"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Tonight Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, and Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" continue in regime custody. The Miami Herald's Juan Tamayo reports:
Cuban police and State Security agents were still holding
dissidents Jorge Luis García Pérez and his wife Thursday, one day after
they raided their home to roust them out of bed and paint over
anti-Castro graffiti scrawled on the front walls.
García, known as Antúnez,
and his wife, Yris Pérez Aguilera, “were taken from their beds
yesterday, without a chance to put on any decent clothes or comb their
hair or anything,” said Donaida Pérez, the sister of Yris.
The
raiders broke down the door, searched the house and for about the 10th
time in the last few years painted over the anti-government graffiti
that the couple paint on the front of their home in the town of
Placetas, east of Havana, Pérez added.
Among the more outspoken of Cuba’s dissidents and leaders of the
National Civic Resistance Front Orlando Zapata Tamayo, García and Pérez
have been detained by police dozens of times, although usually for only a
few hours.
The pattern of repression yesterday in Cuba led to the question "Is there a nationwide crackdown underway?" The answer a day later is yes. According to UPI "over 40 pro-democracy activists,
including four leaders of the movement, were detained by police in Cuba
in a crackdown on dissidents." Ed Adamczyk's report was published by UPI on June 12, 2014 at 2:31 PM and also noted that:
"Although most detainees were released later in the day, the scope of
the police action suggested the Cuban government is turning to tougher
and more violent means of repression. A journalist, Roberto de
Jesus Guerra, claimed a Cuban State Security plainclothes agent attacked
him as he walked to the Czech embassy in Havana to use its Internet
connection. He later said in an interview, "I am going to the doctor now
and later to the police to file a complaint, although they never do
anything because they are the ones beating us." Prominent
dissidents Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antúnez, and his wife, Yris
Pérez Aguilera, were taken from their home in Placetas. Also among
those detained were Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White protest
movement, and her husband, Angel Moya, a dissident who previously served
eight years in prison."
Juan Tamayo, in The Miami Herald article offers additional information on the detention of Berta Soler and Angel Moya:
Berta Soler, leader of the dissident Ladies in White, meanwhile, said
she and her husband, former political prisoner Angel Moya, were
detained for 15 hours Wednesday in a police station to keep them away
from a planned dissident gathering.
She was kept in an office,
forced to sit in uncomfortable chairs, while Moya was held in a cell
where he could rest in a bunk bed, Soler added. Police detained them as
they left their Havana home at 7 a.m. and freed them at around 10 p.m.
Soler
said they were detained on their way to a gathering of the Ladies in
White and other dissidents who wanted to attend the trial of Fernando
Ortiz, the husband of Yanelis Cutiño, a member of the women’s group who
has accused him of domestic abuse.
At least 30 other Ladies in
White and 15 to 20 male dissidents were detained by police and State
Security agents at they approached the courthouse, Soler said.
Please keep you eye on the fate of these activists.
The past year has continued to see a deterioration of human rights in Cuba. It began in January with the terrible news that Wilman Villar Mendoza, another prisoner of conscience, had died while on hunger strike in a Cuban prison demanding that his rights be respected. Unfortunately, Pope Benedict's visit to the island in March coincided with a nationwide crackdown on Cuban dissidents while His Holiness was in Cuba. The aftermath has been even worse. Sergio Díaz Larrastegui, died this past April 19, 2012 at the Julio Trigo Hospital in Arroyo Naranjo in Havana, Cuba. He died in the shadows, under the control of Cuban State Security. Less than three months later, Cuban opposition leader and Catholic Layman Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas along with Harold Cepero from the same movement died under suspicious circumstances that appear to have been provoked by State Security on July 22, 2012. Family and friends are demanding an international investigation into their deaths.
The number of arbitrary detentions in 2012 have skyrocketed compared to previous years. At the beginning of December the number was already at 6,035 detentions. In November and December of 2012 there were also large scale crackdowns on human rights defenders.
Violence and threats of violence against nonviolent activists and their families continues in Cuba to the present day. An extreme but not atypical example is that of Damaris Moya Portieles who initiated a hunger strike on June 3, 2012
demanding that her 5-year old daughter, Lazara Contreras Moya, be kept
safe. This was because state security agents made graphic rape threats
to the mother concerning her five year old daughter. The worse of
the perpetrators was Eric Francis Aquino Yera. Berenice Héctor González, a 15-year old young woman, suffered a knife attack on November 4, 2012 for supporting the women's human rights movement, The Ladies in White.
News of the attack only emerged a month later because State Security
had threatened the mother that her daughter would suffer the
consequences if she made the assault public. Lady in White Sonia Garro who has on more than one occasion been badly beaten by State Security and her husband have been locked up since March 2012. Unfortunately, when a UN goodwill ambassador visits Cuba to discuss violence against women the above practices by the dictatorship go unaddressed. Dissidents have been beaten up and arrested for addressing national and international bodies.
Unfortunately international media on the island has been slow to report on crackdowns taking place and are frequently scooped by independent Cuban journalists on twitter because the news media know, from past experience, that if they report on the opposition and the repression of the dictatorship they their bureaus will be shut down and their journalists expelled. Even the case of a British citizen held in Cuba because he only had a British passport but because he was born in Cuba, the regime refuses to recognize it made the news in The Daily Telegraph because the man's family spoke out. Not a word of this when reporting on migration reforms in the island.
We cannot celebrate Human Rights Day
here in Cuba. We can't because they repress us and beat us. Right now
there's an act of repudiation in front of the Ladies in White
headquarters." - Bertha Soler, Lady in White, The Associated Press, December 9, 2011
Bertha Soler arrested today in Havana, Cuba
Update: 7:49pm December 9, 2012:Angel Moya reports over twitter that "More than 100 Ladies in White were violently arrested on the eve of December 10, institutionalized violence against women."
Bertha Soler made the statement at the top of the page one year ago today. She is unavailable for comment today because she along with 44 other Ladies in White was beaten up, dragged, and arrested emerging from Santa Rita Church in Havana, Cuba.
On the eve of International Human Rights Day in Cuba 45 Ladies in White and at least eight activists were arrested and beaten by agents of the Castro regime. The mainstream news based in Havana so far has been silent but Cuban independent journalists and activists are once again scooping the news bureaus via twitter. These journalists have a lot more to lose than being deported from Cuba. For example, Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias is on day 29 of a hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment since September 16, 2012. Another Cuban writer, Angel Santiesteban, has been sentenced to five years in prison for thinking differently and having the courage to set it down to paper.
The price paid by Cuban independent journalists often times is not measured in money but beatings and years in prison.
First learned of the crackdown through the Ladies in White official twitter account which stated: "Try to communicate with Lady in White Berta Soler and message says that her phone number does not exist." A short time later another tweet appears: Arrests, repudiation rallies, the Ladies in White phones interrupted, is happening right now throughout Cuba.
Less than 20 minutes later Yoani Sanchez confirms "arrest of William Cacer Diaz who is in the station of Alamar together with Angel Moya and other activists."Angel Moya is the husband of the leader of the Ladies in White, Bertha Soler and he is also a former prisoner of conscience.
Bertha Soler and Angel Moya
At 3:45pm Ivan Hernandez Carillo confirms the "detention and arrests of the Ladies in White who walked through 5th Avenue of Havana today and that they have been taken to whereabouts unknown." Ivan Hernandez Carillo is an independent journalist and labor activist who spent many years in prison for his nonviolent activism and journalism. Nevertheless he begins to tweet in increments of 140 characters a report of what took place today in Cuba:
Witnesses to event tell me that at 3rd & 26th, Miramar, Havana were paramilitary women of the regime in civilian dress in three buses. The women, experts in karate, dressed as civilians and part of the political police, dragged, beat and arrested the Ladies in White. In addition to the 45 Ladies in White arrested, there was news of another eight activists who accompanied them that were also arrested. "The Ladies in White were dragged and beaten through the street" said an eyewitness, who added, "that what the regime did to them was disastrous."
News of the crackdown was confirmed via other twitterers who provided additional details. For example Felix Navarro, a former prisoner of conscience, reported that "[a]lso beaten and arrested was Angel Moya Acosta when he exited the Church of Santa Rita today."
The blogger Sayli Navarro cited Roberto J. Guerra of Hablemos Press as the source and reported that 44 Ladies in White and more than eight activists were detained in Havana and that it took place at 3rd and 26th.
Within the past hour through the twitter account of Roberto Guerra there is news that some of the Ladies in White and opposition activists are being released. The names provided are Yadira Bonbino, Santos Manuel Fernandez, Daniel Millet, Magaly Norvis, and the president of the Ladies in White Bertha Soler .
Ladies in White gathered in Havana, Cuba
International Human Rights Day 2012 requires the scrutiny of the international community along with courageous journalists to report what is going on in Cuba. The pretext for today's violent crackdown reports Diario de Cuba is that according to State Security they were arrested for not respecting the grief of the Cuban people over Chavez's health.
“Complete civil disobedience is rebellion without the element of violence in it.” – Mohandas Gandhi Laura Pollan’s own words demonstrate the evolution and transformation of this Cuban woman from an apolitical school teacher seeking the freedom of her long time lover to a human rights defender seeking the freedom of her husband and all Cubans. Over the space of eight years confronting all that the Cuban dictatorship could hurl at her and the rest of Ladies in White she and the other women were transformed. She married her longtime partner, Hector Maseda, in the "re-education" offices of La Pendiente prison in central Santa Clara province in December 2004 while he was serving his unjust 20 year prison sentence. The dictatorship's strategy has is to break up the families of the political prisoners in order to increase their isolation. The marriage was both an act of love and defiance. Although she is now no longer physically present, her words live on.
"For the first time I feel the church has made a strong impact. At other times it has been very lukewarm. Now it talks about the dissidents. Whether or not [the bishops] think like them, they support them." (2003)
They tried to silence 75 voices, but now there are more than 75 voices shouting to the world the injustices the government has committed. (2004)
“We ask on this Christmas Day for freedom for our political prisoners and for the Cuban people to have a better future.” (2005)
“It's an extremely sad day for us, because Christmas is a family holiday. Since our husbands are not with us, our families cannot be complete.” (2005)
"We fight for the freedom of our husbands, the union of our families. We love our men." (2005)
“We would never have thought this would go on for so long.” (2006)
Human rights basically have been dead in our country for three years. Physically, I am tired. But I am still fighting, as long as I am alive and my husband is jailed, I am going to keep fighting. – Laura Pollan (2006)
“We are calling for freedom for all political prisoners.” (2006)
"They can either kill us, put us in jail or release them. We will never stop marching no matter what happens." (2010)
"We are going to continue. We are fighting for freedom and human rights.” (September 24, 2011)
"As long as this government is around there will be prisoners because while they've let some go, they've put others in jail. It is a never-ending story." (2011)
“If we must give our own lives in pursuit of the freedom of our Cuba that it be what God wants.” (September 24, 2011)
"We are not going to stop. If you have imprisoned our sisters thinking that we would give up, they are mistaken. We are very united (...) all the women's movements are very close." (October 2, 2011)
The dictatorship in Cuba thought it could break Laura Pollan’s spirit but instead with each new attack and outrage her defiance and awareness of the true nature of the regime only increased. Just eight months ago they gave in and returned her husband to her after eight long years of unjust imprisonment.
Reunited in 2011
They thought with that they could stop Laura and the rest of the Ladies in White. Perhaps that might have worked in April of 2003 but after so many years of seeing the true face of the dictatorship and its oppression of the Cuban people it was too late. Now the Ladies in White who remain to carry on the struggle will rise to the occasion. Never doubt the resolve of a Cuban woman. Today they mourn and tomorrow they continue to march for freedom.
Ladies in White honor guard for Laura Pollan
"We're going to continue our peaceful fight for the liberation of all political prisoners. We'll also continue defending the human rights of the Cuban people." - Bertha Soler
"We plan to march tomorrow on Fifth Avenue like we do every Sunday. It will be a special march for Laura." - Bertha Soler
What of the men who these women defend? They too will be at their side in this nonviolent struggle for change. The man whose imprisonment sparked Laura Pollan to action in deep mourning for his wife called on the Ladies to continue their struggle. Hector Maseda was one of the last to be freed, first because he had refused to go into exile and secondly because he had demanded the false charges under which he had been convicted to be dropped. He had to be forcibly taken out of prison against his will by the prison authorities because they had only granted him parole. He is a stubborn and courageous man.
"You have to keep going as you have until now, with intelligence, not accepting provocations. You have become a dagger in the middle of the heart of the government.” – Hector Maseda
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