"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."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Showing posts with label Rosa María Payá Acevedo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rosa María Payá Acevedo. Show all posts
Rosa María Payá, Cuba Decide and Julie Trebault, Int'l PEN at the UNHRC
Today, in the in Geneva, Switzerland Rosa María Payá Acevedo addressed the UN Human Rights Council and called for the expulsion of Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council. Below is the text followed by the video provided by CubaDecide of her presentation.
My name is Rosa María Payá, our citizen initiative Cuba Decide defends the right of the Cuban people to live in democracy, a right that is denied by the constitution imposed by the leaders in my country.
Mr. President, Cuba should be expelled from this Council for its serious and systematic violations of human rights.
In April 2022, Russia was expelled from this Council. Today we officially call for the same to be done with Cuba, under article 8 of United Nations Resolution 60/251. The Cuban government is an ally of Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine and facilitates the sending of young Cubans to the Russian army.
The Cuban government uses state terrorism against its citizens, using the following methods:
The government extrajudicially executes its opponents: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that the Cuban State is responsible for the murder of my father Oswaldo Payá, Cuban democratic leader, and Harold Cepero.
The government represses, imprisons and tortures those who think differently: There are more than 1000 people in prison in Cuba for expressing their opinion publicly. Among them Jose Daniel Ferrer, opposition leader systematically tortured and in danger of death.
The government violates fundamental human rights and prevents Cubans from prospering with the fruit of their labor, forcing the people into a deep humanitarian crisis.
Despite the hunger and repression imposed, hundreds of thousands of Cubans come out peacefully demanding a change of system to democracy.
We urge this Council to listen to the voices of our people and to demand that Cuban leaders submit to the sovereign will of the citizens. To this end, we urge the international community to demand that all electoral guarantees be respected in Cuba, including freedom of expression, association and access to information, the end of repression and the freedom of all political prisoners, with the objective of changing the system in a binding plebiscite and beginning the transition to democracy.
Mr. President, member states, it is time to stand with the Cuban people and expel Cuba from this Council.
"Cuba holds National Assembly elections Sunday, but there are only 470 candidates running for the 470 seats, with no opposition challengers and no campaigning," reports the Associated Press.
"Like in most communist countries, elections in Cuba are not aimed at
changing previously selected officials, but rather at highlighting
existing polices and mobilizing the population to support the communist
system."
This is not a secret, but established in existing regime rules.
Cuba's 2019 constitution declares
that the country is officially a one-party system with the Communist
Party serving as the "superior driving force of the society and the
state" and "orienting the communal forces" toward the creation of a
"communist society."
Internal democracy does not exist in the Cuban
Communist Party. It is a top down process.
Despite this, the Cuban dictatorship finds itself in a crisis. Cubans are losing their fear, and refusing to go along with the regime's charade.
Like a growing number of Cubans, 77-year-old Havana resident Humberto Avila says he will likely sit out Sunday's legislative elections. The retired university professor says he's done the math - 470 candidates, 470 open seats - and sees no point in voting. "That's the same number of candidates as open seats," he told Reuters. "There are no choices."
Cuban dissidents in the island are calling on citizens not to take part
in the sham. "Not attending the electoral farce orchestrated by the
regime is an act of elementary consistency with truth and justice. No to
tyranny," tweeted from Cuba Eduardo Cardet, national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement on March 24, 2023.
"Not attending the electoral farce orchestrated by the regime is an act of elementary consistency with truth and justice. No to tyranny," tweeted from Cuba Eduardo Cardet, national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement yesterday. https://t.co/pJ3z0ojS2e 14/
As Professor Suchlicki observed above, this is not a question of electing representatives in a democracy, but measuring the communist dictatorship's ability to influence or coerce mass support for the system in a vote.
This is also why they do not allow independent international observers, or independent domestic observers for today's vote, despite recognizing in law the ability of citizens to observe elections.
T @CubaDiceNO Since the early hours of the morning, the political police in #Cuba have prohibited several observers from leaving their homes with a patrol at the door. Among them, Zealandia Pérez, coordinator of #COCUDE, the #Cuban Electoral Defense Commission. https://t.co/CF2YRUMyXC
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project in their March 23, 2023 report "Political Repression in Cuba Ahead of the 2023 Parliamentary Elections"
predicted that "unaddressed grievances and repression might lead to
lower voter turnout in the upcoming elections, which could, in turn,
further undermine the legitimacy of Cuba’s next government."
With no observers agents of the dictatorship can stuff the ballot boxes, and claim whatever result they want, but internally they will know the true level of dissatisfaction within the populace.
This dissatisfaction was observed on July 11-12, 2021 when tens of thousands of Cubans, knowing what dangers openly defying the regime entailed, took to the streets of Cuba in protest.
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1923 commented the following about elections,“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will
vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will
count the votes, and how.”
The
effort to stop the poll watchers, though poll watching is permitted
under current electoral law in Cuba, hearkens back to that principle of
control alluded to by Stalin 100 years ago.
This is why Cubans should stay home, and abstain from taking part in this charade.
1. MOBILIZATION for Rights & Conditions 2. COMPLIANCE with Rights & Conditions 3. BINDING PLEBISCITE to change the system 4. TRANSITION 5. FREE ELECTIONS#IDoNotVote with the dictatorship's rules. Mobilization for #SystemChangehttps://t.co/l7TOrQzfru
One last, but important observation that many have gotten wrong. Cuba has not entered the post-Castro era.
Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado and Miguel Díaz-Canel
President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado held the title of president from July 17, 1959 through December 2, 1976. Cubans called him "president
spoon" (because he neither pricks [like a fork] nor cuts [like a knife]). It was their way of saying
he had no real power because it resided with Fidel Castro and his
brother Raul.
Miguel Díaz-Canel, the current president of Cuba is
another Dorticós Torrado, a figure head without any power. Raul Castro remains the strong man, and his son Alejandro Castro Espin, the heir apparent.
"The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage
evil than from those who actually commit it." - Albert Einstein
The 14th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
convenes in Switzerland on April 6, 2022. Over the past fourteen years this summit has been and continues to be a vital space for
dissenting voices to gather and engage in an important conversation: to
diagnose the problems challenging human rights and dignity and to do
better and be better in order to turn around the 16 year global decline in human rights.
The first edition was held on April 19, 2009, "one day before the international community gather[ed] in
Geneva to address racism, intolerance and persecution in the High-Level
Segment of the UN Durban Review Conference (DRC)" and it had a longer title, "Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy" and the tag line, "Stop Discrimination, Go for Human Rights." UN Watch,
a Geneva based NGO whose mission is "to monitor the performance of the
United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter", brought together an
international coalition of nineteen organizations to co-sponsor the
summit.
Arielle Herzog, Leon Saltiel, Hillel C. Neuer and other UN Watch staff
were the chief organizers of the first six editions and responsible for
their great success and establishing this space for dialogue. UN Watch
today continues to lead this coalition and build on this great legacy,
but it is important to return to the beginning to see how we arrived
were we are today.
The UN Durban Review Conference (DRC) of 2009 was one more example of the ongoing moral bankruptcy of the United Nations. The star speaker, and apparently the only head of state invited to speak, was Iran's notorious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who engages in holocaust denial
and has called for the destruction of Israel. This conference,
ostensibly to confront the problem of racism, began a gathering point of
the worse dictatorships on the planet to legitimize themselves and demonize Israel.
Meanwhile, in marked contrast, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy was held at the Centre International de Conférences Genève, just down the street from the Palais des Nations
UN compound where the DRC was being held. Human rights defenders,
victims of repression and political dissidents gathered to share their
experiences, bear witness, and attempt to wield real political force from
the power of human conscience. This is what the martyred Czech
dissident and philosopher Jan Patočka called the "solidarity of the shaken". This coalition called for an end to discrimination and for human rights promotion.
The first summit's inaugural speech was given by by Iranian Activist and President of Stop Child Executions, Nazanin Afshin Jam,
who outlined the human rights situation in Iran. She addressed that
under Iranian laws the life of a woman is worth half of a man's and
other sexist practices, the execution of homosexuals, and the executions
of minors. The Iranian activist also gave an overview of the summit
that began at 9:00am and ended at 6:30pm.
The inaugural summit was divided into four sessions that were tied into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Session I was titled "Racism, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity: Assessing the Genocide Convention After 60 Years" and the panel was made up by Irwin Cotler, Counsel for genocide victims and dissidents, Canadian
MP, Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch and International
Association of Genocide Scholars, Ester Murawajo, Tutsi survivor,
founder of AVEGA and Dominique Sopo, President of SOS Racisme.
Session II was titled "Resisting Authoritarianism: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Dissident Movement"
with speakers Bo Kyi, Burmese dissident and winner of the Human Rights
Prize from Human Rights Watch, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egyptian dissident,
José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Cuban dissident and prisoner of conscience,
and Esra'a Al Shafei, dissident blogger, Mideast Youth - Thinking
Ahead.
Session III was titled "Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment"
with speakers Nazanin Afshin-Jam, president of Stop Child Execution,
Parvez Sharma, Producer of the documentary Jihad for Love, and Ahmad
Batebi, Iranian dissident.
Session IV was titled "Freedom of Expression and 'Defamation of Religion'"
with panelists Mohamed Sifaoui, Journalist, Algeria, Floyd Abrams,
U.S. advocate for First Amendment press freedom, Patrick Gaubert,
President of LICRA and Member of the European Parliament.
The 2nd Geneva Summit was held on March 8-9, 2010, strategically timed
to coincide with the main annual session of the U.N. Human Rights
Council. The objective of the 2010 Geneva Summit was to give voice to
victims of
the world’s worst abusers, empowering those who suffer repression under
closed systems of government.
The program featured plenary sessions, workshops and training sessions
over two days. A large portion of the program was dedicated to
presentations—personal and compelling testimony—from victims of the
world’s worst abusers.
On March 8, 2010 gave the opening address
on behalf of the Geneva Summit Coalition for the second edition of the
Geneva Summit. Sadly, these words remain relevant today, but now the
global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties has expanded
from four to thirteen years in a row.
Regrettably, the chief international body charged with protecting human
rights is failing to live up to its mission to stop these and other
abuses. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council—as acknowledged in a
recent report by 17 of its 47 member states, supported by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of
Jurists—falls short in its handling of country situations, in the
efficiency of the process involved in highlighting violations, and in
its reactivity to crisis situations. Strong politicization of the
Council, driven by bloc-based voting patterns, has led to inaction in
face of atrocity and abuse. We saw this sad spectacle last week within
the Council, first with the secretary general of Iran’s High Council for
Human Rights denying the documented and rampant instances of torture,
executions, and mass detentions of Iranians followed by the Cuban
Foreign Minister’s speech who echoing his Iranian colleague also denied
Cuba’s horrible human rights record and to add insult to injury went on
to blame the United States for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo as
well as slander the deceased Cuban prisoner of conscience as a criminal.
Little wonder that the March 1st magazine issue of Newsweek contains an
article titled “The Downfall of Human Rights.” The article highlights
Freedom House's report "Freedom in the World," released in January, and
reveals a global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties for
the fourth year in a row, the longest drop in the almost 40 years that
the survey has been produced.
According to Summit organizers, "[m]ore
then 800 people registered to attend the summit and over 1600 watched
the live webcast. 35 dissidents and human rights activists took the
floor to condemn and testify about some of the worst human rights
situations around the world and issued a joint call for Internet
Freedom around the world."
Cuban dissident Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was denied an exit visa by the
Castro regime despite being invited to attend the Geneva Summit, but the
coalition did not stop there and started a campaign for him to attend.
In the end Nestor addressed the summit by phone, and would attend and
address the 2012 Summit in person. Still remember the powerful and
haunting testimony of Caspian Makan, human rights activist, and fiancé of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was murdered in Iran by pro-regime agents months earlier on June 20, 2009. Another speaker who made a powerful impression was Yang Jianli,
activist in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, a former political
prisoner, and founder of Initiatives for China and today a friend. The
Geneva Summit created network of activists that remain in contact and
continue to collaborate.
Cuban human rights defenders and victims of repression have had a voice
at this gathering over the past fourteen years to denounce their plight and call
for human rights and freedom for Cuba. Former Cuban prisoners of
conscience and human rights defenders Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo (2009, 2010), Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia (2011), Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina (2012), Regis Iglesias (2013), and Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya (2015), human rights defender and daughter of martyred actvist Rosa Maria Paya (2013, 2016), human rights defender Damarys Moya Portieles (2014), human rights defender and social democrat Manuel Cuesta Morua (2015), former prisoner of conscience, human rights defender and artist Danilo MaldonadoEl Sexto (2017), Sakharov laureate Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (2018), human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gutiérrez representing Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Eduardo Cardet (2019), Cuban lawyer, journalist, and human rights defender who serves as Executive Director of the nonprofit Cubalex Laritza Diversent (2020), Cuban political performance artist Tania Bruguera (2021), and Cuban visual artist and political activist Hamlet Lavastida(2022).
2013 was the last time I addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
during the fifth edition of the gathering and less than seven months
after Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante had been
murdered by State Security on July 22, 2012. Present in the room were
Rosa María Payá Acevedo, and Regis Iglesias Ramírez of the Christian
Liberation Movement. Both had addressed the meeting.
The 5th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
today is an opportunity for reflection. Unfortunately, the human rights
situation around the world has not improved over the past five years
and in many instances worsened. The question is why? Cuban democratic
opposition activist, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, when awarded the Sakharov
prize for Freedom of Thought on December 17, 2002 observed that
“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.” The past
decade has demonstrated that he was right.
Cuban state security has worked for decades trying to discredit and
silence authentic dissident voices and continues to today with their spies and agents of influence.
It is a constant struggle to frustrate their efforts. They are willing
to lie, slander, assault and even murder those who have the courage to
dissent. The 2012 killings of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero and the firing on unarmed protesters during the 11J protests in Cuba demonstrate this.
For decades Cuban victims of repression said that nobody listened, and in 1987 an award winning documentary titled "Nobody Listened"
interviewed Cuban political prisoners and human rights defenders
describing the lack of international solidarity.
Over the past fourteen
years thanks to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy their
voices have been and continue to be heard.
The next summit begins on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 9:00am Central European Time. For more
information visit the Geneva Summit website here. Use hashtags #GenevaSummit2022 and #GS22
Setting the record straight from the perspective of a new generation.
Rosa María Payá interviewed on Pan con Podcast
Back in June had an article published in Dade magazine on the revolutionary program being advanced today in the United States, and its dangerous history. Today, learned that the same magazine and its podcast, Pan con Podcast, conducted an extensive interview with Cuban pro-democracy activist Rosa María Payá Acevedo.
This is good timing because the Castro regime is pushing its victim narrative again, while hiding its brutal nature. They are complaining because the United States is cutting off currency flows to the Cuban military that is currently in Venezuela, playing a repressive role. In order to push back rather than end the military's involvement in profiting off remittance transfers by Cubans to their families in the island. They are doubling down and shutting down all the Western Union's across the country.
This should not be surprise when one considers that tons of humanitarian aide donated by the Cuban diaspora that arrived in Cuba in August 2020 has still not been released to the Cubans that desperately need this humanitarian assistance. Rosa María Payá Acevedo back in May 2020, together with the CubaDecide initiative, the Pan American Foundation for Democracy,and the City of Miami coordinated efforts for this drive to help Cubans on the island.
More than three months have passed and the communist dictatorship continues to deny this help to Cubans. Please listen to this full interview and share it with others.
Ten years earlier, Oswaldo Payá along with other members of the Christian Liberation Movement in May 2002 turned in thousands of signatures from the Varela Project, a petition that called for human rights to be respected in Cuba, and that the matter be debated before the National Assembly.
In December of 2002, thanks to lobbying and pressure from Spain, Oswaldo Payá was able to travel to Strasbourg, France to receive the European Union's Sakharov Prize and address the chamber.
In 2011, seven Norwegian members of parliament nominated Oswaldo Payá for the Nobel Peace Prize.( Václav Havel had also twice nominated Oswaldo Payá ).
Following the untimely deaths of Oswaldo and Harold, the Cuban opposition leader's
family was subjected to death threats and heightened surveillance by
state security.
Eight years later and his legacy lives on in Cuba, in the diaspora, and with his family. This past year his book "The Night Will Not Be Eternal: Dangers and Hopes for Cuba" was published and today over Twitter, in Spanish, his daughter, Rosa María Payá Acevedo, remembered her dad and this important work.
“Y todos, sin excepción, vivan dentro o fuera de Cuba, ahora seremos protagonistas de los cambios hacia la libertad y la paz, aquí en esta tierra hermosa que Dios nos dio a todos como Patria y Hogar”#OswaldoPayá, te extrañamos.
"And all, without exception, living inside or outside Cuba, now we will be protagonists of the changes towards freedom and peace, here in this beautiful land that God gave us all as Homeland and Home"
#OswaldoPayá, we miss you.
Feb 29, 1952 - Jul 22, 2012 - Rosa María Payá A.
Today, let us remember and pray for the soul of this good man, who sacrificed all for the freedom of the Cuban people.
It is also a moment to share with others how others looking from outside the Cuban experience viewed this human rights defender and Cuban patriot. Below are observations made by Norwegian members of parliament in 2011 when they nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Norwegian members of parliament nominated Oswaldo Payá for Nobel Peace Prize in 2011
Norwegian MPs nominate Oswaldo Payá for Nobel Peace Prize
A
group of 7 Norwegian Members of Parliament has nominated the Cuban
Oswaldo Payá for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. – The Nobel Prize to
Cuba’s most important oppositional leader would be an important
contribution to peace and democracy for a people who have been denied
their fundamental human rights for far too long, the MPs write in their
nomination letter.
Through nearly two decades Oswaldo Payá has
been the leading figure in a peaceful struggle for basic human rights in
Cuba. Oswaldo Payá represents all Cubans who want a peaceful change
based on reconciliation and dialogue.
– We believe the Nobel Peace
Prize would send a strong signal to the Cuban government that it is time
for change, says Dagrun Eriksen, MP, deputy leader of the Christian
Democratic Party and one of the signatories.
Oswaldo Payá has
built his work on the conviction that all human beings have inviolable
rights. He believes that the right to freedom of speech is the basis on
which to solve all other problems in society. Only when the people
themselves can express their concerns, Cuba will be able to find its own
way out of the country’s challenges.
- Oswaldo Payá recognizes that
freedom of speech and respect for fundamental human rights is a
precondition for a peaceful development, says Jan Tore Sanner, MP,
deputy leader of the Conservative Party and one of the other
signatories.
Oswaldo Payá has consistently tried to work within
the frames of Cuban law, through petitions calling for the respect for
basic human rights. When the Varela project succeeded in collecting
enough signatures to set of a referendum in 2002, the Cuban regime’s
response, however, was to arrest 75 oppositional leaders, in what became
known as the Black Spring.
Last spring, Mr Sanner and Mrs
Eriksen took the initiative to form a support group for Cuban political
prisoners in the Norwegian Parliament, including MPs from all the
Norwegian parties. Following the release of more than 40 prisoners into
forced exile last summer, 19 of them wrote a letter to the group,
proposing that they nominate Oswaldo Payá for this year’s Nobel Peace
Prize.
- The support from the former prisoners of conscience shows
how Oswaldo Payá has succeeded in gathering different groups of
dissidents in dialogue and peaceful resistance, says Dagrun Eriksen.
Jan Tore Sanner was one of the nominators behind last year’s winner Liu Xiabo.
- Oswaldo Payá represents the same peaceful struggle for human rights as Liu Xiabo, says Mr Sanner.
Payá
has continued to call for unity and dialogue between all Cubans, in and
outside the country. His National Dialogue program and All Cubans
Forum, have involved thousands of Cubans in discussions on proposals for
a peaceful change towards democracy. Payá is now again calling for a
referendum on basic human rights.
- Oswaldo Payá would be a worthy winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, say Dagrun Eriksen and Jan Tore Sanner.
"Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so
that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]" - Orlando Zapata Tamayo, letter smuggled out April of 2004*
Orlando Zapata Tamayo 1967 - 2010
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a human rights
defender who was unjustly imprisoned in the Spring of 2003 and was
tortured by Cuban prison officials and state security agents over the
next six years and ten months. He died on February 23, 2010 following a prolonged hunger strike, aggravated by prison guards refusing him water in an effort to break his spirit. He is a victim of Cuban communism.
Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was killed under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012, issued a statement
the same day that Orlando died and appeared in a photograph holding up a
photocopy of the martyred human rights defender name and image.
"Orlando
Zapata Tamayo, died this afternoon, February 23, 2010, after
suffering many indignities, racist slights, beatings and abuse by prison
guards and State Security. Zapata was killed slowly over many days and many months in every prison in which he was confined. Zapata
was imprisoned for denouncing human rights violations and for daring to
speak openly of the Varela Project in Havana's Central Park.
He was not a terrorist, or conspirator, or used violence. Initially he
was sentenced to three years in prison, but after successive
provocations and maneuvers staged by his executioners, he was sentenced
to more than thirty years in prison."
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas with photocopy image of Orlando Zapata Tamayo
Remembering Orlando Zapata
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born in Santiago, Cuba on May 15, 1967. He was by vocation a brick layer and also a human rights activist, a member of the Movimiento Alternativa Republicana, Alternative Republican Movement, and of the Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica, National Civic Resistance Committee. Orlando gathered signatures for the Varela Project, a citizen initiative to amend the Cuban constitution using legal means with the aim of bringing Cuba in line with international human rights standards.
Amnesty International
had documented how Orlando had been arrested several times in the past.
For example he was temporarily detained on 3 July 2002 and 28 October 2002.
In November of 2002 after taking part in a workshop on human rights in
the central Havana park, José Martí, he and eight other government
opponents were arrested and later released. He was also arrested on December 6, 2002 along with fellow prisoners of conscience Oscar Elías Biscet and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo.
Dr. Biscet just released from prison a month earlier had sought to form a grassroots project for the promotion of human rights called "Friends of Human Rights." State security prevented them from entering the home of Raúl Arencibia Fajardo, Oscar Biscet, Orlando Zapata Tamayo,Virgilio Marante Güelmes and 12 others held a sit-in in the street in protest and chanted "long live human rights" and "freedom for political prisoners." They were then arrested and taken to the Tenth Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, Décima Unidad de La Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR)
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was released three months later on March 8, 2003, but Oscar Elias Biscet, Virgilio Marante Güelmes, and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo remained imprisoned. On the morning of March 20, 2003 whilst taking part in a fast at the Fundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier,
Jesús Yánez Pelletier Foundation, in Havana, to demand the release of
Oscar Biscet and the other political prisoners. Orlando was taken to the
Villa Marista State Security Headquarters.
"My
dear brothers in the internal opposition in Cuba. I have many things to
say to you, but I did not want to do it with paper and ink, because I
hope to go to you one day when our country is free without the Castro
dictatorship. Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so
that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that
are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]."*
Protests for Orlando Zapata Tamayo continue
Ten years have passed but the martyred Cuban human rights defender has not been forgotten. From the beginning the regime sought to put down and silence protests and acts of remembrance for him, but failed. In March
of 2010 at the second Geneva Summit for Human Rights
former prisoner of conscience Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo testified to what had happened to Orlando Zapata. In Norway, regime agents became violent and created international controversy after a Cuban diplomat bit a young Norwegian-Cuban woman for trying to record her mom engaged in a protest remembering Orlando Zapata Tamayo in front of the Cuban Embassy in Oslo in May of 2010.
On September 30, 2010 the Canadian punk rock band I.H.A.D. released a song linking what happened to Orlando Zapata Tamayo to the indifference of Canadian tourists visiting Cuba asking the question: Where were you the day Orlando Zapata died? On May 10, 2012 the Free Cuba Foundation published a video accompanying the song, after receiving the band's permission, with images and song lyrics.
Rosa María Payá Acevedo remembers Orlando Zapata Tamayo in 2016.
On February 23, 2016 at the 8th edition of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy Rosa María Payá
gave the last presentation in which she remembered and honored the memory of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on the sixth anniversary of his passing.
On 2/19/2018 twenty activists remember Orlando Zapata Tamayo
Four days prior to marking eight years to the day that Orlando Zapata died, activists inside Cuba took to protest in the streets with banners remembering the courageous and martyred human rights activist.
The Castro regime did all it could to eliminate the memory of this humble and good man. The dictatorship failed.
Next month let us once again honor and remember the brick layer and human rights defender by writing about him, organizing vigils and protests, and continuing his work for human rights in Cuba.
*Source:
"Queridos hermanos míos de la oposición
interna de Cuba", escribió Zapata
en su misiva, "tengo muchas cosas que
decirles,
pero no he querido hacerlo por papel y
tinta,
pues espero ir a ustedes un día cuando
nuestra patria sea libre y sin dictadura
castrista.
Vivan los derechos humanos, con mi
sangre les
escribí, para que la guarden como parte
del salvajismo de que somos víctima el
presidio
político Pedro Luis Boitel". - "Golpiza y
celda tapiada para Orlando Zapata" La Habana, 22 de abril 2004 (María
López, Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org
President Obama with Raul Castro and the moment that symbolized his visit to Cuba
The past decade in Cuba was a difficult one for human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists. Over eight years the Obama Administration attempted to normalize relations with the Castro regime. This was the third such attempt, and the results were similar to the prior two, but in some respects far worse, although predictable.
Under Carter, and Clinton attempts to normalize relations with the Castro regime led to a worsening human rights situation
in Cuba, the regime projecting itself more into hemispheric affairs,
undermining governments, and coinciding with the rise of other communist
regimes: Nicaragua in 1979, and Venezuela in 1999. Migration crises from Cuba that negatively impacted the United States also coincided with Carter, Clinton and Obama who pursued an engagement policy with the dictatorship in Cuba.
President Obama met with Hugo Chavez in 2009, with Maduro in the background
On April 17, 2009 President Barack Obama said
that his Administration sought "a new beginning with Cuba" and stated
further that he was “prepared to have my administration engage with the
Cuban government on a
wide range of issues — from human rights, free speech, and democratic
reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues.”
On May 28, 2009 the Cuban regime backed a Sri Lankan-proposed resolution
describing the conflict in Sri Lanka as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant
outside interference”. Castro's diplomats took the lead
in blocking efforts to address the wholesale slaughter then taking place in
Sri Lanka. The Foreign Policy Association reported that "Cuba succeeded in blocking
debate on abuses in Sri Lanka, which many countries have pushed for
after the extreme violence that rocked the country earlier this month." Amnesty International at the time said that “[t]he vote is extremely disappointing and is a low point for the Human Rights Council. It abandons hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka to cynical political considerations.”
Alan Gross before and after his captivity in a Cuban prison (2009 - 2014)
Towards the end of 2009 the White House was tested when U.S. citizen Alan Gross was taken and held hostage by the Castro regime. U.S. diplomats did not see him until 25 days later. Furthermore, the policy of rapprochement and loosening of sanctions continued despite Gross's continued detention.
On February 23, 2010 Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a prolonged hunger strike. He had been the victim of numerous beatings and ill treatment that rose to the level of torture over nearly seven years that drove him to go on a water only hunger strike. Prison guards periodically cut off his access to water, contributing to his death.
Other prisoners of conscience, such as Ariel Sigler Amaya, who survived the ordeal of Cuban prisons emerged emaciated and completely incapacitated from their captivity in the summer of 2010. The International Committee of the Red Cross had not been able to visit Cuban prisons since 1988-89. Prior to that there had not been a visit allowed since 1959, and no other visits permitted to the present date.
Ariel Sigler Amaya: Before and after his imprisonment in Cuba
Extrajudicial killings continued at a higher documented rate than in previous years.
Cuban human rights defender Juan Wilfredo Soto García died on May 8, 2011, three days after being beaten up by police officers in a public park in Santa Clara, Cuba. Amnesty International raised concerns on the circumstances surrounding his death. In the past Juan Wilfredo had been a political prisoner for 12 years.
On May 22, 2010 Norwegian mediareported that Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra,
insulted, threatened, and bit a young Norwegian woman, Alexandra Joner
age 19, of Cuban descent on her mother's side while she was across the
street from the Cuban embassy in Oslo. She was filming a non-violent demonstration in solidarity with the Ladies in White and in remembrance of martyred Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo. The main national newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten, photographed the young girl with bite marks on her hand.
Human rights defender and opposition leader Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011 from heart failure at
the age of 63. One week after she had fallen suddenly ill from a
respiratory infection compounded with dengue fever and already existing
condition as a diabetic. A medical professional described her death as"painful, tragic and unnecessary."
Sample of documented extrajudicial killings in Cuba: 2010 - 2014
On the international seen the Castro regime allied with the worse regimes to undermine international human rights standards. On August 23, 2011 the Cuban government voted against investigating gross and systematic
human rights violations in Syria.
The Castro regime in January 2013 announced a "liberalization" in Cubans being able to travel out of the country, but with qualifiers that maintained the secret police's power to stop anyone from entering or exiting their own homeland.
The Obama White House and the Castro regime began having secret meetings in June 2013 in Canada. These meetings continued throughout 2013 and 2014. Reporting on these meetings do not mention any reaction to provocative actions by the Cuban dictatorship.
6. In addition, various parts for three SA-2 and six SA-3 missiles were
in the cargo, such as the nose cones housing proximity fuses,
auto-pilots and transponders, transmitter antennas and some actuators
(figure 4). 4 __________________ 4 The Panel notes that some of the
SA-2 and SA-3 parts could also meet the criteria defined in the list of
items, materials, equipment, goods and technology related to ballistic
missile programmes (S/2012/947), whose export and import by the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are prohibited. See in particular the Category II, Item 9 of S/2012/947 covering “instrumentation, navigation and direction finding”
There were no consequences for this action of the Castro regime that was also illegal under international law.
Despite the worsening situation the White House continued to push for unilateral concessions and the loosening of sanctions on the Castro regime, and pressed ahead with their secret negotiations.
The President and the dictator address their respective countries on 12/17/14
On December 17, 2014 both President Obama and Dictator Raul Castro announced that they intended to normalize relations. Alan Gross was finally
free after nearly five years in captivity, travel would be further liberalized and that some Cuban political prisoners were to be freed was news that would be received positively.
Nevertheless it was a sobering and worrisome exercise for a number of reasons. Three spies who had spied on military installations and congressmen on American soil, that had plotted terrorist acts in the United States, and were implicated in the February 24, 1996 murder of three American citizens and one American resident were freed in a swap to return to Cuba set a terrible precedent. Regime hardliners had won, thanks to the Obama Administration's actions. Kidnapping an American and holding him for ransom
for five years paid off. Moderate elements within the
dictatorship, seeking to transition Cuba into a responsible member of
the family of nations, would continue to remain silent.
Rosa María Payá testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
On February 3, 2015, Rosa María Payá, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicted the indifference of the US government and the international community:"The Cuban
government wouldn’t have dared to carry out its death threats against my
father if the U.S. government and the democratic world had been showing
solidarity. If you turn your face, impunity rages. While you slept, the
regime was conceiving their cleansing of the pro-democracy leaders to
come."
Cuban diplomats assaulted nonviolent protesters in Panama
On April 8, 2015 Cuban diplomats streamed out of the the Cuban Embassy in Panama attackedcivil society representatives who were laying flowers at a bust of Jose Marti in a public park nearby. Several activists were injured and at least one required surgery. During the Summit of the Americas Cuban diplomats disrupted official meetings in order to block Cuban and Venezuelan dissidents from taking part, despite being officially accredited.
Cuban dissident Sirley Ávila León, age 56, was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 by Osmany Carrión who had been "sent by state security thug s" and that she is sure that the aggression "was politically motivated."
The attack was severe enough that she suffered deep cuts to her neck and
knees, lost her left hand and nearly lost her right arm.
Sirley Avila Leon was the victim of regime engineered machete attack.
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at the State Department, Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo attended a press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry and Castro's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez. Rosa Maria had proper accreditation as a member of the press. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, took Rosa Maria aside and warned her that she would be
physically removed if she asked any questions.
Three days before President Obama arrived in Cuba, Roberto Ampuero, a Chilean former
Minister of Culture and former Ambassador to Mexico tweeted in Spanish: "Paradox: After decades backing
Right wing dictatorships in Latin America, now the United States could
end up backing a Left wing dictatorship."
President Obama and Dictator Raul Castro do the wave at a baseball game in Cuba
President Barack Obama and his family visited Cuba on an official state visit on March 20, 2016 and left for Argentina on March 22nd. The image of President Obama photographedwith the Ministry of the Interior in the background with Che Guevaraprominently featured and used by Cuban official media as endorsement of the violent revolutionary martyr sent an unfortunate message. As did the photo of Raul Castro with President Obama doing the wave at a baseball game in Havana.
The picture at the top of the page with the limp handshake is symbolic of the efforts to engage with the Castro regime. President Obama tried to embrace Raul Castro, but the wily old dictator intercepted it, and tried to turn it into a revolutionary salute, and the US president went limp to avoid it. The loser in the exchange was the American President who came across looking weak. The short video above demonstrates the exchange.
Lady in White Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was arrested on April 16, 2016 for speaking out during a human rights demonstration in Havana's Central park.
Rosa
Escalona, member of “The Ladies in White”, a human rights group in
Cuba, along with her husband and three sons were subjected to a savage beating by Castro thugs. All four family members suffered great bodily
injury, with her husband Alberto Pedro Freire Leiva being the most
critically injured. This unprovoked attack took place May 8, 2016 in the city of Holguín, Cuba.
On September 23, 2016 Cuban state security agents raided Cubalex headquarters in Havana and confiscated their equipment and records. Members of the human rights group Cubalex, along with their family members, requested political asylum in the United States. The organization had formed in 2010 and provided legal representation in Cuba, and documented human rights violations inside the island. They are now all in exile due to the intensification of repression.
Fidel Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016 reported the Castro dictatorship. Cubans that gave a critical assessment of the dictator's legacy or refused to mourn his passing were beaten up, detained, and jailed.
U.S. diplomats began suffering brain injuries in Havana, Cuba in November 2016, and the Obama Administration did not raise this serious issue in the remaining months of their tenure, but continued with their unilateral concessions.
In the midst of the so-called Cuban thaw with the situation for Cubans growing increasingly dire, the international community following the White House's lead abandoned Cuban democrats.
On December 6, 2016 the European Council of the European Union abandoned Cuban democrats when it "repealed the EU 1996 Common Position on Cuba. The main objective of EU's
1996 common position on Cuba was to encourage transition to pluralist
democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well
as a sustainable recovery and improvement in the living standards of
the Cuban people." (This may have been pushed by the Obama Administration, in exchange for the release of Alan Gross.)
On January 2, 2017 Raúl
Castro presided over a military parade in Havana where marching troops
chanted about shooting the American President in the head:“Obama! Obama! with what fervor
we’d like to confront your clumsiness, to give you a cleansing with
rebels and mortar, and send you a hat of lead to the head.”
Cuban troops chant sending Obama "a hat of lead to the head" in January 2017
The Office of the Press Secretary at The White House on January 12, 2017 released a "Statement by the President on Cuban Immigration Policy"
that did two concrete things: further restrict the Cuban Adjustment
Act and end the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program. This closed the door on Cuban refugees and victims of the Castro regime's human trafficking.
On January 18, 2017 President Obama commuted the prison sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a terrorist backed by the Castro regime. López Rivera, a founder of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). The FALN placed
more than 130 bombs in American cities — including one in New York City on
January 24, 1975. The explosive went off in busy Fraunces Tavern during
lunch hour. Four people died.The New York Daily News on January 16, 2017 described another bombing attack that claimed a young life, injured six and caused the evacuation of a 100,000 workers from Manhattan offices.When
López Rivera was arrested in 1981, the FBI found six pounds of dynamite
and four blasting caps in his Chicago apartment along with numerous fake
IDs.
Terrorist Oscar López Rivera freed by Obama in 2017
On February 3, 2017 White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced that the Trump Administration was in the midst "of a full review of all U.S. policies towards Cuba" and that human rights was a priority.
The Trump Administration on June 6, 2017 released the "National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba" that begins by defining what will guide this new policy: "My Administration's policy will be guided by the national security and
foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as solidarity
with the Cuban people. I will seek to promote a stable, prosperous, and
free country for the Cuban people. To that end, we must channel funds
toward the Cuban people and away from a regime that has failed to meet
the most basic requirements of a free and just society."
President Trump addresses Cuba policy in Miami to the Cuban American community.
On September 19, 2017 President Trump addressed the United Nations and outlined Cuba's negative role in the international community and pledged to maintain sanctions: "That is why in the Western Hemisphere, the United States has stood
against the corrupt and destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the
enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom. My
administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the
Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms."
Alejandro Pupo Echemendía died from police beating on August 9, 2018
Alejandro Pupo Echemendía, a 46 year old Cuban national was beaten to death by the Revolutionary National Police on August 9, 2018 while he was in their custody. Elizama Mujica Cabrera, the wife of the victim courageously denounced the extrajudicial killing despite threats against her and her family by the regime.
Cuban "diplomats" try to shout down side event on political prisoners
On October 16, 2018 Cuban diplomats led an "act of repudiation" at the United Nations to prevent a discussion on the plight of political prisoners in Cuba at a side event organized by the United States.
Police officers in Old Havana brutally beat Cuban citizen Iván Michel Ponce de León on April 19, 2019. Iván Michel died of his injuries eight days
later on April 27th. Spanish newspaper ABC covered the story on May 1, 2019.
Iván Michel
Ponce de León beaten up by police on April 19th and died of his injuries
On April 22, 2019 independent Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones was beaten up for covering the trial of a religious couple sentenced to prison for homeschooling their kids.
Roberto Quiñones was physically assaulted on April 22, 2019.
The Trump Administration on May 2, 2019 began to enforce Title III of the LIBERTAD Act, after prior U.S. Presidents beginning with Bill Clinton in 1996 had waived the measure. This has meant a
chance for justice in the courts for property owners who had everything
stolen from them by the Castro dictatorship.
On August 8, 2019 Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was transferred to intensive care. Cuban dissident Angel Juan Moya posted videos of interviews from August 6th and August 7th
with doctors at the hospital. Family members complained that they
are receiving differing diagnoses and her situation continues to worsen.
Xiomara was in intensive care and doctors were saying that it could be
lung cancer. A doctor refused to update the family saying: "that he did
not want to see those people."
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces
On September 11, 2019 authorities arrested independent Cuban journalist
Mr Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces in Cuba, after he was convicted of
resistance and disobedience in August 2019. He is a prisoner of conscience and serving a one year prison sentence.
Cuban opposition activist José Daniel Ferrer García was detained on October 1, 2019, by Cuban authorities. He is the leader of the unofficial political opposition group “Patriotic Union of Cuba” (UNPACU) in Santiago de Cuba. He was taken along with three other UNPACU members.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on December 23, 2019 reported that
Liusdan Martínez Lescaille, a twelve year-old Jewish boy has been
forbidden by Cuban educational authorities from entering his school
while wearing a yarmulke since December 11,
2019 with the result that he has been prevented from continuing his
education. His younger brother, Daniel Moises, has also been subjected
to the ban and government authorities threatened to open legal
proceedings against his parents, jailing them and taking their children
away.
According to the Ladies in White on December 26, 2019 over Twitter, the Lady in White
Xiomara Cruz lost consciousness early in the morning, is currently in
intensive care, and according to the Doctor who took her in, she should be receiving medication intravenously.
The past decade has demonstrated that the Castro regime has the will and ruthlessness to hang on to power and is willing to commit atrocities to do so. This has included the murder of opposition figures that could have managed a non-violent transition. Furthermore that engaging, legitimizing and subsidizing the regime leads the Castro dictatorship to expand its international projection with the objective of duplicating its revolutionary project in other countries.
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