Venezuelan prisoner of conscience held incommunicado: Leopoldo López not seen since April 7, 2017

Concerned that Leopoldo López has not been seen in a month, and rumors about his health because of  how Cubans who advise Maduro murdered Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

Further information on UA: 33/14 Index: AMR 53/6078/2017 Venezuela Date: 18 April 2017

 URGENT ACTION PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE HELD INCOMMUNICADO

By Amnesty International

Venezuelan prisoner of conscience, Leopoldo López, has been kept incommunicado since 8 April. He has been placed in solitary confinement for reasons that have not been disclosed by the authorities. During this time, he has been illegally denied visits from his lawyer and family. 

On 8 April prison authorities denied Leopoldo López’s family the right to visit him, and informed them that he was currently serving 15 days in solitary confinement. Leopoldo López was last seen on 7 April, and since 8 April his lawyers and family have been repeatedly denied access to visit him. Leopoldo López’s lawyers were not notified of the process or decision to place him in solitary confinement, nor of the contents or basis for this decision. As a result, he has been denied his right to a defence. 

Leopoldo López, leader of the opposition party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular), has been in detention since 18 February 2014 at CENAPROMIL (Centro Nacional de Procesados Militares), a military prison in Los Teques, on the outskirts of the capital, Caracas. He is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately and unconditionally, as his detention is arbitrary, the charges filed against him were never adequately substantiated and his sentence was clearly politically motivated.

Placing Leopoldo López in solitary confinement is an unlawful way of justifying his incommunicado detention, and violates his personal integrity and his right to a defence and private and family life. Leopoldo López has been placed in solitary confinement on numerous occasions, and his lawyers believe that this punishment has been used systematically against him, which contradicts the exceptional nature of such practice.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

•  Demanding the Venezuelan authorities immediately grant Leopoldo López free and private access to his family and lawyers of his choosing; 
•  Urging them to guarantee his personal safety; 
•  Calling on them to release Leopoldo López immediately and unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of conscience who was arbitrarily detained and sentenced without any credible evidence against him. 

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 30 MAY 2017 TO: 

Minister of the Interior and Justice Gen. (Ej.) Néstor Luis Reverol Torres Ministerio del Interior y Justicia Avenida Urdaneta Esquina de Platanal Edificio Interior y Justicia Despacho del Ministro  Caracas, Venezuela Fax: +58 212 506 1685  Twitter: @NestorReverol Salutation: Dear Minister/ Señor Ministro 

Minister of Defense Chief General Vladimir Padrino  Fuerte Tiuna, Edif. Sede del Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Defensa,  Caracas, Distrito Capital, Venezuela Email: mppdrrii@gmail.com Twitter: @vladimirpadrino Salutation: Dear General/ Señor General

Ombudsperson  Dr. Tarek William Saab Av. Urdaneta, Frente El Universal Financiero Latino, Piso 27 Caracas, Venezuela Fax: +58 212 507 7025 Email: contacto@defensoria.gob.ve  Salutation: Dear Ombudsman/ Señor Defensor
 

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the seventh update of UA 33/14. Further information: www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr53/2449/2015/en/

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Leopoldo López, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular), surrendered before the National Guard on 18 February 2014 after leading a protest. He was charged with a series of crimes, including terrorism, homicide, severe bodily harm, public incitement, damage to property, arson, and conspiracy to commit a crime. He has been imprisoned ever since. 

In August 2014, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions qualified Leopoldo López’s detention as arbitrary and the High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded his immediate release. 

On 13 February 2015, Leopoldo’s cell was raided by prison guards, who broke and damaged some of his personal belongings, such as photographs and documents, in what was considered an intimidation tactic. 

On 10 September 2015, Leopoldo was sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison for conspiracy, arson, incitement to commit a crime, and damage to public property. On 13 August 2016, the Appeals Court upheld this ruling. 

On 6 December 2016, the Council for the Protection of Children and Youth of the municipality of Chacao ordered the prison Director to allow visits from his children, which were being denied at the time. 

Name: Leopoldo López Gender m/f: Male

Further information on UA: 33/14 Index: AMR 53/6078/2017

Issue Date: 18 April 2017

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr53/6078/2017/en/

All eyes on Venezuela September 1st: “The Grand Taking of Caracas”

"Cuba is the sea of happiness. Towards there goes Venezuela. " - Hugo Chavez, March 8, 2000

“The Grand Taking of Caracas: Gathering Points”

 The democratic opposition in Venezuela having received an electoral mandate late last year that gave it control of the National Assembly has confronted a regime that has undermined the rule of law, allowed Cuban military and intelligence officials to call the shots in repression, and that has engaged in maneuvers to undermine the Assembly's capacity to govern. This has led to the call for a recall on the rule of Nicolas Maduro and free election for his replacement in accordance with the constitution.

Ignoring the demands of the citizenry the Maduro regime is attempting to block or delay the recall to maintain Chavista control. In response, the democratic opposition has called on the citizenry to nonviolently gather on September 1st in the capital of Caracas in order to pressure electoral boards to allow the recall vote.  This protest is called "The Grand Taking of Caracas" and has seven different gathering points across the Venezuelan capital.

The Maduro regime has responded preemptively arresting nonviolent democratic opposition activists and manufacturing false charges against them. The arrest of Yon Goicoechea, a young political leader and family man, forcibly taken by men in unmarked vehicles Monday morning is a chilling example compounded by the sinister and manufactured slanders against him by Diosdado Cabello later that same day.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights issued a press release in which it describes some of the other repressive tactics used by the Maduro regime against the democratic opposition.

At around 3AM on August 27, political leader Daniel Ceballos, who was at his home under house arrest, was transferred to the prison “26 de julio” in San Juan de los Morros. Likewise, on August 28 at 10PM SEBIN agents raided the home of political leader Lester Toledo without a warrant. 

Opposition leaders in 2016 are still being murdered in Venezuela and the international community must pay attention to this disturbing trend especially with this upcoming opposition protest on September 1st. There is every reason to fear for Yon's life as well as the lives of other prisoners of conscience.

Venezuelan activist Yon Goicoechea (center) kidnapped this past Monday

Venezuela is in the midst of a profound crisis as the Maduro regime, with the help of their Cuban advisors, transform the country into a totalitarian dictatorship. This is taking place in an international environment that over the past decade has seen a retreat both in human rights and the defense of democratic institutions. The leftist regime in Nicaragua is also becoming a dictatorship along the Chavez model.

Despite the claims made by Nicolas Maduro that the United States is behind the September 1st protest organized by Venezuela's democratic opposition and is promoting a coup d'etat against his regime the reality is that Western Democracies, including the United States have abandoned Venezuela's democrats.

In Latin America the center-right government of Macri in Argentina is blocking efforts to censure the Venezuelan regime for its anti-democratic practices in favor of backroom deals to obtain the support of Caracas at the United Nations on a key vote.

Obama with Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro  (April 2009)

The Obama administration and the Kerry State Department have abandoned democracy promotion for the pursuit of stability and maintaining the status quo, and are willing to collaborate with whoever can accomplish that realpolitik objective. It is important to remember that Secretary of State John Kerry in  August of 2015 said "the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis." The news today that the Chavista judge who sealed the fate of Venezuelan hunger striker Franklin Brito in 2010 now pursuing political asylum in the United States speaks volumes about the Obama administration's posture to the regime in Venezuela.

The Washington Post Editorial Page Editor in his August 28, 2016 OpEd "What the world could lose in America’s presidential election" highlighted the Obama administration's global abandonment of human rights and democracy promotion beginning in 2009:

But democracy promotion faded as a goal once Obama moved into the White House. In negotiations with China, Iran, Cuba and North Korea, human rights were never a priority. [...] How far the administration evolved from Obama’s 2007 vision can be measured in an article by Vice President Biden in the current issue of [Foreign Affairs] that barely mentions democracy or human rights. Biden sets tasks for the next administration to achieve a “more peaceful and prosperous future,” none explicitly related to freedom: deepening alliances in Asia and the Western Hemisphere, addressing climate change and terrorism, improving ties with regional powers.

What is taking place in Venezuela is the result of the decision by both Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro to impose the Cuba model on the Venezuelan people, not a U.S. conspiracy as the Venezuelan regime claims. This sham can be seen by Maduro's response to neutral third parties that could objectively document the September 1st protests: rejecting the presence of international observers, and deporting international journalists.

Leopoldo Lopez with supporters on February 18, 2014 when he turned himself in

 The future of Venezuela will be decided by Venezuelans, but sadly the forces of dictatorship have international backing that the democrats do not. This means that Venezuelan democrats have only one possible path to success and that is via a carefully though out strategy of civic nonviolent resistance. The path laid out by Leopoldo Lopez through his nonviolent example has shaken the international legitimacy of the Maduro regime, earned Leopoldo the good will of tens of millions of his countrymen in Venezuela and should be followed.

Free Venezuelans may not be able to depend on democratic governments, but people of good will can and should take action by organizing, speaking out and raising awareness. For example the The Latin American network of Youth for Democracy is denouncing the ongoing wave of repression in Venezuela.  People of good will around the world need to take to social media and follow events in that South American country.

All eyes on Venezuela!
Free Leopoldo!
Free Yon!
Free all of Venezuela's prisoners of conscience!

What Leopoldo Lopez, Amnesty and HRF said about his appeal being rejected

"A decision by a court of appeals in Venezuela to uphold a 13-year jail sentence against opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López is yet another stain on the country’s crumbling human rights record." - Amnesty International on August 13, 2016

Unjustly imprisoned since February 18, 2014 and still jailed today

 Amnesty International has recognized Leopoldo López as a prisoner of conscience. A prisoner of conscience is anyone imprisoned for the non-violent exercise of their beliefs. The Venezuelan democratic opposition activist was arrested in Caracas on February 18, 2014 in what was a nonviolent moment. The Metta Center for Nonviolence defines a nonviolent moment as follows:

Coined by Yehudhah Mirsky, a nonviolent moment is a climactic event in a campaign when all of the resistors’ forces are pitted against all of the oppressor’s forces in an open confrontation. The oppressor has two choices: escalate the oppression in a way that is repugnant to the rest of humanity, or back down and concede.

The arrest, continuing arbitrary detentions and show trial of Leopoldo López is an unfolding nonviolent moment that began on February 18, 2014 and has continued for the past 2 years, 6 months, and 2 days.

Leopoldo was arbitrarily detained on February 18, 2014

The latest round has been the Venezuelan regime's appellate court ratifying the unjust 13 year and nine month prison sentence issued in a show trial on September 10, 2015.

Entering the Palace of Justice on August 18, 2016

Leopoldo himself denounced the process over twitter beginning with a grainy photo of him arriving at the Palace of Justice for the rigged judgment of the court of appeals on August 18, 2016 at 8:58am.

The Venezuelan opposition leader went on to make a number of devastating observations regarding his case:

Only in a dictatorship can it be considered a crime being committed to achieve the best Venezuela. It has always been clear to me that there will be no judge or any court of this dictatorship that will grant me freedom. With our case the unjust justice has been laid bare in front of Venezuelans and the world ...  Ironic. One of the judges today executioner, Jimai Montiel, was that boy who sang to Pope John Paul II in 1985. Brothers, Venezuelans, I ask that we turn all our indignation into action and mobilization! They can't break our fighting spirit! They can't force Venezuelans to submit! Let us go forth to conquer change and democracy. At this time, the solidarity that I ask is with our beloved Venezuela! Let us go forth with all our force next September 1st!

 Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of Human Rights Foundation stated in a press release denouncing the appellate court's decision stating:

“Terms like ‘kangaroo court’ or ‘sham trial’ do not begin to describe what has happened to López since his arrest in 2014. After the lead prosecutor confessed to having falsely charged López, the conviction would have been vacated immediately if Venezuela were a democratic nation,” said Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of HRF. “López is part of a group of prominent pro-democracy activists under dictatorial regimes worldwide who have been sentenced to dozens of years in prison for advocating basic human rights. In 2009, the Chinese dictatorship jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after he wrote a democracy manifesto, while in 2012 Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime convicted the leader of the democratic opposition, Vladimir Kozlov, of ‘inciting social hatred.’ Kozlov, whose case is very similar to that of López, was also convicted for ‘creating and managing an organized criminal group,’ which is the label the regime gave to Kozlov’s political party, in a move very similar to the one Venezuela pursued against López’s party, Voluntad Popular.” 

 Amnesty International condemned the ruling in the strongest terms:

A decision by a court of appeals in Venezuela to uphold a 13-year jail sentence against opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López is yet another stain on the country’s crumbling human rights record, Amnesty International said.
“Leopoldo López is the victim of a vicious ‘witch hunt’ against anyone who dares to disagree with the Venezuelan government. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally,” said Carolina Jimenez, Americas Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International.

 Friends of human rights and freedom need to makes this known to other American citizens and the international public. Please help to spread the word: Free Leopoldo López!

Human Rights Foundation condemns sham court proceedings against Venezuelan prisoner of conscience

Venezuela: HRF Condemns Sham Appellate Proceedings; Requests Release of Prisoner of Conscience

Leopoldo just arrived at the Palace of Justice for court of appeals rigged judgment

NEW YORK (August 18, 2016) — Today marks two and a half years since Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López was arbitrarily arrested in Caracas while leading a peaceful demonstration to the Ministry of Interior, Justice, and Peace. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) reiterates its February 2014 designation of López as a prisoner of conscience and calls on Venezuela’s authoritarian regime to release him immediately. This morning, López was formally notified of a Venezuelan appellate court's decision to uphold the 14-year sentence he was given in September 2015.

“Today, a kangaroo court of appeals sanctioned Nicolás Maduro’s desire to have Leopoldo López spend the next 12 years of his life in a military prison. Exactly the kind of decision one would expect from the brutal militaristic regime that has brought Venezuela into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” said Garry Kasparov, chairman of HRF. “López’s imprisonment and the repressive tactics used by the police, armed forces, and paramilitary groups against the opposition make it clear that the Maduro regime has lost any remaining democratic legitimacy. The free world must continue to bear witness,” added Kasparov.

During the appeal process, judges Evelin Dayana Mendoza, Jimai Montiel Calles, and Nelson Moncada Gómez of the Court of Appeals of Caracas ignored last year's confession by the now-exiled lead prosecutor, Franklin Nieves, who said he had been pressured to falsely charge López. The court also violated López's right to a defense attorney of his choosing by rejecting two Spanish lawyers serving on López’s international defense team, including former Spanish Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. López’s trial and appellate proceedings have been riddled with due process violations. The trial and appeal process consisted of over 70 hearings that took place behind closed doors, in violation of the right to a public trial. Out of over 700 hours of trial proceedings, López’s legal team had just three hours to argue in his defense. In an ostensible display of bias, trial judge Barreiros allowed 108 witnesses and 30 exhibits presented by the prosecution, while allowing only two of the 60 witnesses proposed by the defense, and declaring the bulk of the evidence exonerating López inadmissible.

Throughout the criminal proceedings, high-ranking government officials have made almost daily public statements asserting López’s culpability, in violation of the right to presumption of innocence. In fact, official television channels and the two main leaders of the regime, Nicolás Maduro y Diosdado Cabello, refer to López as “The Monster of Ramo Verde.” Ramo Verde is the name of the military prison in Los Teques, Venezuela, where over the past two and a half years López has been subjected to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in direct violation of international standards on the protection of the human dignity of persons deprived of liberty.

This morning, López appeared before the appellate court to hear a decision that had previously been announced on August 12. A picture posted today on his Facebook account (usually managed by his wife Lilian Tintori) shows a bearded and heavily guarded López entering the appellate courtroom. In addition to the appalling conditions of captivity and excessive isolation, López has spent at least a third of his time in prison in solitary confinement, having been denied the right to receive visitors, including, at times, his wife and children, as well as his lawyers. López, his wife, and his mother have been subjected to violent, invasive searches, and the confidentiality of their communications has been violated.

“Terms like ‘kangaroo court’ or ‘sham trial’ do not begin to describe what has happened to López since his arrest in 2014. After the lead prosecutor confessed to having falsely charged López, the conviction would have been vacated immediately if Venezuela were a democratic nation,” said Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of HRF. “López is part of a group of prominent prodemocracy activists under dictatorial regimes worldwide who have been sentenced to dozens of years in prison for advocating basic human rights. In 2009, the Chinese dictatorship jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after he wrote a democracy manifesto, while in 2012 Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime convicted the leader of the democratic opposition, Vladimir Kozlov, of ‘inciting social hatred.’ Kozlov, whose case is very similar to that of López, was also convicted for ‘creating and managing an organized criminal group,’ which is the label the regime gave to Kozlov’s political party, in a move very similar to the one Venezuela pursued against López’s party, Voluntad Popular,” said El-Hage.

López’s unjust arrest and incarceration have been condemned by multiple institutions worldwide, including Amnesty International, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the European Parliament. HRF was the first organization to declare López a political prisoner and a prisoner of conscience, after determining that the opposition leader had been persecuted, arrested, and imprisoned exclusively for having exercised his right to freedom of expression.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

Text taken from press release on HRF page. 

Top 15 Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter 2015 blog entries

Tough year for Cuban freedom

These are the top 15 blog entries of the year in terms of visits arranged in chronological order. George Santayana understood the importance of remembering the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. The first two blog entries turned conventional wisdom upside down reporting on the decline in trade during the Obama Administration and the brutal torture and murder of a Cuban American attorney visiting Havana, Cuba in January 2015. 

Swissleaks exposed the banking practices of the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes and how they have their own 1% living very well while the majority in their respective countries live in misery. 

The conventional wisdom views detente as something positive but the historical says different and that was explored on this blog. An example of how this approach is disastrous was seen in April in Panama with Cuban diplomats disrupting the Summit of the Americas and attacking dissidents in a public park and later organized acts of repudiation against them when they returned home to Cuba. 

Despite continuing bad acts the Obama administration  took Cuba off the list of state terror sponsors. On the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta this blog reflected on Cuba's Varela Project. Meanwhile both North Korea and Cuba made outrageous healthcare claims that were examined in this blog. This followed an examination of rising violence in Cuba in what appeared to be a correlation with U.S. outreach to the dictatorship while marginalizing and ignoring Cuban democrats that has generated a body count. 

In a presidential election year the Clinton record on Cuba was examined and found wanting. This blog also reported on the show trial of Leopoldo López Mendoza and the unjust verdict of guilt and sentence of 13 years and 9 months in prison. Cuban exiles protested against Raul Castro in New York City and against the Obama administration's Cuba policy in Washington DC. A soap opera of the Cuban music sensation Celia Cruz offered an opportunity to discuss how her music was censored in Cuba and she was banned by the dictatorship from returning. 

1. What the Associated Press left out of its story on Cuba Trade and the US Embargo

What Agribusiness and the Castro regime prefer you did not know: 1. How American agribusiness and members of Congress signed "advocacy contracts" in exchange for the purchase of exports and became lobbyists for the dictatorship. 2. How Castro dictatorship stopped making payments to trading partners of what they owed in order to buy billions in U.S. exports during the Bush years. 

Associated Press coverage of Cuba over the past few years has been a source of controversy with well founded claims of bias. On January 5, 2014 a new episode unfolded with the article by Michael Weissenstein "Figures show US-Cuba trade hit decade low last year." The first paragraph blames "long standing barriers to trade" but the second paragraph states: The statistics from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council show that U.S. farmers sold slightly more than $253 million worth of food and agricultural products to Cuba in the first 10 months of 2014. If the last two months of the year reflect similar sales levels, 2014 could be the worst year for U.S. exports to Cuba since 2004. What is not mentioned in the article is that the peak years of the Castro regime purchasing U.S. food and agricultural products was during the Bush Administration. In August of 2008 the Cuban dictatorship said that the United States was its fifth leading trade partner. With the entrance of the Obama Administration in 2009 and its policy of loosening Bush era restrictions trade between the two countries has been consistently lower.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-associated-press-left-out-of-its.html

Sunday, January 11, 2015

2. Cuban American attorney killed in Cuba last week while visiting family

Details still murky

Albert Romero killed in Cuba

Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Alberto Romero (age 39), a Tampa based marital and family law attorney, was killed in Cuba while visiting extended family last week either on Thursday night or Friday morning. [...] The victims were found after a friend of Cruz Navarro tried to communicate with him and would not respond to his calls. Shortly afterwards the owner of the home went to the room rented by Romero and found the crime scene. The two men were tied up, beaten, stabbed and in the case of the Cuban American atttorney one hand was severed according to the source. Martí Noticias obtained a copy of the death certificate.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/01/cuban-american-attorney-killed-in-cuba.html

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

3. Communists from Cuba and Venezuela with Swiss bank accounts

How communists cultivate more poverty and inequality

 The regimes in Caracas and Havana speak of social justice and defending the poor, but in practice they are the opposite of what they claim. Dictators with absolute power who once and while are revealed for who they truly are: a rich and unaccountable minority plundering the riches of once great nations whose peoples are spiraling into deeper poverty and misery.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/02/cuba-and-venezuela-communists-with.html

Friday, March 13, 2015

4. Lessons from Eastern Europe on Engagement: Poland and Romania

"I think detente had manifestly failed, and that the pursuit of it was encouraging Soviet expansion and rendering the world more dangerous, and especially rendering the Western world in greater peril." - Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. Ambassador to the UN for President Reagan

Ronald Reagan entered office on January 20, 1981 and on December 13, 1981 the communist regime in Poland had declared martial law and was cracking down on the Solidarity movement. 10,000 people were rounded up and about 100 died during martial law. Ronald Reagan in his Christmas Address on December 23, 1981 denounced the crackdown (beginning at 4 minutes into the above video) and outlined economic sanctions against Poland while demanding that the human rights of the Polish people be respected. 

Thursday, April 9, 2015

5. The Castro Regime's idea of dialogue: The monologue of the closed fist

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. - George Orwell
 

Leticia Ramos and Augusto Monge attacked in Panama

Yesterday it was seen dramatically at Porra park in Panama City when a group of Cuban dissidents from the diaspora and the island sought to lay flowers before a bust of Jose Marti and were subjected to a violent act of repudiation by Castro regime state security. Carlos Alberto Montaner reported on twitter:  They have identified the ringleader of the attacks on Cuban democrats in Panama. It is Col. Alexis Frutos Weeden, head of Cuban intelligence in Venezuela. 

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-castro-regimes-idea-of-dialogue.html

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

6. State security organizes mobs to attack Cuban resistance leaders

 Update: State security agents repeatedly made death threats against Jorge Luís García Perez “Antunez” in reprisal for his trip to Panama and the Summit of the Americas

Jorge Luís García Perez “Antunez and Iván Fernández Depestre

ACT OF REPUDIATION ORDERED AGAINST JORGE LUÍS GARCÍA PÉREZ ANTUNEZ. STATE SECURITY OPERATION AND CASTRO MOBS SURROUND HIS HOME

Link to audio denouncing regime action (In Spanish): https://youtu.be/n_Ulli4Q0Bk

Placetas, Villa Clara April 14, 2015. Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", National Secretary of the National Resistance Front Orlando Zapata Tamayo denounces over telephone that Cuban State Security has given orders to the populace of Placetas, to do a violent act of repudiation in reprisal for his presence as a member of the Cuban resistance last week at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.
http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/04/state-security-organizes-mobs-to-attack.html 

Friday, May 29, 2015

7. Ten reasons that Cuba under the Castro regime should have remained on the list of terror sponsors

Cuba was listed until May 29, 2015

 The regime in Cuba has a long history of sponsoring terrorism and training terrorists that the Obama administration has sought to minimize and ignore in its drive to normalize relations with the Castro dictatorship. Despite evidence that the Castro regime is linked to drug trafficking and engaged in the smuggling of weapons to an outlaw regime (North Korea in July 15, 2013) and to terrorist guerrillas ( Colombia February 28, 2015) the Obama administration today removed Cuba from the list of state terror sponsors.
http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/05/top-ten-reasons-that-cuba-under-castro.html

Monday, June 15, 2015

8. The Varela Project: Cuba's Great Charter

To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice. - Magna Carta,  June 15, 1215

Today the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta is being observed in the United Kingdom and it is important to look at societies where authoritarian or totalitarian dictatorships continue to systematically deny freedom and how citizens in those societies have appealed for change echoing elements of "The Great Charter." In Cuba, the Varela Project, under the dictatorship of the Castro brothers to date is the most serious challenge where more than 25,000 Cubans petitioned the regime to reform itself in 2002-2003.  This led to the dictatorship altering the constitution to prevent amendments that would reform the system, imprisoning scores of petition organizers in March of 2003, and on July 22, 2012 extrajudicially killing Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante of the Christian Liberation Movement who had led the initiative. This citizen's demand remains active and like the Magna Carta was not a single event but a process that is still underway.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-varela-project-cubas-great-charter.html

Friday, July 3, 2015

9. Examining Cuba and North Korea healthcare claims

"Communist political violence flowed from a utopian vision of the future, from the great goals pursued, and from the intolerance the service of these ideals inspired, as well as from an intense attachment to power. The means had to be subordinated to historically unparalleled ends that require extraordinary measures." - Paul Hollander, The Distinctive Features of Repression in Communist States

Regimes in Cuba and North Korea are totalitarian allies

 Both Cuba and North Korea are totalitarian dictatorships that have made claims of great achievements in the area of healthcare over the course of the past month. On June 19, 2015 the regime in North Korea said that it had "created a wonder drug which not only cures AIDS, but also eradicates Ebola and cancer."  At the same time North Korea has approximately 10.2 million North Koreans currently facing famine. On June 30, 2015 the World Health Organization said that the regime in Cuba had "became the first country in the world to receive validation from WHO that it has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis." This is the same regime in Cuba that tried to cover up or under report dengue and cholera outbreaks jailing doctors and reporters who warned of the outbreaks at the time in order to preserve a false image of its healthcare system. 

 http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/07/examining-cuba-and-north-korea.html 

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

10. Policy paper shows correlation between US engagement and rising repression in Cuba: The Obama Administration’s Cuba Engagement Policy and Rising Repression

“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. 

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/07/policy-paper-shows-correlation-between.html

Thursday, July 30, 2015

11. Correcting the historical record: The Clintons and The Castro brothers

Why friends of a free Cuba should be protesting against the Clintons.

Clinton and Kerry: No friends of Cuban democracy activists

 Hillary Clinton is going to Florida International University tomorrow to make a foreign policy speech in which she will apparently call for the end of the embargo on the Castro dictatorship. What is surprising is that this is news because back in June 2014 in her book Hard Choices, Hillary Clinton wrote that she had been urging President Obama to end the embargo on Cuba. Unfortunately, when advocates of normalized relations in 2015 claim that the sanctions policy has been in place for 55 years and that diplomatic relations have been nonexistent they overlook some key facts that get in the way of their narrative. [...] Bill Clinton in 1994 initiated regular contacts between the U.S. and Cuban military that included joint military exercises at the Guantanamo Naval base. ( Despite his rhetoric George W. Bush continued the practice during his presidency.) Despite this improvement of relations the 1990s saw some of those brutal massacres of Cubans that are rightly remembered such as the July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre and the February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down. The shoot down involved two planes blown to bits over international airspace by Cuban MiGs killing three American citizens and a Cuban resident who were engaged in the search and rescue of Cuban rafters. Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban spies freed by Obama on December 17, 2014, was serving a life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder for his role in these killings.  Jose Basulto, one of the survivors, who escaped in a third plane accuses the Clinton administration of complicity in the killings.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/07/correcting-historical-record-clintons.html

Friday, August 14, 2015

12. 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.

 http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-body-count-during-normalization-of.html

Thursday, September 10, 2015

13. Show trial in Venezuela sentences Leopoldo Lopez to 13 years and 9 months in prison

 All With Leopoldo!

Learned tonight that Leopoldo López Mendoza was sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison.The four student protesters charged alongside Lopez had all been released on probation. The show trial has concluded. The injustice continues. The struggle to free Leopoldo Lopez and the many others prisoners of conscience in Venezuela continues. Condemned by this judicial farce is the Maduro regime that now stands revealed as a dictatorship that imprisons its nonviolent, democratic opposition leaders. This also means that the South American country is a satellite of Cuba.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/09/show-trial-in-venezuela-sentences.html

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

14. Why we are protesting Raul Castro in New York City

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel, Nobel Lecture 1986

 

Protests on September 28th at the UN and Cuban Mission

On September 28, 2015 in New York City at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations and in front of the United Nations Cuban exiles gathered to protest Raul Castro. The question asked by many was why we were protesting? Below is an attempt to provide a succinct answer.


http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/09/why-we-are-protesting-raul-castro-in.html

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

15. Celebrating Celia Cruz and her decision to live and sing in freedom

How the Castro regime sought to censor and punish Celia Cruz for living in freedom

Celia Cruz: The Queen of Salsa

On October 21st the world will observe the 90th anniversary of the birth in Havana, Cuba of Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso better known as Celia Cruz. Last night Telemundo aired the first of an 80 part - novela of the life of the woman who would become known as the Queen of Salsa and "La Guarachera de Cuba". The first episode is available online.  However in Cuba the Castro regime continues to ban the music of Celia Cruz from the radio airwaves. She is not alone. There are other banned Cuban musicians of great importance. The above censorship is widely known, but not as well known is that when the mother of Celia Cruz was dying the Cuban musical icon was blocked by Fidel Castro from returning to Cuba to say goodbye to her mom or attend her funeral afterwards.  This practice still goes on today with Cuban dissidents in the diaspora barred arbitrarily from seeing their loved ones by the Castro regime.

http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2015/10/celebrating-celia-cruz-and-her-decision.html 

Wife of Jailed Venezuelan Opposition Leader Addresses U.N.

Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo Lopez, testified this week before the UN Human Rights Council. 

Testimony of Lilian Tintori before UNHRC, 30 June 2015

Thank you, Mr. President.

My name is Lilian Tintori and I am Venezuelan. I have the honor to make this declaration on behalf of UN Watch.

Article 2 of the Durban Declaration prohibits all forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on political or other opinions.

I am here for all the names I have on my chest and my back. They are tortured, persecuted and killed. My husband Leopoldo Lopez, opposition leader in Venezuela, unjustly in jail, is only one of many cases. I speak in his name and in the name of all those silenced, like Geraldine Moreno, assassinated in close range, and Jose Manuel Carrasco, raped with a weapon in his anus, both by state security forces.

My husband Leopoldo is in jail for speaking out against the human rights violations that occur in our country, the right to life is violated every 20 minutes, homicides last year were above 25,000, inflation, medicine and food scarcity is more that 72%. Leopoldo has been in jail for 16 month, 9 of which in solitary confinement, with inhuman treatment and torture. In 2014, there were more than 3700 arbitrary detentions. I am here as a wife, as a mother that is raising her two children alone.

My husband and opposition leaders are in jail for demanding democratic change through constitutional, non-violent methods. They have not committed any crime. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Leopoldo had been detained in violation of international law, as did the Committee Against Torture, the High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur Against Torture.

The Venezuelan government must respect the rights of all people. Today there are 75 political prisoners that should be liberated. Isolation should stop. The Tumba, a white torture center, has to be closed. The Red Cross should have access to prisons and we have to put an end to impunity.

Venezuela continues to be a member of this Council, when it violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We dream and work for a positive change for all Venezuelans. I ask this Council to demand the liberation of all political prisoners in Venezuela.

Thank you, Mr. President.