Leopoldo López Mendoza and Venezuela's defining nonviolent moment

"Well brothers and sisters I ask you to continue in this fight and do not leave the street, to assume our right to protest, but to do it in peace and without violence, I ask that us, all of us that are here, all of the Venezuelans that want a change, to get informed, educated, organized, and to execute non-violent protests, the protests of masses, and the will of souls and hearts that want to change, but without hurting your neighbor. " - Leopoldo López Mendoza on February 18, 2014 in Caracas, Venezuela

Leopoldo López Mendoza

English Translation by Daniel Aponte @DanielSSTV with changes by the author of this blog

Before turning himself over to the Maduro regime for encouraging nonviolent protests Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López Mendoza addressed a gathering of tens of thousands in Caracas:

Perhaps there was a silence for a time. Leaving unclear the why of this whole fight. This fight is indeed for our youth, this fight is indeed for the students and for those who have been repressed, this fight is indeed for those who have been imprisoned, but this fight brothers and sisters, is for all the people of Venezuela, that is suffering today, is suffering making lines, is suffering scarcity, the youth have no employment, they have no future, because of the wrong model, for a model that is not implemented, but exported from other countries, that has nothing to do with the brave people of Venezuela, and that we together brother and sisters, have to be clear that we have to build an exit to this disaster. That exit brothers and sisters must be nonviolent, it must be within the constitution but it also has to be on the streets. Because we no longer have in Venezuela, we no longer have in Venezuela, a free media to express ourselves. If the media is silenced let the street speak loudly. Let the people speak, and may the streets speak with peace and with democracy.

I am now about to proceed to go towards the squad where the National Guard is to turn myself in.

(One of the reporters yells: " COME ON MAN DON'T TURN YOURSELF IN")

I am going to do it. I thought about it a lot. I'd like to let you know that these past few days, I had a lot of time to think, analyze, listen to the radio, watch TV or read what I haven’t for a while, speak with my family, and the option I had was to leave the country, but I will never leave, never. The other option, was to stay hidden in secrecy, but that choice could leave doubts among some, including some who are here now that we have something to hide. We have nothing to hide, I have not committed any crimes, I am not a criminal, I do not have to hide, then the other option is to turn my self in, and I ask you, and beg you with my heart, that when I pass by and turn myself in, that you keep calm, we have no other option. I do not want any more violence or confrontation, so I ask for your understanding, for your organization and your discipline.

I would like to thank everyone, but especially someone who has given me strength, a person that today represents my strongest pillar to be here with you, my wife Lilian who is here.

Well brothers and sisters I ask you to continue in this fight and do not leave the street, to assume our right to protest, but to do it in peace and without violence, I ask that us, all of us that are here, all of the Venezuelans that want a change, to get informed, educated, organized, and to execute non-violent protests, the protests of masses, and the will of souls and hearts that want to change, but without hurting your neighbor. I ask you not to lose faith, and I am sure in the name of my children, my daughter Manuela, my son Leopoldo, and like Luis Eloy Blanco once said, who is the father of one child is the father of all the children. In the name of all the children of Venezuela, I swear we will prevail and that soon we will have a Free and Democratic Venezuela.

Óscar Elías Biscet Presents Manifesto for Democracy in Cuba

Cuban opposition figure Oscar Elias Biscet on Wednesday presented a manifesto on which he intends to collect signatures to promote a move toward democracy on the Communist-ruled island. Accompanied by about a dozen dissidents, Biscet read the document at an appearance before international media where he demanded a “total change” in Cuba because “the people are tired of tyranny.” The initiative is called Proyecto Emilia, in remembrance of Emilia Teurbe Tolon, who embroidered the first Cuban flag in the mid-19th century.  Biscet, a physician and veteran human rights activist, was among the “Group of 75” dissidents jailed amid a harsh crackdown in March 2003." - EFE & Latin American Herald, "Cuban Opposition Figure Promotes Democracy Manifesto"

Emilia Teurbe Tolón

PROJECT EMILIA

This project, imbued with a deep love of country, bears the name of one of the Cuban heroes who devoted the best of her fruitful life to the struggle for the independence and freedom of Cuba.

We refer to Emilia Teurbe Tolón,  designated in 1950 by the Congress of the Republic of Cuba, to mark the centenary of our national flag, as the incarnation of the Woman of Cuba.

Emilia was the first Cuban woman banished from our country for political reasons. She also had the honor of working on the original Cuban flag that was designed by her husband and poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón,  on the initiative of General Narciso Lopez. Born into a wealthy family in the city of Matanzas, she had the human sensitivity to donate her property to benefit the education of the poor.

Those of us who sign this document, inspired by her patriotic example, propose to carry out this project whose main objectives are: the conquest of fundamental human rights, democracy and freedom of the Cuban people.

We assume that Cuba's communist regime bases its legality in the 1976 Constitution, as amended in 2003. In article 69, the Constitution refers to the People's National Assembly as the organ of state power. It also adds that the assembly represents and expresses the sovereign will of the people. To leave no doubt, Article 70 states that the National Assembly of People's Power is the only body with constituent and legislative authority in the Republic of Cuba.

Whereas: We have confirmed for years that the National Assembly of People's Power has transgressed to cede their sovereign rights and power the Council of State.

Whereas: We verified that the National Assembly of People's Power has complied passively and given legal force to all Decree-laws adopted by the Council of State.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has lost its sovereign power by accepting the mandate of the Council of State in convening extraordinary sessions. 
Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has infringed on the freedom of our people by allowing the Council of State to declare as irrevocable in the National Constitution social, political, and ideological ideas contrary to the interests of the Cuban people.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has violated the respect for the views of minorities enshrined in the world's most advanced constitutions and granted extreme power to docile majorities.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power, violating the constitutional principle of the separation and independence of powers, has given the Council of State the power to issue guidelines and impose decisions on the Judiciary.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has ignored the popular will and limited civic freedom by subordinating it to the Local Assemblies of People's Power.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has stipulated that the Local Assemblies of People's Power are subordinated to the Council of State.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has stifled freedom of expression, association, speech and press to those not aligned with the policy and ideology of the state.

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has given the government the power to strip Cubans born in our country of their citizenship .

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power, in not objecting to the measures of the Council of State that have sunk into misery and desperation our people, it has become complicit in this infamy. 

Whereas: The National Assembly of People's Power has exalted one Party above the state and the nation. 

Therefore: We declare that these laws, compiled in the 1976 Constitution, constitute an abuse of power that flagrantly violates the dignity of Cuban citizens.

Therefore: The 1976 Constitution, as amended in 2003, permanently institutionalizes the communist regime of Cuba.
 

Therefore: The National Assembly of People's Power has no validity whatsoever and ceases to be the expression of the will of the people by giving the Council of State all the prerogatives enshrined in the Cuban Constitution.

We consider that the current communist constitution violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Covenants on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations.

We agree to declare illegitimate the Communist Constitution and the National Assembly of People's Power with its organs of state power.

We call on the Cuban people to subscribe to this project to take steps toward a sovereign, democratic, free and just Cuba.

We proclaim that the new democratic and free Parliament that emerges from these exigencies is declared in Constitutional Assembly; and ratify a constitution that respects the dignity of all Cubans.  

We insist that the Constitution contain the bases for the democracy and freedom that so many of our compatriots from our wars of independence have fought and given their lives for.

We demand that the legal system of our country has as a base the democratic principles that prevail in other nations of the civilized world. These are: sovereignty of the people, government based on the consent of the governed, majority rule, minority rights, guarantee of basic human rights, free and fair elections, equality before the law, due process, constitutional limits on government, independent balance of powers, social , economic and political pluralism; as well as the values ​​of tolerance, pragmatism, cooperation and compromise.  

Unfortunately, we have seen through more years than we would like to recall how Cuba's communist regime has not conceded even one atom of freedom and has rigidly and arbitrarily resisted any changes that would ensure a decent life for our people.

Consequently, we have no alternative but to launch the non-violent political challenge to realize the freedom of our people. To do this, we ask the assistance and protection of God, and we ask the Creator to guide us in this just cause for the freedom and prosperity of the Cuban people.

VIVA CUBA LIBRE!

Given in Havana, Cuba, on January 9, 2013 

Source: Blog Punt de Vista

Original Text in Spanish: 

 

PROYECTO EMILIA

Este proyecto, imbuido de un profundo amor patrio, lleva el nombre de una de las heroínas cubanas que dedicó lo mejor de su vida fructífera a la lucha por la independencia y la libertad de Cuba.

Nos referimos a Emilia Teurbe Tolón, designada en 1950 por el Congreso de la República de Cuba, con motivo del centenario de nuestra Bandera Nacional, como la Encarnación de la Mujer de Cuba.

Emilia fue la primera mujer cubana desterrada de nuestra patria por motivos políticos. Tuvo además el honor de laborar en el original de la bandera cubana que fuera diseñada por su esposo y poeta Miguel Teurbe Tolón, a iniciativa del General Narciso López. Perteneciente a una acaudalada familia de la ciudad de Matanzas, tuvo la sensibilidad humana de donar sus bienes en beneficio de la enseñanza de los pobres. 

Quienes suscribimos este documento, inspirados en su ejemplo patriótico, nos proponemos realizar este proyecto cuyos objetivos esenciales son: la conquista de los derechos humanos fundamentales, la democracia y la libertad del pueblo cubano. 

Partimos de la base de que el régimen comunista de Cuba fundamenta su legalidad en la Constitución de 1976, con sus modificaciones de 2003. En su artículo 69, esta Constitución designa a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular como el órgano de poder del Estado. Asimismo añade que dicha asamblea representa y expresa la voluntad soberana de todo el pueblo. Para no dejar dudas, en su artículo 70 afirma que la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular es el único órgano con potestad constituyente y legislativa en la Republica de Cuba. 

Por Cuanto: Hemos confirmado durante años que la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha prevaricado al ceder sus derechos soberanos y su poder al Consejo de Estado. 

Por Cuanto: Hemos verificado que la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha acatado pasivamente y dado fuerza legal a todos los Decreto-leyes adoptados por el Consejo de Estado. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha perdido su poder soberano al aceptar el mandato del Consejo de Estado en la convocatoria a sesiones extraordinarias. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha atentado contra la libertad de nuestro pueblo al permitir que el Consejo de Estado declare como irrevocables en la Constitución Nacional ideas políticas, sociales e ideológicas contrarias a los intereses del pueblo cubano.

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha violado el respeto a la opinión de las minorías plasmado en las constituciones más avanzadas del mundo y otorgado extremo poder a mayorías dóciles. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular, violando el principio constitucional de la separación e independencia de poderes, ha otorgado el Consejo de Estado el poder de dictar pautas e imponer decisiones sobre el Poder Judicial. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha desconocido la voluntad popular y limitado la libertad ciudadana al subordinar a ella las Asambleas Locales del Poder Popular. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha estipulado que la Asambleas Locales del Poder Popular están subordinadas al Consejo de Estado. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha asfixiado la libertad de expresión, asociación, palabra y prensa a los que no se alineen a la política e ideología del Estado. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha otorgado al gobierno la potestad de despojar de su ciudadanía a cubanos nacidos en nuestro territorio nacional. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, al no objetar las medidas del Consejo de Estado que han hundido en la miseria y la desesperación a nuestro pueblo, se ha hecho cómplice de esa infamia. 

Por Cuanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular ha exaltado a un Partido por encima del estado y de la nación.



Por Tanto: Declaramos que estas leyes, compiladas en la Constitución de 1976, constituyen un abuso de poder que viola flagrantemente la dignidad de los ciudadanos cubanos. 

Por Tanto: La Constitución de 1976, modificada en el 2003, institucionaliza de manera permanente al régimen comunista de Cuba.

Por Tanto: La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular carece de toda validez y deja de ser la expresión de la voluntad del pueblo al otorgarle al Consejo de Estado todas las prerrogativas consagradas en la Constitución Cubana.

Consideramos que la vigente Constitución comunista viola la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos y los Pactos de Derechos Humanos Civiles y Políticos de las Naciones Unidas. 

Concordamos en declarar ilegitima a la Constitución Comunista y a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular con sus órganos de poder del Estado. 

Convocamos al pueblo cubano a que suscriba este proyecto para dar pasos hacia una Cuba soberana, democrática, libre y justa. 

Proclamamos que el nuevo Parlamento democrático y libre surgido de estas exigencias se declare en Constituyente; y rubrique una Constitución que respete la dignidad de todos los cubanos.

Insistimos en que esta Constitución contenga las bases de la democracia y la libertad por la que han luchado y ofrendado sus vidas tantos de nuestros compatriotas desde nuestras guerras de independencia. 

Demandamos que el ordenamiento jurídico de nuestra patria tenga como base los principios democráticos que predominan en otras naciones del mundo civilizado. Estos son: Soberanía del pueblo, gobierno basado en el consentimiento de los gobernados, gobierno de la mayoría, derechos de las minorías, garantía de los derechos humanos básicos, elecciones libres y transparentes, igualdad ante la ley, debido proceso judicial, límites constitucionales al gobierno, equilibrio de poderes independientes, pluralismo social, económico y político; así como los valores de tolerancia, pragmatismo, cooperación y compromiso.

Por desgracia, hemos visto a través de más años de los que quisiéramos recordar como el régimen comunista de Cuba no ha concedido ni un átomo de libertad y ha resistido de manera rígida y arbitraria cualquier cambio que garantice una vida digna para nuestro pueblo. 

Por consiguiente, no nos queda otra alternativa que poner en marcha el desafío político no violento para hacer realidad la libertad de nuestro pueblo. Para ello, suplicamos la asistencia y la protección de Dios, así como le pedimos al Creador que nos guie en esta justa causa para lograr la libertad y la prosperidad del pueblo cubano. 

¡VIVA CUBA LIBRE! 

Dado en La Habana, República de Cuba, el 9 de enero de 2013

Fuente: Blog Punt de Vista

Oswaldo Payá, nonviolence and the price of freedom

"We do not want savage capitalism; we already have savage communism. Please, no more savage things." - Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas

Ten years ago today, Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas was in Strasbourg, France at the European Parliament receiving the  2002 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. He was the first Cuban to be awarded this great honor named after a courageous Russian dissident and nuclear physicist. Its hard to believe that ten years have already passed since that day when Oswaldo spoke to the world about the aspirations of Cubans to live in freedom with dignity.

Oswaldo in Strasbourg receiving the Sakharov Prize

It is even more difficult to know that Cubans have lost a great Christian nonviolent leader who would have been a critical force for offering a much needed combination of principled yet pragmatic leadership in the midst of a democratic transition.

Although we have lost the physical presence of the man his writings and example live on as does the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) that he founded.

Oswaldo Payá in the European Parliament on December 17, 2002

 With that in mind, today is a good day to review and reflect on some of the key ideas that he expressed in the heart of the European Union ten long years ago. Let us also remember that he could have stayed and become another Cuban exile but instead made the decision to return to Cuba and risk everything for the freedom of his homeland.

On nonviolence as a mechanism for real change:

"Father Felix Varela has taught us that independence and national sovereignty are inseparable from the exercise of basic rights. We Cubans – whether we live in Cuba or in the diaspora – are a single people and we have both the determination and the ability to build a just, free and democratic society, without hatred and without the desire for revenge. In the words of José Marti, ‘With everyone and for everyone’s benefit’."

"We have not chosen the path of peace as a tactic, but because it is inseparable from the goal for which our people are striving. Experience teaches us that violence begets more violence and that when political change is brought about by such means, new forms of oppression and injustice arise."

 "This time we shall bring about change by means of this civic movement which is already opening a new chapter in Cuba’s history, in which dialogue, democratic involvement, and solidarity will prevail. In such a way we shall foster genuine peace. Cuba’s civic combatant heroes – the ordinary people who have signed the Varela Project – carry no weapons. Not a single hand is armed. We walk with both arms outstretched, offering our hands to all Cubans as brothers and sisters, and to all peoples of the world."

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."

 
 On how human rights and economic and social well-being are interrelated:

"There are still those who perpetuate the myth that the exercising of political and civil rights is an alternative to a society’s ability to achieve social justice and development. They are not mutually exclusive. The absence of any civil and political rights in Cuba has had serious consequences such as inequality, the poverty of the majority and privileges of a minority and the deterioration of certain services, even though these were conceived as a positive system to benefit the people."

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that well-being and economic and social progress are the fruits of being able to exercise one’s rights. In the same way, a democracy is not genuine and complete if it cannot initiate and sustain a process that raises the quality of life of all its citizens, because no people would freely vote for the kind of poverty and inequality that results in the masses becoming disadvantaged and marginalized. The peoples of Latin America are calling for a genuine democracy which will enable justice to be established. It is scandalous that methods intended to overcome a crisis and end poverty can be applied in the name of efficiency when in reality they threaten to obliterate the poor."

"We now know that any method or model which purportedly aims to achieve justice, development, and efficiency but takes precedence over the individual or cancels out any of the fundamental rights leads to a form of oppression and to exclusion and is calamitous for the people."

On importance of international solidarity keeping humanity in globalization:

"The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized."

"If there is no solidarity between people we will be unable to preserve a fair world in which it is possible to continue living as human beings. I therefore humbly believe that rather than new models, both for societies and for relations between countries, what we need is a new spirit."  

He closed his speech affirming the Christian foundation of his movement:

"We dedicate this prize and our hopes to the Lord Jesus, born in a lowly manger. Thank you and Merry Christmas." 

In the end Oswaldo paid the ultimate price for freedom.  Let us remember and honor him by seeking the truth about the circumstances surrounding his death and the death of MCL youth leader Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012.

The Courageous Ferrer García Family

A tale of two brothers and their sister

"You have to pay a great cost but it is worth it to pay it. Because when you live in a nation when the most elemental rights are violated to submit to it, I think is to pay a greater cost then to confront those who violate those rights. That is to say that I have made mine a phrase by Henry Thoreau, the North American writer. I used it a lot in prison when they asked me why I didn't accept the proposal made to me to leave the country in order to leave the prison. I always said, like Thoreau, that in a country where fundamental rights are violated the best place for an honorable man is a prison. I preferred prison to being on the street and witness that my people's rights are being violated and do nothing." - José Daniel Ferrer García, February 13, 2012 Estado SATS

Luis Enrique Ferrer García, Ana Belkis Ferrer García, and José Daniel Ferrer García before the 2003 crackdown

The Castro regime wanted to execute José Daniel Ferrer García in 2003 requesting the death penalty in a show trial but the international outcry caused them to back down and sentence him to a 25 year prison sentence instead. After the untimely and sinister death of Cuban Lady in White founder, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo on October 14, 2011 the threat to José Daniel's life cannot be underestimated. Like Laura Pollán,  José Daniel has a nonviolent strategic vision and an ability to mobilize and organize people combined with great courage. He has founded the opposition movement the Patriotic Union of Cuba. In the midst of a violent crackdown in August of 2011 Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia made the following call to action for a free Cuba over twitter:

• To democratize Cuba we should obtain the massive growth of the resistance. For the resistance to become massive we need rapid and effective communication with the populace.
• To achieve change in Cuba, we have to reach the people. For rapid communication with the populace, we need the technical means.
• We cannot advance more in the democratization of our homeland for lack of technical means and the resources for them.
• There is no struggle for the good without loses and without risks. Who fears the risks never will achieve any advance in the struggle. Being careful is one thing, not risking is something very different. Great achievements are not obtained without great sacrifice.

Conversation on SATS with Berta Soler and José Daniel Ferrer García (In Spanish)

Yoani Sanchez in her latest blog post: “Why José Daniel?” has written a beautiful and moving tribute about José Daniel Ferrer García, a brave hero, describing his relevance and current threat to the Castro regime but much more needs to be said about this courageous man and his equally brave brother Luis Enrique Ferrer García and sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García.

They were born into a working class family in the neighborhood of Manganeso in Santiago de Cuba. Fisherman, who like their Biblical counterparts, became the fishers of men. Both brothers began their activism in the opposition in the Movimiento Cubano de Jóvenes por la Democracia (Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement), and by the mid nineties had become members of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement), as a leader of which José Daniel emerged in Santiago de Cuba and Luis Enrique in Las Tunas.

Both Jose Daniel and Luis Enrique were regional leaders who also became regional organizers of the Varela Project. They both played in important role in persuading and organizing other Cubans to knock on doors and get their fellow citizens to sign their names and giver their identity numbers in a petition demanding democratic and human rights reforms to the Cuban Constitution. Ten years ago this May 10, the first batch of 11,020 signatures were turned into the National Assembly. Less than a year later the majority of the organizers of this initiative were rounded up beginning on March 18, 2003. Seven months later more than another 14,000 signatures were turned in.

Both Ferrer Garcia brothers would face summary trials and a hostile courtroom. Both men demonstrated their courage during their respective show trials.

During Luis Enrique’s show trial on April 3, 2003 in Las Tunas, the tribunal asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. He stood up and explained to the regime’s representatives what the Varela Project consisted of: an independent citizen initiative that sought a referendum to reestablish basic rights. At the end of his explanation he invited them to sign the petition stating, “Because this is a project open to all Cubans.” Luis Enrique Ferrer received the longest prison sentence of all of those arrested in the March 2003 crackdown. He was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment. He was transferred from "El Típico" provincial prison in Las Tunas to the Combinado del Este prison after being involved in a protest with other activists caught up in the March 2003 crackdown.

In the case of José Daniel Ferrer García, Cuban officials had announced that they would seek the death penalty against him because of his leadership position in the Project Varela initiative and its national impact. At his show trial José Daniel explained that he was willing to die for his convictions but that he did not think that they had the guts to do it. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Despite the harsh conditions and constant harassment by prison officials he continued his nonviolent resistance activism.


 Ana Belkis Ferrer García in 2010 denouncing treatment against her imprisoned brothers by the regime.

With both brothers in prison their sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García became active in the Ladies in White, a group of women that came into existence during the 2003 Black Spring and sought the freedom of their imprisoned loved ones. Confronting violent mobs with nonviolent resistance and persistence in regular protests and actions to demand their freedom. She would engage in solidarity hunger strikes when her brothers had gone on hunger strike do to some mistreatment they were suffering in order to highlight their plight.

José Daniel refused to be forced to choose between prison and exile. Luis Enrique suffering from ten chronic pathologies held out as long as he could but left with his wife and some of his family for exile while José Daniel remained in prison. They paid a price for wanting to stay. According to the agreement announced by the Catholic Church the last of the prisoners were supposed to have been freed on November 7, 2010 and Luis Enrique was only released into exile on November 19, 2010 and Jose Daniel was one of the last two of the group of the 75 to be released on March 24, 2011. Unlike many others who were taken from their prison cells to the airport, José Daniel was one of 12 who left his prison cell and returned home eight years after being unjustly imprisoned in The Black Spring.


Luis Enrique Ferrer García addresses human rights summit in Geneva in early 2011

His brother, Luis Enrique Ferrer García, campaigned for his release from exile and spoke at an international human rights conference in Geneva calling for his brother’s freedom. This also led to Jose Daniel's wife frustrated and outraged undergoing a hunger strike to demand her husband’s freedom. More than four months after the deadline he was finally released after more than eight years. Since the latest detention of José Daniel Ferrer García on April 2, 2012, his brother Luis Enrique has organized a campaign for his release and is tweeting both from his own account and his brother’s twitter account to raise awareness and solidarity.

Please be vigilant with regards to the plight of José Daniel Ferrer García and speak up for him because his life may very well depend on it. After 24 days in detention, Cuban officials have yesterday finally made known that they plan to accuse José Daniel of "public disturbances."

The charge of disturbing the peace places him in excellent company.

Nobel Lecture on the successful nonviolent struggle in Liberia

The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work". Below is the Nobel Lecture of Leymah Gbowee that is extremely relevant to ongoing events in Cuba today.

Leymah Gbowee

Nobel Lecture

Nobel Lecture by Leymah Roberta Gbowee, Oslo, 10 December 2011

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies
Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Global Leaders
Women of Liberia, Women of Africa and Women of the world

This is the day the Lord has made and I and my sisters globally will rejoice and be glad in it.

Today marks a very historic day as the Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded to me, Tawakul, and my own President and Mother, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in honor of all women globally.

I am humbled and honored to have been selected by members of the committee and I receive the Prize in the name of women who continue to work for peace, equality and justice across the World. A moment of silence for Prof Wangari Maathai, Ms. Dheka Abdi, Ma Wleti Freeman, Ma Asata Kandakai, Ma Fatu Bah, Rebecca Flomo, Ma Klunah Brown, the seven Ivorian Women who lost their lives during the post elections violence and women across the world who lost their lives whilst fighting for peace, social justice and equality.

Early 2003, seven of us women gathered in a makeshift office / conference room to discuss the Liberian civil war and the fast approaching war on the capital Monrovia. Armed with nothing but our conviction and $10 United States dollars, the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign was born.

Women had become the "toy of war" for over-drugged young militias. Sexual abuse and exploitation spared no woman; we were raped and abused regardless of our age, religious or social status. A common scene daily was a mother watching her young one being forcibly recruited or her daughter being taken away as the wife of another drug emboldened fighter.

We used our pains, broken bodies and scarred emotions to confront the injustices and terror of our nation. We were aware that the end of the war will only come through non–violence, as we had all seen that the use of violence was taking us and our beloved country deeper into the abyss of pains, death, and destruction.

The situation in Liberia in those war years indeed re-affirmed the profound statement of Nobel Laureate, the late Dr. Martin Luther King when he said, "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones".
The women's Mass Action Campaign started in one community and spread to over 50 communities across Liberia.

We worked daily confronting warlords, meeting with dictators and refusing to be silenced in the face of AK 47 and RPGs. We walked when we had no transportation, we fasted when water was unaffordable, we held hands in the face of danger, we spoke truth to power when everyone else was being diplomatic, we stood under the rain and the sun with our children to tell the world the stories of the other side of the conflict. Our educational backgrounds, travel experiences, faiths, and social classes did not matter. We had a common agenda: Peace for Liberia Now.

We succeeded when no one thought we would, we were the conscience of the ones who had lost their consciences in their quest for power and political positions. We represented the soul of the nation. No one would have prepared my sisters and I for today — that our struggle would go down in the history of this world. Rather when confronting warlords we did so because we felt it was our moral duty to stand as mothers and gird our waist, to fight the demons of war in order to protect the lives of our children, their land, and their future.

There are many examples globally of such struggles by women. I believe that the prize this year not only recognizes our struggle in Liberia and Yemen. It is in recognition and honor of the struggles of grass roots women in Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, in Palestine and Israel, and in every troubled corner of the world.
So allow me to pay tribute to some of the giants in women's continued struggle to be free and equal. This prize is a tribute to:

• Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), for their courage in the face of arrest and torture, for remaining the voice and face of the suffering people of Zimbabwe;
• The Women of Congo, who have endured some of the worst acts of men's inhumanity to women. The World is well aware that the you still endure the horrific sexual violence that is the nature of the endless and senseless war in DRC;
• Women of Acholi Land in Uganda who in the face of the so-called Lord's Resistance Army's continued torture and rape remain advocates for peace and justice;
• Women of Afghanistan and many other places on earth where in the 21st Century women can be raped and still go to jail or sometimes be subjected to honor killing — this prize is a tribute to your cry for justice, freedom, and equality.

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, women of the world:

This prize could not have come at a better time than this; a time when global and community conversations are about how local community members and unarmed civilians can help turn our upside-down World, right-side up. It has come at a time when
unarmed citizens — men and women, boys and girls — are challenging dictatorships and ushering in democracy and the sovereignty of people;

Yes! It has come at a time when in many societies where women used to be the silent victims and objects of men's powers, women are throwing down the walls of repressive traditions with the invincible power of non-violence. Women are using their broken bodies from hunger, poverty, desperation and destitution to stare down the barrel of the gun. This prize has come at a time when ordinary mothers are no longer begging for peace, but demanding peace, justice, equality and inclusion in political decision-making.

I must be quick to add that this prize is not just in recognition of the triumph of women. It is a triumph of humanity. To recognize and honor women, the other half of humanity, is to achieve universal wholeness and balance. Like the women I met in Congo DRC over a year ago who said "Rape and abuse is the result of larger problem, and that problem is the absence of women in the decision making space". If women were part of decision-making in most societies, there would be less exclusive policies and laws that are blind to abuses women endure.

In conclusion let me again congratulate the Nobel Committee for awarding the Peace Prize to us three women. By this act you affirm that women's rights are truly human rights and that any leader, nation or political group that excludes women from all forms of national and local engagement is setting themselves up for failure.

Let this recognition serve as a renewed compact between women and World leaders, that commitments made to women through various UN and other global institutions' resolutions will be pursued with greater commitment and vigilance;
Let this be a renewed compact that the integrity of a woman's body and the sanctity of women's lives will not be subsumed under male-invented traditions;

To women of Liberia and sisterhood across West Africa who continue to band together to respond to crisis in our sub region; to women in Asia, the Middle East and the World: As we celebrate our achievement through this recognition let us remind ourselves that victory is still afar. We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph, our despair into determination and our fear into fortitude. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.

And, finally, Liberian women: thank you for making our country proud. Thank you for sitting in the rain and under the sun. This is your prize. This is our prize. The world used to remember Liberia for child soldiers but they now remember our country for the white t-shirt women. Who would have ever thought that Liberian women would have been among faces of women's global victory, but you did it. So thank you!

Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo: Without Enemies or Hatred

“This is for the lost souls of June 4th.” - Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia

Liu Xiaobo was told by prison authorities on October 9th that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. When he saw his wife Liu Xiaobo moved to tears dedicated the prize to the demonstrators killed in the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Liu Xia was placed under house arrest after returning home from visiting her imprisoned husband Liu Xiaobo, on obtaining his reaction to being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. This was reported by her on Twitter on Saturday. Liu Xia is now unreachable by phone and Chinese state security blocked visitors from her home. Activists that wanted to gather and celebrate Liu Xiaobo’s award were also detained. Amnesty International has organized a campaign to demand Liu Xiaobo's freedom and an end to Liu Xia's restrictions on movement.



The dictators and tyrants of the world along with their apologists are trembling because the Nobel Committee granted the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned Chinese dissident and the Nobel Prize in Literature to Mario Vargas Llosa, a defender of freedom and critic of dictatorship.

Today, the dictatorship in Cuba equated Cuban dissidents with the Chinese dissident awarded the prize. The regime’s spokesman did not do this to celebrate Cuba’s democratic opposition but to join with their Chinese counterparts in slandering and libeling those who dare dissent from the official regime line.



Yet, like a broken clock, when the regime drew an equivalence between Cuban and Chinese dissidents, a simple truth was revealed. It is a truth that can be seen in the similarities between Charter 77, the Varela Project, and Charter 08. Documents that challenged totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, Cuba, and China appealing to a process of reform to transition these regimes into democracies where human rights are respected.

Liu Xiaobo on December 23, 2009 made his final statement at the trial that would condemn him to 11 years in prison for exercising his freedom of expression stating:

“I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies.”

Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas addressing the European Parliament upon being awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Strasbourg, France on the December 17, 2002 declared:

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me.”

On July 16, 1999 following 40 days fasting in protest of the Cuban dictatorship Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet stated:

“To love one's neighbor is also to love one's enemy. Although in reality that qualifier-'enemy' does not exist in my vocabulary. I recognize that I only have adversaries and I have acquired the capacity to love them because in this way we do away with violence, wrath, vengeance, hatred and substitute them with justice and forgiveness.”

Separated both by thousands of miles and different traditions yet there is a profound similarity in their rejection of hatred and the concept of “the enemy.” These dissidents are all living within the truth which Vaclav Havel in his 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless offered this definition:

"When I speak of living within the truth, I naturally do not have in mind only products of conceptual thought, such as a protest or a letter written by a group of intellectuals. It can be any means by which a person or a group revolts against manipulation: anything from a letter by intellectuals to a workers' strike, from a rock concert to a student demonstration, from refusing to vote in the farcical elections to making an open speech at some official congress, or even a hunger strike, for instance."

Over the past few days large scale acts of repudiation have returned to Cuba perpetrated by agents of the regime against non-violent opponents. At the same time thousands of miles away in China the secret police gather up dissidents who want to celebrate their compatriot's Nobel Peace Prize and his wife has her phone blocked and is kept under house arrest.



All these measures demonstrate the weakness of the regimes in power that seek to perpetuate themselves by living in the lie. History has demonstrated that sooner or later they will fail, but one factor that can speed up that process is international solidarity and scrutiny. Join Amnesty International in their campaign for this prisoner of conscience and in defense of free expression and freedom of movement.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always. - Mohandas Gandhi

Women have the power: Cuba's Ladies in White

Laura Pollan, center with cast, leader of Ladies in White, a group of female dissidents, takes part in a march marking the anniversary of a major government crackdown on dissent, in Havana, Thursday, March 18, 2010. The crackdown took place in Cuba on March 18, 2003. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." - Martin Luther King Jr. Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968

“Even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Media analysis of the latest release of Cuban political prisoners tends to focus on the role of Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos or Cardinal Jaime Ortega or whether or not the Castro brothers are easing up and if they are willing to open up Cuba. That is all well and good but overlooks the most important factor in this latest round of political prisoners being released: the civic resistance and its impact in the wider population and in the regime itself.

On the eve of his assassination Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the greatest speeches of his life: "I See the Promised Land" in which he seemed to forecast his own death but he also made a number of observations critical for any non-violent resistance movement among them that: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”

The example of Cuba’s Ladies in White is an application of the above observation. Their movement was born out of repression. On March 18, 2003 the Castro regime began a crackdown in which 75 activists were rounded up, their homes searched, then summary trials and long prison sentences ranging up to 28 years in prison in what became known as Cuba's Black Spring. Twelve days later on March 30, 2003 the Cuban Ladies in White attended mass at the Santa Rita de Casia Church and began their Sunday walks. There was nothing inevitable about this movement, but without their courage and determination there loved ones would still be imprisoned.

Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall in their essay “People Power Primed: Civilian Resistance and Democratization” offer a definition of “people power” that encapsulates how the Ladies in White operated:

Protest by itself cannot pry a ruler from office because power does not come from a public show; it comes from applying force. When directed strategically by a civilian-based movement, protest is only one of many nonviolent tactics, including strikes, boycotts, blockades, and hundreds of other acts of economic and social disruption that can dissolve the political or military support beneath a ruler. The power in “people power” is best understood as the yield from detonating these nonviolent weapons.

The Ladies in White and their weekly marches defying the dictatorship’s restrictions on public demonstrations since 2003 was but one of several tactics they used in an effort to obtain their relatives release from prison. For example, in October of 2004, Berta Soler delivered a note to Fidel Castro at the Communist Party headquarters in Revolution Square demanding that her husband, prisoner of conscience Angel Moya, who suffered from a herniated disc be sent to the hospital. She then set up a vigil that turned into a three day sit-in nearby in a park next to Revolution Square along with other women from the movement on a Tuesday. State security broke up the protest at dawn three days later and drove them home. Later that day her husband had been transferred to Carlos Finlay military hospital. The petition backed by a vigil and sit-in had achieved its immediate goal.

Along the way the Ladies in White found solidarity from women, who did not have relatives imprisoned, that joined them in their marches and became known as the Ladies in Support. This development made the dictatorship uneasy because the regime has always used a strategy of isolating the opposition from the general population and this movement was tearing that dividing wall.

On February 23, 2010 prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after 83 days on hunger strike protesting the brutal and inhumane conditions in Cuban prisons. During his water only strike prison officials denied him water for more than two weeks and contributed to his death. In the arsenal of nonviolent “weapons” the hunger strike is the military equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction only in reverse.

Michael Nagler co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC, Berkeley, where he taught an Introduction to Nonviolence and Nonviolence Today. His lectures are available online, I highly recommend them. In the second lecture of his Introduction to Nonviolence in Fall of 2006 Nagler at 46:38 offers an observation on what is a hunger strike:

"You are not killing yourself but you are saying to the person that your behavior is so unacceptable that if you continue it its going to kill me. It is an extreme case of taking on the suffering that is in a situation." ...This is different from a threat because what you are saying to the person is "I am going to exhibit to you mirror back to you the ultimate consequences of what you are doing." ... "This is an act of truth. You are killing us - you are killing our people and I'm going to show you that you are doing it to awaken your conscience."

This is precisely what Orlando Zapata Tamayo was doing and its reverberations are still being felt today in Cuba and around the world. However, if it had not been for his mother and Lady in White, Reina Tamayo, battling to see her son and denouncing the abuses by Cuban state security against her and her son the news of his death would have been obscured and covered up by the prison authorities. Following her son’s death she demanded and continues to demand a thorough investigation of his death and an independent autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.

The decision of the Ladies in White to escalate and to demonstrate for 7 days straight on the seventh anniversary of the March 18, 2003 crackdown led the regime to respond by escalating its repression against them. Violent mobs organized by the dictatorship, not for the first time, brutalized them in coordination with Cuban State Security, but despite bruises, and in some cases broken bones, they continued to return each day for more after being dragged away. In the end international and domestic outrage led the regime to search for a face saving alternative.

The question raised, by Gandhi’s observation at the top of the page, is how do enough people withdraw their cooperation with a government that will shrink the government’s legitimacy and raise the costs of enforcing its will? Ackerman and Duvall in their People Power Primed essay offer an answer:

The instrument for bringing this about is a self-organized movement, which political scientist Sidney Tarrow describes as having “the power to trigger sequences of collective action” based on a unified frame for common goals. When nonviolent movements of this kind have drained a ruler’s sources of support, the results have changed history.

In the Cuban case there have been a number of actions that to varying degrees have been able to generate dramatic impacts in Cuba. However, over the past seven years, in the midst of a massive crackdown in which many opposition leaders were imprisoned, the Ladies in White maintained a focus on their specific objectives and the means to achieve them that was courageous, disciplined and led to a series of collective actions from the weekly marches following Mass at Santa Rita Church to sit-ins and interventions all in the service of the freedom of Cuba's political prisoners.

When Laura Pollán responded to the regime’s brutality stating: “They can either kills us, put us in jail or release them. We will never stop marching no matter what happens.” The dictatorship knew what its options were, and because harassment, intimidation, and beatings had not worked; realized that this movement was serious about enduring great suffering. The death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and his mother’s courageous response despite death threats and violence in February 2010 only underlined the truth of Pollán’s statement.

It also underlined the truth of strategic scholar Thomas Schelling's observation nearly a half-century ago that:

“The tyrant and his subjects are in somewhat symmetrical positions. They can deny him most of what he wants—they can, that is, if they have the disciplined organization to refuse collaboration. And he can deny them just about everything they want—he can deny it by using the force at his command.... It is a bargaining situation in which either side, if adequately disciplined and organized, can deny most of what the other wants, and it remains to see who wins.”

This latest release of political prisoners is a victory for the Ladies in White, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and Guillermo Fariñas Hernández. Nevertheless the struggle continues for a free Cuba in which the laws that imprisoned these prisoners of conscience are repealed so that systematic human rights violations come to an end. Even if in the near future Cuba's political prisoners are all released and no new one's locked up (which would be wonderful and unprecedented considering the past half century in Cuba) as long as the repressive laws, rapid response brigades, and short term detentions continue within a dictatorship in which Cubans are not able to exercise their human rights without repression the nonviolent civic struggle will continue.