Norwegian Girl of Cuban descent on mom's side number eight with a new single on Norway's music charts

Two years after "diplomatic" incident, singer and entertainer Alexandra Joner has a hit single "Sunrise"

Update (November 28, 2012): Alexandra Joner voted Sexiest Woman in Norway

Alexandra Joner, a Norwegian girl of Cuban descent on her mother's side (age 21) has a hit single "Sunshine". Two years ago she was attacked by Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, as she video taped her mom holding a nonviolent demonstration at the Cuban embassy in Oslo for Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political activist and Amnesty prisoner of conscience who died during a hunger strike in a Havana prison on February 23, 2010.

Wonderful news from Norway, Alexandra Joner now has a new hit single "Sunshine" that is number eight in Norway that was released the weekend of May 12, 2012. Writers with insight into the intricacies of pop music say that her single "may be a calling card for a much bigger look worldwide." The new single is accompanied by the video below:

Alexandra Joner, the now 21 year old Cuban-Norwegian girl who was physically assaulted by a Cuban diplomat two years ago on May 22, 2010 in Oslo in an incident that made news around the world, and  is found described in an online biography on LastFM as follows:

In 2010, in an odd turn of events, Joner was threatened and bitten by a Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, while outside of the Cuban embassy in Oslo. She was partaking in a non-violent demonstration in remembrance of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political activist who died during a hunger strike in a Havana prison.

The reason that the attack became worldwide news was that it was captured on video. The image of the violent and aggressive undiplomatic diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, rushing across the street hurling insults as she sought to wrest away the camera from the young woman.



In the Hip Hop Magazine XXL Alexandra Joner discusses her background and the importance of her mom:

My mother is Cuban and my father is Norwegian, actually half Norwegian, half Latvian if you want to be exact. I sing and dance. I’ve been performing since I was nine. It started with ballet, then I got into hip-hop when I was 14 and I stuck to that.I live with my mom now and she definitely pushes me. When she was younger she was a salsa dancer and she played the violin. I just got a manager here in Norway and we’re trying to find that hit single.

At 2:13 in the video below Alexandra discusses her Cuban, Norwegian and Latvian heritage:



Keep an eye out for this young woman, Alexandra Joner just may conquer the pop music world. Not to mention that friends of freedom everywhere should demonstrate their solidarity for a rising artist who just two years ago was attacked for exercising her rights by purchasing her music.

World Youth Day for Democracy: October 18, 2010

"Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in." - Martin Luther King, Jr.












Alexandra Joner (above left) Cuban-Norwegian girl (age 19) bitten by Cuban diplomat in Oslo. Above right brothers Nestor & Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina activists who have been detained, beaten and imprisoned for their human rights activism in Cuba.

The dictatorship in Cuba is run by elderly men in their 70s and 80s who distrust the youth of the country. They have diplomats that are not diplomatic that insult and bite Cuban youth in other countries. This is what they do in free countries where this behavior is unacceptable:



Imagine what they are doing to young people in Cuba. Thanks to twitter you don't have to and there is now a clearer idea of what goes on in real time. Imagine on a Friday afternoon while many young people are preparing for a night on the town others like Luis Felipe Rojas and Jose A Triguero find their homes surrounded by Cuban state security and under surveillance. Check out Luis Felipe's blog translated to English here.

Blogger Luis Felipe Rojas suffers detentions, harassment and state security surveillance in Cuba.

As Saturday approaches a Guantanamo family made up of Rogelio Tabio, his wife Rosaida Ramirez and their two children are subjected to days of physical violence and intimidation in an act of repudiation taking place at their home with over 500 people bussed in by the dictatorship. When young activists tried to demonstrate their solidarity with the victims of this repression they were detained.

Cuban youth leader Rolando R. Lobaina is detained in Santiago, Cuba at 8pm on a Saturday night by five Cuban state security G2 officials and his friends don't know where he is being held.

Signing a petition for human rights to be respected in Cuba or obtaining a scholarship to study at university abroad can get you expelled from school and subjected to a mob attack.

2009 WYMD regional essay contest winner from Cuba Cristian Toranzo denied by Cuban dictatorship permission to travel to World Movement for Democracy Assembly in Jakarta

Unlike most youth of the world young Cubans cannot travel the world freely but have to obtain the dictatorship's permission to enter and exit their own country. Cristian Toranzo was a 2009 Latin American regional winner for the World Youth Movement for Democracy essay contest and was not allowed to travel to attend the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia unlike other winners from around the world. Please read Cristian's winning essay here which offers an insight into the thinking of a young Cuban activist in Cuba who has suffered beatings and detentions for his defense of human rights and democratic values.

On this World Youth Day for Democracy October 18, 2010 please take a moment out of your day to think about these brave youth confronting a totalitarian dictatorship.

Political prisoner's mom on how Cuban officials misled & threatened her

As people of good faith around the world tune into what is happening in Cuba with the death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010; the brutal broadcast beatings of the Ladies in White by government organized mobs on International Human Rights day and again in March 2010; and the attack on 19-year old artist Alexandra Joner in Oslo, Norway by Carmen Julia Guerra, the Cuban Consul, they should take into account Noris's testimony below when weighing the validity of the claims made by Cuban officials and their apologists.

Egberto Escobedo Morales

Noris Morales is the mother of Cuban political prisoner Egberto Escobedo Morales, who has been on hunger strike since April 16 protesting conditions in his prison.

In the video below, Sra. Morales describes how Cuban officials tricked her into believing she might be able to win the release of her son. (An English transcript is below.)P.S. Thanks to Marc Masferrer for posting this video on his blog Uncommon Sense.

My name is Noris Morales I am the mother of Egberto Escobedo Morales. My son is serving a 29 year prison sentence in the prisons of Cuba. He will have spent 16 years in prison as of June 11, 2010. 16 years suffering the worse things in life: beatings, hunger strikes, and struggling with hunger strikes.

I left Cuba.

In the year that I left Cuba they mislead me into leaving. They promised me if I was able to obtain a visa from any country that they would turn him over to me.

I went to Costa Rica. My family helped me. When I got there I began to struggle and had the visa denied on three occasions because he was in prison. They said they could not give it to me.

One day it occurred to me to go to the Government House of Costa Rica and when my nerves got bad. The first Lady became aware of my presence there. It was her office where she worked. Lady Lorena Clare was able to get me the visa and she helped me.

I believed in the communists. I believed that they had told me the truth. I took the visa and went to Cuba. I arrived in Havana with 150 pesos. When I got to Camaguey I was without a penny. I went there with the hope that my son would be turned over to me.

I get to Camaguey where the delegation meets, at the Ministry thats when they told me: "Oh..but you believed that? You can't be right in the head." They had told me that (about the visa) to leave the country and not be next to my son and when they told me this I said that cannot be. Now I will stay. If you do not give me my son I will stay on a hunger strike. Whatever - you need to turn him over to me.

When I told my son that I would remain imprisoned. I hadn't done anything. I had committed no crime but they told me that if I stayed it would be in prison. I would remain imprisoned but they had to give me my son.

But my son told me on his knees - He asked me on his knees: "Mom please get out - leave Cuba. You are my hope that I will stay alive that my voice will be heard outside. The hope that I get out of here is you mother.

That was a few years ago that I left. What I have accomplished until now? I have not been able to get him out of the prison not even for an hour. They tricked me. The only thing I have been able to do is to denounce this. That the world know about the situation of my son. I have him in a very grave state at this moment. He is vomiting blood. I don't know if he is going to be saved. My son is going to die just like Zapata. I don't want that to happen to my son. Help me please. Please help me. My son is going to die. I don't want him to die.

Update June 16, 2010: Frances Robles reported in The Miami Herald June 15, 2010 that "Egberto Angel Escobedo completed his 17th year in a Cuban prison last Friday, and his 56th day of a hunger strike." The article also informs "Escobedo is having trouble breathing, is suffering from a kidney stone passed earlier this month. He pleaded to be taken to a hospital but was returned to his cell block."

Norwegian of Cuban descent on mother's side bitten by Cuban Consul in Oslo, Norway

The Cuban Consul's bite is worse than her bark

Norwegian media is reporting about a Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, insulting, threatening, and biting a young Norwegian woman, Alexandra Joner age 19 (pictured above), of Cuban descent on her mother's side that took place on May 22, 2010 outside of the Cuban embassy in Oslo during a non-violent demonstration in solidarity with the Ladies in White and in remembrance of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. There are even blog entries with colorful titles: Cuban diplomat does a Mike Tyson in Norway.and Beware of the dog...err... the Cuban diplomat. The main national newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten, has a photograph of the young girl with bite marks on her hand taken by Hans O. Torgersen. The photo is reproduced below.
Now this is what happens to someone peacefully demonstrating in front of the Cuban embassy in a free country like Norway. Jan Tore Sanner, a Norwegian member of parliament, is asking that the Cuban diplomat who bit Alexandra be expelled from the Norway. In a face book post the member of parliament outlined his position:

The Cuban consul demonstrates that the regime has no respect for how to behave In an open and democratic society. In our country everyone have freedom of speech – it`s not acceptable that diplomats tries to stop a peaceful demonstration.

Considering this incident imagine what they do to Cubans inside of Cuba demonstrating peacefully in their own country. This reality is why Cuban human rights activists and dissidents need your solidarity, and why these seven women were out marching for the dissidents in Cuba when they encountered the intolerance and hatred of the Cuban diplomat. Below a photograph with a closer look at the bite marks on the hand.

Below is a video that documents the insults, threats, and attempt by the "diplomat" to seize Alexandra Joner's camera. The video below shows what took place, and a written description is also available inside.




Original video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Q0cE2J37A&feature=related

UPDATE: The incident has been picked up by the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP)

UPDATE #2: Chavista account of Oslo demonstration where attack took place seeks to portray a silent protest of 7 women as a failure in Radio Nacional de Venezuela

UPDATE #3: Biting incident now being reported all over the world. Here is a sampling: Le Figaro , Zigonet, РИА Новости, VESTI.KZ,Penki,RIA Novosti

Update #4: Norwegian media now reporting that a formal complaint has been made and that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry is looking into it.

Update #5: Norway's TV2 reports that the Cuban ambassador has sent a letter and images accusing the 19 year old artist of attacking the Cuban Counsel.

Update #6: BBC Mundo reports on the incident.

Update #7: The Foreigner [Norwegian news in English] reports Cuban consul attacks demonstrator

Update #8: Mercopress offers a complete overview of where things stand on May 27, 2010: Cuban consul in Norway accused of “biting” demonstrator’s hand



Alexandra Joner, appears in the above video by Norwegian artist Laila Samuels with the title "Give it to me straight" which is what the Norwegian Foreign Ministry should demand of the Cuban ambassador.