Update: Cuban prisoner of conscience Eduardo Cardet badly beaten, stabbed and unjustly imprisoned

Regis Iglesias Ramirez, a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, is currently the spokesman of the Christian Liberation Movement. This past Sunday, January 21, 2018 he sat down and gave a brief interview on the plight of  Eduardo Cardet Concepción, the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement. The interview is in Spanish but a summary of the information provided is reproduced below in English.

Eduardo Cardet of MCL badly beaten, stabbed, and unjustly imprisoned.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción, successor to martyred founding leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya, and unjustly jailed since November 30, 2016 was badly beaten and stabbed twice by three prisoners on December 19, 2017. This attack was most probably engineered by Castro's State Security in order to permanently silence him.

The seriousness of the attack was only learned on January 15, 2018 when his wife was finally able to visit him in prison and see the extent of his injuries.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción is a Cuban physician, human rights defender, and national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). He joined the MCL then headed by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in the early 2000s.  Eduardo was an active participant in various MCL initiatives aimed at achieving a nonviolent transition to democracy in Cuba. He was a manager of the Varela Project, the Heredia Project, The Peoples Path and  One Cuban, One Vote. Cardet held various responsibilities within the organization and was a member of the movement's coordinating council.

Following the extrajudicial killing of Oswaldo Payá  and Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012, the Christian Liberation Movement restructured its leadership and Eduardo Cardet was appointed national coordinator of the movement in November of 2014.

 
Due to his opposition activity Eduardo Cardet has been arbitrarily detained on several occasions. The last time he was taken prisoner by the Cuban political police was on November 30, 2016, shortly after the death of Fidel Castro. The MCL has denounced that on that occasion he was also badly beaten by Castro's state security agents. The beatings continued following his arrest in the detention center. 

On January 31, 2017 Amnesty International issued an urgent action and recognized Eduardo Cardet as a prisoner of conscience. Despite this status and the call for his immediate release, Cardet was sentenced to three years in prison on March 20, 2017 following a show trial in Cuba.  

Yaimaris Vecino, Cardet's wife:They badly beat up Eduardo in prison while he was handcuffed.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción was born in Holguin, Cuba on October 25, 1968. He is married to Yaimaris Vecino with two children, worked as a family doctor at the health center in the town of Velasco in Holguín province, where he lived.

Remembering some of the victims of Cuban communism: Yuriniesky Martínez Reina

"Whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world." - Mishnah  (1135-1204)

Yuriniesky Martínez Reina, shot in the back and killed by state security

Some psychologists argue that as the number of victims increase into the hundreds, and thousands that compassion collapses out of the human fear of being overwhelmed. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin put it more succinctly: "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics." In the case of Cuba the communist regime has killed tens of thousands, and many have become numb in the face of this horror. Therefore on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first communist regime in Russia, that caused so much harm around the world, will focus on the small corner of Cuba and on an infinitesimal sampling of some of the victims of Cuban communism. 

The eighth entry focuses on a young men shot in the back and killed by a state security agent. His "crime"? Building a boat with other friends to flee the Castro dictatorship and live in freedom.

Previous entries in this series were about Cubans trying to change the system nonviolently. The first entry concerned Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a humble bricklayer turned courageous human rights defender who paid the ultimate price in 2010 for speaking truth to power.  The second entry focused on Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, a Catholic lay activist, nonviolence icon, husband, father of three and the founder of a Cuban opposition movement that shook up the Castro regime with a petition drive demanding that human rights be respected and recognized in Cuba. This action and speaking truth to power led to his extrajudicial killing in 2012. The third entry focused on one of the great crimes of the Castro regime that has been well documented by international human rights organizations and reported on ABC News Nightline that claimed the lives of 37 men, women, and children. They were trying to flee the despotism in Cuba to live in freedom and were extrajudicially executed. In the fourth focused on an act of state terrorism when two planes were shot down on a Saturday afternoon at 3:21 and 3:27 on February 24, 1996 over international airspace while engaged in a search and rescue flight for Cuban rafters killing four humanitarians. Their planes were destroyed by air-to-air missiles fired by a Cuban MiG-29 aircraft on the orders of Raul and Fidel Castro.  

In the fifth focused on Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Wilman Villar Mendoza who died on hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment on January 19, 2012 at the age of 31 left behind two little girls, a young wife and grieving mother. The sixth entry focused on one of the many non-Cuban victims of Cuban communism. Joachim Løvschall was studying Spanish in Havana in the spring of 1997. He was gunned down by a soldier of the Castro regime in Havana, Cuba twenty years ago. The identity of the soldier was never revealed to Joachim's family. No one was ever brought to justice.  The seventh entry focused on a young woman, Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez, who tried to warn a friend who was being targeted by the secret police for a violent end. They went to the authorities to make a formal complaint, but nothing happened. Four months later she was murdered in front of her two children stabbed 18 times. Eight months later her friend was the victim of a brutal machete attack and nearly killed. Yunisledy was just 23 years old.

Yuriniesky Martínez with his dad, son, and on (right) how he was found

Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (age 28) was shot in the back and killed by state security chief Miguel Angel Río Seco Rodríguez in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, Cuba on April 9, 2015 for peacefully trying to leave Cuba. A group of young men were building a small boat near Menéndez beach to flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at by state security. Yuriniesky was left for two days in the lagoon, before being found by his brother. Unlike the families of many other victims who are intimidated into silence, Yuriniesky's family spoke out, identified his killer and demanded justice in a video published on April 27, 2015 by Libertad Press.

The extrajudicial killing of fleeing refugees has been an ongoing practice of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba for decades. Well documented cases, prior to this one, included a formal complaint in 1993 by the United States government when snipers, sand bags, and gaff hooks, were used by Cuban officials on fleeing Cuban refugees.

Rosa María Payá warns if she goes silent on twitter that she has been arrested

Please keep an eye on this young Cuban activist on her twitter account.

Rosa María Payá Acevedo followed by state security vehicles in Cuba

Rosa María Payá Acevedo who returned home to Cuba on January 18, 2017 to meet with Cuban dissidents and promote the Cuba Decide campaign has tweeted several messages today that should raise the concern of people of good will especially her last one:

3:16pm: Today I'm followed by two blue cars: Hyundai and Peugeot. At least three men in each. Are they the same ones who killed my father?

Rosa María Payá at her dad's tomb

3:20pm: Unknown men filmed me from a Hyundai and a Peugeot. Abusers as people. Abuser as a regime. This is Castroism's legacy.

The Hyundai that has been following Rosa María in Cuba

3:22pm: A government like Cuba's that harasses its citizens has no future. Although it lasts as long as it lasts, we Cubans will live in freedom.

3:24pm: If I stop posting on Twitter today, its that I was arbitrarily arrested by agents of this Cuban tyranny that no Cuban chose.

URGENT: Cuban Democratic Opposition Leader Eduardo Cardet badly beaten up, jailed by secret police faces fabricated charges

"I regret that the EU does not require Cuba to stop being a totalitarian regime." - Eduardo Cardet, over twitter on September 19, 2016

Jailed pro-democracy leader Eduardo Cardet of the Christian Liberation Movement

The Castro regime is attempting to smear the name of a good man, a medical doctor beloved by his patients and a father and husband, because he speaks truth to power and nonviolently requests and demands an end to totalitarian rule in Cuba. Two days after Fidel Castro's death was announced Eduardo Cardet described events as follows: “There are few people in the streets, and lots of police presence. Lots of controls and restrictions. Castro was a man hated and rejected by the Cuban people.” Below, provided by the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), are updates on what has been going on and Eduardo Cardet's biography.

EDUARDO CARDET CONCEPCION, NATIONAL COORDINATOR OF THE CHRISTIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT IS STOPPED AND BEATEN BY CUBAN POLICE

Update: 12/10/16 9:30 Cuba time Listen to the statement by the wife of Eduardo Cardet, Yaimaris Vecino after the first visit to the prison: 20161210 yaimaris vecino.mp3

"The consequences of the beating are still visible" ... "Eduardo was severely beaten in prison, while he was in handcuffs." ... "Despite being charged with a common crime is is state security that is in charge of the case." ... "Security has told me that it is in my hands if he is to be released, if I collaborate with them" and that " they will not permit by any means that Eduardo continue his opposition activity." ... "They have threatened to morally destroy me and my family."

Information update 12/9/16 11:30 Cuba time. Last night they permitted a call to Eduardo Cardet. Very worried he warned his wife to be careful with the police because they want to create conflict. On the other hand, state security is threatening neighbors who saw the violent detention and many are shut-in their homes because of fear.
Information update 12/8/16 20:00 Cuba time Yaimaris Vecino reports that they have obtained the services of a lawyer for the defense of Eduardo Cardet and that on December 9th she will go to the Holguin provisional prison for the first visit.
Information Update:  12/8/16 9:00 Cuba time Yaimaris Vecino tells that yesterday she was able to see her husband briefly before he was transferred to the provincial prison of Holguin. The aftermath of the beating is still evident, especially on his face and his swollen and bruised eyes. He was again taken to the hospital for medical care. .Eduardo Cardet remains firm in his convictions and on the unjust nature of is his detention. 

The case instructor reports that he will ask between 1 and 3 years for the crime of attacking the authority, alleging that it was Eduardo who assaulted the police with the bicycle when he was about to be detained. The family has reached out to several different lawyers in Holguín but until now no lawyer wants to take over his defense, due to the connotations of the case. 

Yaimaris insists that this is a cause fabricated by state security that she had been warned when they detained her 15 days ago, i.e. the regime's intention to arrest Eduardo to neutralize his work as National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) especially for the initiative "One Cuban, one vote". On the other hand, many neighbors of Velasco, patients of Dr. Cardet, members of various opposition organizations, and Christian Churches of the area have expressed their solidarity with him.

Information Update 12/7/16 10:00 Cuban time Police reported to the family today that Eduardo Cardet will be transferred to the provisional prison of Holguin waiting for trial with the charges, among others of: assault, public scandal, resistance, etc. 

The MCL denounces that this is a fabricated case against him that for some time had been prepared against him by state security. They have not allowed the family to see Eduardo so it is unknown what his physical condition is after the brutal beating he received during and after the arrest.
 

Information Update 12/5/16 at 5:40 am Cuban time According to Eduardo Cardet Concepcion’s wife, Eduardo's mother and other relatives and members of MCL showed up at the 1st police unit in Holguín, demanded to be able to see him and they showed him from a distance of about 100 meters . One officer acknowledged that he had arrived beaten up, with a heavy bruise in one eye.

Update 12/4/2016 2pm Cuba time: Yaimaris Vecino, wife of Eduardo Cardet Concepcion. C. N. #MCLiberacion "I have no proof that Eduardo is alive." Yordan Mariño MCL Holguín: "witnesses who saw how they moved Eduardo from one vehicle to another said that because of the beating he could not stand."

Update 12/03/2016 6pm Cuban time: After 72 hours of Eduardo Cardet’s arrest his whereabouts to continue to be unknown. The police told his wife who today came to ask, that until Monday they will not inform her of his whereabouts and that they can keep him incommunicado for up to 7 days. They want to accuse him of resistance, assault and injuries. According to some neighbors, once arrested the police continued to beat him.

Update 12/2/2106 4pm Cuba time: Eduardo Cardet’s whereabouts unknown

Report from Holguín Yordan Mariño, Provincial Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). Eduardo Cardet's sister showed up at the police unit where he was supposed to be detained, but no officer could confirm that he was there. The MCL denounces that nothing is known about his whereabouts, nor has his family been allowed to visit him.

Update 12/1/2106 6pm Cuba time: Eduardo Cardet's arrest will be extended to be brought to court for contempt, public scandal, resistance to authority and injuries. Cardet had to be taken care of by doctors in the police unit where he was detained due to several blows that he received mainly a great blow in the head and another in the back.
 

Information update 11/30/16 Several police officers stop and beat Eduardo Cardet Concepcion National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement. The beating was terrible. He is being held in the dungeons of Holguin.

State Security says he "met with those who he should not have during his trip to the United States last week." He is accused of contempt and disrespect to the comandante for the statements he made.

Threatened with 15 years’ imprisonment. His wife was detained for a few hours on Wednesday last week and threatened that as soon as Cardet arrived they would detain him.

Biography

Eduardo Cardet Concepción

Eduardo Cardet Concepción (Holguin, Cuba, October 25, 1968) is a Cuban physician, politician, and national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). He joined the MCL, one of the most important opposition groups to the Communist regime of Cuba then headed by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, in the early 2000s. After the death of Payá on July 22, 2012, the Christian Liberation Movement restructured its leadership. Cardet was appointed national coordinator in November of 2014.

Prior to his appointment as MCL National Coordinator of Christian-Democratic ideology, Cardet had held various responsibilities within the organization. As a member of the movement's coordinating council, he was appointed Vice-President of the Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA) on August 23, 2013. He had previously been active in various initiatives of the MCL aimed at achieving a nonviolent transition in Cuba to democracy. He had been a manager of the Varela Project, the Heredia Project, The Peoples Path and One Cuban, one vote.

Cardet, married and with two children, works as a family doctor at the Health Center in the town of Velasco (Holguín province), where he lives. One year before his appointment as leader of the MCL he was expelled from his work in retaliation for his opposition activity as a member of the MCL. However, protests over this measure of punishment and popular pressure allowed him to be readmitted to his job.

Due to his opposition activity Eduardo Cardet has been detained on several occasions. The last time he was taken prisoner by the Cuban Police was last November 30, 2016, shortly after the death of Fidel Castro. The MCL has denounced that on that occasion he also suffered a heavy beating carried out by government agents. The blows, according to the opposition reports, continued in the detention center. Days after his arrest, Cardet’s whereabouts are unknown without news of his state of health.

Source

Cuba: Violent acts against non-violent activists doubled in July along with an increase in arbitrary arrests

 Repression reaches record levels in Cuba

Sixty five consecutive Sundays with peaceful demonstrations broken up

The Castro dictatorship has reached a new record in arbitrary detentions during the first six months of 2016.  The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation documented 845 arbitrary detentions in July which when added to the previous five months totals 7,418 politically motivated arrests during the first six months of 2016 in Cuba.

Reinforcements arrive for operation against Ladies in White headquarters in Havana

 The number of cases of political violence documented doubled from 23 in June to 46 in July.  The past weekends attack on the Ladies in White offers a snapshot of what is taking place. On Saturday, August Lady in White Gisela Sanchez died in Havana at age 65 and friends and family gathered to pay their respects. Unfortunately, Cuban state security interrupted this solemn occasion to beat up and arrest 10 Cuban women and Gisela Sanchez's son, Reinol Vicente Sánchez, while they were all present at the wake. The beating was apparently because State Security did not want them to put the Cuban flag on Sanchez's coffin. Reinol Vicente was released in time to attend his mother's funeral reported Berta Soler over twitter.

State Security vehicles used to haul away peaceful demonstrators

On August 7, 2016 for the sixty fifth consecutive Sunday members of the Ladies in White in Havana,  Matanzas, and Guantanamo were arbitrarily and violently arrested in a operation conducted by State Security.

Photographic evidence of the violence visited upon the Ladies in White was uploaded to social media on twitter this past Sunday by Angel Moya showing bruising on a black woman's jaw identified as R. Sotolongo.

R. Sotolongo beaten up this past Saturday (photo by Angel Moya)

Free Gorki: Cuban rocker taken from his home in Havana at noon today by the police

Spread the word. Help free an artist!

On the 21st anniversary of the August 5th freedom uprising in Havana, Cuba punk rocker Gorki Aguila is taken from his home by the police at 12 noon. He is also the author of a song dedicated to the uprising titled El Maleconazo.

Please spread the word on this courageous artist and activist. It is the best way to keep him safe and to obtain his freedom.

Update: The good news is that Gorki was freed around 4:00pm and that international press picked up the story of his detention the same day. The bad news is that he has been threatened by Cuban officials that if he continues to support the Ladies in White on Sundays and attend opposition meetings at Gandhi Park he will no longer be allowed to travel outside of Cuba. This is how State Security said it to the punk rocker: "he who invites you to visit another country will have to come to look for you in a motorboat" to smuggle him out of the country. Gorki's response to the events of today and threat issued:  

"They violate all your rights one after another: the right to march peacefully, to freedom of expression, right to travel, arbitrary arrest. It is incredible all that they do in just one arrest."

 Further proof that the so-called travel reform of 2013 is cosmetic and freedom of travel remains  non-existent and subject to the arbitrary whims of the dictatorship.

Two violent assaults in Cuba and two radically different media responses

Violence escalates in Cuba. 

Two high profile dissidents in the past two months have been victims of violent attacks. A former academic turned dissident was badly beaten up on July 5, 2015. A former government official turned dissident was machete attacked a month and a half ago that took her left hand and may yet claim her life.

Antonio Rodiles attacked by State Security agents on Sunday

Yesterday opposition activist Antonio Rodiles was badly beaten up by state security agents who broke his nose and big toe leaving him bloody while he was on his way to join the Ladies in White on their weekly Sunday march following Mass in a peaceful demand for the release of political prisoners. The courageous activist denounced the attack shortly after returning from the hospital describing in a video with detail the beating and choke hold he was placed in while peacefully dissenting and the news has been covered widely in the international media as it should be.

Sirley Ávila León: Holds state security responsible for May 2015 machete attack

In contrast, on May 24, 2015 Sirley Ávila León was brutally attacked with a machete by a husband and wife team in a state security coordinated assault. She lost her left hand and may still lose her right arm. She went on record, before a camera to denounce the attack. She is a former delegate to the so-called "People's Assembly" who disenchanted with the regime shutting down a school in her district and without avenues to address it ended up joining the opposition. This made her a target of escalating harassment that ended in the brutal machete attack earlier this year. However the international media has by and large ignored her plight. She was sent home from the hospital in mid June while still in a critical state.

The situation in Cuba for nonviolent dissidents is deteriorating and requires international attention and solidarity. Over the past 12 Sundays in Cuba hundreds of activists have been violently arrested for exercising their fundamental rights.

Hopefully the international media will pay more attention to their plight.

Cuban woman mutilated in deadly machete attack holds State Security responsible

Former People's Assembly delegate pays high price to live free in Cuba

Sirley Ávila León, age 56, mother of two brutally attacked

What happened
Sirley Ávila León, age 56, was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 at 3:00pm by Osmany Carrión who had been "sent by state security thugs" 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 could still lose her right arm. Although Carrión was the principle assailant, his wife threw her into the mud after he cut off her hand compounding the injury with infection. It was a coordinated attack. Sirley has not recovered from her injuries, her life hangs in the balance but she has been sent home in this critical state without the proper medication. 

"She has still not recovered and could lose her right arm." - Hablemos Press

The 56 year old mother of two, small farmer and opposition activist has charged Cuban state security of being behind the deadly attack. She says that they are trying to be rid of her.  Furthermore that prior to this attack some of her cows and pigs were attacked with machetes, which she then added “I reaffirm that this is something that was prepared against me for some time.”


Background
Sirley Ávila León, an ex-delegate of the People’s Assembly (Poder Popular) of Majibacoa, a relatively sparse area of Cuba did something highly unusual in Cuba that got her in trouble. She had represented her community not the dictatorship and been re-elected for three terms. She had gotten the government to establish an elementary school for the few students who lived there. Otherwise they would have had to travel several kilometers daily to get to a school. At the same time transportation in Cuba is also a complicated affair to get around. When in 2012 the regime wanted the school shut down and Sirley began a protracted struggle to keep the school open she was confronted initially by the refusal of anyone to meet with her or the state controlled press to report on what was happening. She broke a taboo when she appealed to the international media and then tried to run in the rubber stamp elections which she then lost after maneuvers by the regime.

 
Joining the opposition 
Sirley crossed another line when she joined the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU in Spanish) which is part of the democratic opposition. In 2013 reports emerged that her son (an ex-official of the counterintelligence) was told by state security to tie her down, declare her insane for dissenting from the system, and have her shipped of to an psychiatric institution. He refused. Sirley denounced this in an UNPACU video on April 14, 2013. The Castro regime has a long track record of using psychiatry as a political weapon and these institutions have also had a record of neglect in which patients have died from exposure. The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba published in 1992 documented the interrelationship between Cuban psychiatry and the Cuban State Security apparatus to target dissidents.

In August of 2013 Sirley was able to document on video harassment from the national revolutionary police when she tried to sell mangoes. She has a small farm and was producing food. A neighbor appeared on camera to defend Sirley and denounce the heavy handedness of the regime while it ignored far more serious crimes. She denounced further harassment and threats on November 8, 2013. At the same time her activism, distributing literature and advocating a democratic transition made her a priority target of the political police who placed eight common prisoners around her home to spy on her while they are supposedly cutting invader species of plants.

Rising repression and violence
Other activists have been the victims of politically motivated machete attacks and women have been targeted with extreme violence by state security. This latest attack is an escalation in the level of violence and points to an ominous trend.

"Sending her home endangers her life further." - Hablemos Press

Will you help her?
Sirley Ávila León is a courageous woman who despite being in great distress continues to demand justice and is asking the international community to help. First, the medical attention has been deficient and she reports that the doctor prescribed medicines that are unavailable on the island and she is asking for help from abroad to get them and food. The principle aggressor has been detained due to the attention brought to the attack, but his wife who also participated in the attack is still free. She believes that the political nature of the attack will make it impossible to obtain judicial defense for the case. "Here they do not want to do anything, that is why I am asking for international help from some lawyer who can advise me "

State security organizes mobs to attack Cuban resistance leaders

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

Jorge Luís García Perez “Antunez and Iván Fernández Depestre

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

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

Placetas, Villa Clara April 14, 2015. Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", National Secretary of the National Resistance Front Orlando Zapata Tamayo denounces over telephone that Cuban State Security has given orders to the populace of Placetas, to do a violent act of repudiation in reprisal for his presence as a member of the Cuban resistance last week at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

"It's a big crowd around my house in the 7ma del Sur, I’m with former political prisoner Ivan Fernandez Depestre and also alert the world that the son of my wife, Yedier Rodriguez and his girlfriend who are minors are in my house. Castro mobs in retaliation for the defeat that we gave them in Panama are preparing an act of repudiation and also to the journalist and Sakharov Laureate Guillermo Fariñas. In the city of Placetas they have closed all workplaces and schools under the threat that if they are not going to the repudiation act against Antúnez their wages will be suspended," said Antúnezto the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance issues a call of alert to international human rights organizations and the free and democratic community of the world for the freedom of and physical integrity of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antúnez, former political prisoner Iván Fernández Depestre, as well as his wife’s son, Yedier Rodriguez and his girlfriend.

Original press release in Spanish http://www.directorio.org/comunicadosdeprensa/note.php?note_id=4405

Rosa María Payá warned by Panama's State Security not to cause "any trouble"

Cuban activist held at airport and threatened with deportation to Cuba if she causes any trouble

Manuel Dominguez Secretary of Communication of State apologized for the incident 

On Easter Sunday the news announced by Rosa María Payá Acevedo over twitter at 10:28am that she had been detained at the airport by Panamanian National Security circulated over social media sparking a storm of attention and online activism.

The Cuban human rights activist had arrived in Panama to attend a parallel forum to the Summit of the Americas titled "Youth and Democracy"with other youth activists from Latin America speaking on the panel: "Youth participation with proposals for democracy and the strengthening of good governance."

Rosa's tweets translated to English along with the time sent and linked to the original Spanish text are reproduced below providing a chronology of what transpired in real time.

Rosa María Payá:  National Security of Panama detains me at the plane door. 10:28am 4/5/2015

Rosa María Payá: "You will be deported to Cuba if you cause any trouble, you carry a banner ...Go to your country to stir up trouble" threatens the agent. 10:30am 4/5/2015

Rosa María Payá: Now they put me in detention, say they are checking my documents, I'm somewhere in the Tocumen Airport. 10:31am 4/5/2015

Rosa María Payá: They searched everything I had in my bag, even my underwear. For a moment they took from my sight my personal agenda with all my notes. 10:40am 4/5/2015

At 12:28pm the Panamanian National Immigration Service tweeted:  "The National Immigration Service reports that it has not denied entry retained anyone coming to participate in Summit." However on the same day the Panamanian Foreign Ministry released a statement contradicting the previous tweet:

The Foreign Ministry apologizes for any bureaucratic error committed in the terminal area and has taken measures to prevent its recurrence. Additionally, at this time contacting the persons who experienced the inconveniences to reiterate that the policy of Panama in making the VII Summit of the Americas a great gathering of the Continent. 

 The former Panamanian ambassador of the Organization of American States, Guillermo Cochez, over twitter reported at 12:53pm CST that Payá was freed and heading to her hotel.

Nearly four hours after she first reported her detention over twitter the Cuban pro-democracy activist reported that she was no longer in custody giving thanks to all who had made her plight known.

Rosa María Payá: Thank you all for your solidarity, I'm alright. Finally entered Panama officially under threat of PanamanianCuban state security. 2:39pm 4/5/2015

The question that presents itself in today's unfortunate incident is what "trouble" could Rosa María Payá stir up in Panama?  She has launched a new initiative called #CubaDecide that makes the case that the voice of the Cuban people needs to be taken account not just the Cuban general at the head of a dictatorship that has been in power for 56 years.



Speaking truth to power in the interests of justice, human rights and freedom has on many an occasion been denounced as "stirring up trouble."  Despite the claims of the Panamanian migration service there have been other activists detained and harassed in the days leading up to the Summit of the Americas. Rosa reported over twitter tonight:

Rosa María Payá: Delegation of Cubans also retained yesterday. Activist & friend Mica Hierro was also threatened with deportation, in her case to Argentina. 7:58pm 4/5/2015

Tonight Mica Hierro over twitter offered her own observation on the behavior of the Panamanian authorities: "It would appear that coming to Panama to talk of democracy and human rights is to disrupt the public order."

Cuban dissident beaten and arrested for wearing a bracelet with the word change

Marcelino Abreu was arrested for wearing a change bracelet and was repeatedly kicked by state security knocking out a tooth and broke his nose.
 

Marcelino Abreu Bonora: Jailed for wearing change bracelet*

Marcelino Abreu Bonora released after threats and confinement in Nieves Morejon prison

Santa Clara, Cuba, January 7, 2015.

Taken from the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

The Cuban human rights activist Marcelino Abreu Bonora, who was arbitrarily arrested last December 26 in this city, beaten and taken to a detention center and later taken to the Nieves Morejon prison in Sancti Spiritus, was released yesterday evening on January 6, 2014.

"On December 26th I was assaulted by Félix Hernández, State Security captain of Department 21 when it was getting dark in the evening hours. He pulled the bracelet that I had in my left hand that says 'Change' and told me that I was counterrevolutionary and I replied that I was not counterrevolutionary that the ones who were counterrevolutionaries were Fidel and Raul who had made secret negotiations, who had deceived the Cuban people for 56 years. He told me that I didn’t need to talk about it and he went up gave me a jab with the right elbow, he ordered the patrol men to handcuff me.

They pushed me into the car and inside the it they sprayed me in the eyes as they drove me to the station," said Abreu Bonora via telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate. The activist added that he had been threatened by the military that they would return him to prison where he was released on October 24, 2014.

Marcelino also said that he was subjected to inhuman treatment from the moment of his arbitrary detention and was released after he made known his decision to declare an indefinite hunger strike.

"I shouted 'Down with Fidel, down with Raul', he attacked me again, they kicked me in the left breast, they hit me again, kicking me in the mouth knocking out one of my front and lower teeth, again they hurt my nasal septum twisted on the right side and I was bleeding most of the night from my mouth and septum. Then they started slapping me in the face and told me: 'impudent, thief, murderer, you are a counterrevolutionary'. I kept shouting 'Down with Fidel, down with the dictatorship', 'Long live human rights'," he explained.

Dozens of human rights activists and members of independent civil society have been arbitrarily arrested in the past three weeks, subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and some are waiting to be processed to swell the ranks of Cuban political prisoners.

The Castro regime continues to imprison citizens who dissent with the official policy of the dictatorship.


 Photo taken by Ivan Hernandez Carrillo.

Castro regime's massive fail: It can't even pretend to have free speech

Test results are coming in for #YoTambienExijo performance art piece and Castro regime's performance is a massive fail for free speech in Cuba.

Tale of Two Cities: Freedom Tower (Miami) & Revolutionary Plaza (Havana)

The totalitarian apparatus of the Castro regime on occasion reveals more than it would like. The past four days may have been such an example. Dissidents who were thought to want to take part in an artistic happening where participants would freely speak for one minute were either effectively placed under house arrest or picked up and arbitrarily detained. According to the Yo Tambien Exijo twitter account Tania was last seen by her sister around 4:22pm on December 29, 2014. On December 30 over Yoani Sanchez's twitter account news arrived at around 10:48pm that her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, had returned home and in the publication 14 y Medio he was quoted saying that he saw Tania Bruguera dressed in "a prisoner's grey uniform."

With Sunday's post announcing that Tania Bruguera, a daughter of the nomenklatura, who is also an internationally recognized performance artist, was going to conduct an artistic happening in the Plaza of the Revolution. Interviewed by Reuters Ms. Bruguera was crystal clear about how she views herself: "I'm not doing this as a dissident, I'm doing it as a normal person," ... "I'm not a counter-revolutionary, like they say. I'm from a revolutionary family. ... I'm going to continue the project."

Age old strategy: divide and conquer
Nevertheless, voices emerged through social media questioning her motives. State security knows how to play the game of manipulation sowing distrust and division within movements but a nonviolent strategic vision can prevent and minimize it by focusing on what is important.

Castro regime demonstrates its profound weakness
For example, December 30th demonstrated that the Castro regime did not want to permit the simulacrum of an exercise in free speech in an open space. The dictatorship could have set up a militarized cordon busing in state security agents and militias to take over the square while at the same time rounding up or surrounding the home of dissidents so that they could not attend the event. This would have left the artist to conduct her free speech happening with only regime agents. The New York Times and Associated Press would report on the "spontaneous support" for the Castro regime.

This would have been a less damaging international public relations option but the dictatorship did not exercise it and this leads to the question: Why not? The answer is that it did not because it apparently does not trust elements within its own state security and militia. If just one state security agent or militia member takes to the stage and breaks ranks that could begin a chain reaction that could spell the end of the regime. In Eastern Europe it was shown that if an autonomous space is carved out in the public sphere, freed from totalitarian control, it could subvert the entire system.

Graphic by Rolando Pulido

Instead they grabbed up Tania Bruguera the day before the event (December 29th) holding her incommunicado and released her on December 31st only to grab her up again a short time later when she tried to organize the performance art piece at another location. Official Cuban television on Cuba Hoy showed a normal and tranquil plaza without mentioning the detentions of the artist or others that wanted to hold the event there. The latest news is that she was detained a third time while trying to ascertain the plight of others detained because of the event she had planned.

Fortunately, principled and strategic nonviolence offer insights on how to operate in such a difficult and complicated environment. Here are four principles that I hold:

I.  What is not negotiable
There are things that within a nonviolent context can never be surrendered or denied others such as dignity and things that must never accepted such as humiliation or attempting to humiliate others. Respecting all parties and how they wish to identify or not identify themselves while accurately describing their actions is legitimate.

II. Not forgetting those unfairly imprisoned or extrajudicially executed
Another general principle should be that when one has been detained or disappeared that the rights of that person be respected and that they be immediately freed. Over the past week it is known that the following Cuban artists, journalists and activists were detained by State Security:

1. Tania Bruguera 2. Antonio G Rodiles 3. Ailer Gonzalez 4. Claudio Fuentes 5. Boris González Arenas 6. Luis Trápaga 7. Camilo Ernesto Olivera 8. Andrés Pérez Suárez 9. Carlos Manuel Hernández Jiménez 10. Vicente Coll Campagnioli 11. Joisis García 12. Nelson Rodríguez. 13. Agustín López Canino 14. Ernesto Santana 15. Delio Rodríguez Díaz 16. Pablo Pascual Méndez Piña 17. Waldo Fernández Cuenca 18. Raúl Borges, 19. Yaneisi Herrera Cabrales 20. Ariovel Castillo Villalba 21. Carlos Manuel Hernández 22. Miguel Daniel Borroto 23. Raisel Rodríguez Rivero  24. Lázaro Montesino Hernández. 25. Oscar Casanella Saint Blancard 26. Dayron Moisés Torres 27. Danilo Maldonado Machado, el Sexto.

This is a partial list of the past week's detentions provided by Estado de SATS and one should not forget that there was already another preexisting and partial list of over a 100 Cuban political prisoners currently behind bars. At present Amnesty International only recognizes five Cuban prisoners of conscience: Emilio Planas Robert, Iván Fernández Depestre, Alexeis Vargas Martín, Vianco Vargas Martín and Django Vargas Martín. There are others. It is shocking that Yosvani Melchor's case does not get more attention. A young man imprisoned to blackmail his poor mother into either leaving the Christian Liberation Movement or becoming a government informant. You also don't hear much in the mainstream media about the Cuban rapper sentenced to six years in prison in October 2014 for his critical songs. His name is Angel Yunier Remón Arzuaga, and he goes by the stage name "el Critico del Arte" (the 'Art Critic').

At the same time one must remember and continue to demand justice for those murdered by the regime such as the four members of Brothers to the Rescue, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero just to name two well known cases.

III. A mass based grassroots and participatory opposition
 Furthermore that the opposition should not be limited to a small elite but open to the grassroots and be participatory and inclusive within an operational framework. Once again this type of approach works best in a nonviolent context.

IV.  'As the means so the end'
 At the same time it is important to try and discern what are the most effective strategies to achieve real and lasting change in Cuba versus those strategies that may unknowingly facilitate a fraudulent change that maintains the old regime in power. In the New Testament their is a passage that states: by their fruits you shall know them. The purpose of this approach is to seek out through a public and transparent conversation the best strategy to achieve change in an open and democratic manner. This is an anti-Machiavellian approach that Mohandas Gandhi described as follows: "They say, 'means are, after all, means'. I would say, 'means are, after all, everything'. As the means so the end..."

A tale of two cities
In Miami at the Freedom Tower there was a successful gathering in solidarity with Tania Bruguera and the #YoTambienExigo that reproduced what had been attempted in Havana with Cubans speaking for one minute about their desires for a free Cuba.  It provided a marked contrast with the repression in Havana. If Cuba is to have a democratic future and not just another round of authoritarian or continuing totalitarian dictatorship then the freedom of speech of all political parties must be respected even those one violently disagrees with. The rules set out by Ms. Bruguera and followed to the letter in Miami are found in the graphic below in Spanish states: "#ITooDemand - a microphone open to all - One Minute of Time - Don't Interrupt - Speak in a personal capacity - No Bad Words or Violence 12.30.2014 3:00PM We'll See Each Other in The Plaza"