When secret police in plain clothes shot into crowds of non-violent protesters with live ammunition and the world looked the other way

"Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future." - Elie Wiesel 

    Secret police in plain clothes firing live ammunition at protesters

26 years ago on August 5, 1994, a thousand Cubans marched through the streets of Havana chanting "Freedom!"and "Down With Castro!" They were met with brutal repression, including regime agents dressed in plain clothes shooting live rounds at unarmed demonstrators.

Cubans chant "Freedom" and "Down with Castro" on 8/5/94 in Havana

In 2013 photographs taken by Karel Poort, a Dutch visitor, were made public and confirmed the anecdotal accounts of that day. Cuban dissident Regis Iglesias described how the dictatorship militarized the streets in an effort to terrorize the populace: 

A convoy of trucks crammed with repressive special troops and a vehicle with a 50 caliber machine gun on top patrolled up and down the long street.

Little has been reported on this, but some of the images and sounds remain. This combined with testimony of those who were there provide a better idea of what took place.

What happened?
Five hundred of the Cubans had arrived at the Havana sea wall (El Malecon) to board a launch that was rumored was going to be taken to Miami.  These people were not seeking to overthrow the dictatorship but did want to live in freedom.

They were met by the Castro dictatorship's secret police who told the crowd to disperse.

Instead of diffusing the situation another 500 Cubans joined in and  they began to march along the Malecon chanting "Freedom!"and "Down With Castro! After marching for a kilometer, a hundred Special Brigade members and plain clothes police confronted the protesters firing live rounds into the crowd.

   Secret police aiming handgun at protesters on August 5, 1994

26 years later and the full details of what transpired remains mostly silenced despite the pictures of regime officials pointing their handguns at the demonstrators combined with reports of the sounds of gun shots and wounded protesters echoing down through the years in anecdotal stories about that day. 

Eyewitness account 

                          Ignacio Martínez Montero

Ignacio Martínez Montero posted on la Voz del Morro a first hand account of what happened that day that is translated to English below:

Then came the year 94 One hot August of that year's day, I'd arrived at my mother in laws home in Cuba and Chacón in the heart of Old Havana, near the Malecón, for that reason alone, after visiting my mother in law, I sat , like many, on the wall of the bay, very close to where still today the famous Casablanca launch travels in and out. That year was turbulent, constantly talking about boats diverted to Miami, and the tugboat. Maybe that's why the special brigade trucks arrived and attacked all of us who were sitting. 

Our response to this aggression was only to clamor for freedom. It has been said that we threw stones; but all that is a lie, the truth was that we were tired of so much aggression and without agreeing to we began to walk together screaming, Enough, Down with the revolution ... And before reaching Hotel Deauville, a battalion waited for us that attacked us with sticks and iron rods. It was they who made the big mess. They broke my left eyebrow and left me semi-lame. Yes, there were assaults and the aggressors had guns, but not among the civilians. One of the boys who went with us, who was called the Moor, even while handcuffed, they shot him in the torso and it was a miracle that he did not die. Who do you think paid for that? No one. 

They put us in a truck where they received us with beatings only to convince us to scream "Viva Fidel." They took us to the police station located at L and Malecon. Hours later I was taken to Calixto García hospital. There they attended to my foot and I treated the eyebrow wound; the medical certificate, never appeared. From there we boarded another bus and were taken to the prison 15/80, I could say "kidnapped" because nobody knew where we were. Some kids and nephews of my dad, who were with us, were released immediately. A boy could not take it and ended up hanged. No one learned of this; but we are many the witnesses who know what really happened that August 5th 1994, the day of Maleconazo.

Twenty six years later and the Castro regime in power terrorizing, beating, torturing and murdering nonviolent dissidents, and shooting young black men in the back, but Progressive Americans want to apply Cuban style policing in the United States, and claim that there is a lot we can learn from them.

 Hansel E. Hernández shot in the back by police in Cuba on 6/24/20

We saw what the future holds when the Cuban approach is applied at CHOP/CHAZ in Seattle, Washington where the police were driven out along with Constitutional safeguards and revolutionaries began policing several blocks in an American city.

At least two young black men killed during CHAZ/CHOP protests in June 2020: Horace Lorenzo Anderson (age 19) on June 20 and Antonio Mays, Jr (age 16)on June 29th. Will there names be remembered or will they be erased from the narrative like Castro's victims?

Correcting error from prior tweet. At least two young black men killed during CHAZ/CHOP protests in June 2020: Horace Lorenzo Anderson (age 19) on June 20 & Antonio Mays, Jr (age 16) on June 29th. More info here: https://t.co/UnsSuZlUI3 and here: https://t.co/msNSM5w9if 1/4 pic.twitter.com/SqeZgdYeFT

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) August 2, 2020

God help us if this comes to pass.

Uniformed and plain clothes police detaining a protester

Is Cuba coming to Seattle at the the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP)? Press freedoms violated by revolutionaries in control

Have constitutional rights been suspended at the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP)

Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle Washington

Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone "CHAZ" renamed now the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), consists of six city blocks that protesters have taken over, is apparently following aspects of the the Cuban model of policing when dealing with journalists who record them without their permission. The video below starting at 3 hours and 44 minutes starts calm, but then the sound of gun fire erupts, followed by CHOP security coming in and trying to censor the citizen journalist at 3 hours and 50 minutes.

Here's my unedited footage of the shooting at the Seattle #CHAZ / #CHOP free zone tonight: https://t.co/7nAsWHAc50

I have no details on what happened besides what appears in the video. Afterwards no one laid hands on me but they did take my phone. They then gave it back. ↓

— Shawn Whiting (@ShawnGui_) June 22, 2020

Citizen journalist Shawn Gui was recording with a live feed from his phone when shooting erupted, and shortly afterwards the CHOP's security forces grabbed his camera and tried to delete it.

Daily Wire reported what transpired:

On Sunday night, a second shooting occurred in Seattle’s so-called “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” dubbed “CHAZ” or “CHOP,” that was captured via livestream by Twitch user Shawn Whiting.
In footage of the aftermath of the shooting, a member of CHAZ “security” is seen stealing Whiting’s phone and demanding he “delete” the damning footage.

“Whiting was livestreaming on Twitch for just under four hours,” reported NOQ Report posted Monday morning. “Near the end, gunshots can be heard. At the time, it was unclear if the noise was actual gunshots or fireworks, but his phone continued to livestream after it was taken by a member of CHOP ‘security.’ The man who carried the phone away confirmed at least one person had been shot.”
Following the ring of gunfire, folks in CHAZ who’ve reached safety call the area a “war zone.”
“Another n***** just got shot,” one man says. “This is a war zone.”
Whiting suggests the shooting, the second in just two days (the Saturday shooting included at least one fatality), will be the “end of CHOP.”
“This is kind of a nightmare,” the Twitch user says aloud.
Earlier this month, far-left protesters including Antifa and Black Lives Matter supporters commandeered six blocks of property, including the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, which has since been abandoned.

At one point during the stream, Whiting is questioned by a “security” member of CHAZ and told to delete the footage. Whiting suggests he has permission to live-stream, directing the man to a person named “James Madison.”
“Give me that f***ing phone, man,” the man tells Whiting. “What the f*** are you doing? … Hey, hey! Delete that s***! Delete that f***ing s***!”
“That’s my phone!” Whiting says after his phone is stolen.
“I do not give a f***,” CHAZ “security” replies. “I do not care.”

Last week The Progressive, a publication founded in 1909 in Madison, Wisconsin published an article titled "Foreign Correspondent: Police Lessons From Cuba" by Reese Erlich that claimed "Contrary to the image of brutal and repressive communists, police in Cuba offer an instructive example for activists in the United States." 

At the time I outlined that in Cuba individuals uploading images of the police on a digital platform with out their permission would be guilty of violating Cuban law  and it would be compounded if the images portrayed the police in a negative light. 

At the time I naively pointed out that a law, patterned after Cuba's, would require those who record police on or off the job to get the approval of the police officer recorded before sharing the video with any digital platforms, and that it would run afoul of First Amendment  guarantees.

Evan Gerstmann writing in Forbes said, "The situation inside CHOP represents an egregious deprivation of its residents’ constitutional rights. The residents of the area have not consented to being ruled over by the leaders of CHOP. They have not consented to the withdrawal of police protection of their persons and property or to violations of freedom of the press."  

Americans in 2020 in six city blocks of Seattle, Washington are getting a little taste of Cuba. Reading the manifesto of some of the protesters, if they have their way many more Americans will be experiencing what being derived of your Constitutional rights feels like, but hey for the folks tearing down statues of Washington, and Jefferson all that is so 1787.

Hey #CHAZ or #CHOP or whatever they call themselves is applying the Cuba policing strategy that @theprogressive said Americans could learn from: https://t.co/dVIGhTSr4N They are confiscating cameras and deleting video that makes them look bad. https://t.co/nGFGgaS4J9 pic.twitter.com/6Gqap3kZyd

— Justice for the Four (@justiceforthe4) June 23, 2020