Follow Martin Luther King, Jr.'s example and raise your voice against injustice

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law.
- Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

Here, in this dark jail where they force me to live, I will be resisting until the freedom of my people is obtained." - Oscar Elias Biscet, August 25, 2006


Martin Luther King, Jr. would've been 82 today but never saw 40 because an assassin shot the 39 year old Baptist minister in the head on April 4, 1968 at 6:01pm in the midst of the final campaign before his death: the support of a strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. On the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday where a monument is being erected to honor the man in the nation's capitol it is an important moment to reflect on the man and his legacy. There are numerous entries in this blog about the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., but until now not placed in a Cuban context.

Fernando Delgado, a Cuban on hunger strike in Vienna, Austria because the Cuban regime has denied him entry to his own country without explanation. He has said that he will remain on hunger strike until the Cuban embassy explains the reason for banning him from returning to his homeland. As of January 15, 2010 he has lost 17.6 pounds.

According to Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, nine hours ago in Banes, Cuba a new repudiation rally was carried out against the family of Orlando Zapata Tamayo including his grieving mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, subjected to a hate rally organized by the Cuban dictatorship. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience who died on hunger strike on February 23, 2010 demanding an end to the torture and mistreatment of political prisoners. Orlando Zapata following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. in nonviolent resistance exposed the evil nature of the dictatorship in Cuba during both his life and even in death. Martin Luther King Jr., in a speech he gave in Detroit, Michigan on June 23, 1963 declared: "I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live." Orlando Zapata Tamayo has proven in Cuba the power of the above statement.

For the past half century human rights have been systematically violated and dismissed as "bourgeois" by a dictatorship that has murdered thousands of Cuban nationals and engaged in state terrorism both domestically and internationally.

Now 12 men have refused exile in exchange for freedom preferring to remain in prison then abandon their homeland. Meanwhile another Cuban dissident Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, imprisoned on December 9, 2010 to prevent him from holding an activity on International Human Rights Day has spent his third day on hunger strike demanding his freedom.

On Hunger Strike: Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina

One of the most well known Cuban prisoners of conscience is also a disciple of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi his name is Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez. From the bowels of a Cuban prison on June 1, 2003 Dr. Biscet's message to the world referenced Rev. King: My inspiration is alive: God and the great teachers of nonviolence, present today now more than ever. As Martin Luther King said: "If a people can find among their ranks a 5% of men willing to voluntarily go to prison for a cause they consider just then there is no obstacle that can stop them."

Martin Luther King Jr. observed that "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." In a Cuban context the question arises what are you doing or at least saying to denounce these and many more injustices?


You have an opportunity to do something this Sunday , January 16, 2010 at Our Lady of Charity [La Ermita de la Caridad] located at 3609 South Miami Avenue Miami, FL at 2:00pm EST Winnie Biscet, the daughter of Oscar Elias Biscet is organizing a vigil for the freedom of her father and other Cuban prisoners of conscience followed by a special Mass at 3:00pm. She is asking that those in attendance wear black and carry a white flower.

It would also be a good idea to bring posters with the image of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and the 11 prisoners of conscience from the 2003 Black Cuban Spring who remain imprisoned refusing exile along with the image of Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina. There names and faces are listed below:

Pedro Argüelles Morán

Oscar Biscet González

Eduardo Díaz Fleitas

José Daniel Ferrer García

Diosdado González Marrero

Iván Hernández Carrillo

Librado Linares García

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez

Angel Moya Acosta

Félix Navarro Rodríguez

Guido Sigler Amaya

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

Cuba's Gloria is called home as her sons are tortured

La Gloria de Cuba regresa a casa

Gloria Amaya Gonzalez with photos of Miguel, Ariel & Guido while all 3 were imprisoned

Yesterday a special Mass at la Ermita de la Caridad was held in remembrance of Gloria Amaya Gonzalez, the matriarch of a family of Cuban activists who have steadfastly stood up to the brutality of the totalitarian regime in Cuba.

Gloria was 81 years old at the time of her passing and had suffered numerous physical beatings at the hands of Cuban State Security and the psychological torture of having two of her sons Ariel and Guido imprisoned in the Cuban black spring of March 2003 and tortured for their activism. A third son, Miguel, a former political prisoner, had gone into exile after long years of activism and civic resistance. They have been recognized as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Ariel Sigler on the left prior to arrest and in the center and right at mother's wake escorted by State Security

Prior to her death she had been campaigning for her sons' release and was extremely concerned about Ariel, and with just reason he has suffered at the hands of the dictatorship and is today a skeletal shadow of his former self due to the regime's policy of denying medical attention to political prisoners:



Miguel Sigler Amaya also spoke out on behalf of his brothers calling for the world to demonstrate its solidarity with Ariel because like his mother he fears for his brother's life.


She along with her sons have lived in freedom in a country where freedom was exiled in 1959 and they have been willing to pay the high price of liberty in the face of tyranny and in the process returned liberty to small piece of the Cuban national territory. In their activism we see an example of the rebuilding of civil society from the ground up and in the face of great adversity.

Communist-Style Book Burning & Censorship in Cuba

Moneda Dura's video "mala leche" banned by the Cuban government

Books Known to Have Been Burned in Cuba in 2003

As verified in the sentencing documents posted by

the Rule of Law in Cuba web site at the

Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights,

at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/

Prepared By Steve Marquardt,PH.D.

Trial of Guido Sigler Amaya, in Matanzas, 5 April 2003 [Sentence number 9], official document available here

“… the handwritten, typed, printed, signed and recorder [sic] documents which are also detailed in prior paragraphs … will be immediately destroyed by incineration.”

From the original court record:
“. . . excepto los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados, impresos y firmados y grabados los cuales también se detallan con antelación serán destruido mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:

“several copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” One hardcover edition of the UDHR is published by Applewood Books (November 1, 2000). 32 pages. ISBN: 1557094551. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

El resurgimiento global de la democracia. Unknown Binding: 341 pages. Publisher: Insituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM; 1. ed edition (1996) Language: Spanish. ISBN: 9683649904. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Vista del amanecer en el trópico, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Paperback) Publisher: Penguin Books (March 1, 1997).ISBN: 0140262865. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com
[English translation: View of Dawn in the Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine. (London: Faber, 1988) First U.K. Edition. Source for bibliographic description: Alibris.com]

Hacia la gran nación, by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat (Miami, Fl : D'Fana Editions, 1995), 32 p. ; 21 cm. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Letters from Burma, by George Orwell.

Trial of Julio Antonio Vales Guevara, in Santiago de Cuba, 5 April 2003. Case no. 5 of 2003. Available here.

“… books, magazines, brochures and the rest of the documents to proceed to destruction by means of incineration for lacking utility; …”

From the original court record:
Se dispone que sobre el negativo fotográfico, el cassete de audio, las medicinas, los libros, revistas, folletos y el resto de los documentos procédase a su destrucción mediante incineración por carecer de utilidad; . . .”

These include the following:

TIME (magazine)
El Disidente (magazine)
Fragura (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Por Cuba (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Palestra (“journal … edited in the United States”)
Hispano Cubana (magazine “published in Spain”)

José Martí: la invención de Cuba, by Rafael Rojas. (Paperback) Editorial Colibri (November 20, 2000), 145 pages. ISBN: 8492355069
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Cuba's Repressive Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution, by Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, July 20, 1999). Paperback, 263 pages). ISBN: 1564322343. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Buscando un modelo económico en América Latina : mercado, socialista o mixta? : Chile, Cuba y Costa Rica, by Carmelo Mesa-Lago; Alberto Arenas; Malena Barro (Caracas, Venezuela : Nueva Sociedad ; [Miami?, Fla.] : Universidad Internacional de la Florida, 2002 1. ed. en castellano. 681 p. ; ISBN: 9803171836 23 cm. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Trial of Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez, in Sancti Spiritus (#1), 5 April 2003. Available here.

“Also the destruction is had [of] …”
“sixteen books Encounter of the Culture Cuban [etc.]”
Book titles are machine translated from the Spanish as follows:
Encounter of Cuban Culture
Plowing in the Sea
Heating of the Planet
Uses and Abuses of Gasoline
World without Winter
Visual Atlas [of the] Ocean
Destruction of Nature and the Ecology
System of Environmental Average Management

Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba, by Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez. (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 2000) (Paperback, 328 pages). ISBN: 0822957213
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

“Classic texts of Carlos Franqui” "Textos clasicos sobre la revolucion y el socialismo". (Dominican Republic, 1998). According to Senor Franqui, "This book is an anthology of classical European and American texts by several authors, and was anonymously edited by Carlos Franqui" (This information from a personal communication with the author)

The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (M. E. Sharpe; Paperback Reprint edition, June 1, 1990). ISBN: 0873327616. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Reporters Without Borders, Mission report in Cuba. Probably this is the September 2000 report found at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3213.

Trial of Felix Navarro Rodriguez and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, in Matanzas, 4 April 2003. Sentence number 2 of 2003, available here.

“printed material and other that have films and recording will be immediately destroy [sic] by incineration, which it will also be done with the handwritten and typed documents …”
From the original court record:
“Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:

81 pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

El Proyecto Varela by Alberto Muller [and] Oswaldo Payá (Miami, FL : Ediciones Universal, 2002 1st ed.). Spanish. Book 110 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
ISBN: 0897299981. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Trial of Pedro Arguelles Moran and Pable Pacheco Avila, in Ciego de Avila, 4 April 2003, available here

“all the publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department of the Interior for its destruction.”
From the original court record:
“El instrumental estomatológico, entregarse al Sectorial Provincial de Salud de Camagüey, así como los medicamentos; todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción. Todos los equipos y medios electrónicos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior, ya que su complejidad técnica no hace que sea prudente su empleo en ninguna otra actividad.”

These include the following, as listed in the sentencing document:
Jose Martí, The Invention of Cuba
book "Letters to Elpidio";
book Conquista of the Nature;
book Your Body is Yours;
book Contemporary Universal History;
history of the United States;
book the Cost of the Terrorism in Human Suffering;
book Foundations of the Media;
book Technical of Education of the Media;
book Journalism and Creativity;
two books of International Human rights;
book a More Effective and Less Expensive Government;
book History of the United States;
book titled Manual for the Journalists;
book Evidence that demands a Verdict;
titled book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II;
two books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
book the Constitution of the United States;
6 declarations of the Human rights;
two universal declarations of the Human rights;
a pamphlet of the Project Varela.

Trial of Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos and Carmelo Augustín Diaz Fernandez, in Havana, 5 April 2003, available here

“As far as documents, magazines, notes, books, agendas, photos, invitations, stickers, propagandas, procédase to their destruction.”
From the original court record:
“En cuanto a los documentos, revistas, apuntes, libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones, pegatinas, propagandas, procédase a su destrucción.”

These included the following:
“. . . books, bulletins magazines, agendas, booksellers of notes, all of subversive content
abundant documents, books, correspondence, notes, pamphlets and magazines of content in opposition to the principles of the Cuban Revolution . . .

“With same aim of destruction of regime partner-political prevailing in Cuba, defendant created library "Emilio Maspero" which it contained subversive Literature and contrarrevolucionaria, that was provided by the government and competing groups of the Cuban Revolution, also they created a Web site for the publication of his contrarrevolucionarios postulates the one that could be visited by people of different parts from the world.”

From the original court record:
“Con el mismo fin de destrucción del régimen socio-político imperante en Cuba, los acusados crearon la biblioteca “Emilio Maspero” que contenía literatura subversiva y contrarrevolucionaria, que era suministrada por el gobierno y grupos opositores de la Revolución cubana, asimismo crearon un sitio web para la publicación de sus postulados contrarrevolucionarios el que podía ser visitado por personas de diferentes partes del mundo.”