Police send thug with hammer to attack artists under seige and on hunger strike

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.” -  Frederick Douglass

 

Luis M. Alcantara attacked with a hammer

  

Just learned that Luis Manuel Alcantara, a visual artist and human rights activist, was attacked with a hammer by an unidentified man who broke into the San Isidro Movement's headquarters tonight. This is particularly suspicious because the secret police have blocked neighbors, friends, and family members from reaching them since November 18th.

#ATENCIÓN | Ataque a la sede del Movimiento San Isidro.
Un hombre no identificado, rompió la puerta de la sede y con un martillo hirió en el rostro a @LMOAlcantara La seguridad del estado y la policía uniformada que estaban presentes, no hicieron nada por evitar el ataque. pic.twitter.com/evYPC6ckCS

— Movimiento San Isidro (@Mov_sanisidro) November 22, 2020

A group of artists and intellectuals have been surrounded by the secret police in Havana at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement since November 15, 2020. They were protesting the arrest on November 9th, and summary trial on  November 11th of their colleague Denis Solís González who was sentenced to eight months in prison for “contempt” (desacato), for speaking critically of a police officer searching his home. Denis is now serving his sentence at Valle Grande, a maximum-security prison just  outside Havana.” Below is a 2018 music video that contains political themes.

On November 18th when it became clear that officials would not allow anyone to deliver them food, and in the early morning hours of that day had used a chemical agent to poison their water supply that nine of them decided to go on hunger strike, and four of them took the additional step to also start a thirst strike. This was done to conserve food and water for those among them in a more vulnerable situation.

Cuban artist Coco Fusco has written an important essay titled "The Sound of Silence" (in Spanish) that asks the critical question: "Where are the Reuters and Associated Press journalists? Why do foreign correspondents seem to ignore the situation?" She adds that "these are extremely relevant questions that deserve serious consideration, and it is high time Cubans asked them publicly."

The San Isidro Movement is a collective of artists created in Old Havana in 2018 in reaction to Decree 349 that obliged artists to formally affiliate with the Ministry of Culture, and to obtain government permission for any of their activities.

Decree 349, signed into law in 2018, further censors artistic expression and according to Cuban artists Tania Bruguera, Coco Fusco, Enrique Risco, Yanelys Nuñez  and human rights defender Laritza Diversent in an open letter restricts "the creativity of the Cuban people and criminalizes independently produced art, limiting the ability to determine who can be an artist to a state institution." Amnesty International issued a report that described this new law as "dystopian."

This blog post closes with a recent music video by one of the hunger strikers and a former prisoner of conscience Maykel "Osorbo" Castillo that translates into English as "What are they going to talk to me about." Indeed, what are the agents of the Castro regime going to talk about when they send in a thug with a hammer to attack an artist on a hunger strike?

Cuba's Orwellian Dystopia: Where artists and doctors are jailed for defending human dignity and freedom

"If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell, 1984

No to Decree 349

Three artists were arrested on Monday, December 3, 2018 outside Cuba’s Ministry of Culture when they protested against the enactment of Decree 349, which places strict limits on artists and the distribution of art. Tania Bruguera, Michel Matos and Amaury Pacheco were arrested.

Michel Matos, Amaury Pacheco and other artists protesting Decree 349 in Cuba

Tania was released earlier today, according to EFE, but Michel Matos and Amaury Pacheco remain detained. The whereabouts of Luis Manuel Otero y Yanelys Núñez are unknown. 

Being jailed for expressing yourself is a common occurrence in Cuba.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción marked two years in prison on November 30, 2018.  Eduardo is a medical doctor, a husband, and a father of two small children. He is widely respected in his community. He is a person of impeccable moral character. 

Despite all of this, he was beaten up and arrested in front of his wife and children on November 30, 2016. He has spent 735 days in captivity, continued to suffer beatings in prison, and was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object. Both he and his family have been additionally punished, and visits and calls denied for months at a time.

Eduardo Cardet

Eduardo Cardet is a democrat, a human rights defender, and speaks his mind openly. Because of this he had been a victim of regime harassment in the past.

When Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016, Cardet was outside of Cuba. He was interviewed by international media and gave a frank assessment of Fidel Castro's political legacy and said that there was nothing positive.

This is why he is rotting in a Cuban prison and not seeing his family, or patients.

Cuba is a dystopian nightmare where artists and doctors are jailed for defending human dignity and freedom.

This needs to change.

Cuba in November 2017: Activists missing, artists arrested by Castro's secret police

Communist Cuba remains a tropical gulag

Imprisoned in Cuba for their ideas: Luis Manuel Otero and Yanelis Nuñez Leyva

A year and two months ago The New York Times featured sculptor Luis Manuel Otero and art historian Yanelis Nuñez Leyva, a staff writer for the Ministry of Culture, pushed the boundaries of the status quo.  They were behind an effort that attempted to redefine the term "dissident," removing its stigma. Today they were arbitrarily detained at the police station Chacón in old Havana and Luis Manuel's studio searched by state security.

Arbitrarily detained yesterday in Cuba.

Meanwhile Leonardo Rodríguez, a religious freedom activist and member of the Patmos Institute yesterday left in the morning to visit his elderly mother on his birthday and was detained before arriving. He is being held in the 3rd Unit of State Security in Santa Clara.

More worrisome are the disappearance of two human rights defenders in Cuba. Robert Jiménez Gutiérrez and Cesar Ivan Mendoza were traveling out of Havana to attend an event in Santiago Alvarez On October 23, 2017 and no one has heard from them since then. They are members of the Latin American Youth Network which is led by Rosa María Payá Aceved. Danilo Malddonado posted the above pictures on Instagram. Freedom House issued the following statement, describing them as disappeared on November 2, 2017.

“Cuban authorities should either confirm Robert Jiménez Gutiérrez and Cesar Ivan Mendoza Regal’s are in custody or investigate their otherwise unexplained disappearance, as family members have repeatedly asked,” said Carlos Ponce, director for Latin American programs at Freedom House. “Authorities should explain or investigate the fate of the men since the last known sighting of them, when they left their homes on October 23 for Havana’s airport for a flight to Miami but without ever boarding the aircraft. It would be a grave mistake for the Cuban government to return to era of ‘disappearing’ its critics.”

 This is communist Cuba on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first communist regime. A police state where Cubans are arbitrarily detained, artists arrested, and human rights activists disappeared. It is also important to recall that later this month on November 30, 2017 the current leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Eduardo Cardet Concepción, will mark one year in prison as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. His predecessor Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was killed under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción arbitrarily detained since November 30, 2016