Sunflower Uprising?: Cuban dissidents announce call for nonviolent protests on Lady of Charity feast day

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it." - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 1964

 September 8th is the feast day for Our Lady of Charity, known affectionately as "Cachita", and she unites Cubans together both inside and outside of the island. This year it falls on a Tuesday. She is also a touch stone of Cuban identity. Catholics take sunflowers to the shrine to Our Lady of Charity which is located in Santiago de Cuba. 

September 8th is also the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the Christian Liberation Movement, whose leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and youth leader Harold Cepero Escalante, were extrajudicially executed by Castro's secret police on July 22, 2012.

 Like Oswaldo and Harold, the founding leader of this movement, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo , died under suspicious circumstances in 2011.

Cuban dissident Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros died on August 7, 2020 in Cuba while in police custody following a 40 day hunger strike. He had been jailed on false charges in the Kilo 8 prison of Camagüey. His body was quickly cremated by the dictatorship without his families consent.  

Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros

Prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras, former activist with the Ladies in White, is serving a 4-year sentence for "contempt" and "public disorder." He was arrested on the June 20, 2016 in Havana after shouting “Down Fidel Castro, down Raúl...” Regime agents were upset because according to them, "the behavior of the accused is particularly offensive because it took place in a touristic area."  

Prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras

According to Silverio’s wife, before his arrest he had campaigned against the collapse of dilapidated buildings in Havana. Silverio was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International on August 26, 2019. He was beaten by prison officials in mid-May 2020 and lost sight in one eye. Since then his health has worsened and he has lost sight in the second eye. Activists are circulating a petition for his freedom.

The initiative solidarity between brothers continues to demand that the shipment of humanitarian assistance detained by the dictatorship be released, and call for participants in the sunflower uprising to join in this demand.

These are some of the reasons why on September 8th brave souls will be protesting in Cuba to reject repression and to demonstrate their solidarity with the Ladies in White, who are regularly assaulted for nonviolently gathering on Sundays.

 It is also why the secret police are working over time to shutdown the protests before they start with preemptive arrests and sunflowers have disappeared in Havana.

It is all the more reason why people of good will should denounce the oldest and most ruthless dictatorship in the Western hemisphere and go to the street on September 8th with a sunflower in hand and love for liberty in their hearts. 

In Washington DC activists will be gathering in front of the Cuban Embassy at 11:00am.

Cubans arrested to stop them gathering with sunflowers in parks across Cuba for human rights

Why we resist the regime in Cuba.

Santiago de #Cuba like #MartinLutherKing these courageous #Cubans have a dream: Freedom!@jdanielferrer @CarlosAmelOliva & a group of #UNPACU activists/@CUBADECIDE promoters arbitrarily arrested on their way to the March of the #Sunflowers 🌻 #8S #8SPaLaCalle #CBC #Canada #hrw pic.twitter.com/Bg4GXGkxKW

— Michael Lima Cuadra (@ngotranslations) September 8, 2019

Witnessing the events that unfolded today in Cuba brings to mind the words of George Orwell: "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." This is what Castroism seeks to perpetuate in Cuba and has succeeded over six decades. Orwell's dystopian vision realized.

Photos of repression in Cuba from the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s.

However, witnessing the resistance to Castroism, the words of Mohandas Gandhi come to mind: "When I despair, I remember that all thru history the way of truth & love have always won. There have been tyrants & murderers, & for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always."

Prisoner of conscience and MCL nat'l coordinator Eduardo Cardet meets with compatriots

We must never forget that Communism in Cuba wasn't accepted but imposed, first by the lie, then by firing squads, concentration camps, and political terror.  These are the tools that the Castro dictatorship's agents are still using today to hang on to power.

First the lie, then the firing squad, and political terror.

Think of it. They unleashed forces of repression to prevent Cuban citizens from peacefully gathering in parks across Cuba, with sunflowers, to show their solidarity with the Ladies in White, who Sunday after Sunday are mistreated for peacefully assembling to call an end to the laws that run afoul of international human rights standards.

Police investigating "suspects" discovered with sunflowers.

Dozens of activists and human rights defenders have been taken and are missing. The full tally is still not known. Rosa María Payá  reported over Twitter in Spanish below that the "detained and disappeared ascends to 72 in Cuba just hours before EU high representative Federica Mog 's arrival to meet with dictators in Havana."

Detenidos/Desaparecidos asciende a 72 en #Cuba a solo horas de que llegue @FedericaMog alta representante de la #EU á reunirse con los dictadores en #LaHabana@hermanntertsch @cayetanaAT @Telicka @ALDEParty @YouthEPP @TonoEPP @CNNEE @EditaHrdaEU @europapress @EFEnoticias @EPP https://t.co/KvNliVxQhr

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) September 8, 2019

However there are some questions that must be asked as the EU's representative arrived in Havana to meet with the dictatorship and not the democrats. "What will Federica Mogherini do? Speak out for human rights? remain silent and complicit? or worse actively embrace the dictatorship again?"

.@FedericaMog History will record whether you seized this moment to speak out for Cuba’s brave opposition, the human rights activists who are beaten and brutally arrested, and the political prisoners, or not. https://t.co/ai1vgha0OA

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 8, 2019