Cuba's Black Spring Seventeen Years Later: A look back

We remember.

With Former Prisoner of Conscience Regis Iglesias at the UNHRC in 2013

There are days that one will never forget. Days that one remembers where they were when the phone call arrived and the news broke, but on March 18, 2003 began a month that I'll never forget. The calls began arriving at the Cuban Democratic Directorate from all over Cuba that human rights defenders and independent journalists were being rounded up and their homes searched by Cuban State Security agents. Over a span of 48 hours 75 activists who would become known as "the group of the 75" were rounded up and jailed.

Eleven days later would find me along with Jannet Rivero at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland and for both of us it was our first time there. Over the previous five years Janisset Rivero had represented the Cuban Democratic Directorate at the Commission. She prepared us and guided us around all the bureaucratic pitfalls. Our objective was to denounce the crackdown while relaying as much information as possible to human rights experts that wanted to know what was taking place. The detentions had taken place between March 18 and 19 but it was not until April 1, 2003 that relatives were notified of the summary trials that were held April 3 – 7, 2003 and the draconian prison sentences issued by the regime.

Reports circulated that prosecutors were requesting death penalties for some of the group of the 75. The death penalty had in fact been requested for both Jesús Mustafá Felipe and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

At the same time another event transpired that demonstrated the willingness of the Castro regime to kill. On April 2, 2003 a ferry with 40 people on board going from Havana to Regla was hijacked by 11 Cubans who wanted to take it to the United States of America., but ran out of fuel 45 kilometers from the Cuban coastline.

The hijackers threatened to harm the passengers if there demands to flee Cuba were not met. However, the situation ended without violence and the regime in an official note announced that “all of those who had been on board were rescued and saved without so much as a shot or a scratch.”

The hijackers underwent summary trials between April 5 – 8, 2003 and three of them Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García, and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac, were sentenced to death and executed on April 11,2003.

The threat of death penalties being applied against the nonviolent activists and the summary nature with which the dictatorship would carry out the unjust sentence created a level of anxiety and pressure on all of us both in Geneva and in Miami working to relay the information as quickly and accurately as possible while seeking out press coverage and solidarity from others in order to pressure the dictatorship into not carrying out its threats. Over the course of our time there we spoke on five occasions before the Human Rights Commission about the situation in Cuba providing updates as events transpired.

On April 3, 2003 in the midst of the summary trials both of us addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission on the agenda item "Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world"and summaries remain part of the official record:

JOHN SUAREZ, of Christian Democrat International, said that in recent days the Cuban Government had carried out one of its largest crackdowns ever against democratic opposition in Cuba. Homes were ransacked, books and computers confiscated and about 48 activists were arrested. During 2002 the number of assaults and arrests against independent journalists and human rights activists in Cuba had increased considerably. Taking advantage of the fact that the international community was primarily focused on the outbreak of war in Iraq, Cuban authorities had arrested dozens of non-violent activists in the past two weeks.

There were hundreds of political prisoners in Cuba. These defenders of human rights were systematically denied medical and religious attention and were held in provinces far from their places of residence.

JANNET RIVERO, of Liberal International, said the President of Liberation International had recently made an urgent appeal for the immediate release of dozens of human rights activists arrested in Cuba. During 2002, nearly 30 activists had been arrested and many were still in prison, not yet having been tried. Also during 2002, dozens of independent journalists had been arrested or fined for exercising their rights to inform and be informed freely. And more than 180 elementary, high school and college professors had been fired from their jobs or prevented from teaching for not responding unconditionally to the ideas and political campaigns of the Government. University students, meanwhile, had been expelled for signing a citizen initiative seeking the restoration of fundamental rights.

 On April 9, 2003 in the general debate on civil and political rights both of us again took the floor and in addition to the plight of the group of the 75 addressed the fate of other nonviolent activists:

JANNET RIVERO, of Liberal International, said attention must be paid to the policy of the Cuban Government of detaining political prisoners.  Some had been unjustly held for years, and recently there had been a wave of new repression against those advocating for human rights and democracy.  The repressive policy of Cuba had not stopped since 1959 and was aimed at keeping people from enjoying their civil and political rights.

Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez had been a prisoner of conscience for 15 years.  Liberal International pointed out that a Government that denied civil and political rights to its citizens was not a legitimate Government.  Liberal International called for the Cuban Government's repression of the Cuban people to cease.

JOHN SUAREZ, of Christian Democratic International, said that more than 100 human rights activists had suffered searches, arrests and expedited trials in Cuba.  Many had already been condemned to sentences of up to 26 years in prison for defending civil and political rights in the country.  On 7 April 2003, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was tried without due process and today was facing up to 25 years in prison for defending human rights in Cuba.  In Cuban prisons, political prisoners were denied medical assistance as a form of punishment for upholding their ideas.  Highly dangerous criminals were used by State Security to attack imprisoned activities, as was the case of Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, a young activist whose jaw was broken in three parts, and who was severely beaten on three more occasions before being taken to the hospital.

 We continued to provide information and speak out at the United Nations Human Rights Commission and would continue do the same at the United Nations Human Rights Council that replaced it. More importantly, at the beginning we spoke for those who could not speak but as the years passed their families were able to speak out in Geneva addressing the countries of the world demanding their loved ones release, and eventually some of the former prisoners of conscience  themselves forcibly exiled would address the United Nations Human Rights Council such as Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina in 2012.

Below Blanca Gonzalez, a Lady in White, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2005 on the plight of her son Normando Hernandez.

Unfortunately, in 2013 at the United Nations Human Rights Council and in recent years, the interventions are no longer about only prisoners of conscience, and the torture and mistreatment of nonviolent activists, but their deaths under suspicious circumstances such as in the cases of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura  Pollán and now Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

What changed after 2003 that led the regime in Cuba to release from prison all the human rights defenders imprisoned during the Black Cuban spring?  The question also arises what has changed over the past four years that has led to the rise in the number of deaths of high profile human rights defenders in Cuba?

The formation of the human rights movement, the Ladies in White in March of 2003 led by capable women such as Laura  Pollán and Berta Soler who week in and week out challenged the repressive forces on the island with nonviolent civic resistance. Women marching with flowers, gladioli, through the streets of Havana demanding their loved ones freedom and the freedom of all political prisoners.  International human rights organizations played a crucial role in investigating and confirming that these activists were indeed prisoners of conscience.

International Committee for Democracy in Cuba

At the same time an international campaign led by members of parliament and former heads of state that petitioned and lobbied the Cuban government to release its prisoners of conscience made a great impact. The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba , an initiative proposed by Václav Havel, was formed in September of 2003 in response to the crackdown. All these factors combined with the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010 and rising violence against the Ladies in White by the regime and its failure to crush their nonviolent protests forced the regime to the negotiating table, but it had one more trick up its sleeve. Instead of directly meeting with the Ladies in White, thus being forced to recognize the nonviolent opposition movement, it sought the Catholic Church - not as a mediator between two opposing sides, as I'd first hoped - but the side the regime would negotiate with. This placed the Cuban Church in the unenviable task of taking the results of that conversation and call to the prisoners and their families and explain the regime's terms.

The release of the prisoners led to the international community lowering its guard and the dismantling of the committees whose sole objective the freedom of the group of the 75 had been achieved. This combined with a number of other factors led the Cuban regime to believe that it could literally get away with murder if it was done in a discrete matter. Despite the international attention and outrage over the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo other deaths failed to spark the same level of outcry and their frequency began to increase. Reaching into higher echelons of the opposition leadership, and until now reaching its culmination in the deaths of  Laura  Pollán and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

However it appears that the regime underestimated the Payá family's courage and persistence when making their calculations and there is now an international campaign underway to learn the truth and pursue justice, not revenge.

Both Oswaldo and Laura were not satisfied with a fraudulent change that would maintain the regime intact while granting it international legitimacy which would mean more money and credits that it needs to continue.

There are great challenges before the opposition but one of the lessons of the Cuban Black Spring and the decade that followed is that with courage, persistence and international solidarity even a brutal totalitarian dictatorship can be pressured into releasing all of its prisoners of conscience.

Unfortunately, failing to maintain the vigilance and the pressure only means that they were replaced by new ones and that the regime will retaliate and eliminate those it considers a threat when international vigilance is on the wane.

The good news is that seventeen years later Regis Iglesias, one of the prisoners of conscience of the Black Cuban Spring doesn't need me to speak for him at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The bad news is that he needs to be there addressing the extrajudicial killings of his friends Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante.

XII Anniversary: The Black Cuban Spring

Remembering the Black Cuban Spring

Twelve years ago today the Castro regime engaged in a nationwide crackdown on opposition activists followed by show trials and long prison sentences of up to 28 years for their nonviolent defense of human rights and freedoms. This was in reaction to 11,020 Cubans signing the Varela Project and demanding a referendum on human rights reforms. Alfredo Felipe Fuentes in a 2010 interview with Reporters Without Borders explained:

 Of the 75 arrested, nearly 50 were people who had were of importance in the Varela Project. Although not all were in the "hard core", I mean among those who, like me, were responsible for the collection of signatures. The majority were actively involved. The 25 others were arrested to disguise that it was an operation against the national civic project.

The above image was posted over twitter by Regis Iglesias, one of the prisoners of conscience of the Cuban Black Spring and the spokesman of the Christian Liberation Movement in Europe. Today over Facebook he made the reflection:

The 2003 crackdown has not ended, from the first kidnapping on March 18th, passing through the years of prison, exile, and the sword of damocles hanging over those who stayed in the island under an extra-penal license", the "natural" or provoked deaths of Miguel Valdes, Orlando Zapata, Laura Pollan, Antonio Villareal, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero, the lack of rights of the people that in the spring of 2002 was supported in the Varela project, only confirms one thing ( and were not inventing anything new): only the continuing demand of the recognition of popular sovereignty and the vote of Cubans for their rights barred by the terror regime that for than half a century we have suffered. Free Elections with guarantees, in atmosphere of respect and plurality. Now!!!

The dictatorship thought it had ended the democratic opposition but instead the Black Spring led to the formation of a new movement: The Ladies in White. Below is a documentary filmed before, during and after the crackdown that began on March 18, 2003.

Cuba's Black Spring Ten Years Later: A look back

With Former Prisoner of Conscience Regis Iglesias at the UNHRC in 2013

There are days that one will never forget. Days that one remembers where they were when the phone call arrived and the news broke, but on March 18, 2003 began a month that I'll never forget. The calls began arriving at the Cuban Democratic Directorate from all over Cuba that human rights defenders and independent journalists were being rounded up and their homes searched by Cuban State Security agents. Over a span of 48 hours 75 activists who would become known as "the group of the 75" were rounded up and jailed.

Eleven days later would find me along with Jannet Rivero at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland and for both of us it was our first time there. Over the previous five years Janisset Rivero had represented the Cuban Democratic Directorate at the Commission. She prepared us and guided us around all the bureaucratic pitfalls. Our objective was to denounce the crackdown while relaying as much information as possible to human rights experts that wanted to know what was taking place. The detentions had taken place between March 18 and 19 but it was not until April 1, 2003 that relatives were notified of the summary trials that were held April 3 – 7, 2003 and the draconian prison sentences issued by the regime.

Reports circulated that prosecutors were requesting death penalties for some of the group of the 75. The death penalty had in fact been requested for both Jesús Mustafá Felipe and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

At the same time another event transpired that demonstrated the willingness of the Castro regime to kill. On April 2, 2003 a ferry with 40 people on board going from Havana to Regla was hijacked by 11 Cubans who wanted to take it to the United States of America., but ran out of fuel 45 kilometers from the Cuban coastline.

The hijackers threatened to harm the passengers if there demands to flee Cuba were not met. However, the situation ended without violence and the regime in an official note announced that “all of those who had been on board were rescued and saved without so much as a shot or a scratch.”

The hijackers underwent summary trials between April 5 – 8, 2003 and three of them Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García, and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac, were sentenced to death and executed on April 11,2003.

The threat of death penalties being applied against the nonviolent activists and the summary nature with which the dictatorship would carry out the unjust sentence created a level of anxiety and pressure on all of us both in Geneva and in Miami working to relay the information as quickly and accurately as possible while seeking out press coverage and solidarity from others in order to pressure the dictatorship into not carrying out its threats. Over the course of our time there we spoke on five occasions before the Human Rights Commission about the situation in Cuba providing updates as events transpired.

On April 3, 2003 in the midst of the summary trials both of us addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission on the agenda item "Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world"and summaries remain part of the official record:

JOHN SUAREZ, of Christian Democrat International, said that in recent days the Cuban Government had carried out one of its largest crackdowns ever against democratic opposition in Cuba. Homes were ransacked, books and computers confiscated and about 48 activists were arrested. During 2002 the number of assaults and arrests against independent journalists and human rights activists in Cuba had increased considerably. Taking advantage of the fact that the international community was primarily focused on the outbreak of war in Iraq, Cuban authorities had arrested dozens of non-violent activists in the past two weeks.

There were hundreds of political prisoners in Cuba. These defenders of human rights were systematically denied medical and religious attention and were held in provinces far from their places of residence.

JANNET RIVERO, of Liberal International, said the President of Liberation International had recently made an urgent appeal for the immediate release of dozens of human rights activists arrested in Cuba. During 2002, nearly 30 activists had been arrested and many were still in prison, not yet having been tried. Also during 2002, dozens of independent journalists had been arrested or fined for exercising their rights to inform and be informed freely. And more than 180 elementary, high school and college professors had been fired from their jobs or prevented from teaching for not responding unconditionally to the ideas and political campaigns of the Government. University students, meanwhile, had been expelled for signing a citizen initiative seeking the restoration of fundamental rights.

 On April 9, 2003 in the general debate on civil and political rights both of us again took the floor and in addition to the plight of the group of the 75 addressed the fate of other nonviolent activists:

JANNET RIVERO, of Liberal International, said attention must be paid to the policy of the Cuban Government of detaining political prisoners.  Some had been unjustly held for years, and recently there had been a wave of new repression against those advocating for human rights and democracy.  The repressive policy of Cuba had not stopped since 1959 and was aimed at keeping people from enjoying their civil and political rights.

Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez had been a prisoner of conscience for 15 years.  Liberal International pointed out that a Government that denied civil and political rights to its citizens was not a legitimate Government.  Liberal International called for the Cuban Government's repression of the Cuban people to cease.

JOHN SUAREZ, of Christian Democratic International, said that more than 100 human rights activists had suffered searches, arrests and expedited trials in Cuba.  Many had already been condemned to sentences of up to 26 years in prison for defending civil and political rights in the country.  On 7 April 2003, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was tried without due process and today was facing up to 25 years in prison for defending human rights in Cuba.  In Cuban prisons, political prisoners were denied medical assistance as a form of punishment for upholding their ideas.  Highly dangerous criminals were used by State Security to attack imprisoned activities, as was the case of Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, a young activist whose jaw was broken in three parts, and who was severely beaten on three more occasions before being taken to the hospital.

 We continued to provide information and speak out at the United Nations Human Rights Commission and would continue do the same at the United Nations Human Rights Council that replaced it. More importantly, at the beginning we spoke for those who could not speak but as the years passed their families were able to speak out in Geneva addressing the countries of the world demanding their loved ones release, and eventually some of the former prisoners of conscience  themselves forcibly exiled would address the United Nations Human Rights Council such as Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina in 2012. Below Blanca Gonzalez, a Lady in White, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2005 on the plight of her son Normando Hernandez.

Unfortunately, in 2013 at the United Nations Human Rights Council and in recent years, the interventions are no longer about only prisoners of conscience, and the torture and mistreatment of nonviolent activists, but their deaths under suspicious circumstances such as in the cases of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura  Pollán and now Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.


What changed after 2003 that led the regime in Cuba to release from prison all the human rights defenders imprisoned during the Black Cuban spring?  The question also arises what has changed over the past four years that has led to the rise in the number of deaths of high profile human rights defenders in Cuba?

The formation of the human rights movement, the Ladies in White in March of 2003 led by capable women such as Laura  Pollán and Berta Soler who week in and week out challenged the repressive forces on the island with nonviolent civic resistance. Women marching with flowers, gladioluses, through the streets of Havana demanding their loved ones freedom and the freedom of all political prisoners.  International human rights organizations played a crucial role in investigating and confirming that these activists were indeed prisoners of conscience.

International Committee for Democracy in Cuba

At the same time an international campaign led by members of parliament and former heads of state that petitioned and lobbied the Cuban government to release its prisoners of conscience made a great impact. The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba , an initiative proposed by Václav Havel, was formed in September of 2003 in response to the crackdown. All these factors combined with the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010 and rising violence against the Ladies in White by the regime and its failure to crush their nonviolent protests forced the regime to the negotiating table, but it had one more trick up its sleeve. Instead of directly meeting with the Ladies in White, thus being forced to recognize the nonviolent opposition movement, it sought the Catholic Church - not as a mediator between two opposing sides, as I'd first hoped - but the side the regime would negotiate with. This placed the Cuban Church in the unenviable task of taking the results of that conversation and call to the prisoners and their families and explain the regime's terms.

The release of the prisoners led to the international community lowering its guard and the dismantling of the committees whose sole objective the freedom of the group of the 75 had been achieved. This combined with a number of other factors led the Cuban regime to believe that it could literally get away with murder if it was done in a discrete matter. Despite the international attention and outrage over the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo other deaths failed to spark the same level of outcry and their frequency began to increase. Reaching into higher echelons of the opposition leadership, and until now reaching its culmination in the deaths of  Laura  Pollán and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

However it appears that the regime underestimated the Payá family's courage and persistence when making their calculations and there is now an international campaign underway to learn the truth and pursue justice, not revenge.

Both Oswaldo and Laura were not satisfied with a fraudulent change that would maintain the regime intact while granting it international legitimacy which would mean more money and credits that it needs to continue.

There are great challenges before the opposition but one of the lessons of the Cuban Black Spring and the decade that followed is that with courage, persistence and international solidarity even a brutal totalitarian dictatorship can be pressured into releasing all of its prisoners of conscience.

Unfortunately, failing to maintain the vigilance and the pressure only means that they were replaced by new ones and that the regime will retaliate and eliminate those it considers a threat when international vigilance is on the wane.

The good news is that ten years later Regis Iglesias, one of the prisoners of conscience of the Black Cuban Spring doesn't need me to speak for him at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The bad news is that he needs to be there addressing the extrajudicial killings of his friends Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante.

Amnesty International Statement on Black Cuban Spring 10th Anniversary

AI Index: AMR 25/003/2013
15 March 2013

10 years on from crackdown on dissidence, fundamental freedoms still lacking in Cuba

On 18 March 2003, a group of 75 political dissidents were detained across Cuba in an unprecedented crackdown on spurious charges related to state security and, following summary trials, they were sentenced to long prison terms of up to 28 years.

They were subsequently declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International as they had been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of fundamental freedoms.

In July 2010, following the intervention of the Cuban Catholic Church, the Cuban authorities agreed to release those of the 75 who remained in prison. However, the majority of them were forced into exile in Spain.

Those who refused to leave Cuba were kept in prison until early 2011. Although they were allowed to remain on the island their release was conditional - their prison sentences hang over them even though they are no longer confined.

Their release has not heralded a change in human rights policy in Cuba. The authorities remain determined to contain government critics with new tactics, including intimidation, harassment, multiple short-term detentions and restrictions on movement to stop them from carrying out their activities or as retaliation.

In spite of recent changes to the migration law which makes travel abroad easier for Cubans, the Cuban government continues to maintain a swathe of laws aimed at preventing political dissidents and human rights defenders from exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly Amnesty International has been monitoring the human rights situation in Cuba for decades.

Experts from the organization are available to comment on the 10th anniversary of the crackdown and the current human rights situation on the island. We can also facilitate contact with former Cuban prisoners of conscience who were detained in March 2003’s crackdown on political dissidence.

For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Juan I. Cortes - Press Officer for the Americas
Email: JuanIgnacio.Cortes@amnesty.org
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 3036 5801
Mobile: +44 (0) 7956 612 329

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR25/003/2013/en

Nine years later: Another Cuban Black Spring?

Nine years to the day after major March 18 crackdown on nonviolent activists 70 Cuban women arrested including Cuban human rights leader Berta Soler (pictured below)

Berta Soler

The ninth anniversary of the Cuban Black Spring providentially fell on a Sunday just 8 days before Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in Cuba on March 26. Today, approximately 70 members of the Ladies in White were arrested by the Castro regime and taken away. A majority of the 70 women were detained while trying to attend Mass.

The Cuban Spring: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3


The Ladies in White and the Cuban Black Spring

In March of 2003 following a crackdown on nonviolent opposition activists, known as the "Black Spring", their wives, mothers, and sisters formed the Ladies in White and begin their weekly Sunday pilgrimages to attend Mass and march through the streets of Cuba demanding their loved ones freedom. The women would suffer harassment, beatings and detentions over the next nine years.

Many of the activists who had been unjustly imprisoned had been organizers of nationwide petition drive called the Varela Project , named after Father Felix Varela, that sought legal and constitutional reforms to bring the Cuban regime in line with international human rights norms.



Today, nine years later thanks to the sacrifice of the Ladies in White the men unjustly imprisoned in 2003 are no longer in prison. Most of them were forced into exile while a small number remain on the island. The founder of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollán, died under mysterious circumstances on October 14, 2011. The new head of the Ladies in White "Laura Pollán" , Berta Soler was arrested today and remains detained tonight. They continue to demand the release of the remaining political prisoners in Cuba and that human rights be respected.

Elements within the Catholic Church in Cuba have been accused of not defending human rights on the island and on occasion siding with those in power there or ignoring evils perpetrated by the regime which has led to frustration in some opposition circles.

Hopefully, in addition to his important pastoral message, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will address the importance of human rights as he did on April 18, 2008 in his address to the United Nations General Assembly:

Human rights are increasingly being presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of international relations. At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity. It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those rights.

Catholic layman and Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya tweeted today that the "arrests and mistreatment of the Ladies in White were part of the regime's maneuvers in its murky preparation of the Pope's Cuba visit." Hopefully the arrest of 70 nonviolent women attempting to attend Mass and march peacefully through the streets of Cuba on the ninth anniversary of the crackdown that brought the Ladies in White into existence will serve as a bright beacon for all observing the situation in Cuba.

Cuba: A place where asking questions can lead you to prison

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." -Rosa Parks

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

Update #3: SOS from Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" on twitter on June 16, 2011: Regime police brutally beat Yris in the head a few days ago. She has not recovered. Needs protection and a medical doctor urgently. Guillermo Fariñas Hernández on twitter today reported: "State Security prevented Antunez from taking his wife, recently hit in the head, for a medical consultation to a hospital in Havana."

Update #2: SOS from Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" on twitter on Saturday May 28, 2011 : "Yris my wife with headaches and numbness in right cheek. I hold Castro brothers responsible for what happens to Yris as a result of police brutality she suffered. What was Yris's crime? Go outside peacefully to the streets with clothes inside out in protest? Caridad Caballero Batista, whereabouts continue to be unknown. We fear for her life."

Update: Yris is accounted for and back with her family as of Friday, May 27, 2011. Bloodied, bruised and disoriented from the beating suffered at the hand of Cuban state security but thankfully alive according to an early afternoon tweet from her husband.

In Cuba, marching nonviolently to remember victims of the dictatorship such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Pedro Luis Boitel can have dire consequences even for a mother. Scores of Cuban human rights defenders and activists were detained, roughed up, and in at least one case both their whereabouts and health status remain unknown.

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, heads the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights, a human rights movement in Cuba, named after Rosa Parks. She's suffered repression at the hands of the dictatorship before when she spoke out on behalf of a young man abused by the police and was the victim of racial epithets hurled at her by regime officials. There is a case to be made that the regime in Cuba has issues with racism.

Her husband, arrested along with her and still detained (but his location and health status are known) is Jorge Luis García Pérez, an opposition leader in the locality of Placetas, who was imprisoned on March 15, 1990 for "oral enemy propaganda" when he spoke out in favor of Eastern European style reforms in Cuba. García Pérez, known as "Antunez", was finally released more than 17 years later on April 22, 2007, having served one of the longest sentences for the present generation of political prisoners on the island. While in prison he founded along with others, an organization called the Pedro Luis Boitel Political Prisoner’s Movement. In November of 2009 he founded the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front.adding the name after the Front's founding in honor of a prisoner of conscience who died on hunger strike on February 23, 2010.

A violent assault

A State Security agent who goes by the nickname “ the weightlifter” on the morning of May 25, 2011 at the end of an activity in remembrance of both Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Pedro Luis Boitel beat up Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera so badly that according to Cuban activist, Donaida Pérez Paseiro, she lost consciousness and when Yris came to she was suffering from nausea, a headache, dizziness and her hands were numb. She was arrested and jailed then taken to the hospital only to be returned to a cell but here whereabouts have been unaccounted for since then.

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera and her husband, Jorge Luis García Pérez

When activists Donaida Pérez Paseiro and Yaimara Reyes Mesa went to the General Hospital in Placetas to ask about Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera's condition following the beating and loss of consciousness the two activists were arrested, beaten and held until 11pm on the evening of May 25th when they were released. They said that at that moment they saw a handcuffed Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera in a patrol car. Since then her whereabouts are unknown and neither friends nor family have seen her or learned about her location when questioning the authorities.

More arrests

Today, activists were detained as they walked towards State Security headquarters to try and find out the whereabouts of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera and what had been done to the young activist as well as to request the release of all the detained activists. The march was led by Librado Linares, one of the prisoners of conscience released this past spring after more than 7 years in prison, who was the one designated to speak to the State Security agents representing the group. Víctor Castillo Ortega, José Lino Ascencio López, Mayda Conlledo García, Yanisbel Valido Pérez, Alberto Reyes Morales, Michel Oliva López, Félix Reyes Gutiérrez, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (the 2011 Sakharov Prize winner), Guillermo Del Sol Pérez, Ana Alfonso Arteaga, Chichi Bernal Serpa and Librado Linares García were all arrested and at this hour remain in detention.

Video above is from a February 2011 arrest of Yris

This is not the first time that state security agents have beaten up women exercising their freedom of expression. For example Sonia Garro and Mercedes Fresneda on October 7, 2010 marching with a banner that read "Down With Racism & Long Live Human Rights" were detained by police and badly beaten. According to Garro and Fresneda they were detained at the police station for seven hours where they were beaten. Sonia Garro suffered a fracture of the nasal septum and Mercedes Fresneda a broken left wrist among other injuries according to the EFE newswire.

However, this time it seems to be a coordinated effort to terrorize and repress at all levels. Today, Marcos Maikel (age 33) and Antonio Michel Lima Cruz (age 28), were sentenced to three and two years in prison (respectively) for "disrespect of patriotic symbols."

A slow motion crackdown

There is slow motion crackdown underway in Cuba. Some questions that arise: How long are the detentions and prison sentences and how violent are the Cuban State Security beat downs of nonviolent activists going to be? The death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia three days after a beat down by the political police of the Cuban dictatorship along with beat downs of Angel Moya Acosta and Sara Marta Fonseca indicate this is policy, not an isolated incident by over enthusiastic police.

In Cuba asking these questions and requesting the freedom of innocent nonviolent activists can get you arrested and beaten up. Celebrate the courage of those willing to risk all for their fellow citizens and at the same time living in the free world please take a moment and speak out for them.

What better way to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of Amnesty International?

8th Anniversary of the Black Cuban Spring

The high price of a Cuban Education


Eight years ago on March 18, 2003 the dictatorship in Cuba began a massive crackdown rounding up leaders of Cuba's civic society in an operation which it claimed would destroy the Cuban democratic opposition. Seventy five of these opposition leaders were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences and declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.



Instead it led to worldwide condemnation of the regime, and the emergence of the Cuban Ladies in White, a group of women dedicated to obtaining the release of their unjustly imprisoned husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. Eight years later all but two of the group of the 75 remain in prison: Felix Navarro and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.















Sadly, that does not mean things have gotten better. Scores of political prisoners remain imprisoned and new ones await show trials in the days that follow. In addition the Castro regime organized rent a mobs to harass and assault the Ladies in White eight years to the day of their loved ones' detentions and unjust imprisonments in what became known as the Black Spring. Activists were detained prior to and on the morning of March 18 to avoid having them carry out activities of remembrance on this day. For example, Yoani Sanchez reported various detentions in the early morning hours, among them Cuban blogger Katia Sonia who had been detained at 5:00am as she attempted to reach the home of Laura Pollan, one of the leaders of the Cuban Ladies in White. Laura Pollan's home had been surrounded by State Security to arrest anyone trying to reach her home.

Laura Pollan, leader of the Ladies in White, flashes an L for liberty
Photo by: Adalberto Roque, AFP, Getty Images, Reuters

Although last year's observance was marked by violence carried out by rapid response brigades and State Security agents this year was particularly poignant because the world learned in real time that the dictatorship obligated university students to participate in the act of repudiation. Education is not free in Cuba and in some ways is the most expensive in the world. What price do you place on your dignity or your soul?

Castro rent-a-mob harassing Ladies in White

At 11:02am on March 18, 2011 the dictatorship organized a rent-a-mob of students from the CUJAE to carry out an attack on the Ladies in White in a so-called "act of repudiation." According to Yoani Sanchez, the CUJAE is the university of specialties in engineering and the students are frequently used as shock troops. She concludes tweeting that "the university in Cuba is not really free, you pay with the currency of ideological submission, and being turned into shock troops.

Human Rights Watch in their November 18, 2009 report New Castro, Same Cuba described the state of fear:

Fear of repression shapes behavior, pressuring Cubans to participate in pro-government activities and discouraging them from voicing dissent or participating in activities that may be perceived as “counterrevolutionary.” Individuals who express unpopular political views live in constant fear of being harassed, beaten, or arrested.

In addition students that do not go along with regime activities are expelled from university. If you want to complete your university education then when you are told to harass and assault the Ladies in White you have a choice to make. Expulsion from university and identification as a dissenter that will also place your family under a microscope by State Security that may open them to rent-a-mobs visiting their home.

A day later, on Saturday March 19, 2011 the rent-a-mobs returned to Laura Pollan's home and continued to harass these courageous Cuban women.

Either way it is a high price to pay for an education.

Amnesty International: Repression of Cuban dissidents persists despite releases

16 March 2011

The Cuban authorities are continuing to stifle freedom of expression on the island in spite of the much-publicized recent wave of releases of prominent dissidents, Amnesty International warned ahead of the eighth anniversary of a crackdown on activists.

Hundreds of pro-democracy activists have suffered harassment, intimidation and arbitrary arrest in recent weeks as the Cuban government employs new tactics to stamp out dissent.

Of 75 activists arrested in a crackdown around 18 March 2003, only three remain in jail after 50 releases since last June, with most of the freed activists currently exiled in Spain. Amnesty International has called for the remaining prisoners to be released immediately and unconditionally.

"The release of those detained in the 2003 crackdown is a hugely positive step but it tells only one side of the story facing Cuban human rights activists," said Gerardo Ducos, Cuba researcher at Amnesty International.

"Those living on the island are still being targeted for their work, especially through short-term detentions, while repressive laws give the Cuban authorities a free rein to punish anyone who criticizes them.”

"Meanwhile, three of the prisoners detained eight years ago still languish in prison and must be freed immediately."

In one recent crackdown the authorities detained over one hundred people in one day in a pre-emptive strike designed to stop activists marking the death of activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died following a prolonged hunger strike while in detention.

On 23 February, the one-year anniversary of Tamayo's death, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, the authorities placed over 50 people under house arrest before freeing them hours later.

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina
Prisoner of Conscience

Activist Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, was recently named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International after being detained without trial for over three months.

The president of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy was arrested after organizing an activists' meeting inside his own home.

"Cubans are still at the mercy of draconian laws that class activism as a crime and anyone who dares to criticise the authorities is at risk of detention," said Gerardo Ducos.

"In addition to releasing long-term prisoners of conscience, to properly realize freedom of expression the Cuban government also has to change its laws."

Seventy-five people were jailed in a massive crackdown against the dissident movement around 18 March 2003 for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression. Most of them were charged with crimes including “acts against the independence of the state” because they allegedly received funds and/or materials from US-based NGOs financed by the US government.

They were sentenced to between six and 28 years in prison after speedy and unfair trials for engaging in activities the authorities perceived as subversive and damaging to Cuba.

These activities included publishing articles or giving interviews to US-funded media, communicating with international human rights organizations and having contact with entities or individuals viewed to be hostile to Cuba.

Read More

Cuba must release prisoner of conscience on hunger strike (News story, 11 March 2011)
Cuba urged to release jailed activists (News story, 7 February 2011)

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/repression-cuban-dissidents-persists-despite-releases-2011-03-16

On treatment of Cuban prisoners of conscience the regime in Cuba remains the same

"The [Cuban regime] simply wants to give the world the impression that things are changing. But in reality, while the laws that put dissidents in prison remain, we cannot talk about real changes." Laura Pollan, spokeswoman for Cuban Ladies in White


The Cuban dictatorship's self-imposed four month deadline to release all the prisoners of conscience arrested and imprisoned to unjust prison terms during the March 2003 crackdown that has become known as the Black Cuban Spring came and went six days ago on November 7, 2010.

There are thirteen prisoners of conscience from the group of 75 still in prison and coincidentally they all want to stay in Cuba and not abandon their homeland. According to Lady in White spokeswoman Laura Pollan, despite an October 23, 2010 statement by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at the United Nations alongside Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stating that those that wanted to stay in Cuba would be released on October 25, 2010 they still remain imprisoned. Another prisoner of conscience (although mistakenly not recognized by Amnesty International) is Rafael Ibarra Roque unjustly imprisoned since June 17, 1994 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, of which he has already served 16, refused to be deported to Spain in exchange of not having to serve out the remaining 4 years of his prison sentence.

The spokeswoman of the Cuban Ladies in White, Laura Pollan, whose husband Hector Maseda is one of the 13 refusing to go into exile and still imprisoned, in a video produced by the New York based Human Rights Foundation offers a thorough analysis of the situation.



At the same time as the prisoners of conscience who wanted to stay are denied their freedom; the mother of the murdered Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Reina Luisa Tamayo, is made an offer to go into exile with her family. This offer is followed up with an intensification of harassment and physical violence against Reina and her family.

The Cuban dictatorship's gambit is to force the opposition leadership and their families into exile using both violence and prison combined with the option of exile as leverage to bring massive pressure to bear down on these Cubans who desire to continue their efforts in Cuba to defend human rights and advocate for a democratic transition. It is a Machiavellian maneuver worthy of Fidel Castro. Raul Castro's actions are a carbon copy of his brother's using innocent human beings as bargaining chips to maintain the family business afloat: totalitarian despotism.

With all apologies to The Who: the New boss same as the old boss.

Cubans on the island know this and the courageous women in the Ladies in White, despite brutal repression reminiscent of that suffered by German women decades earlier in 1943 at Rosenstrasse, against all odds have continued to march and demand their loved one's freedom since March 2003. The regime tried to use brute violence in March-April of 2010 and failed. This combined with the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010 forced them to negotiate with the Ladies in White using the Catholic Church as a mediator. Something the regime never wanted to do. Now they are confronted with the unexpected: 14 men willing to defy the regime's blackmail opting to remain under brutal prison conditions rather than go into exile. Months have already passed and they have stood firm. Their civic defiance is heroic.

Now with the regime's own deadline not having been met and one of the 13, Diosdado Marrero, preparing to go on a hunger strike and the opposition planning to step up protests in the streets to demand the prisoners' freedom the regime's pressure is countered. In addition the Ladies in White have asked Pope Benedict XVI to "press Havana for the release of 13 prisoners." Within hours of Diosdado Marrero announcing that he had started the hunger strike a state security agent visited him and told Diosdado that the 13 would be freed within 15 days to a month. With the positive response he ended the strike. Only time, and international attention and solidarity, will determine how all of this will turn out.

Tribute to Cuba's Ladies in White as they walk on for freedom

They can either kills us, put us in jail or release them. We will never stop marching no matter what happens. - Laura Pollán, Lady in White, Cuba March 2010



A tribute to Cuba's Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) and their husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons imprisoned for exercising their fundamental human rights. Most of the prisoners of conscience pictured in the video have been imprisoned since the Cuban Black Spring which began on March 18, 2003 over 7 years ago.

Black Spring Prisoners Who Remain in Prison:

Pedro Argüelles Morán, Victor Arroyo Carmona, Mijail Bárzaga Lugo, Oscar Elias Biscet, Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, Antonio Díaz Sánchez, Eduardo Diaz Fleitas, Alfredo Domínguez Batista, Adolfo Fernández Saínz, Efren Fernández Fernández, José Ferrer García, Luis Ferrer García, Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, Próspero Gaínza Agüero, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, Julio Gálvez Rodríguez, José García Paneque, Diosdado González Marrero, Jorge González Tanquero, Lester González Pentón, Ricardo González Alfonso, Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, Iván Hernández Carrillo, Normando Hernández González, Juan Herrera Acosta, Régis Iglesias Ramírez, José Izquierdo Hernández, Librado Linares García, José Martínez Hernández, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Luis Milán Fernández, Nelson Molinet Espino, Angel Moya Acosta, Jesús Felipe Mustafá, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, Horacio Piña Borrego, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Alfredo Pulido López, Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique, Blas Reyes Rodríguez, Alexis Rodríguez Fernández, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Omar Ruíz Hernández, Claro Sánchez Altarriba, Ariel Sigler Amaya, Guido Sigler Amaya, Ricardo Silva Gual, Fidel Suarez Cruz, Manuel Ubals González, Héctor Valle Hernández, Antonio Villarreal Acosta.

Amnesty International remembers and honors Pablo Pacheco Avila

Cuban prisoner of conscience Pablo Pacheco Avila in 2009 won the Amnesty International special award for journalism under threat. He was arrested during the Cuban Black Spring of March 2003. Below is a brief Amnesty International video about Pablo.



As I write these words in a small Church in Cuba the Ladies in White and a group of Cuban bloggers are gathered to pay their respects for Cuba's prisoners of conscience and outside State Security and a mob of government agents have surrounded the Church.

They are in my thoughts and prayers