Warned UNHRC in 2014 that Venezuela would spiral out of control and that it required their attention

 "These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control." - John Suarez to the UN Human Rights Council 9/15/14 

Venezuela under Maduro's regime on May 18, 2016

What is happening now in Venezuela could be foreseen, but the world chose not to act. On September 15, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council  under Item 4 on the agenda I read a statement ( 1 hour 33 minutes and 59 seconds) that made the case that the failure to address human rights issues nonviolently in Syria had ended in disaster and that this would be repeated elsewhere  where human rights are systematically violated. Two examples offered up as future regional disasters where Venezuela and Cuba. Repressive regimes attempted to disrupt the presentation with points of order, but the full statement was eventually read out and is reproduced below.  

Text taken from Directorio Archives

Item 4
United Nations Human Rights Council
September 15, 2014 

We welcome the conclusions of the Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and particularly the observation that what was a “conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, once between the Government and a limited number of anti-Government armed groups, has morphed into multiple shifting conflicts involving countless actors and frontlines,” and we are in complete agreement with the report that “the regional conflagration, of which the commission has long warned, illustrates the fallacy of a military solution.” 

The disaster in Syria did not arise yesterday but is the long term result of the failure to have human rights respected there.

Unfortunately other areas exist that can also unexpectedly erupt into regional disasters. Years of freedom of expression and association being systematically outlawed, arbitrary detentions constant, along with politically motivated beatings, torture and extrajudicial killings lead to destabilizing responses.

The 2012 deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero have not been cleared up. Sonia Garro, a lady in white, remains jailed without trial since 2012 and Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga, a musician, has been jailed for his dissenting views since March 2013. 
Bassil Dacosta, Robert Redman, Génesis Carmona and Geraldine Moreno were the first shot and killed by government agents in their country in 2014.

Since February 12, 2014 forty three youths have been killed while protesting rising insecurity and vanishing rights in their country. Over 5000 have been injured and 3,000 arbitrarily detained. Investigations are needed into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 43 Venezuelan students and Cuba’s Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.

Ms. Garro and Mr. Arzuaga should be freed.

These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control. 

The body count during the normalization of relations in Cuba

“Our Movement denounces the regime's attempt to impose a fraudulent change, i.e. change without rights and the inclusion of many interests in this change that sidesteps democracy and the sovereignty of the people of Cuba.” - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, March 30, 2012

The United States Embassy in Havana

 Cuba is much more than the dictatorship that has oppressed Cubans for 56 years, but in its official dialogue the Obama State Department by excluding Cuban democrats from the official opening of the embassy today confuses the two. Worse yet, the snub to Cuban democrats arises out of a fear that the dictatorship's apparatchiks would not attend. Combine this with Admiral John Kirby, the State Department spokesman  threatening to physically remove Rosa Maria Paya, who had proper accreditation as a member of the press from the State Department press conference with Secretary Kerry and the Castro regime's foreign minister on July 20, 2015 makes the message crystal clear.

Add to this that functionaries at the so-called Cuban embassy closed the entrance so as not to allow a Cuban citizen, Rosa María Payá, to enter and refused to receive her letter requesting the autopsy report for her father, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was killed on July 22, 2012 the nature of this new relationship is clear. The United States is normalizing relations with the Castro dictatorship NOT Cuba.

Sadly, the road leading to this lamentable embrace by the Obama administration of the Castro regime has come at a cost that continues to rise. History will judge this new policy that only postpones national reconciliation and a democratic transition in Cuba poorly while undermining human rights in the Americas.  There is a principled policy of engagement that could be undertaken but this is not it. Cubans in the island and in the diaspora must now redouble their efforts to push for democratic change using nonviolent means. Below is a partial accounting of the Castro regime's body count of high profile human rights defenders killed so far under the Obama administration within a worsening human rights situation in Cuba.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

February 23, 2010

Daisy Talavera de las Mercedes Lopez

January 31, 2011

No photo available

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia 

 May 8, 2011

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo

October 14, 2011

Wilman Villar Mendoza

January 19, 2012 

Sergio Diaz Larrastegui

April 19, 2012 

No photo available

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas

July 22, 2012

Harold Cepero Escalante

July 22, 2012

Partial accounting of the Castro regime's body count of Cubans killed by regime agents during the Obama administration:

Angel Izquierdo Medina

July 15, 2011

No photo available

Diosbel Díaz Bioto

December 16, 2015

Yuriniesky Martínez Reina 

April 9, 2015

Partial accounting of the Castro regime's body count of Venezuelans killed on the orders of their intelligence apparatus in Venezuela during the Obama administration as the country has become a virtual colony of the Cuban dictatorship:

Bassil Alejandro Dacosta
February 12, 2014

Robert Redman

February 12, 2014

Génesis Carmona

February 19, 2014

Geraldine Moreno 

February 22, 2014

Kluiverth Roa 

February 24, 2015

Policy paper shows correlation between US engagement and rising repression in Cuba

The Obama Administration’s Cuba Engagement Policy and Rising Repression


by John Suarez, Cuban Democratic Directorate

“The Cuban people deserve the support of the United States and of an entire region that has committed to promote and defend democracy through the Inter-American Democratic Charter.” – The White House December 17, 2014 

Sirley Ávila León: Holds state security responsible for May 2015 machete attack

Summary:

• Levels of violence and numbers of arbitrary detentions have grown exponentially during the 18 months of secret negotiations between the Castro regime and the Obama administration. 
• Human Rights defenders were victims of brutal, life threatening machete attacks in the same month that secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro dictatorship started. 
• The December 17, 2014 announcement of normalized relations was surrounded by repression, violence and death. 
• There has been an explosion of arbitrary detentions in Cuba, jumping from an average of 550 per month to 742. 
• The Castro regime has been implicated in heightening repression against pro-democracy activists in Venezuela, including extrajudicial killings.

Introduction
Six months ago on December 17, 2014 following eighteen months of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro regime, a new U.S. Cuba policy was announced with great pomp and circumstance by the President to the American people, at the same time that General Raul Castro,wearing his military uniform, addressed the Cuban people. President Obama argued that U.S. isolation of Cuba had failed to achieve its goals of a democratic transition, and that instead it had isolated the United States internationally and reduced its influence in the hemisphere. The aim of this paper is to analyze some of the events that took place during the secret negotiations and what has taken place since the policy was announced in the area of human rights violations.

Background
First, the premise that U.S. policy on Cuba over the past half century had been one of unwavering isolation is inaccurate. President Carter between 1977 and 1980 lifted the travel ban on Cuba*, engaged the Castro regime in a dialogue, both countries opened interests sections creating for all intense purposes de facto embassies that have operated to the present date. In 2000 Bill Clinton, shook hands with Fidel Castro, and opened up sanctions on Cuba that began trade between American companies and the Castro dictatorship in what would reach billions of dollars.

Secondly, during both openings U.S. interests were negatively impacted in the region and internationally. During the Carter administration it coincided with the rise of the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua and raging civil wars across Central America aided and abetted by the Castro regime.

During the Clinton administration the opening to Cuba coincided with the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. In both cases the U.S. policy of engagement with the Castro regime ended up expanding the dictatorship’s influence in the region while limiting that of the United States. The presence of Cuban state security has assisted in the undermining of human rights standards in both countries and needs to be taken into account in any analysis of human rights involving the Castro regime.#

The ‘New’ Policy
President Obama cited the loosening of sanctions that he had carried out in 2009, 2011 and on December 17, 2014. Concretely this new policy would involve re-establishing diplomatic relations, facilitating an expansion of travel to Cuba and make improvements on existing regulations to empower the Cuban people. Not mentioned was the commutation of the sentences of three Cuban spies, long demanded by the Castro regime, in exchange for Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen in what amounted to a hostage for terrorists swap. One of the spies, Gerardo Hernandez was serving a double life sentence, one of them for conspiracy to murder three U.S. citizens and a resident on February 24, 1996 in an act of international terrorism.

On April 10, 2015, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro shook hands at the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama. They met and gave a joint statement the following day. Meanwhile the President remained silent on violence and harassment against activists by Cuban state security agents during the Summit and only met with two Cuban dissidents, who support his policies, in a closed meeting. On May 29, 2015, despite evidence that the Castro regime was still engaged in sponsoring terrorism, the State Department removed Cuba from the list of terror sponsors.

Sadly, the stated position of the Obama administration to hold “a critical focus” that “will include continued strong support by the United States for improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms in Cuba” seems not to be a priority in the ongoing discussions and increased engagement between the two countries. Removing Cuba from the list of terror sponsors closes off an avenue that victims had to obtain justice in U.S. Courts.

Consequences of the Obama Cuba Policy on Cubans
In Cuba, since the announcement of the normalization of relations between the United States and the Castro dictatorship, which occurred on December 17, 2014, repression against human rights activists and people in general continues. Not to mention that the levels of violence and numbers of arbitrary detentions, during the prior 18 months of secret negotiations between the Castro regime and the Obama administration, grew exponentially starting in June of 2013.

Machete Attacks
Human rights defenders were victims of brutal and life threatening machete attacks in the same month that the secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro dictatorship started. On June 8, 2013 in Holguin, Cuba Werlando Leiva of the Christian Liberation Movement was attacked with a machete on a public street. Later that same month on June 21, 2013 in Camaguey, Orlando Lazaro Gomez Hernandez, a member of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba and of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front stepped out of his house with a sign demonstrating his solidarity with hunger striker Luis Enrique Santos Caballero. Seeing this the president of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an individual known as “Julio” ran out of his home with a machete and started to attack Orlando Lazaro with it, cutting part of his right hand and also striking him on the back. Others in coordination with the CDR president came out as the activist fell to the ground and began to kick him.

Sirley Ávila León, an ex-delegate of the People’s Assembly (Poder Popular) who in 2012 led a battle against the authorities of Las Tunas for a school in her town that led her to join the UNPACU opposition movement was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015. The attack was severe enough that she suffered deep cuts to her neck and knees, lost her left hand and could still lose her right arm. She has still not recovered from her injuries but has been sent home in this critical state. She says that they are trying to be rid of her and that the authorities on several occasions pressured her son (an ex-counterintelligence official) to commit her to a mental hospital arguing that dissenting from the system was insane. Furthermore that various occasions her cows and pigs were attacked with machetes, which she then added “I reaffirm that this is something that was prepared against me for some time.” Ávila is accusing Cuban state security of being behind the attack.

Yuriniesky Martínez with his dad, son, and on (right) how he was found

Extrajudicial killings
The December 17, 2014 announcement of normalized relations was also surrounded by repression, violence and death. Just a day earlier on December 16 the Cuban coastguard ram and sank a boat with 32 refugees, one of them, Diosbel Díaz Bioto, went missing and is presumed dead. The rest were repatriated and detained. Less than four months later Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (age 28) was shot in the back and killed by state security chief Miguel Angel Río Seco Rodríguez in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, Cuba on April 9, 2015 for peacefully trying to leave Cuba. A group of young men were building a boat near Menéndez beach to flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at by state security.

Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez arbitrarily detained since 3/19/10

Arbitrary Detentions
During the Obama presidency there has been an explosion in the number of arbitrary detentions in Cuba with the highest numbers(on average) occurring during the eighteen months that the White House was secretly negotiating with the Castro regime [the number of detentions jumped from an average of 550 a month to 742 detentions a month]. According to Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIHPRESS) there were 8,519 arbitrary detentions registered in 2014 compared to 5,718 in 2013. Addressing this dramatic increase in arbitrary detentions, Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International in their 2015 annual report on Cuba warned, “we have been receiving incredibly worrying reports about a rise in harassment and short-term detentions of dissidents throughout 2014 which has continued in recent weeks. Prisoner releases will be no more than a smokescreen if they are not accompanied by expanded space for the free and peaceful expression of all opinions and other freedoms in Cuba.”

The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional) documented 178 politically motivated arbitrary detentions in January 2015, 492 in February 2015, 610 in March 2015, 338 in April 2015 and 641 in May 2015 in their monthly reports. Reports from opposition activists during the course of March 2015 indicated that hundreds of arbitrary arrests have been carried out as of March 16, 2015. March 1st began with 13 members of the Ladies in White beaten up and arbitrarily detained and later that is the same month 101 UNPACU activists were detained in Santiago, Cuba on March 15, 2015. The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) reported that "[t]he current and palpable uptrend in indiscriminate and often violent political repression against women and men who are only intending to exercise basic civil and political rights in a completely peaceful way continues to be alarming."

Antonio Rodiles attacked by State Security July 5, 2015

The news agency EFE reported that CCDHRN also denounced that in May 88 peaceful opposition figures were victims of physical attacks, vandalism, harassment and "acts of repudiation" attributable to the secret political police or State Security. On July 5, 2015 Antonio Rodiles was severely beaten on his way to the weekly Sunday march in Havana organized by the Ladies in White to demand the release of Cuban political prisoners. Rodiles suffered a broken nose requiring immediate surgery, several blows to the head, in the left ear, jaw and a fracture in the large left toe.

Over the past twelve consecutive Sundays scores of activists have been violently detained while trying to peacefully march with the Ladies in White. The Havana based project State of SATS (Estado de SATS) on June 17, 2015 published a video on YouTube interviewing members of the Ladies in White: Yaquelín Boni, Yamilé Garro Alfonso, Alina de la Caridad Lans García, Cecilia Guerra Alfonso, Aliuska Gómez García and other human rights activists such as Ángel Moya Acosta. who gave testimony on the repression that took place on Sunday, June 14, 2015 where 90 + activists were subjected to an act of repudiation by mobs brought in by state security agents and being detained arbitrarily, punched, kicked, grabbed by throat, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by these same agents and national revolutionary police.

On December 26, 2014 Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto, was detained on the Malecón esplanade in Havana as he was driving towards Central Park to hold a performance art happening with two pigs whose bodies were painted with the names: Fidel and Raúl. Since then “El Sexto” has remained detained in Valle Grande prison. He has been accused of “disrespect“and is awaiting a trial. Relatives report that he came down with pneumonia and has not received adequate medical care. As of July 1, 2015 he remains arbitrarily detained.

On June 24, 2015 Rosa María Rodríguez Gil addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and called for the release of her son, Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez, unjustly imprisoned since March 19, 2010. In her statement she outlined the circumstances that led to his arbitrary detention:

My name is Rosa Maria Rodriguez Gil, I am a member of the Coordinating Council of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and I live in Havana, Cuba. For my activism and commitment to the MCL ... because I refused to collaborate with the Cuban political police, my son Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez, a young man with psychological problems, was arbitrarily arrested, subjected to a show trial, where the prosecution was unable to demonstrate evidence of an alleged crime of trafficking in persons that he did not commit, they sanctioned him to 12 years in prison and he has spent 5 years in the prisons of Cuba. My son is being punished as a vendetta for my participation in the civic and constitutional campaign for a referendum where the people can freely decide whether if they want democracy. Not content to kidnap my son, the Cuban authorities denied Yosvani even the right to parole, that all inmate has on the island once they have passed the half way point of the sanction imposed, in this case unjustly. 

Political trials
At least four activists were placed on trial in the period following the December 17, 2014 announcement and others are awaiting trial. On December 19, 2014 Ciro Casanova Alexis was put on trial and sentenced to four years in prison. Daniel Moreno de la Peña tried on January 6, 2015 and sentenced to eight months in prison. On January 15, 2015 the trial of Ibars González Mirabal was carried out. He is under house arrest until the sentence is dictated against him facing one year and six months in prison and is still subject to harassment. On January 28, 2015 in Havana the rapper, Maikel Oksobo, also known as El Dkano, was sentenced to a year in prison under the charge of ‘peligrosidad predelictiva’ (precriminal dangerousness).

Exporting repression to Venezuela and Panama
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Fidel Castro had repeatedly tried to expand his style of revolution throughout Latin America and failed when the U.S. firmly upheld its policy of containment and isolation. Following both the Carter administration’s engagement policy (1977 – 1980) and Clinton’s (1999 – 2000) first through armed struggle in Nicaragua and secondly through subverting the democratic process in Venezuela was able to expand his reach in the hemisphere undermining regional human rights standards and structures. According to the 2005 Stratfor World Terrorism report, beginning with the Hugo Chavez presidency in 1999 there has been a “rapid increase in the numbers of Cuban political advisors, military officers and intelligence operatives in the country”—a disturbing presence, as the island country remains the last dictatorship in the hemisphere.

As early as 2005 there were reports on how security forces would frequently break up strikes and arrest trade unionists, allegedly under the watchful eye of Cuban security officials.^ Following the death of Chavez in March of 2013 the Castro regime successfully installed Nicolas Maduro and consolidated its control over the regime in Venezuela turning it into a virtual colony. During the 18 months in which the United States and Cuba took part in secret negotiations the levels of violence and terror visited upon the democratic opposition in Venezuela also grew exponentially as have reports of Cuban military and state security agents developing strategies of repression and participating in the crackdown.

Beginning in February of 2014 the high profile torture and killing of student opposition activists were carried out to terrorize the student pro-democracy movement. Reports in the media described individuals with Cuban accents involved in the brutality. Protests erupted in Venezuela where Cuban flags were burned while denouncing the Castro regime’s role in the repression therefore when analyzing Cuban repression, the role of the Castro regime in Venezuela must be taken into account. Here are some high profile examples of 43 killed between 2014 and the present date.

• Bassil Alejandro Dacosta was shot in the head in Caracas on February 12, 2014 from shots fired by a group of police men and his killing was captured from different angles on three different cameras. He was 24 years old.
• Robert Redman, carried the shooting victim, Bassil Alejandro Dacosta on February 12, 2014, was himself shot in the head and killed later that same day in Caracas but not before tweeting: "Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" He was 31 years old. ,
• Génesis Carmona was shot in the head in the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo on February 18, 2014 and died a day later from her injuries. In the last picture taken of her before being shot she is holding up a poster with two other women that reads: "God's time is perfect but if we don't go out into the streets, the time of Maduro will be ETERNAL." She was 22 years old.
• Geraldine Moreno was shot in the head with buckshot on February 19, 2014 in Tazajal, located in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo while taking part in a protest and in one of her last tweets on February 17th explained what motivated her to take part in the demonstrations: "No one sends me I go because I want to defend my Venezuela." She died from her injuries on Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was 23 years old.
• 14 year old high school student Kluiverth Roa was extrajudicially executed on February 24, 2015 by a member of the Bolivarian National Police of Táchira State identified as Javier Mora. This officer shot the teenager in the head, killing him in the afternoon. Kluiverth Roa, a student in San Agustín Codazzi school in San Critóbal, had just gotten out of school and was in the Barrio Obrero sector of the city, three blocks from the Catholic University of Táchira (UCAT) where a student protest was taking place. The teenager was surprised by a couple of functionaries riding on motorcycle and one of them shot the youth in the head. Kluiverth Roa was buried on February 25th with his Scout troop serving as pallbearers. 

The respected human rights organization Provea warns that the "killing of Roa Kluiverth is not an isolated event, but is a consequence of the rise of repression in the country." 43 young people, many of them students, have been extrajudicially executed in this manner since February of 2014.

Leticia Ramos and Augusto Monge attacked in Panama

Cuban state security engages in violence and intimidation at VII Summit of the Americas in Panama
Inviting the Castro regime to the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama in April of 2015, violated the democratic ideals of the summit and democratic charter signed of September 2001. On the eve of and during the course of the summit, the anti-democratic and violent nature of the dictatorship in Cuba was made evident. The Panamanian government had hoped that extending an invitation to all elements of Cuban society would propitiate a dialogue where all involved could “listen to each other within the frame of respect.” The summit was inundated with Cuban officials and state security agents that carried out acts of repudiation to disrupt events of the Summit in order to prevent Cuba’s or Venezuela’s independent civil society from participating in designated summit activities. "activists Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of murdered opposition leader Oswaldo Paya, and Lillian Tintori, wife of imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez were welcomed by screams and insults at the Civic Society Forum. ,

Outside of the Summit in The Porras public park on April 8, 2015 the Castro regime sent its agents, including a high ranking intelligence agent of the Castro regime (charged with overseeing repression in Venezuela) identified as Alexis Frutos Weeden to physically assault a small group of opposition activists who sought to leave a wreath at a bust of Jose Marti. The level of violence was such that several activists had to obtain medical treatment due to their injuries. Among those targeted for the worse beatings were activists from inside the island Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez, Yris Pérez Aguilera, and Leticia Ramos Herrería were brutally attacked. From Miami, Cuban Americans Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, suffered a broken rib and torn ligaments and cartilage in his knee requiring surgery, and Augusto Monge was also badly beaten and required medical attention.

Conclusion
A concrete result of the Obama administration’s engagement policy has not only been a rise in violence and repression in Cuba but the expansion and intensification of the Cuban intelligence services active measures against nonviolent democratic activists in highly visible instances in Venezuela and Panama. It should be cause for concern that one of the top Cuban intelligence agents tasked with overseeing the violent repression of young Venezuelan nonviolent pro-democracy activists would be transferred to Panama to oversee a violent action against Cuban pro-democracy activists while President Obama shook hands and met with Cuban dictator Raul Castro.

End notes
*   Conversations with Carter  by Jimmy Carter, Edited by Don Richardson  October 1, 1998 Pg 310
#   The Civil War in Nicaragua: Inside the Sandinistas by Roger Miranda, William E. Ratliff,  March 1, 1992 pg 100
^   Meghan Clyne, “Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities to Cuba – Caracas Provides Cheap Oil in Exchange for Surveillance of Citizens,” New York Sun, 26 January, 2005; on Cuban security presence in Venezuela, see also Javier Corrales, “The Logic of Extremism: How Chavez Gains by Giving Cuba So Much,” in Cuba, Venezuela and the Americas: A Changing Landscape, Inter-American Dialogue, December 2005.

Geraldine Moreno shot repeatedly with iron pellets at close range by the Bolivarian National Guard

23 year old college student standing in her doorway attacked by National Guard died three days later

Geraldine Moreno (23 years old) before and after the attack

Brutal February 19 attack destroys 23 year old women's face

Liseth Madía, cousin of Geraldine Moreno Orozco, recounted to El Universal that the 23 year old university student and athlete from Carabobo was shot repeatedly in the face by members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) on February 19, 2014 during a demonstration in the area of the Naguanagua municipality in the Tazajal sector. "That was around 8:00 pm in front of her house in Bayona Country I residences, she was assaulted in a cowardly manner with a weapon that fires pellets, which were not plastic but of iron."

Geraldine Moreno who was in her fifth semester of Cytotechnology at Arturo Michelena University, was with four friends and from her residence they watched the persons protesting on the corner of the street where there was a barricade when six members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) on motorcycles arrived on site to disperse the demonstration.

Everyone present ran. "She (running) turned when the persons behind her came and she fell because they shot at her and fired near the face, then when she tried to stand up they fired again into her face and that is when they destroyed all her visage," said Geraldine's cousin Madia .

She died three days later from her injuries

At 12:43pm on February 22, 2014 the student from Valencia, Geraldine Moreno, died.  She died from the wounds generated by the pellets fired at close range into her face by members of the National Guard who destroyed her face and one eye.

One year later

Geraldine's mom Rosa Orozco seeks justice for her daughter

According to the Panam Post four military functionaries have been arrested and are on trial for the killing of the 23 year old studis no longer independentent. On January 8 the hearing for the functionaries implicated in this murder was deferred for the sixth time. Unfortunately, the judiciary in Venezuela is no longer independent and is subject to the whims and designs of the executive which means in practice Nicolas Maduro. 

Geraldine's mother, Rosa Orozco in a February 5, 2015 interview with NTN24 denounced the judicial delays and recalled the circumstances of her daughter's murder: "Those GNB fired into Geraldine's face, she was peacefully standing in the door way of her home and some GNB arrived shooting." ... "Finally she asked the Ombudsman to dedicate himself to all the victims"and work to resolve the cases of the 43 victims of the violent protests that took place between February and June 2014."

Simultaneous Protests at the UN in New York and Caracas for human rights in Venezuela

"Living the abuse of a dictatorship leads me to have an unwavering commitment to achieve democracy." - Leopoldo López Mendoza, Venezuelan prisoner of conscience September 17, 2014

For Freedom: Protest Against Maduro Friday Sept. 26 at 12 noon at the UN in NYC

Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuelan prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López Mendoza, has called for simultaneous nonviolent protests at the United Nations in New York City and in Caracas to demand that human rights be respected in Venezuela.

Ten days ago on September 16, 2014 addressing the UN Human Rights Council I named the first students extrajudicially executed by Venezuelan government agents in February of 2014: Bassil Dacosta, Robert Redman, Génesis Carmona and Geraldine Moreno and went on to recall that "[s]ince February 12, 2014 forty three youths have been killed while protesting rising insecurity and vanishing rights in their country. Over 5000 have been injured and 3,000 arbitrarily detained."

"Freedom for all the youths and students jailed"

 Now is the time to stand up and nonviolently protest and demand that those responsible for the killings be brought to justice and those arbitrarily detained such as Leopoldo López Mendoza.

Although I am far away from Caracas and New York City tomorrow the Venezuelan men and women who continue to be unjustly imprisoned and those peacefully protesting for them will be in my thoughts and prayers.

All to the UN this Friday September 26 at 11am in Caracas

Remembering Neda Agha Soltan 5 years later

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. - Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963

Parents mark anniversary of their daughter Neda Agha-Soltan's death

 A young woman's last moments in Tehran are captured on June 20, 2009 on a camera phone and uploaded to the internet and seen by tens of millions. The cries of desperation in Farsi by their tone and sadness transcend language and place, in this case Iran. Five have passed and her killers have not been brought to justice and the regime responsible for her death continues to rule in her homeland. Her name was Neda Agha Soltan and she never got to see her 27th birthday.


Nine months later at the 2010 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy I gave the welcome address on behalf of the summit organizers and placed the situation of Iran in context while introducing her fiancé who would later address the Summit:

In Iran, the contested June election sparked an unprecedented wave of state-sponsored violence and repression. Thousands of peaceful protesters were beaten, arrested, tortured, and killed. One of them Neda Agha-Soltan, age 26, was shot and killed on June 20, 2009 during the protests denouncing election fraud. Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, is with us here today, and will address the Summit tomorrow. Neda’s death was captured on video and in those terrible moments reflected the great crime committed by the Iranian government against the people of Iran. Official numbers place the number of killed at 36 during the protests but the opposition places the dead at 72. In 2009 at least 270 people were hanged and in 2010 at least 12 so far. 4,000 have been arrested including journalists and reformist politicians.

Five years later and the full gravity of not only the killing of an innocent woman who wanted a better future for her country but the extreme lengths that the Iranian government would go to cover up their crime. In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 the Inner Party member O'Brien explained the logic of rewriting history: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." The Iranian secret service demonstrated this idea in action with Neda Agha Soltan. The Guardian newspaper reported on June 24, 2009:

"The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

This was because the family refused to lie, as the Iranian secret police wanted, and say that Neda was murdered by anti-government protesters and not say that it was the Iranian government and its militia that killed their daughter. Even a complete stranger had her life turned upside down over a mix up of photos online.

Neda Soltani, a lady whose picture was mistakenly confused by the media with Neda Agha-Soltan explained how the Iranian secret service destroyed her life in Iran because they wanted to take advantage of the mix up: “They wanted to use me to say the whole thing was a fake made up by Western media – ‘see, here is this Neda and she is alive." When this university professor refused to go along with this grotesque fraud she and her family were interrogated by the secret police. “They were threatening me and my brother and my mother. They charged me with treason. They said I was endangering the security of my own country. I knew what that meant: death.” She fled the country and now lives in exile and has written a book My Stolen Face giving an account of what happened.

Others do succumb to regime pressures. Neda's music teacher, Hamid Panahi, who was with her when she died was put under intense pressure by the regime after the video went viral. He was interrogated and threatened for hours and finally succumbed to pressure to appear in a shameful Press TV documentary and say things that the regime wanted him to say. Those close to Panahi say he went into a severe depression after he appeared on the program and never managed to get over it. Panachi died today on the fifth anniversary of Neda's death of a heart attack.

Social media reports that two were arrested at Neda's graveside today on the anniversary of her death. Iran News Update had reported that friends, family and admirers would gather to hold a ceremony on June 20 at 16:30 where she now rests at Behesht Zahra section 257, row 41, number 32 and place flowers on her shrine and pray for her spirit.

Martin Luther King Jr. once observed that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and unfortunately the impunity that the Iranian regime continues to operate under only encourages more killing and not only in Iran. In Venezuela young women engaged in nonviolent protests under circumstances eerily similar to Neda's and it is known that the Iranian regime has close ties to the Venezuelan regime and the Iranian intelligence service has a presence in the South American country. Unfortunately that means that we must now also remember Génesis Carmona, Geraldine Moreno, Adriana Urquiola and many others killed by pro-government forces to instill terror and discourage citizens peacefully assembling to demand change for the better. 

We must continue to pursue justice for all of them and keep them in our memory. Five years later the regime's press crackdown and repression continues in Iran as does repression against those who remember and honor Neda Agha Soltan.

We owe it to Neda and those persecuted for honoring her to remember and let others learn of this injustice. Use the hashtag #NedaSpeaks and spread the word.

Regimes killing civilians in Cuba and Venezuela and how its covered up

 The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition. - Simon Wiesenthal  

Killed during protests in Venezuela February - March 2014

 The regime in Venezuela in consultation with their Cuban counterparts is consolidating power and increasing its control over the entire society. At the same time it is unleashing brutal repression against a democratic resistance that has sought to address its grievances using nonviolent protests.



Students protesters have been arbitrarily detained, tortured, shot and killed. Now the Maduro regime is claiming that the opposition are fascists and responsible for the fatalities. They have imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, imprisoned opposition mayors and are threatening to imprison María Corina Machado for calling for nonviolent protests and criticizing the government. Alleging that they are responsible for the violence.

Unfortunately, observers of the regime in Cuba find these tactics all too familiar. The Castro dictatorship has killed thousands and committed acts of state terrorism such as using MiGs to shoot down civilian aircraft in international airspace with air to air missiles on February 24, 1996 and attempted to manufacture evidence to turn the victims, engaged in search and rescue in the Florida Straits for rafters into terrorists. Castro failed in controlling the narrative in the Brothers to the Rescue because one of the three planes made it back with recordings and witnesses. Nevertheless the spies that provided that infiltrated the organization and contributed to the murders were declared heroes by Fidel Castro and the Cuban propaganda machinery.

Murdered by Castro Regime on February 24, 1996

Another incident in which 37 were massacred by government agents occurred on July 13, 1994. Cuban families seeking a better life outside of Cuba fled aboard the tugboat "13 de Marzo". The "13 de Marzo" tugboat was surrounded by other tugs and with Cuban coastguards in the vicinity bearing witness rammed repeatedly and sunk.  There would have not been any survivors if not for a passing Greek trawler that witnessed the attack. Fidel Castro addressing Cubans on the only mass media permitted in Cuba, that of the dictatorship, declared the men who committed the massacre heroes and the victims responsible for having stolen the tug.

Murdered by Castro Regime on July 13, 1994

 This atrocity was investigated by international human rights bodies but justice has still not been done 20 years later.  There have been others in 1993 eyewitness accounts from the Guantanamo Naval Base led to a formal protest by the United States that defenseless Cuban swimmers were being shot at by snipers, having grenades lobbed and their remained removed with gaff hooks.

Prisoners of conscience such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo are repeatedly tortured and driven into  hunger strikes as a recourse to defend their dignity, sadistic guards take their water away contributing to their deaths.
Tourists and students not involved in anything political have been killed by government agents in Cuba and the shooters have never been identified or brought to justice. In Cuba when a hungry child is shot and killed by a retired state security officer for trying to steal fruit from a tree it is only news in dissident and exile blogs.

The latest example of regime rewriting history is with the Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante July 22, 2012 killings and the subsequent show trial of Angel Carromero where the  Payá family was barred from attending.

The victims continue to be slandered and libeled not only while alive but after they have been killed and families who speak out in defense of their loved ones are also targeted by state security and the propaganda organs slandered and attacked. This serves as an example for many others to remain silent in order not to suffer the same fate.

This diabolical practice is now being carried out in Venezuela where the Maduro regime engages in double speak demonizing the opposition calling it fascist in Venezuela (as in the above tweets) while abroad using more measured language when addressing an international audience. On March 19, 2014 Maduro tweeted:  Our Victory will be Peace consolidated with Justice, the Fascists will pay for their crimes against our People and our Country!!! The original tweets copied and linked together are reproduced above. This practice predates the February 12, 2014 protests. For example on December 7, 2013 Maduro tweeted: "Let us continue to stand together to fight speculators that price gouge and rob those who work now backed by fascist gangs Let us continue Winning!" The president of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello tweeted on March 19, 2014: "The fascist murderer capriles shows himself, threatens war for the arrest of the terrorist Daniel Ceballos, hatred defines them both."  They speak of peace abroad but demonize their opponents at home. This is not a recipe for one who is seeking genuine peace.

One should not forget that the Capriles referred to by Cabello is the candidate who narrowly lost to Maduro in a national election with irregularities and did not contest the election to avoid the violence being threatened by the Chavistas at the time. Capriles called off a peaceful march out of fear that Chavistas would infiltrate and carry out violent acts. 

Armed infiltrator ID'd by students and turned over to authorities

 This is something that has been seen during the current round of protests. Protesters have identified military agents masquerading as students carrying firearms as in the case of Fernando Quezada who was identified on February 27, 2014 who have infiltrated their ranks and turned the infiltrators over to the authorities after having obtained their information such was also the case below with  John Jairo Yudex Reyes C.I 21.039.524 who is a Second Sergeant in the Bolivarian National Guard and a member of Military Intelligence (DIM) on March 16, 2014.


Now, as their Cuban counterparts are so adept at doing, the Maduro regime is contesting the responsibility for the rising body count and charging the opposition with terrorism and violence. At the same time the opposition has mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators in mass nonviolent demonstrations in which it has been Maduro that has unleashed the military, the national guard and para-paramilitaries to terrorize the large crowds and brake up the demonstrations. Opposition leaders such as Leopoldo Lopez and the opposition members have peacefully turned themselves over to the authorities knowing that the judiciary is no longer independent, but an arm of the executive, and that they cannot expect justice. Nevertheless, they have maintained their nonviolent posture because they know it is their best chance to achieve victory over the government that has behaved in an increasingly despotic fashion. 

The Venezuelan opposition has rightfully focused its attention on the Castro regime's presence in Venezuela and their tactics of repression and control, but should also look at another ally of the Maduro regime, the Iranians who used terror to quell student protests in 2009 using snipers.  

Here is a partial list of people shot in the head during the protests in Venezuela since February 12, 2014:

Bassil Alejandro Dacosta

 Bassil Alejandro Dacosta was shot in the head in Caracas on February 12, 2014 from shots fired by a group of police men and his killing was captured from different angles on three different cameras. He was 24 years old.

Robert Redman, circled wearing a cap

Robert Redman, in the picture above carrying shooting victim, Bassil Alejandro Dacosta on February 12, 2014 was himself shot in the head and killed later that same day in Caracas but not before tweeting: "Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" He was 31 years old.

 Génesis Carmona (on the right holding poster)

 Génesis Carmona was shot in the head in the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo on February 18, 2014 and died a day later from her injuries. In the last picture taken of her before being shot she is holding up a poster with two other women that reads:  "God's time is perfect but if we don't go out into the streets, the time of Maduro will be ETERNAL." She was 22 years old.

Geraldine Moreno

Geraldine Moreno was shot in the head with buckshot on February 19, 2014 in Tazajal, located in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo while taking part in a protest and in one of her last tweets on February 17th explained what motivated her to take part in the demonstrations: "No one sends me I go because I want to defend my Venezuela." She died from her injuries on Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was 23 years old.

Anthony Rojas

 In the evening hours of March 18, 2014 Anthony Rojas died of a gunshot wound to the face. He was a second semester student of mechanical engineering at the University of Tachira (UNET). He died in a presumed shootout near a shop in the Diamante sector of Táriba. It was learned that Rojas was in the commercial establishment buying drinks with other youth when motorized units passed by and fired into the place while shooting at protesters in a nearby barricade. He was eighteen years old.
 

Wilfredo Rey

 Bus driver Wilfredo Rey, 31, died on March 21, 2014 after being shot in the head during a confrontation between demonstrators and hooded gunmen in the western city of San Cristobal in Tachira. He was not involved in the protests. Married, father of three small children. He was 32 years old.

Adriana Urquiola

On March 23, 2014 Adriana Urquiola was shot twice, once in the head in Nuevos Teques. She was five months pregnant and worked as an interpreter on Venevisión News. She was 28 years old. She and her husband got off a bus due to a barricade and were going to catch a taxi when the shooting occurred.

Filippo Sevillano, president of the Student Center at the University of Margarita (Unimar), was shot in the head on the night of April 1, 2014 during a protest on Jóvito Villalba Avenue, in front of the Rattan Plaza commercial center.  He has been operated on and is currently hospitalized. He is 27 years old.

Out of the eight shot in the head, five were young people openly in opposition to the Maduro government and protesting when they were shot. The other three were not participating in the protests but were in the vicinity and happened to fit the profile: two were young and gainfully employed and the third a university student. Is it just a coincidence? Who benefits from targeting young protesters and creating a climate of terror where people fear to go out and exercise their right to peaceful protest? Is it just a coincidence that an ally of the Maduro regime, Iran, used a similar tactic against student demonstrators in the Green Movement in 2009?