"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)
"Human rights are universal and indivisible. Human freedom is also
indivisible: if it is denied to anyone in the world, it is therefore
denied, indirectly, to all people. This is why we cannot remain silent
in the face of evil or violence; silence merely encourages them." -
Vaclav Havel
There are conversations underway that you should consider listening to, and reflecting on. The international human rights situation has been deteriorating for far too long, and the effects are impacting all of us.
Now is the time to leave our information silos prepared for us by social media giants, and re-engage on the ground in real conversations seeking our areas of both common agreement, and where we disagree to better understand each other.
This process will help us to also live in truth to advance freedom, respect for the dignity of the other, and reviving human rights around the globe.
Day 2 promises to be interesting as well. Hope to see you there. Please spread the word and use the hashtags #TruthIgnited and #OFF2021
1/ “All my work is about making people think. In order for them to think, they first have to be open to listening, and, later, coming up with their own conclusions.” - award-winning Cuban artist & upcoming #OFF speaker Tania Bruguera. pic.twitter.com/hgMqbZacut
Update: Day 2 was remarkable. Presentations by several human rights icons, and a performance by Cuban musical icons Paquito D'Rivera,and Chucho Valdés.
The U.S. flag at the U. S. Embassy in Havana on Aug. 14, 2014. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
October 30, 2020
The Oct. 26 editorial “Another invisible enemy”
was correct when it called for the perpetrators of sonic attacks on
Americans in Cuba to be identified, Americans protected and a proper
response delivered, but too many are quick to believe the claims from
Cuban officials that nothing happened and that they had no knowledge of
what caused the injuries.
Furthermore, on Oct. 18, dissident Cuban artist Tania Bruguera described
and recorded a sonic attack that caused her a headache and ear ache
that she found difficult to tolerate. Two former Cuban political
prisoners, Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez and Luis Zuniga, described
at a forum held on Capitol Hill in November 2017 how prison officials
used high-pitched sound to cause them physiological harm in 1979. This
history and the recent attack against Ms. Bruguera using the same kind
of sonic weapon with similar symptoms that had been visited on U.S.
diplomats should invite greater scrutiny of Havana.
John Suarez, Falls Church
The writer is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.
"All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings." - Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, United Nations 1990 Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros and the continuing six decade tragedy of political prisoners in Cuba
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in his 1861 book, The House of the Dead
that "the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering
its prisons." What does this say about the Cuban government that has
barred the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Cuba's prisons for decades?
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.
Yale professor and author Carlos Eire writing in Babalu Blog highlighted Yosvany's untimely passing and placed it in context:
It’s happened again. Another Cuban dissident has died in prison. Strangely, unlike previous hunger-striking political prisoners who received international attention, Yosvany Arostegui was barely noticed in social media and totally ignored by the world’s news outlets. He joins a long list of hunger-strikers who have been pushed to their deaths by the Castro regime. May his self-immolation in prison be the last, and may he rest in peace and eternal freedom.
Exiled Cuban lawyer and human rights defender Laritza Diversent over Facebook wrote:
I feel deep sadness and pain. I imagine how lonely he felt and how convinced he was that he preferred to exhaust his body until it was turned off. His death reminds me of the thousands of people who, in Cuban prisons, use their body to protest against unjust criminal proceedings. It makes me more aware of all the activists who, like Silverio Portal, are locked up as punishment for exercising their rights to free expression, criticize, protest, meet and associate.
On Friday, August 7, State Security contacted the family of prisoner Yosvany Aróstegui Armenteros to inform them that he had died during a hunger strike that he had carried out for 40 days.
Aróstegui Armenteros had been arrested a year earlier and prosecuted for two common crimes for which he pleaded not guilty from the beginning. Before this last strike he had carried out others with the same objective: to demand his freedom.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo
As in the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo (February 2010), Aróstegui Armenteros was transferred to Kilo 8 prison from another prison and then transferred to the Prison ward of the Amalia Simoni Hospital in the city of Camagüey. Authorities at the Kilo 8 Prison have a torture system to subject prisoners who go on strike: they isolate them, and take away their water, the only sustenance of any striker.
In the case of Zapata and thanks to pressure from opposition groups outside the Amalia Simoni hospital, his mother was able to see him and learn from his lips about the torture and denial of water to which he had been subjected.
Yosvany Aróstegui did not have the same luck. His brother, Yaudel Aróstegui Armenteros was not allowed to see him.
“Ten days before he died, they called my brother Yaudel Arostegui Armenteros, at the hospital to appear there, when he arrived at Amalia Simoni they told him that my brother was very ill. My brother couldn't see him. A doctor who was there told my brother that the next call they were going to make would not be good, it was because he was going to die. And so it was,” Raidel Aróstegui Armenteros, who lives in exile in the state of Washington, United States, told the Center.
According to Raidel, his brother always said he was innocent of the common crimes he was accused of. The family hired an attorney who conducted investigations into the case, but a week before the trial, the attorney mysteriously died in a traffic accident.
His brother always thought he would be released, but upon receiving the 15-year prison sentence he began a series of hunger strikes."My brother Yosvany Arostegui was a human rights activist. He was always confronting the political police. In Camagüey his actions bothered the political police. He always told me that the day something happened to him that he was going to plant himself in protest. That the day they did something to him, he was going to be planted and that the second Zapata in Camagüey was going to be him. And so it happened. Look how his death was,” he added.
During this dictatorship of more than sixty-one years of the Castros, dozens of political and common prisoners have died on hunger strike as a result of the denial of water and medical assistance, in addition to the cruel treatment to which those who decide to denounce the disrespect of their human rights were subjected to.
The Center for a Free Cuba has denounced this case to international human rights organizations and demanded an independent investigation into the death of Yosvany Aróstegui Armenteros.
In the aftermath of Cuban dissident Yosvany Arostegui’s death, artist and activist Tania Bruguera has called for a virtual “chorus of voices” to acknowledge and honor the political prisoners in Cuba. On her Facebook page yesterday, she posted a list of 102 current prisoners and asked supporters to record themselves reading the names out loud, uploading the videos with the hashtags #JusticiaParaYosvani (#JusticeForYovani) and #CoroPresosPoliticosCuba (#ChorusPoliticalPrisonersCuba).
The Center is encouraging others to participate in this initiative by the Cuban artist.
"Each time the West made the wrong decision of support [for] what they call stability, instead of supporting the peoples right to be free they end up with the situation as the one we are facing today in our hemisphere, Latin America." - Rosa María Payá, Opening Panel of Forum 2000
Challenges and opportunities for Cuban democrats at the UN General Assembly and Forum 2000
There is an international crisis that finds both human rights and democracy in retreat around the globe. The roots of this crisis are found externally, with the rise of communist China as a great power, and internally with a crisis of values in established democracies.
On October 17th at the United Nations the 193-member General Assembly, elected Brazil and Venezuela to the region’s two vacant spots. Brazil obtained 153 votes, followed by Venezuela with 105 votes both beating Costa Rica, that obtained only 96 votes. The two countries will each serve three-year terms on the UN Human Rights Council beginning January 1, 2020. Costa Rica has the best human rights records of the three candidates, but did not garner enough votes to get elected.
The Washington Post reported on the consequences of this vote and quoted U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau, who observed that “with the seat, Venezuela will try to undermine scrutiny of its abuses and the abuses of its allies,” and that in "votes on some issues can be close, so we don’t need countries like Venezuela who try to undermine the good work.” This vote is an insult to international human rights standards.
Meanwhile in Cuba, U.S. economic sanctions are impacting the Castro regime and forcing it to open up the economy to obtain more hard currency for the dictatorship. The prices of household appliances and other items have been lowered, but Cubans will have to purchase them in dollars.This is part of an effort to limit US economic leverage. The United States has tightened sanctions over the Cuban dictatorship to push for the Castro regime to end its bad actions in Venezuela. Paradoxically it is forcing the regime to open up economically to its own population.
Oved Lobel, a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, outlined the Cuban role in Venezuela in his June 6, 2019 article "What are Russia, Iran and Cuba doing in Venezuela?" in the publication The Strategist.
"Amid the continuing political, economic and humanitarian meltdown of Venezuela, an anti-American alliance consisting of Russia, Cuba and Iran is coalescing to counter US economic and diplomatic pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro. The anchor of the alliance is Cuba, which colonised Venezuela through its security services when Fidel Castro’s protege Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998. Castro then began shipping tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day back to Cuba, while Venezuela became what is widely considered a ‘mafia state’. He also expanded his relationships with the narco-terrorist insurgencies plaguing the region, most famously FARC and the National Liberation Army in Colombia. Cuba’s security services helped stand up loyalist paramilitary organisations called colectivos to terrorise opponents of the Maduro regime. More recently, Cuba assisted in creating the Special Actions Force, or FAES, which strikes at opposition figures."
Despite Cuba's role as a bad actor in Venezuela, and the unfolding crisis there, the European Union has pursued an engagement policy with the Castro regime while marginalizing the role of the Cuban opposition both at diplomatic gatherings in Cuba and international meetings in Europe. Leaders of the European Union have forgotten the lessons of 1989 and statues of Karl Marx are being erected in Europe once again.
In contrast to the European Union, much of European civil society has maintained its commitment to Cuban democrats and independent civil society.
Opening Panel of Forum 2000
Earlier this week, over two days on October 15th and 16th in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, Forum 2000 gathered to analyze the challenges to a democratic world order that defends human rights. Forum 2000 is a joint initiative of the late Czech President Václav Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa, and the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel that was founded in 1996.
Over the past 23 years beginning in 1997, Forum 2000 has organized an annual gathering to focus on pressing international issues. This year's Forum 2000 Conference theme was "Recovering the Promise of 1989" and looked back at the optimism of thirty years ago and the pessimism and challenges of today:
"Thirty years ago, the world was full of hope that, finally, democracy, freedom, and a global order based on peace and responsibility would prevail. In the tumultuous year 1989, people rallied against governments with a dismal human rights record and a lack of respect for the rule of law. Protests in Beijing, Berlin, or Prague coincided with ongoing or looming democratic transitions in Chile, Nicaragua, South Africa and elsewhere. Citizens globally asked for more freedom and democracy and hoped for a just society. Western democracies served as a model to which many looked up to.
Since then, the spirit of freedom and civic responsibility in new democracies, as well as in the more established ones, has faced many difficult tests and today, we are at perhaps one of liberal democracy's most demanding moments."
Cuban dissidents were prominently featured during this edition of the Forum 2000 Conference.
Lech Walesa and Rosa María Payá at Forum 2000
Cuban dissident Rosa María Payá took part in the opening panel, "Ambitions of 1989? Ambitions of Today?" at Žofín Palace, Forum Hall together with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman, Mikuláš Minář, Šimon Pánek, Maia Sandu and moderator Jacques Rupnik. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Karman addressed how "bad choices are made between tyranny and terrorism," and she declared that "we will fight both. Any war against terrorism is also a war against dictatorship. Every dictator is a terrorist and every terrorist is a dictator."
Rosa María Payá warned of the dangers of ignoring the Castro regime in Latin America, citing her martyred father Oswaldo Payá who said "the cause of freedom is the cause of peace" and no strategy that ignores the authoritarian presence and interference of Castroism in Latin America will be successful in obtaining and maintaining either."
Manuel Cuesta Morúa responds to a question on the Forum 2000 anniversary panel
Cuban dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa spoke on the anniversary panel, "30 Years of Czech Human Rights Policy Abroad: Achievements and New Challenges" in the Žofín Palace, Forum Hall with speakers Arzu Gebullayeva, Carl Gershman, and Alexandr Vondra.
During the panel discussion Carl Gershman highlighted the criminal nature of the Castro regime and the fact that Cuba's secret police had murdered Oswaldo Payá in 2012.
Tania Bruguera addresses Forum 2000 panel
Cuban artist Tania Bruguera took part in the panel discussion, "60 Years of Communism in Cuba" at Žofín Palace in the Conference Hall along with Wilhelm Hofmeister, Miriam Kornblith, and Danae Vilchez. According to the event description: "Cuba is one of the five remaining modern-day communist countries in the world along with China, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Its communist regime, established in 1959, survived even the collapse of its one-time supporter, the Soviet Union. Despite the new constitution and the so-called 'transition of power' to the new President Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2018, Cuba remains a country ruled by a communist government. What lessons can Cuba learn from the countries that successfully overthrew their communist regimes in 1989? Is there a role for the international community and regional actors in supporting Cuba's eventual transition to democracy?"
This past week demonstrated both the challenges and opportunities for Cuban democrats.
International institutions such as the UN General Assembly are dominated by anti-democratic actors. The election of Venezuela to the UN Human Rights Council adds to the roster of the world's worst human rights offenders sitting on that body with the objective of neutralizing it.
This is due in part to the West's failure of prioritizing human rights over economic interests. The rise of China as an international power aggravates this negative trend.
On the other hand Forum 2000 continues its work of bringing together people of good will from around the world to engage in a democratic conversation on the pressing matters of the day. It also serves as a platform for democrats to network and coordinate their efforts.
This is of great importance to counter the coordination and networking of authoritarians and totalitarians to undermine democracies and international human rights standards.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and President of Poland Lech Walesa in the concluding panel of Forum 2000 explained the concept of solidarity. He described it as follows: "If you can't lift heavy weights, you need to ask somebody for help. The Soviet Union was such a weight. We asked Europe, the United States, and Canada for help and together we got rid of the system. Now we need the same spirit of global solidarity in the world."
"If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause." - T. S. Eliot (1927)
Forum 2000 started today and this 23rd gathering in Prague will focus on "recovering the promise of 1989." Some of the ways to do that are to attend this gathering in person, virtually over social media, and to revisit the writings and thoughts of those who led the struggle that saw freedom spread around the world in 1989. One of them is Václav Havel and he is also a founder of Forum 2000. If you haven't heard of him, then shame on you. He is an important figure to know, to understand how Eastern Europe was liberated in 1989. Václav Havel was a Czech playwright, who became a dissident, a prisoner of conscience, presided over the Velvet Revolution, became president of Czechoslovakia, resigned in protest over the Velvet Divorce, then became president of the Czech republic and finally citizen and playwright once again. All the while he demonstrated his solidarity with victims of repression in his own country and around the world.
The fruits of his legacy can be seen in the work of Forum 2000, this annual gathering of politicians, philosophers, artists, scientists, and the public to reflect on important issues challenging civilization that is currently underway. Ten years ago on October 12, 2009 at another Forum 2000 conferenceVáclav Havel offered the following reflection on President Barack Obama's decision to back out of meeting with the Dalai Lama due to an upcoming trip to China:
I believe that when the new Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize postpones receiving the Dalai Lama until after he has accomplished his visit to China, he makes a small compromise, a compromise which actually has some logic to it. However, there arises a question as to whether those large, serious compromises do not have their origin and roots in precisely these tiny and very often more or less logical compromises.
"Above all, clear and unequivocal solidarity with all those confronted by totalitarian or authoritarian regimes wherever they are in the world. And economic or other particular interests should not hinder such solidarity. Even a minor, discreet and well-intentioned compromise can have fatal consequences– even if only in the long term, or indirectly. One must not retreat in the face of evil, because it is in the nature of evil to take advantage of every concession. Besides, Europe has already had its own unfortunate experience of appeasement policies.
The "Velvet Revolution" achieved profound non-violent change without wholesale slaughter and violence associated historically with revolutions. A cursory look would claim that the "revolution" took 11 days in November for the Communists to relinquish power. In reality, it began at least in 1976, after the beatings and arrests of the members of the rock band the Plastic People of the Universe, led a number of intellectuals, Vaclav Havel, among them drafting and signingCharter 77. Charter 77 challenged the Czechoslovak communists to honor the rights outlined in their own constitution and in the Helsinki accords that the communist government had signed in 1975. This small moral act had big consequences over the long term, and immoral acts such as engaging with Communist China without conditioning relations to improved human rights is now having a great impact in both Europe and America. On December 9, 1996 President Bill Clinton met with Chinese General and Defense Minister Chi Haotian, in the Oval Office. General Haotian was the military leader who oversaw the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. President Clinton did not raise the issue of Tiananmen Square in his meeting with the Chinese general. This further empowered the hard line elements in China. In 2017, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a high ranking center right politician, went to Trierto honor Karl Marx, and celebrate the unveiling of a statue of the communist philosopher paid for by the communist regime in China. The European Commission President also excused and downplayed in his remarks the responsibility of the author of the Communist Manifesto for the 100 million lives lost to impose Marx's ideological project.
“We are here now because we are asking the Chinese president and Chinese government not to repeat what happened to us 33 years ago, where fighters for freedom were pursued and persecuted.”
The similarities, I would say, are in the basic structure of human rights reflected in a democratic system, which of course the regime doesn’t want. The regime wishes for the dictatorship of one party. I think this is where Charter 08and Charter 77 are similar: they have similar targets and similar messages to deliver to the [respective] regimes.
The lessons are clear. There is no end of history, and there are no permanent victories. Liberty and respect for human rights are fragile and require constant attention and care. The threat of tyranny whether through external or internal threats is a constant challenge that requires the vigilance and prudence of free peoples.
Sadly, these lessons and the legacy of Václav Havel are under assault in the Czech Republic. In 2014, Czech deputy foreign minister Petr Drulák argued that a "foreign policy with its stress on human rights was wrong and harmful." This abandonment of human rights was not solely confined to Cuba. In February of 2015 the European Union lifted sanctions on the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. This was followed in February of 2016 with lifting sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus.
The European Union's Common Position on Cuba was ended on December 12, 2016 when in a unanimous vote (including the Czech Republic) the European Union claimed to "open a new chapter" in relations with the Cuban dictatorship that dropped human rights as a condition of normalization. Under the pretext of "normal relations" Cuban dissidents and independent civil society are no longer welcome at events at European embassies, as they were under the old policy. Incidentally in the rest of Latin America European embassies invite dissidents, members of the political opposition to their events. The Cuban government in Washington DC invites opponents of the US government to their embassy functions.
However, these dissidents have not been abandoned, Václav Havel is no longer physically with us, but his legacy and institutions such as Forum 2000 live on and continue to stress human rights and solidarity.
Dissidents and human rights defenders from around the world, including Cuba and China, will be heard at Forum 2000 by world leaders in a space that defends the values and promise of 1989, and seeks avenues for strengthening and expanding them.
True, this is a small moral act by a Czech NGO, but as Vaclav Havel demonstrated back in 1989, in both word and deed, they can change the world for the better. Whether it succeeds or not we must continue to hope. In 1990 in his book, Disturbing the Peace, Havel explained a powerful definition of hope that is rooted in truth.
“Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Tonight, we listened to Nobel Peace Prize LaureateTawakkol Karman deliver a powerful speech at Forum 2000 that painted a negative, but accurate picture, of the challenges facing the international community today.
"Bad choices are made between tyranny and terrorism. We will fight both. Any war against terrorism is also a war against dictatorship. Every dictator is a terrorist and every terrorist is a dictator."
Freedom of expression, of thought, belief in the freedom of travel and solidarity with victims of repression are at the heart of Forum 2000 and are among the values to be defended to preserve and expand free societies. Hope you will join us in attending Forum 2000, and sending them a donation.
According to the Danish NGO Free Muse in their 2019 report, Cuba was second in the world, after Turkey, with 19 artists detained over the course of 2018. On May 7th durng the Biennale Art Festival in Havana a Twitter Hackathon will be taking place. Let us remember Cuban artists such as Maykel Castillo Pérez, jailed for protesting Decree 349 and Cuban American artists such as Coco Fusco, denied entry to Cuba to attend the Biennale because of her criticism of censorship of the arts in Cuba.
Cuba – AI Twitter Hackathon Tuesday 7th May 2019
Attached are some examples of images to tweet, but you can create your own with your own face or another in the picture.
What the Twitter Hackathon is all about
On Tuesday, 7th May 2019, during the Havana Biennale Art Festival, we are asking you to take part in a Twitter Hackathon, to raise awareness of a new law in Cuba which stands to censor artistic freedom.
Decree 349 was one of the first laws signed by the new President, Miguel Díaz-Canel. It prohibits artistic expression which the state decides is “obscene”, “vulgar”, or “harmful to ethical and cultural values”. It forces artists, musicians, and performers to have prior approval from the Ministry of Culture, and those working without it can have their materials confiscated or suffer heavy fines. The Cuban authorities have argued that Decree 349 aims to protect Cuban society from “mediocrity” and “banality” in art. In reality, it aims to bring artistic expression in line with the “cultural policy of the state”.
WHY A TWITTER HACKATHON?
In 2018, president Díaz-Canel and other high-ranking government officers launched Twitter accounts and created the hashtag #SomosContinuidad (“We are continuity”). Using a storm of tweets on May 7th, we expect to “hack” the official hashtag by highlighting what that “continuity” really implies for artists in terms of restrictions on freedom of expression and censorship.
WHAT IS OUR GOAL WITH THIS ACTION?
The goal is to achieve trending levels on Twitter using the official hashtag to communicate our messages. Therefore, all our posts must have the #SomosContinuidad hashtag. We aim to have at least 2,500 tweets from our entire movement and allies on the day of the hackathon.
HOW TO TAKE PART IN THE HACKATHON
1. On 7th May please tweet the suggested messages which target the President and the Vice-Minister of Culture, Rafael Fernando Rojas G. You can also include the images supplied, of Cuban artists who are speaking out against the decree.
2. Upload a photo of you and/or your colleagues or friends holding a sign with the #SomosContinuidad and #NoToDecree349 hashtags, and use one of the suggested messages in the tweet as well.
Suggested messages:
The leadership of #Cuba might have changed, but censorship of artists and restrictions on artistic expression are still the norm. Is this what the government of @DiazCanelB means by ‘continuity’? #SomosContinuidad #NotoDecree349 #NoAlDecreto349
We show our solidarity with all independent artists in #Cuba standing up for a space in which they can work freely and without fear of reprisals! @DiazCanelB @fernandorojas_6 #SomosContinuidad #NoToDecree349 #NoAlDecreto349
@DiazCanelB @fernandorojas_6 Artists in #Cuba do not need to be protected from “mediocrity” and “banality”. “Continuity” must not = censorship. They need free space to express themselves without fear of reprisals! #SomosContinuidad
Leadership of #Cuba didn't change @DiazCanelB is Raul Castro's puppet but censorship changed, it got worse with #Decree349. #SomosContinuidad #NotoDecree349 #NoAlDecreto349
General Raul Castro and his son Colonel Alejandro Castro of the secret police
Raul Castro is trending in the news because it has been announced that he will remain "president" of Cuba until April 2018. He was supposed to be departing office in February 2018, but regardless will be remaining has head of the Communist Party of Cuba. Cuba is a tyrannical dictatorship and titles matter little. Raul Castro will remain in control.
The question raised by Newsweek is at best naive. Raul Castro has been
grooming his son, Alejandro Castro, a colonel in the secret police as a
successor. Cuba is a communist dictatorship where dynastic succession,
within the Castro family, is reminiscent of another communist dynastic
dictatorship, the Kim family in North Korea.
The only question within the context of the dictatorship will be if the Castro family continues to hold the title or place a puppet, for public relations purposes, and continue to run things in Cuba. Real change must come from outside of the regime responding to the miserable reality on the island.
TR @RosaMariaPaya Moment in which they kidnap and beat the artists Tania Bruguera, Luis Manel Alcantara and Yanelis Nuñez. They remain missing. The police stations say they do not have them. FREEDOM! #CubaDecidepic.twitter.com/vkPJoaW9TY
Meanwhile as the international focuses on this non-story inside Cuba repression is ramping up against nonviolent dissidents and their is relatively little press coverage. Cuban artists Tania Bruguera, Luis M Alcantara, Adonis Milan, Yanelis Nuñez and Lia Villares were beaten up and arrested last night in Cuba by the regime's secret police as they attempted to attend the staging of the play Psychosis. As of today reports indicate that Lia Villares and Luis Manuel Otero remain detained with some questions about their whereabouts.
#CUBA State Security agents violently arrested the artists: Tania Bruguera @Immigrantmove Luis M Alcantara Adonis Milan Yanelis Nuñez at the door of the gallery of @liavillares, who was previously arrested with Iris Ruiz
Just for exercising their freedom of expression#CubaDecidepic.twitter.com/9MZIsgTyp9
Cuba is a tropical island but the drab grey Stalinism, usually found in colder climates, that drains the life out of vibrant cultures is present within the Castro regime.
CUBA — WITHIN THE REVOLUTION EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED
Cuba remains a classic dictatorship. The Cuban Constitution allows freedom of speech and press, as long as it follows the purposes of the socialist society as understood by the Cuban government. The Cuban government has gained a reputation for its limited tolerance for public criticism, and the Communist Party is mandated to give prior approval for printing almost all publications and to censor public screenings and artistic performances.
Freemuse in 2015 documented 21 cases of violations on artistic freedom of expression in Cuba, including imprisoning one artist and keeping two in prison, detaining two artists and prosecuting another.
Throughout 2015 the Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, the legislative parliament of Cuba, announced a “recommendation” of restricting free public spaces from vulgarity and the denigration of women in order to stop foreign influence contrary to Cuban values. The assembly also “advised” comedians to avoid “irresponsible humour”. The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), a state monopoly, amplified this statement. The president of the ICRT, Danilo Sirio, emphasized that “under no circumstances will artistic content that denigrates women, or incites vulgarity, obscenity or offensiveness, or what is contrary to the Cuban values will be broadcasted”. Sirio also suggested that some materials, such as foreign television series, should be accompanied by comments from a Cuban specialist.
RAP & HIP-HOP AS DISSENT
On 28 January 2015, rapper Maikel Oksobo “El Dkano” (real name Maikel Castillo Pérez) was sentenced
to one year in prison in Havana. It is generally believed he was targeted for having used his music
to express dissenting political opinions. El Dkano was sentenced under a charge known as the
“peligrosidad predelictiva”, translated as “dangerousness that is likely to lead a crime”, which is used to
imprison dissidents for longer periods.
In April 2015 a group of Cuban hip-hop artists were expelled from the Cuban Rap Agency (ACR). In an
open letter sent out on 28 June2015, the group denounced Minister of Culture Julián González Toledo
for deteriorating Cuban hip-hop both inside and outside the country. The group also said that the Cuban
Institute of Music made “promises that never came true”, and that Cuban hip-hop is being censored more than ever. Some of the artists stated that the real reason of their expulsion was their participation
in Panama in the Summit of the Americas, a set of international summits organized by the Organization
of the American States bringing together leaders of countries in the Americas. The hip-hop artists who
participated in the summit were Soandry, Hermanos de Causa, Renovación Urbana, Maikel y El Fonky,
La Alianza, Raudel Escuadrón Patriota, Ruta 11, Bárbaro el Urbano, Charly Mucha Rima, Cuentas Claras,
Carlitos P and P, Yimi con Klase, and Onda Libre.
PASSPORT RETURNED TO BRUGUERA
US-based performance artist Tania Bruguera was not allowed to leave Cuba during the first six months
of 2015. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after trying to stage a work entitled ‘Tatlin’s
whisper #6’, in Havana’s Revolution Square. Bruguera was harassed several times in 2015, and was also
detained for a few hours in May 2015 after reading passages from Hannah Arendt’s ‘The Origins of
Totalitarianism’ outside her home in Havana. Cuban authorities didn’t file formal charges, but
Bruguera had her passport confiscated. In mid-July 2015 authorities returned her passport.
In October 2015, graffiti artist and activist Danilo Maldonado Machado, El Sexto, was released after
being detained for 10 months. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after police officers
found a drawing of two pigs named Fidel and Raul that the artist was planning to use in a performance.
Authorities explained to the artist’s family that El Sexto was detained because they considered him
“counter-revolutionary”. During this period the artist didn’t face any trial or sentence.
Gorki was detained on three occasions in 2015 and physically attacked
GORKI ÁGUILA DETAINED AGAIN ... AND AGAIN
Gorki Águila, leader of the band Porno Para Ricardo, has never had an easy relationship with Cuban
authorities. A controversial figure, Gorki has been arrested or detained many times during the past
15 years; sometimes because of his role as an activist, sometimes because of his artistic work, and
sometimes due to the combination of both his art and activism — or “artyvism” as some call it.
2015 was no exception for Gorki. On 23 May Gorki was arrested outside Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts
by Cuban authorities after carrying a banner with the image of the graffiti artist El Sexto and the word
“libertad” (freedom) on it. Gorki was incarcerated for 23 hours and said police physically attacked him
while in their custody.
In July, Gorki dedicated a song to the Damas de Blanco (Women in White), a citizen movement
that gathers wives and relatives of political prisoners. Gorki declared that “it seems that the Cuban
government planned to dismantle the Damas de Blanco with intimidation and violence, but what the
governmental interference did was to only unite them even more”.
On 5 August 2015, some weeks after
his presentation, officers of State Security waited for Gorki outside his home and detained him again
for a couple of hours. A State Security officer warned him that, if he continued to attend opposition
meetings, the government could restrict his travels to other countries. However, Gorki stated that the
State is “violating every right, one after another: the right to pacific protest, to freedom of speech, to
travel, and that the detentions in the island are totally arbitrary”.
On 7 November 2015, Gorki was again detained, along with two journalists from tv channel France 24,
for several hours in Havana. The musician and the two journalists were brought to the Playa
Municipality police station, where Gorki made a phone call to digital independent media outlet
14ymedio, and reported the situation. After hours of detention, all three were set free without charges.
In November 2015, Cuban authorities suspended theatre director and filmmaker Juan Carlos
Cremata’s permission to work following the ban of his theatre play ‘El Rey se Muere’ (The King is
Dying). Later, in December, Cremata wrote in his BBC-syndicated blog that Cuban authorities tried to
expel Eliecer Ávila, an opponent of the Castro regime, from a meeting about Cuban cinema at the
Cultural Center Fresa y Chocolate. According to Cremata, officials were spying on the event for a while
before discretely trying to take Ávila away from the crowd. When people at the event asked for an
explanation, officers just said that the event was “meant to be for film makers and revolutionaries
only”. The day after, the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry (ICAIC) defended the
position of the officials in a letter, stating that: “there can’t be place in our forums for those who are
enemies of the Revolution”.
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