Cuba: The Continuing Tragedy

Cuba's Prisoners of Conscience

Rescue crews at plane crash site in Cuba

In the midst of mourning for the 68 passengers who died this past Thursday in a plane crash in Central Cuba we must not forget another ongoing tragedy that continues to unfold. Despite a pledge to free all the prisoners of conscience arrested in 2003 the Cuban dictatorship has not fulfilled its promise.

Meeting between representatives of Catholic Church and Cuban dictatorship

According to the agreement reached with the Catholic Church on July 7, 2010 the Cuban regime pledged that "the 47 remaining prisoners of those who were arrested in 2003, will be released and may leave the country." The agreement went on to specify that the prisoners would be released within "three to four months from now." The four month mark has been reached and 13 prisoners of conscience arrested in 2003 are still in prison, apparently because they want to stay in Cuba.

Rafael Ibarra Roque, unjustly imprisoned for 14 years

A fourteenth prisoner of conscience, Rafael Ibarra Roque, who has served 14 years of a 20 year prison sentence was offered his freedom conditioned upon going into exile which he refused and denounced as blackmail.

Furthermore, Miami's Archbishop Thomas Wenski returned from Cuba with sobering news. Raul Castro disapproved of Archbishop Wenski's statement in the El Nuevo Herald that the July 7 agreement with the Cuban Catholic Church was a step towards greater civil society participation in Cuba.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

The bottom line is that it was the sacrifice of Orlando Zapata Tamayo combined with the brutal assaults on the Ladies in White that led to both national and international pressures being brought to bear on the dictatorship that forced the regime to the negotiating table with the Catholic Church in July 2010.

Ladies in White

Anatoli Marchenko, the Soviet dissident who died on hunger strike in 1986, was correct in his observation with regards to the Soviet Union when he said: "I am convinced that publicity is the sole effective means of combating the evil and lawlessness which is rampant in my country today." Sadly, it appears to apply to Cuba today.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Also, today in Burma (Myanmar) sham "elections" are being held in a desperate attempt by the military junta (dictatorship) to legitimize itself, but thankfully the world is not buying into the lie. In honor of Aung San Suu Kyi, the last actual democratically elected president still under house arrest, remember her words for Burma and also apply them to Cuba: 'please use your liberty to promote ours'.

In Solidarity with Poland

Horrible. My prayers and thoughts are with President Lech Kaczynski, Anna Walentynowicz, and all those who lost their lives in Russia while honoring the victims of Katyn. Requiescant in pace. My condolonces and prayers for their families. Poland the world mourns with you.

Katyn massacre claims more victims wrote Laurie Bennett shortly after the news of the plane crash that killed Poland's president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland's leadership in Russia as they traveled to honor the memory of the victims of Katyn. A historic crime that still reverberates through history to the present day. 22,000 Polish officers captured by the Soviets during the 1939 invasion of Poland [ part of a simultaneous invasion by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - agreed to in the Molotov Ribbentrop non-aggression pact

There is the crime itself: the murder of the Polish officer class on the orders of Josef Stalin and the denial of the crime for a half century. The film Katyn by Andrzej Wajda, son of one of the officers murdered on Stalin's orders at the Katyn forest directed it. A trailer is available below.



Among the dead, Anna Walentynowicz, dubbed the 'Godmother' of the Polish Solidarity movement. Her firing in August of 1980 at the Gdansk ship yard led to a series of strikes that paralyzed Poland and led to the formation of Solidarity. The men and women on the flight that crashed were people who sought to remember and not forget Katyn.

The movie Strike!(2007) is a fictionalized version of her story. Below a trailer for the film: