Cuban dissident beaten to death by Castro's revolutionary police ten years ago while another is held hostage today

The hope of impunity is the greatest inducement to do wrong. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Then: Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia and Now: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

Revolutionary police and state security in Cuba operate with impunity, and victims of repression have no recourse to independent over sight or an independent judiciary in the island. This raises concerns now for the life of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. It is also the reason why people of conscience will be protesting at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC on May 6, 2021 starting at 4:00pm.

Este jueves 6 de mayo a las 4 pm Protesta ante Embajada de la dictadura de #Cuba en Washington DC: #SOSCuba #Habanosworlddays #PaLaCalle pic.twitter.com/VfD4MvFW2N

— Mario Felix Lleonart (@maritovoz) May 4, 2021

Ten years ago the headlines circled the world in English and in Spanish covered by Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AP, EFE that a Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (age 46) had been beaten and arrested by Cuban regime police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. He was buried Sunday, on Mother's Day.

There are others but the regime has been often successful in intimidating family members and destroying the evidence of their crimes. "This act of police violence is not an isolated case. Each day in Cuba those in uniform respect less the citizens," said Yoani Sanchez over Twitter on the day of Juan Wilfredo's burial in 2011. 

Hansel E. Hernández shot in the back by police on June 24, 2020

For example, nearly nine years later on June 24, 2020 in Guanabacoa, Cuba 27 year old unarmed black Cuban, Hansel E. Hernández was shot in the back and killed by the police. The official version claims that he was stealing pieces and accessories from a bus stop when he was spotted by two Revolutionary National Police (PNR in Spanish). Upon seeing the police Hansel ran away and the officers pursued him nearly two kilometers. PNR claimed that during the pursuit Hansel threw rocks at the officers. Police fired two warning shots and a third in his back killing him. Hansel's body was quickly cremated. This prevented an independent autopsy to verify official claims, or a proper funeral. State Security learned their lesson from an earlier funeral following a controversial death involving the police.

Hansel E. Hernández

According to dissidents who attended the 2011 funeral and media accounts more than 80 attended Juan Wilfredo Soto's funeral despite a heavy police presence and state security operation that blocked some activists from attending. The government agents responsible for this man's extra-judicial death must be held accountable if not by national laws then by international law.  At the funeral Cuban pastor  Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso spoke about the life of the Cuban activist and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Juan Wilfredo Soto left behind two children and their mom. He was a member of the Opposition Central Coalition and was known as "The Student." He was a former political prisoner who had served 12 years in prison. His mother, who suffers from a bad hip, buried her son on Mother's Day. Pictures of Juan Wilfredo Soto's family members provided by Yoani Sanchez through twitter.

Children of Juan Wilfredo Soto mourn their dad

Ten years have passed and justice has not been done in this case. There have been new victims of police violence in Cuba since then, like Hansel. Nevertheless we must remember, and with this exercise of memory continue to demand justice for Juan Wilfredo, Hansel, and their loved ones. We must also speak out for those who can still be saved such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

This is why Patmos, Center for a Free Cuba, and others are organizing a nonviolent protest at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC located on 2630 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009 on May 6, 2021 at 4:00pm to observe the tenth anniversary of the beating death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, and demand justice for him, Hansel and others like them, while calling on the Cuban government to free Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and meet his three demands.

 

Remembering some of the victims of Cuban communism: Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia

The hope of impunity is the greatest inducement to do wrong. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died three days after beating by political police

 Some psychologists argue that as the number of victims increase into the hundreds, and thousands that compassion collapses out of the human fear of being overwhelmed. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin put it more succinctly: "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics." In the case of Cuba the communist regime has killed tens of thousands, and many have become numb in the face of this horror. Therefore on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first communist regime in Russia, that caused so much harm around the world, will focus on the small corner of Cuba and on an infinitesimal sampling of some of the victims of Cuban communism.

In this fifth entry will focus on the death of Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) beaten and arrested by the Castro regime's police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization.

Previous entries in this series where about Cubans trying to change the system nonviolently. The first entry concerned Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a humble bricklayer turned courageous human rights defender who paid the ultimate price in 2010 for speaking truth to power. The second entry focused on Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, a Catholic lay activist, nonviolence icon, husband, father of three and the founder of a Cuban opposition movement that shook up the Castro regime with a petition drive demanding that human rights be respected and recognized in Cuba. This action and speaking truth to power led to his extrajudicial killing in 2012. The third entry focused on one of the great crimes of the Castro regime that has been well documented by international human rights organizations and reported on ABC News Nightline that claimed the lives of 37 men, women, and children. They were trying to flee the despotism in Cuba to live in freedom and were extrajudicially executed. The fourth entry focused on four men. members of the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, killed when the two planes they were flying in were shot down on a Saturday afternoon at 3:21 and 3:27 on February 24, 1996 over international airspace while engaged in a search and rescue flight for Cuban rafters. Their planes were destroyed by air-to-air missiles fired by a Cuban MiG-29 aircraft on the orders of Raul and Fidel Castro. 

Six years ago the headlines circled the world in English and in Spanish covered by Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AFP, AP, EFE that a Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) had been beaten and arrested by Cuban regime police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. He was buried Sunday, on Mother's Day.

There are others but the regime has been often successful in intimidating family members and destroying the evidence of their crimes. "This act of police violence is not an isolated case. Each day in Cuba those in uniform respect less the citizens," said Yoani Sanchez over Twitter on the day of the burial. 


 
According to dissidents who attended and media accounts more than 80 attended Juan Wilfredo Soto's funeral despite a heavy police presence and state security operation that blocked some activists from attending. The government agents responsible for this man's extra-judicial death must be held accountable if not by national laws then by international law.  At the funeral a Cuban pastor spoke about the life of the Cuban activist and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Children of Juan Wilfredo Soto mourn their dad

Juan Wilfredo Soto left behind two children and their mom. He was a member of the Opposition Central Coalition and was known as "The Student." He was a former political prisoner who had served 12 years in prison. His mother, who suffers from a bad hip, buried her son on Mother's Day. Pictures of Juan Wilfredo Soto's family members provided by Yoani Sanchez through twitter.

Six years have passed and justice has not been done in this case. Nevertheless we must remember, and with this exercise of memory continue to demand justice for Juan Wilfredo and his loved ones.

Cuban dissident beaten to death by Castro's political police died six years ago today

The hope of impunity is the greatest inducement to do wrong. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died three days after beating by political police

 
Six years ago the headlines circled the world in English and in Spanish covered by Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AFP, AP, EFE that a Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) had been beaten and arrested by Cuban regime police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. He was buried Sunday, on Mother's Day.

There are others but the regime has been often successful in intimidating family members and destroying the evidence of their crimes. "This act of police violence is not an isolated case. Each day in Cuba those in uniform respect less the citizens," said Yoani Sanchez over Twitter on the day of the burial.

According to dissidents who attended and media accounts more than 80 attended Juan Wilfredo Soto's funeral despite a heavy police presence and state security operation that blocked some activists from attending. The government agents responsible for this man's extra-judicial death must be held accountable if not by national laws then by international law.  At the funeral a Cuban pastor spoke about the life of the Cuban activist and the circumstances surrounding his death.


Juan Wilfredo Soto left behind two children and their mom. He was a member of the Opposition Central Coalition and was known as "The Student." He was a former political prisoner who had served 12 years in prison. His mother, who suffers from a bad hip, buried her son on Mother's Day. Pictures of Juan Wilfredo Soto's family members provided by Yoani Sanchez through twitter.

Children of Juan Wilfredo Soto mourn their dad

 Six years have passed and justice has not been done in this case. Nevertheless we must remember, and with this exercise of memory continue to demand justice for Juan Wilfredo and his loved ones.

Meeting Cuban human rights defender Dr. Biscet nineteen years later

"There is an intellectual awakening taking place in Cuba that goes beyond economic necessities and many interpret Obama’s warm embrace with the tyrant as a sign that the U.S. has abandoned a people in search of liberty. […] Liberty is not a political issue, it is a moral issue…” - Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, Diario de las Americas, May 28, 2016

With Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and filmmaker Jordan Allot at Victims of Communism dinner

From Pro-Life activist to human rights defender
First heard of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, a Cuban medical doctor, purged from his post by the Castro regime for founding a human rights group, the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, and for his investigation into the use of the drug Rivanol to induce abortions in pregnant women with or without their consent in 1997.

In 1997 the Lawton Foundation carried out a 10 month clandestine research study at the Obstetrics Pediatric Municipal Hospital "10 de octubre, Hijas de Galicia" in Havana, Cuba and obtained unofficial statistical data concerning abortions, particularly using the Rivanol technique. This study was made public in April of 1998, and officially delivered to the Cuban government on June 9, 1998. It denounced the Cuban national health care system and asked that all abortion procedures be discontinued.

At the time Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, a 37 year old Internal Medicine Specialist, and Rolando Muñoz Yyobre, a 29 year old computer programming technician, both members of the Lawton's Foundation Executive Board, co-authored the study: " Rivanol: a Method to Destroy Life". The study was dedicated to the 23 children assassinated on July 13, 1994 as they were fleeing Cuba on the "13 de Marzo" tugboat to seek political asylum in the United States. 37 of the 72 men, women and children, drowned. Survivors testified how Cuban government tug boats rammed the "13 de Marzo" and pummeled the refugees with water from high pressure hoses; circling the tugboat until it sank approximately 7 miles from Havana.

On July 9, 1998, both human rights activists, Dr. Biscet and Yyobre, were detained in a Havana Police Station (Diez y Aldabo) for expressing their desire to carry out a peaceful demonstration before the Ministry of Justice on the fourth anniversary of the sinking of the "13 de Marzo" tug boat. The Lawton Foundation claims that the Cuban authorities must fully investigate the event so that justice prevails. All their personal papers related to the Rivanol study, and documents related to their human rights activities in Cuba were confiscated on the day of the arrest.

Not only was the doctor fired from his job but evicted from his home. This led to Oscar Elías evolving from a pro-life activist to a human rights defender and practitioner of non-violence in more expansive terms without abandoning his dedication to the life issue. This is reflected in the mission statement and description of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights.

•   Founded in 1997 in Havana, Cuba as a non-governmental humanitarian and peaceful organization; sustained upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It promotes the study, defense and denunciation of human rights violations inside Cuba and wherever the rights and liberties of human beings are disregarded.
• Their main objective is to establish in Cuba a state based on the rule of law.
• The groundwork for their defense of all human rights is based upon the first human right : The right to life, without which all other liberties would be invalidated.
• They are specially against abortion, the death penalty (in Cuba by firing squad) and euthanasia.
• Made up of adult Cuban citizens of all ages, social groups, professionals as well as non-professionals; with a membership of approximately 28.
• Their members are fully and actively committed to carry out their ideals inside Cuba without any guarantees to their lives. They are censured, harassed, mistreated and incarcerated by the Cuban authorities for defending their principles.

Forty Day Fast
Dr. Biscet's experiments in nonviolence would lead to many short term detentions and members of the Free Cuba Foundation carried out actions in solidarity with his nonviolent actions, and gathered 37 signatures of Florida International University students for the "Petition in Support of the Fasters at Tamarindo 34," Cuban human rights defenders at a home in Tamarindo 34 fasted for 40 days from June 7, 1999 through July 18, 1999 reading psalms and engaging in a political dialogue over those days. The petition read as follows:

We the students at FIU in signing this document declare our support for the human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists and their 40 day fast which is taking place throughout Cuba, and was started in a small apartment in Tamarindo 34 in Havana. The goals of the fast: a general amnesty for all political prisoners, and that human rights be respected in Cuba are ones that we share.  We call on the Cuban government to honor your request and to issue an unconditional amnesty for all political prisoners, and to begin a series of legal transformations that will provide the necessary framework, within the law, to secure absolute respect for all universally recognized human rights. 

As a nonviolent activist Oscar Elías began to communicate with international nonviolent icons. Dr. Biscet sent a letter to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1999 explaining the shared struggle of the Tibetan and Cuban peoples and celebrating nonviolence as the mean of achieving a real peace.

"Your story and that of your people are one and the same with outs. Tibetans and Cubans, geographically distant, yet, close as they bear a suffering imposed by a common adversary: communism, usurper of our homelands. A large number of Cubans support the independence and freedom of Tibet. In your struggle, you may count on the support of the members of The Lawton Foundation who recognize your authority as Tibet's head of State. We call on the nations of the world to officially recognize this exemplar for the good of humanity in its struggle to obtain universal respect for the inalienable rights of man. The great work of the prince Gautama Buddha is today a reality. His heart reflects the true light that leads to the path of uprightness and a life full of God, as he leads his people to a level of superior peace through the use of nonviolent means of resistance."

Escalating Regime Violence and Imprisonment
In August of 1999 Dr. Biscet was beaten and burned with a cigarette when police detained him over the weekend at a provincial station in Matanzas while trying to organize a meeting. In November of 1999 he was imprisoned for three years after holding a press conference where he was accused of displaying the Cuban flag upside down. In February 2002 when I was asked about the prospect of President Carter's official visit to Cuba my response was that he should visit Dr. Biscet and ask why the International Red Cross was not able to visit prisoners there.   

Oscar was freed for 36 days on October 31, 2002 after serving a three year sentence and then arbitrarily imprisoned again on December 6, 2002, only to be subjected during the 2003 Black Spring crackdown, to a show trial and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He became part of a group of internationally recognized 75 prisoners of conscience serving long and unjust prison sentences. On April 9, 2003 addressing the UN Human Rights Commission I spoke about the show trial stating that "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."  

According to the NGO, Freedom Now, Dr. Biscet was subjected "to inhumane treatment, including confining him to a punishment cell barely larger than his own body for seven months and refusing to feed him for three weeks. During his imprisonment, Dr. Biscet lost 40 pounds and nearly all of his teeth. He suffers from hypertension, gastric ulcers, chronic gastritis, and hypercholesterolemia."

In 2007 Biscet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States recognizing his nonviolent struggle for a free Cuba.



Filmmaker Jordan Allot entered Cuba to film a biography of the life of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a leader of Cuba's civic non-violent movement and at the time an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience serving a 25-year prison sentence at the Combinado de Este prison in Cuba. Jordan's 2010 film, Oscar's Cuba, takes you on a journey of Cuba as seen through the eyes of Oscar Elias Biscet from the day he was born until the present.

Freedom and continued activism
Many campaigned for his release between 1999 and 2011, and Oscar Elías was finally released on March 11, 2011 after a total of more than 12 years in prison.  The Czech dissident and president, Vaclav Havel, sent Dr. Biscet a letter of solidarity dated March 12, 2011. 

A short time later I was present to witness rock n roll front man Bono sing his praises at a U2 concert in Miami on June 29, 2011.  Afterwards Dr. Biscet wrote an open letter to the Irish rocker.

Out of prison in 2011 he would denounce the extrajudicial killings of activists Laura Pollán and Juan Wilfredo Soto García.  On February 16, 2012  Cuban human rights defender Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet testified by phone from Havana, Cuba to a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Congressman Chris Smith of the fourth district of New Jersey. In March of 2012 in an open letter to Pope Benedict Dr. Biscet described what goes on in the Caribbean nation: 

"Cuban jails are living hells in which flagrant violations of human dignity occur daily. I've spent over 12 years incarcerated, most recently for "crimes against state security"—that is, asking the Cuban state to respect the fundamental human rights of every Cuban citizen."

 Oscar Elias continues to suffer police harassment but has continued in his activism and in 2013 launched Project Emilia, a petition drive calling for radical change in Cuba and an end to the Castro dictatorship calling for nonviolent resistance as the method of struggle. 

At Victims of Communism wreath laying ceremony in DC

Meeting Dr. Biscet
Nineteen years after first hearing his name, in the space of a week, would thrice meet Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and his wife, and an activist in her own right, Elsa Morejon first at a dinner in Miami,  the next morning by pure chance on the same flight to Washington DC, and finally at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation where I had the honor of translating for him during the Roll Call of Nations wreath laying ceremony. This is Dr. Biscet's first visit outside of Cuba and the Castro regime says that it will be his only permitted travel because he is still serving out his 25-year prison sentence on conditional release.

Cuban diplomat's conduct in EU Parliament offers unwitting testimony on human rights in Cuba

Regime officials show their true selves in the European parliament 

EU Parliament listening to human rights presentation today [photo: Dita Charanzová]

 Totalitarians have a specific playbook that doesn't vary that borders on the neurotic. Those who dissent from building the ideological project of the totalitarian regime are to be destroyed. Destruction can be verbal but all too often physical as were the cases of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

Today, while presenting a human rights report on Cuba at the European Parliament, one of Raul Castro's diplomats sought to demonize and discredit me using the epithet of mercenary arguing that he had evidence that I was "paid to act against my homeland" and that he would distribute the evidence that I was receiving U.S. funds.

He did not address the substance of the  human rights report presented but sought to destroy the reputation and legitimacy of the author. The Cuban diplomat argued that "Cuba has presented on two occasions its country report to the United Nations Human Rights Council [during two Universal Periodic Reviews] working on implementing the recommendations approved by our country and added that "Cuba" does not recognize the European Parliament much less political groups neither the importance or competence to analyze the human rights situation of the members of the ALBA here present." Not mentioned was the process by which they circumvented the spirit of the UPR and corrupted the process.

Cuban author and intellectual, Carlos Alberto Montaner in 2012 at the Miami Book Fair analyzed this practice of totalitarian regimes and the why behind this practice of character assassination. The objective is to destroy the messenger and avoid the ideas and content being discussed. That is precisely what happened today. However the Castro regime goes further demonizing two million Cubans in Miami regardless of ideological and philosophical differences that are normal in a free society and lump them all together under this destructive stereotype that has had an impact internationally. Carlos Alberto Montaner concluded that "Cuba is one of those states that seeks to destroy the collective image of their emigrants and the particular image of those people that they have decided are their enemies."

Event today interrupted by Cuban diplomats

The Castro regime today objected to members of the European parliament freely gathering to analyze reports on the human rights situation in Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They disrupted the conversation were members could weigh the evidence presented and question the authors on matters of substance. They sought to threaten and intimidate participants in what amounted to persecution with the aim of supressing their work which would qualify as an attempt to censor. 

For the record, I was born in the United States and am a citizen of the United States. My family left Cuba in the 1950s prior to the Castro regime, in part, because they opposed the Batista dictatorship. They did not return to live in Cuba afterwards because of the then new and now ongoing dictatorship installed by the Castro brothers.  As a human rights activist I have never pretended to speak for the Cuban people, but will defend the content of my writings and human rights reporting.

Any reasonably objective person would conclude that the Cuban people have been subjected to a totalitarian and dynastic dictatorship run by the Castro family for the past 56 years. Taking this into account it is also reasonable that after more than 56 years under a totalitarian dictatorship that Cubans should have a say as to how they are governed and exercise their long denied sovereignty.

The statements made by the Cuban official today at the European parliament are evidence of the continuing hostility of the Castro regime towards human rights in general and the exercise of free expression in particular.

Remembering murdered human rights defenders on fourth anniversary of rights activist's death

Juan Wilfredo Soto García died on May 8, 2011 from a beating he received 3 days earlier by agents of the Castro regime.  Today begins the first of three dates to be observed over the next seven days of great importance to Cuba.

Juan Wilfredo Soto García: Died from beating on May 8, 2011

 Four years ago on May 5, 2011 at approximately 9am, two national police officers reportedly approached Juan Wilfredo Soto García in Leoncio Vidal Park, asked him for his ID and then asked him to leave the park. After refusing to comply and protesting verbally against the expulsion, he was allegedly cuffed with his hands behind his back then beaten with batons.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo: Hunger strike on February 23, 2010

Juan Wilfredo Soto García was arrested and detained at a police station, then hospitalized later that day. He was released from the hospital the same afternoon only to return the following day, complaining of severe back pain. Juan Wilfredo was then admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and died four years ago today in the early hours of May 8, 2011. Juan Wilfredo died on Mother's Day.

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, mysterious illness on October 14, 2011

A local source told Amnesty International that, by chance, he met Soto García as he was going to the hospital on May 5th. According to the source, Soto García said "I just got a beating in the park with batons and I’ve got a very sore back. These people killed me." Hospital sources have reportedly stated he died from acute pancreatitis, a condition which can be triggered by abdominal trauma and commonly causes severe back pain. Juan Wilfredo Soto García, 46, belonged to the Central Opposition Coalition (Coalición Central Opositora) and according to Amnesty International Juan Wilfredo "had previously been imprisoned for 12 years for his political activities."

Wilmar Villar Mendoza: Hunger strike on January 19, 2012

Parallel to the Cuban dissident's death, an effort to deny both his past human rights activism; the circumstances surrounding Juan Wilfredo's extrajudicial killing and the dictatorship's complicity by an extensive propaganda campaign combined with  the blunt intimidation of the family of the victim.  Amnesty International called for an investigation into his death which over a year later has not been conducted.  The Cuban dictatorship has sought to deny Juan Wilfredo Soto García's status as a former political prisoner and human rights defender in order to portray him as a common criminal.

 
They've done both before with numerous victims of the regime and after Juan Wilfredo's death with four later regime victims: Ladies in White founder, Laura Pollán who died under mysterious circumstances on October 14, 2011,  Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar Mendoza who died on hunger strike on January 19, 2012 and Christian Liberation Movement founder Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and its youth leader Harold Cepero Escalante killed in what appears to be an extrajudicial execution carried out by state security on July 22, 2012. It is a standard operating procedure of totalitarian regime's like the one operating in Cuba. Not only do they physically kill an activist but also slander and attempt to marginalize their importance and if possible make them a nonperson.

This is the price paid when engaging with tyrants and not the people being oppressed and its called appeasement.

The passionate intensity of the worse: Cuba and the Universal Periodic Review

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity." 
 - William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

Ladies in White hold wake for Laura Pollán on October 14, 2011

 The government of Cuba has submitted itself to the UN Human Rights Council's universal periodic review (UPR) on two occasions. The first time was during the second UPR session on February 5, 2009 and the second was today at the sixteenth UPR session on May 1, 2013. The Castro regime has managed to turn Marx's quote upside down. The first UPR session was a farce while the second one today was a tragedy. The dictatorship's diplomats provided a false sense of déjà vu by repeating themselves.

The strategies carried out by the Castro regime today were a repeat of 2009. Prior to today the Cuban government had already distorted the review. Hillel Neuer of UN Watch offered the following comparison: "UPR country reviews saw 23 NGO submissions on Germany, 32 on Russia, and, the highest, 48 on Canada. ... For Cuba, however the number soars to an incredible 454. This is fraud committed on a massive scale." Why is there such a huge disparity? UN Watch offers the answer in their report, MASSIVE FRAUD: THE CORRUPTION OF THE 2013 UPR REVIEW OF CUBA, :

Cuba used hundreds of front groups to hijack the United Nations compilation of NGO submissions and turn it into a propaganda sheet for the Castro Communist regime. While critiques of genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented a mount of submissions by fraudulent “NGOs” that, if they do exist, are mere puppets of Cuba and its allies abroad.

Although now it was a new Foreign Minister, the previous one purged after recordings had been discovered in which he spoke in non-flattering terms about the Castro brothers, the rhetoric remained the same as did the promises made.

For example, today in his final remarks before the universal periodic the Cuban Foreign Minister said that special rapporteurs would be welcome in Cuba. Back in 2009 the previous Cuban Foreign Minister had made a similar pledge in January that was repeated by the Cuban "justice" minister during the second UPR session formally extending an invitation to the independent expert on torture only to postpone it for the subsequent four years. The Castro regime made a lot of noise about this invitation at the time, got a lot of positive press and never allowed the special rapporteur in. 

Back in 2009, with scores of prisoners of conscience locked behind bars since March of 2003 being human rights defenders, or for their part in the Varela Project and/or having engaged in independent journalism the claims of the Cuban regime were farcical.

Four years later the same dictatorship in Cuba claims to be both a democracy and a regime that will never except a change of regime. It also claimed that “All citizens’ rights to freedoms of opinion, expression, information and press are recognized” but the facts demonstrate otherwise.

However the failure of the international community to take the farce seriously in 2009 and hold the regime accountable has led to four years of tragedy. Cuban human rights defenders Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto García, and Wilman Villar Mendoza died while under the custody of the Cuban government. 

Both Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar Mendoza had been recognized by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience. Even more tragic was the failure of the sixteenth UPR to hold the dictatorship in Cuba accountable for the deaths of these activists or to question the death of a high profile civic leader such as Ladies in White founder Laura Pollán over the past four years.

Funeral of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas

Only a smattering of countries called for an international investigation into the death of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. We are grateful to countries like the Czech Republic, who spoke up for Oswaldo, but unfortunately, they were the exception not the rule. The failure to address the death threats, brutal beatings and deaths in Cuba over the past four years have had and will continue to have dire consequences. 

This indifference will invite the deaths of more nonviolent dissidents in Cuba.


 


 

Cuba undergoes its 2nd Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council today

"Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness." - W.L. Watkins 

Human Rights Activists calls on Human Rights Council to analyze repression in Cuba

The state of Cuba undergoes its second quadrennial evaluation at the 16th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the United Nations Human Rights Council today beginning at 2:30pm and ending at 6:00pm Geneva time and can be viewed here in real time. It is a quadrennial review conducted between states. The Cuban dictatorship is doing everything possible to circumvent and subvert the process.

The UPR itself is a peer review which means that only states can participate and as the Heritage Foundation has observed it can turn the process into a "mutual praise society" for repressive regimes. In addition to this, the Cuban government flooded the non-governmental organization submissions with GONGOS (Governmental Non-Governmental Organizations) to subvert the summary prepared by the Office of the High Commisioner for Human Rights of NGO submissions.

The totalitarian state in Cuba controls all mass media and is churning out propaganda to cover up its dismal human rights record. Finally, although Cubans on the island do not have easy access to the internet the dictatorship is engaged in a full out offensive in social media and twitter. Nevertheless it will fail in 2013 as it did during its first review in 2009 because the truth does get out despite all of the Cuban regime's desperate maneuvers. You can play a role in frustrating the regime's designs by tweeting about human rights violations in Cuba using hash-tags such as #UPR16, #CubaUPR, and #Cuba #UPR along with concrete, well documented information on outrages committed over the past four years. Think about it for a moment, just a partial list of the activists who have died extrajudicially over the past four years: Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto García, Laura Pollán, Wilman Villar Mendoza, Harold Cepero Escalante and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. Things are getting worse not better. The trends are troubling for human rights defenders.

The Universal Periodic Review has one feature that is a threat to dictatorships and that is that anyone who produces a report can submit it for consideration to the Office of the High Commissioner and free Cubans in the island have done just that and succeeded in breaking through the regime information monopoly.

Courageous men and women in Cuba have documented and denounced human rights abuses and the systematic pattern of abuse. Reports were prepared in 2012 by international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Centrist Democrat International and inside of Cuba by the Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba [Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba], Coalición Central Opositora [Central Opposition Coalition] and the Movimiento Rosa Parks [Rosa Parks Movement], among others and from the Cuban diaspora the Coalition of Cuban American Women and the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

It is an opportunity once every four years to place Cuba under the world spotlight while the media is paying attention and seize the opportunity not only for states, but for independent civil society to analyze the human rights situation in Cuba and chip away at the regime's wall of impunity.

Earlier this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council two members of the Christian Liberation Movement, Regis Iglesias and Rosa María Payá were able to address the Council and demand an investigation into the deaths of their founder and their youth leader.

Never Forget: Cuban human rights defender died on May 8, 2011 from beating received by Castro agents

Juan Wilfredo Soto García died on May 8, 2011 from a beating he received 3 days earlier by agents of the Castro regime.  Today begins the first of three dates to be observed over the next seven days of great importance to Cuba.

Juan Wilfredo Soto García beaten to death by Castro agents

 
On Thursday May 5, 2011 at approximately 9am, two national police officers reportedly approached Juan Wilfredo Soto García in Leoncio Vidal Park, asked him for his ID and then asked him to leave the park. After refusing to comply and protesting verbally against the expulsion, he was allegedly cuffed with his hands behind his back then beaten with batons.

Juan Wilfredo Soto García was arrested and detained at a police station, then hospitalized later that day. He was released from the hospital the same afternoon only to return the following day, complaining of severe back pain. Juan Wilfredo was then admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and died in the early hours of Sunday morning, May 8, 2011.He died on Mother's Day.



Juan Wilfredo Soto García's mother speaks about the loss of her son (In Spanish) 

A local source told Amnesty International that, by chance, he met Soto García as he was going to the hospital on May 5th. According to the source, Soto García said "I just got a beating in the park with batons and I’ve got a very sore back. These people killed me." Hospital sources have reportedly stated he died from acute pancreatitis, a condition which can be triggered by abdominal trauma and commonly causes severe back pain. Juan Wilfredo Soto García, 46, belonged to the Central Opposition Coalition (Coalición Central Opositora) and the previously unrecognized opposition organization Foro Antitotalitario Unido, (United Anti-totalitarian Forum) and according to Amnesty International Juan Wilfredo "had previously been imprisoned for 12 years for his political activities."


Prior to his beating and death, Juan Wilfredo Soto García described threats made against his life by Cuban state security agents (In Spanish).

Parallel to the Cuban dissident's death, an effort to deny both his past human rights activism; the circumstances surrounding Juan Wilfredo's extrajudicial killing and the dictatorship's complicity by an extensive propaganda campaign combined with  the blunt intimidation of the family of the victim.  Amnesty International called for an investigation into his death which over a year later has not been conducted.  The Cuban dictatorship has sought to deny Juan Wilfredo Soto García's status as a former political prisoner and human rights defender in order to portray him as a common criminal. They've done it both before with numerous victims of the regime and after Juan Wilfredo's death with two later regime victims: Ladies in White founder, Laura Pollán who died under mysterious circumstances on October 14, 2011 and  Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar Mendoza who died on hunger strike on January 19, 2012. It is a standard operating procedure of totalitarian regime's like the one operating in Cuba. Not only do they physically kill you but also slander and attempt to marginalize your importance and if possible make you a nonperson.

In addition to Amnesty International, 12 former Cuban prisoners of conscience from the 2003 Black Cuban Spring met on Saturday, June 4, 2011 and petitioned the Cuban regime for an independent investigation into the May 8, 2011 death of Juan Wilfredo Soto García in a document called The Declaration of El Roque. Others continue to badly beaten and denied adequate medical care in Cuba and their lives remain at risk. It is for that reason and the continuing demand of justice for Juan Wilfredo Soto García that we must never forget.