from behind
and began to kick him in the back until he died. Alejandro Pupo Echemendia was
46 years old, a caregiver for the mentally ill in a psychiatric hospital.
Government agents placed witnesses and Alejandro's family under duress to retract
their statements.
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| Blanca Reyes, of the Ladies in White, addresses the IACHR |
One week later,
in Boulder Colorado, during the 169th Period of Sessions of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Cuban independent
journalists and human rights defenders presented “Reports on the
Criminalization of Social Activists and Journalists in Cuba.”
The
representative of the Ladies in White in the United States, Blanca Reyes,
denounced the cruelty of the Cuban government and asked for help to free five
women from her organization who are presently jailed.
"In Cuba there is a special sign of cruelty of the
totalitarian Communist Government against the entire female mass and, in
particular, against the Ladies in White," she affirmed. "Women who
belong to that organization are imprisoned, they directly suffer the threat of
being taken to a cell, they are imposed heavy fines for their public activities
and their families, including their children, are also victims of the
unpunished conduct of the political police.”
Blanca
identified five Ladies in White presently in prison and they are: Martha
Sánchez González, Nieves Matamoros, Aimara Nieto Muñoz, Yolanda Santana Ayala
and Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda.
Unlike at the UNHRC, the Cuban government
does not recognize the competence of the IACHR, despite having been invited to
return to the Organization of American States in 2009.
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| Cuban human rights defender impeded from attending UN-CERD Cuba review |
The Cuban government has denied human
rights defenders the right to travel to attend both the UN Human Rights Council
and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights over the past couple of
months.
MiriamCardet Concepción, the sister of prisoner of conscience Eduardo Cardet, was not
permitted by the Cuban government to travel to attend the IACHR hearing in
Boulder, Colorado. She was able, with some difficulty, to send her video
testimony that was broadcast during the hearing on Monday, October 1, 2018.
The
UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN-CERD)
met in Geneva on August 15, 2018 to examine racism in Cuba. The Cuban
government not only claimed that racism was not a problem in Cuba but also told
the UN-CERD that human rights defenders in Cuba face no limitations to exercise
their activities. Cuban diplomats assured that there had been no reprisals or
harassment of activists.
Cuban
human rights defenders Juan Antonio Madrazo and Norberto Mesa, both Cubans of
African descent, who were to attend the same session were detained arbitrarilyand banned by Cuban government officials from traveling to Geneva to address
the question of racism in Cuba.
Two other Cuban human rights defenders were
also barred by the Cuban government from traveling to Geneva to speak at the
pre-session to Cuba’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in April of 2018.
Pinkwashing
There is one element of the Constitutional
reform that has garnered positive international attention and that is an
opening to gay marriage. It does not endanger the power monopoly that the
regime seeks to preserve. This constitutional initiative by the Cuban
government is a textbook example of pinkwashing. It is "the practice of
presenting something, particularly a state, as gay-friendly in order to soften
or downplay aspects of its reputation considered negative."
The Cuban government’s leadership, who
remain in power today, carried out anti-Gay draconian policies in the past, and
they are the same ones now advocating for the change on gay marriage in the
constitution.
The Cuban government placed Gays and
Lesbians in forced labor camps beginning in 1964 in what they called Military
Units to Aid Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción).
These forced labor camps were for those suspected of or found guilty of
"improper conduct." Persons with "effeminate
mannerisms": what the Cuban government called "extravagant
behavior" were taken to these camps. Twenty years later with the outbreak
of the AIDS epidemic in Cuba the regime rounded up all who were HIV positive.
Cuba is the only nation in the world that mandated universal HIV testing and
enforced isolation of all virus carriers in detention facilities from 1986 to
1994.
This is not a Gay-friendly regime, despite
the PR offensive.
Conclusion
Cuban human rights defenders continue to be
barred from travel, subjected to harassment, arbitrary detentions and targeted
for physical attacks ordered by the secret police. There are changes taking
place in Cuba, but they are either cosmetic or make the state more repressive
with the goal of perpetuating the dynastic rule of the Castro family.
If Cuba is to once again be free then one
must understand the difficult existing reality and the challenges confronting
the democratic resistance in the island.
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