Call to action for a Christmas without political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."- Hebrews 13:3

Enjoying the holidays with family and friends? Getting ready for the New Year's celebrations? Please take a moment from the festivities and think of those locked up and mistreated for exercising their fundamental human rights.  

#SOSVenezuela #SOSNicaragua #SOSCuba

Navidad sin presos políticos en #Cuba, #Venezuela y #Nicaragua.#NavidadSinPresosPolíticosEnCubaVenezuelaYNicaragua.
Volantes en las calles de Montevideo, #Uruguay.
Hacé los tuyos y repartí. pic.twitter.com/6yXUvcVUIw

— Profesor Antonio Romero Piriz, Orejano Oriental. (@NOABOLCHES) December 15, 2022

Partial lists provided by internal human rights groups indicate that there are at least 1,034 political prisoners in Cuba, 235 political prisoners in Nicaragua, and 274 political prisoners in Venezuela spending the holiday season behind bars. At a minimum 1,543 fellow humans are arbitrarily detained and being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment for matters of conscience.

This has been going on in the Americas for over sixty years, and for too long it has been normalized.

Let us show our solidarity with those who are unjustly imprisoned on account of their political convictions. The late Vaclav Havel, interviewed by Amnesty International in 2011, understood the need for persons of goodwill to take action. "It's up to all of us to try, and those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses."

Some psychologists argue that as the number of victims increase into the hundreds, and thousands that compassion collapses out of the human fear of being overwhelmed.

These are three cases, one for Venezuela, one for Cuba and one for Nicaragua.  

Venezuela

"Javier Tarazona, Director of local NGO FundaREDES, was arbitrarily detained on July 2, 2021 after attempting to report harassment from security officers at the Attorney General’s Office in the city of Coro (Western Venezuela), and charged with inciting hatred, treason and “terrorism”. His pre-trial hearing took place on December 16, 2021, after more than five months of delays. Javier Tarazona is a prisoner of conscience, having been arbitrarily detained for his human rights work. Tarazona’s health has seriously deteriorated due to lack of medical treatment."  Source: Amnesty International. He remains imprisoned, and his family and colleagues continue to campaign for his release.

Cuba

"Maykel Castillo Pérez, more commonly known by his artistic name: 'Maykel Osorbo,' is a Cuban musician and member of the San Isidro Movement. He is also one of the co-authors of the son “Patria y Vida”, that has become a protest anthem for its critical view of the Cuban government. The musician has been subjected to constant harassment by authorities and has been arbitrarily detained on many occasions. On 18 May 2021, state security agents detained the musician at his home, and for the 10 days following his arrest, refused to provide information on his whereabouts to family and loved ones. On 19 August 2021, Amnesty International named Castillo Pérez a prisoner of conscience, along with other Cubans detained in the context of the protests of 11 July 2021. 

On 24 March 2022, the organization issued a press release calling authorities to allow it and other human rights observers access to the country to monitor the trials. On 26 May 2022, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Castillo Pérez, ahead of the start of his trial. Cuba remains the only country in the Americas that does not permit Amnesty International to visit to carry out human rights monitoring work." Source: Amnesty International He was condemned to nine years in prison six months ago on June 24, 2022, and remains in poor health.

Nicaragua

 

"Three weeks after his arrest by the regime of President Daniel Ortega made international headlines, one of Nicaragua’s most renowned intellectuals, Oscar René Vargas, has been indicted by the government with “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and other trumped-up charges. Vargas is the latest high-profile prisoner of conscience in Nicaragua. He is being held at the notorious El Chipote prison outside of Managua, where he joins some 200 other political prisoners."

"The 77-year-old Vargas had been living in exile in Costa Rica since 2018, where he was forced to flee after the regime issued an arrest warrant because he had criticized the government's repression of mass protests that year. After learning that his sister had become seriously infirm, Vargas returned to Nicaragua on November 22. Within minutes of arriving at his sister’s house in the Bolonia neighborhood of Managua, several dozen police and state security agents raided the house, bursting in with machine guns and dragging him away. For the next 48 hours, the regime forcibly concealed Vargas until petitions by the family and the Center for Human Rights in Nicaragua (CENIDH), and international pressure forced the government to acknowledge his arrest."

Vargas, considered the dean of Nicaraguan sociology, is one of the most prominent and well-respected academic voices in the opposition. He is the author of 56 books and over 1,000 articles on Nicaragua, Latin America, and world affairs. Vargas began his political life in the 1960s, participating in the struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. In 1967 he hid Daniel Ortega from Somoza’s state security, thus saving his life. He participated throughout the 1970s in the struggle against the dictatorship, and from 1979-1990 he served as an advisor to the nine-member National Directorate, the highest decision-making body of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)." Source: NACLA 

Please join us in speaking up for these and other political prisoners. Please remember the words of the great Czech dissident Václav Havel who explained back in 1990 that "[t]he salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility."

It begins with you. Will you do your part?

1. Please  ask your pastor, rabbi, or priest to pray for the freedom of political prisoners during their religious services during this holiday season.

2. Please write letters to religious leaders in your community to request that the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua free their political prisoners.

3. Please use the following hashtags to spread this message.

#LiberenLosYa
#FreeThemNow
#FreedomForPoliticalPrisoners
#LibertadParaLosPresosPoliticos
#CubaNicaraguaVenezuela
#NavidadSinPresosPolíticosEnCubaVenezuelaYNicaragua. #ChristmasWithoutPoliticalPrisonersInCubaVenezuelaAndNicaragua  

4. Please sign the petition to expel the Castro regime from the UN Human Rights Council.