Fake change in Cuba: totalitarian regime maintains travel controls

"The government of the military regime has denied Cubans the universal right to freedom of travel for more than half a century and continues denying this right without any transparent prospects of change. With the greatest cruelty, it has torn millions of Cuban families apart and it still continues doing it." - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas Enough of deceptions, FREEDOM NOW, April 19, 2012

The infamous white card, an exit visa, that Cubans needed to exit their own country was replaced in 2013 with new more stringent requirements for the passport. Travel in and out of Cuba is administered by the Ministry of the Interior and professionals such as medical doctors do not have freedom to travel. 

Travel into and out of Cuba remains under totalitarian control and dissenters continue to be punished. The case of Antonio Rodiles and his wife Ailer González who are not being allowed to travel out of the island is a case in point. They have not been charged with anything nor are they on parole, but the dictatorship has decided for the time being that they cannot travel. In the past the Cuban dictatorship used the white card now they use the passport as the control.

Between 70,000 and 300,000 Cubans are banned by the Castro regime from returning to their homeland reported The Miami Herald on August 15, 2011 in an article titled Many Cuban expatriates can't go home again.  A friend, born in Cuba, that I went to college with was not able to travel to Cuba when her grandmother died. It wasn't the US embargo that stopped her but the Castro regime that denied her request. No reason given.

This migration "reform"is an example of what the late dissident leader Oswaldo Payá referred to as "fraudulent change." Giving the image of an opening while the Stalinist character of the dictatorship remains intact thus benefiting it from the image makeover in order to provide decreased international scrutiny and increased legitimacy. Sadly, the reality is very different. Cubans are no freer to travel now than before January 1, 2013  it remains up to the whims of the dictatorship. 

 
Oswaldo knew this first hand having been "permitted" to travel out of Cuba in December 2002 to attend the Sakharov Prize ceremony in Strasbourg, France. Days prior to being granted the white card to travel, on December 13, 2002 his home was trashed and death threats were left everywhere. Oswaldo Payá was able to return home to his family in February of 2003. Dissidents in smaller numbers when politically expedient for the regime were traveling in and out of Cuba long before 2013.

Despite the so-called 2013 travel reform Cubans living abroad were still banned from returning home because they had nonviolently dissented from the official line. One high profile example was that of Blanca Reyes. In August of 2013, Blanca Reyes made public that she was denied the right to enter her country, Cuba, to visit her 93-year old dying father. On October 15, 2013 over twitter Blanca reported that father and daughter were never again to be reunited in life:"My father died today in Cuba. I did not see him for nine years, the Cuban government stopped me. HOW MUCH LONGER MY GOD?" 

One concrete change is that the cost for a Cuban national to travel out of Cuba has increased in cost from 300 CUCs ($300) which included in the past the passport, white card and associated paperwork to 500 CUCs ($500) now for just the passport when the average Cuban earns 20 CUCs working for an entire month. This means that under this so-called reform for a Cuban to obtain a passport needs to spend twenty five months salary.

Cuba remains the only country in the Western Hemisphere in which nationals do not have the right to enter and exit their own country. It is for this reason that the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) remains needed. The dictatorship in Cuba remains a totalitarian regime. Stories in the media have misrepresented it as some sort of "perk" but that is not the case. However since one of the long term goals of the Castro dictatorship has been to get rid of CAA which sets Cuba apart from the rest of countries in the hemisphere then this type of media campaigns should not be a surprise.

At the same time one cannot ignore that the dictatorship in Cuba is also a state sponsor of terrorism and that a small number of individuals who have engaged in human rights violations and atrocities against Cubans have been rewarded by the Cuban regime with residency in the United States. At the same time the president of the United States has said that those engaged in serious human rights violations should be barred from entering the United States and on August 4, 2011 issued a presidential proclamation to that effect that states under Section 1:

The entry into the United States, as immigrants or non-immigrants, of the following persons is hereby suspended:

(a) Any alien who planned, ordered, assisted, aided and abetted, committed or otherwise participated in, including through command responsibility, widespread or systematic violence against any civilian population based in whole or in part on race; color; descent; sex; disability; membership in an indigenous group; language; religion; political opinion; national origin; ethnicity; membership in a particular social group; birth; or sexual orientation or gender identity, or who attempted or conspired to do so.

(b) Any alien who planned, ordered, assisted, aided and abetted, committed or otherwise participated in, including through command responsibility, war crimes, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of human rights, or who attempted or conspired to do so.

Instead of replacing the Cuban Adjustment Act another approach, that underscores Obama's above stated presidential proclamation, would be to push for legislation that bars Cuban human rights abusers from entering the United States. The bill would place visa bans and asset freezes on Cuban officials involved in human rights abuses and could be patterned after the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act that was passed in 2012 that targets Russia. In addition to Cuba the new bill could also include Belarus, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe and be an opportunity for unity between freedom movements.

Maintaining the Cuban Adjustment act as it is while applying the presidential proclamation and pushing for the Magnitsky Act to be expanded to include Cuba to target those who have committed serious human rights violations in Cuba seems an approach that both takes into account the systematic violation of human rights suffered by Cubans and the need to hold Cuban human rights violators accountable. Doing otherwise would be a surrender of fundamental democratic values.

Policy paper shows correlation between US engagement and rising repression in Cuba

The Obama Administration’s Cuba Engagement Policy and Rising Repression


by John Suarez, Cuban Democratic Directorate

“The Cuban people deserve the support of the United States and of an entire region that has committed to promote and defend democracy through the Inter-American Democratic Charter.” – The White House December 17, 2014 

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

Summary:

• Levels of violence and numbers of arbitrary detentions have grown exponentially during the 18 months of secret negotiations between the Castro regime and the Obama administration. 
• Human Rights defenders were victims of brutal, life threatening machete attacks in the same month that secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro dictatorship started. 
• The December 17, 2014 announcement of normalized relations was surrounded by repression, violence and death. 
• There has been an explosion of arbitrary detentions in Cuba, jumping from an average of 550 per month to 742. 
• The Castro regime has been implicated in heightening repression against pro-democracy activists in Venezuela, including extrajudicial killings.

Introduction
Six months ago on December 17, 2014 following eighteen months of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro regime, a new U.S. Cuba policy was announced with great pomp and circumstance by the President to the American people, at the same time that General Raul Castro,wearing his military uniform, addressed the Cuban people. President Obama argued that U.S. isolation of Cuba had failed to achieve its goals of a democratic transition, and that instead it had isolated the United States internationally and reduced its influence in the hemisphere. The aim of this paper is to analyze some of the events that took place during the secret negotiations and what has taken place since the policy was announced in the area of human rights violations.

Background
First, the premise that U.S. policy on Cuba over the past half century had been one of unwavering isolation is inaccurate. President Carter between 1977 and 1980 lifted the travel ban on Cuba*, engaged the Castro regime in a dialogue, both countries opened interests sections creating for all intense purposes de facto embassies that have operated to the present date. In 2000 Bill Clinton, shook hands with Fidel Castro, and opened up sanctions on Cuba that began trade between American companies and the Castro dictatorship in what would reach billions of dollars.

Secondly, during both openings U.S. interests were negatively impacted in the region and internationally. During the Carter administration it coincided with the rise of the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua and raging civil wars across Central America aided and abetted by the Castro regime.

During the Clinton administration the opening to Cuba coincided with the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. In both cases the U.S. policy of engagement with the Castro regime ended up expanding the dictatorship’s influence in the region while limiting that of the United States. The presence of Cuban state security has assisted in the undermining of human rights standards in both countries and needs to be taken into account in any analysis of human rights involving the Castro regime.#

The ‘New’ Policy
President Obama cited the loosening of sanctions that he had carried out in 2009, 2011 and on December 17, 2014. Concretely this new policy would involve re-establishing diplomatic relations, facilitating an expansion of travel to Cuba and make improvements on existing regulations to empower the Cuban people. Not mentioned was the commutation of the sentences of three Cuban spies, long demanded by the Castro regime, in exchange for Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen in what amounted to a hostage for terrorists swap. One of the spies, Gerardo Hernandez was serving a double life sentence, one of them for conspiracy to murder three U.S. citizens and a resident on February 24, 1996 in an act of international terrorism.

On April 10, 2015, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro shook hands at the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama. They met and gave a joint statement the following day. Meanwhile the President remained silent on violence and harassment against activists by Cuban state security agents during the Summit and only met with two Cuban dissidents, who support his policies, in a closed meeting. On May 29, 2015, despite evidence that the Castro regime was still engaged in sponsoring terrorism, the State Department removed Cuba from the list of terror sponsors.

Sadly, the stated position of the Obama administration to hold “a critical focus” that “will include continued strong support by the United States for improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms in Cuba” seems not to be a priority in the ongoing discussions and increased engagement between the two countries. Removing Cuba from the list of terror sponsors closes off an avenue that victims had to obtain justice in U.S. Courts.

Consequences of the Obama Cuba Policy on Cubans
In Cuba, since the announcement of the normalization of relations between the United States and the Castro dictatorship, which occurred on December 17, 2014, repression against human rights activists and people in general continues. Not to mention that the levels of violence and numbers of arbitrary detentions, during the prior 18 months of secret negotiations between the Castro regime and the Obama administration, grew exponentially starting in June of 2013.

Machete Attacks
Human rights defenders were victims of brutal and life threatening machete attacks in the same month that the secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Castro dictatorship started. On June 8, 2013 in Holguin, Cuba Werlando Leiva of the Christian Liberation Movement was attacked with a machete on a public street. Later that same month on June 21, 2013 in Camaguey, Orlando Lazaro Gomez Hernandez, a member of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba and of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front stepped out of his house with a sign demonstrating his solidarity with hunger striker Luis Enrique Santos Caballero. Seeing this the president of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an individual known as “Julio” ran out of his home with a machete and started to attack Orlando Lazaro with it, cutting part of his right hand and also striking him on the back. Others in coordination with the CDR president came out as the activist fell to the ground and began to kick him.

Sirley Ávila León, an ex-delegate of the People’s Assembly (Poder Popular) who in 2012 led a battle against the authorities of Las Tunas for a school in her town that led her to join the UNPACU opposition movement was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015. 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. She has still not recovered from her injuries but has been sent home in this critical state. She says that they are trying to be rid of her and that the authorities on several occasions pressured her son (an ex-counterintelligence official) to commit her to a mental hospital arguing that dissenting from the system was insane. Furthermore that various occasions 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.” Ávila is accusing Cuban state security of being behind the attack.

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

Extrajudicial killings
The December 17, 2014 announcement of normalized relations was also surrounded by repression, violence and death. Just a day earlier on December 16 the Cuban coastguard ram and sank a boat with 32 refugees, one of them, Diosbel Díaz Bioto, went missing and is presumed dead. The rest were repatriated and detained. Less than four months later 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 boat near Menéndez beach to flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at by state security.

Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez arbitrarily detained since 3/19/10

Arbitrary Detentions
During the Obama presidency there has been an explosion in the number of arbitrary detentions in Cuba with the highest numbers(on average) occurring during the eighteen months that the White House was secretly negotiating with the Castro regime [the number of detentions jumped from an average of 550 a month to 742 detentions a month]. According to Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIHPRESS) there were 8,519 arbitrary detentions registered in 2014 compared to 5,718 in 2013. Addressing this dramatic increase in arbitrary detentions, Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International in their 2015 annual report on Cuba warned, “we have been receiving incredibly worrying reports about a rise in harassment and short-term detentions of dissidents throughout 2014 which has continued in recent weeks. Prisoner releases will be no more than a smokescreen if they are not accompanied by expanded space for the free and peaceful expression of all opinions and other freedoms in Cuba.”

The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional) documented 178 politically motivated arbitrary detentions in January 2015, 492 in February 2015, 610 in March 2015, 338 in April 2015 and 641 in May 2015 in their monthly reports. Reports from opposition activists during the course of March 2015 indicated that hundreds of arbitrary arrests have been carried out as of March 16, 2015. March 1st began with 13 members of the Ladies in White beaten up and arbitrarily detained and later that is the same month 101 UNPACU activists were detained in Santiago, Cuba on March 15, 2015. The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) reported that "[t]he current and palpable uptrend in indiscriminate and often violent political repression against women and men who are only intending to exercise basic civil and political rights in a completely peaceful way continues to be alarming."

Antonio Rodiles attacked by State Security July 5, 2015

The news agency EFE reported that CCDHRN also denounced that in May 88 peaceful opposition figures were victims of physical attacks, vandalism, harassment and "acts of repudiation" attributable to the secret political police or State Security. On July 5, 2015 Antonio Rodiles was severely beaten on his way to the weekly Sunday march in Havana organized by the Ladies in White to demand the release of Cuban political prisoners. Rodiles suffered a broken nose requiring immediate surgery, several blows to the head, in the left ear, jaw and a fracture in the large left toe.

Over the past twelve consecutive Sundays scores of activists have been violently detained while trying to peacefully march with the Ladies in White. The Havana based project State of SATS (Estado de SATS) on June 17, 2015 published a video on YouTube interviewing members of the Ladies in White: Yaquelín Boni, Yamilé Garro Alfonso, Alina de la Caridad Lans García, Cecilia Guerra Alfonso, Aliuska Gómez García and other human rights activists such as Ángel Moya Acosta. who gave testimony on the repression that took place on Sunday, June 14, 2015 where 90 + activists were subjected to an act of repudiation by mobs brought in by state security agents and being detained arbitrarily, punched, kicked, grabbed by throat, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by these same agents and national revolutionary police.

On December 26, 2014 Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto, was detained on the Malecón esplanade in Havana as he was driving towards Central Park to hold a performance art happening with two pigs whose bodies were painted with the names: Fidel and Raúl. Since then “El Sexto” has remained detained in Valle Grande prison. He has been accused of “disrespect“and is awaiting a trial. Relatives report that he came down with pneumonia and has not received adequate medical care. As of July 1, 2015 he remains arbitrarily detained.

On June 24, 2015 Rosa María Rodríguez Gil addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and called for the release of her son, Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez, unjustly imprisoned since March 19, 2010. In her statement she outlined the circumstances that led to his arbitrary detention:

My name is Rosa Maria Rodriguez Gil, I am a member of the Coordinating Council of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and I live in Havana, Cuba. For my activism and commitment to the MCL ... because I refused to collaborate with the Cuban political police, my son Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez, a young man with psychological problems, was arbitrarily arrested, subjected to a show trial, where the prosecution was unable to demonstrate evidence of an alleged crime of trafficking in persons that he did not commit, they sanctioned him to 12 years in prison and he has spent 5 years in the prisons of Cuba. My son is being punished as a vendetta for my participation in the civic and constitutional campaign for a referendum where the people can freely decide whether if they want democracy. Not content to kidnap my son, the Cuban authorities denied Yosvani even the right to parole, that all inmate has on the island once they have passed the half way point of the sanction imposed, in this case unjustly. 

Political trials
At least four activists were placed on trial in the period following the December 17, 2014 announcement and others are awaiting trial. On December 19, 2014 Ciro Casanova Alexis was put on trial and sentenced to four years in prison. Daniel Moreno de la Peña tried on January 6, 2015 and sentenced to eight months in prison. On January 15, 2015 the trial of Ibars González Mirabal was carried out. He is under house arrest until the sentence is dictated against him facing one year and six months in prison and is still subject to harassment. On January 28, 2015 in Havana the rapper, Maikel Oksobo, also known as El Dkano, was sentenced to a year in prison under the charge of ‘peligrosidad predelictiva’ (precriminal dangerousness).

Exporting repression to Venezuela and Panama
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Fidel Castro had repeatedly tried to expand his style of revolution throughout Latin America and failed when the U.S. firmly upheld its policy of containment and isolation. Following both the Carter administration’s engagement policy (1977 – 1980) and Clinton’s (1999 – 2000) first through armed struggle in Nicaragua and secondly through subverting the democratic process in Venezuela was able to expand his reach in the hemisphere undermining regional human rights standards and structures. According to the 2005 Stratfor World Terrorism report, beginning with the Hugo Chavez presidency in 1999 there has been a “rapid increase in the numbers of Cuban political advisors, military officers and intelligence operatives in the country”—a disturbing presence, as the island country remains the last dictatorship in the hemisphere.

As early as 2005 there were reports on how security forces would frequently break up strikes and arrest trade unionists, allegedly under the watchful eye of Cuban security officials.^ Following the death of Chavez in March of 2013 the Castro regime successfully installed Nicolas Maduro and consolidated its control over the regime in Venezuela turning it into a virtual colony. During the 18 months in which the United States and Cuba took part in secret negotiations the levels of violence and terror visited upon the democratic opposition in Venezuela also grew exponentially as have reports of Cuban military and state security agents developing strategies of repression and participating in the crackdown.

Beginning in February of 2014 the high profile torture and killing of student opposition activists were carried out to terrorize the student pro-democracy movement. Reports in the media described individuals with Cuban accents involved in the brutality. Protests erupted in Venezuela where Cuban flags were burned while denouncing the Castro regime’s role in the repression therefore when analyzing Cuban repression, the role of the Castro regime in Venezuela must be taken into account. Here are some high profile examples of 43 killed between 2014 and the present date.

• Bassil Alejandro Dacosta was shot in the head in Caracas on February 12, 2014 from shots fired by a group of police men and his killing was captured from different angles on three different cameras. He was 24 years old.
• Robert Redman, carried the shooting victim, Bassil Alejandro Dacosta on February 12, 2014, was himself shot in the head and killed later that same day in Caracas but not before tweeting: "Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" He was 31 years old. ,
• Génesis Carmona was shot in the head in the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo on February 18, 2014 and died a day later from her injuries. In the last picture taken of her before being shot she is holding up a poster with two other women that reads: "God's time is perfect but if we don't go out into the streets, the time of Maduro will be ETERNAL." She was 22 years old.
• Geraldine Moreno was shot in the head with buckshot on February 19, 2014 in Tazajal, located in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo while taking part in a protest and in one of her last tweets on February 17th explained what motivated her to take part in the demonstrations: "No one sends me I go because I want to defend my Venezuela." She died from her injuries on Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was 23 years old.
• 14 year old high school student Kluiverth Roa was extrajudicially executed on February 24, 2015 by a member of the Bolivarian National Police of Táchira State identified as Javier Mora. This officer shot the teenager in the head, killing him in the afternoon. Kluiverth Roa, a student in San Agustín Codazzi school in San Critóbal, had just gotten out of school and was in the Barrio Obrero sector of the city, three blocks from the Catholic University of Táchira (UCAT) where a student protest was taking place. The teenager was surprised by a couple of functionaries riding on motorcycle and one of them shot the youth in the head. Kluiverth Roa was buried on February 25th with his Scout troop serving as pallbearers. 

The respected human rights organization Provea warns that the "killing of Roa Kluiverth is not an isolated event, but is a consequence of the rise of repression in the country." 43 young people, many of them students, have been extrajudicially executed in this manner since February of 2014.

Leticia Ramos and Augusto Monge attacked in Panama

Cuban state security engages in violence and intimidation at VII Summit of the Americas in Panama
Inviting the Castro regime to the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama in April of 2015, violated the democratic ideals of the summit and democratic charter signed of September 2001. On the eve of and during the course of the summit, the anti-democratic and violent nature of the dictatorship in Cuba was made evident. The Panamanian government had hoped that extending an invitation to all elements of Cuban society would propitiate a dialogue where all involved could “listen to each other within the frame of respect.” The summit was inundated with Cuban officials and state security agents that carried out acts of repudiation to disrupt events of the Summit in order to prevent Cuba’s or Venezuela’s independent civil society from participating in designated summit activities. "activists Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of murdered opposition leader Oswaldo Paya, and Lillian Tintori, wife of imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez were welcomed by screams and insults at the Civic Society Forum. ,

Outside of the Summit in The Porras public park on April 8, 2015 the Castro regime sent its agents, including a high ranking intelligence agent of the Castro regime (charged with overseeing repression in Venezuela) identified as Alexis Frutos Weeden to physically assault a small group of opposition activists who sought to leave a wreath at a bust of Jose Marti. The level of violence was such that several activists had to obtain medical treatment due to their injuries. Among those targeted for the worse beatings were activists from inside the island Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez, Yris Pérez Aguilera, and Leticia Ramos Herrería were brutally attacked. From Miami, Cuban Americans Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, suffered a broken rib and torn ligaments and cartilage in his knee requiring surgery, and Augusto Monge was also badly beaten and required medical attention.

Conclusion
A concrete result of the Obama administration’s engagement policy has not only been a rise in violence and repression in Cuba but the expansion and intensification of the Cuban intelligence services active measures against nonviolent democratic activists in highly visible instances in Venezuela and Panama. It should be cause for concern that one of the top Cuban intelligence agents tasked with overseeing the violent repression of young Venezuelan nonviolent pro-democracy activists would be transferred to Panama to oversee a violent action against Cuban pro-democracy activists while President Obama shook hands and met with Cuban dictator Raul Castro.

End notes
*   Conversations with Carter  by Jimmy Carter, Edited by Don Richardson  October 1, 1998 Pg 310
#   The Civil War in Nicaragua: Inside the Sandinistas by Roger Miranda, William E. Ratliff,  March 1, 1992 pg 100
^   Meghan Clyne, “Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities to Cuba – Caracas Provides Cheap Oil in Exchange for Surveillance of Citizens,” New York Sun, 26 January, 2005; on Cuban security presence in Venezuela, see also Javier Corrales, “The Logic of Extremism: How Chavez Gains by Giving Cuba So Much,” in Cuba, Venezuela and the Americas: A Changing Landscape, Inter-American Dialogue, December 2005.

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.

The Solidarity Wave Reaches Cuba

Antonio G. Rodiles

 Our Great Challenge / Antonio Rodiles #Cuba

by Antonio Rodiles, Translator: Boston College CASA 

The arbitrary arrest of the lawyer Yaremis Flores on November 7 was followed by two waves, one repressive, taken to the extreme by the regime against numerous activists of civil society, and the other, impressive and appreciated by us, of solidarity with the victims. Personally, what happened reaffirmed my vision of the fundamental challenge that we face as a country: the articulation of all of its parts in order to transition into a democracy in which the entire nation participates.

Visualizing and working in support of a transition towards democracy in the convoluted scenario in which we live is a process that implies, above all, political and intellectual maturity, honesty, and a high level of civic awareness. We need to understand that such dynamics would not involve just one axis, just one angle. It is impossible to imagine a transition that does not take into account Cubans in Cuba today who hold different points of view. And a transition without full participation of those Cubans outside the Island, who constitute an essential part of our nation, is also inconceivable. It is not possible to outline a transition without the workers, intellectuals, professionals and entrepreneurs both inside and outside the country.

To think that change in our country will happen magically, that in the blink of an eye we will generate a modern society, a state of rights, is too simple and deceitful a fantasy. We, the  totalitarian regime’s opposition, have the duty and responsibility to show all segments of society the nature of the plural and inclusive country we are advocating and what we expect of democracy.

The strategy of the regime has always been the same. It has systematically tried to prevent by all possible means the growth of a civil society. Intimidation, repression, imprisonment, bleeding the country, generating mistrust within the opposition, creating internal conflict to undermine our work, “distracting” us so as to leave us little time to effectively advocate in society, is a strategy that has always borne fruit and should be dismantled now. We have to fix our ethics, our suppositions, our rhythm.

To responsibly work on a transition implies a true knowledge of the scenario confronting us in which are manifested the particularities of groups and individuals from a global perspective. To guarantee this range of interests and visions it is necessary they every Cuban enjoy his or her fundamental rights, thus the importance of the campaign “For Another Cuba” and our request for support from all Cubans and international public opinion.

Facing this peaceful citizen initiative, the government has responded by intensifying the repression and  excessive use of violence, slamming the door on yet another civic proposal. Nevertheless, this violent scenario begins to profile factions in society; on the one hand there are those who, although inside the system, believe a prosperous nation is possible, one where political and ideological differences are part of everyday life, where respect and decency are paramount; on the other there is a rarefied segment, formed by mixed interests, cynicism, and low ethical morals, which tries, with its irresponsible and arrogant acts, to lead us down a bruised path at the hands of violence and brutality. 

It is time for Cubans to decide which side we are on, from which perspective we wish to advocate and act.

Translated by: Boston College CASA

December 5 2012

Original text in Spanish available here.

Interview with Antonio G. Rodiles

Antonio Rodiles calls on Cubans to reject violence

From an interview by Ivette Leyva Martinez in Cafe Fuerte:

After 19 days of detention in a police station in Havana, Antonio G. Rodiles was released convinced that the best path to a better Cuba is through the rejection of violence.

His violent arrest sparked an intense campaign of international solidarity.

The activist was fined 800 Cuban pesos [approximately $30 U.S.]. He will not go to trial.

CF: What do you take away from this experience?

AR: I say to my friends and others with whom I have spoken, that my main experience is that at this moment in Cuba there are a great many people who understand that the country has to change, and that people thinking differently, that people having different views of things, political, ideological, is not a reason for people to hate them or to not respect them but, sadly, there is a group of people who up to now have demonstrated that they have carte blanche to use violence, who are committed to creating situations like this one and I think, what’s more, they are committed to creating even more critical situations.

I think it’s very important that all national and international public opinion support civil society activists because these people are not the preponderance of the people in this country.

Definitely what they did to me was a vulgar beating and it was planned by them ahead of time.

CF: Your followers and the people who have followed your case insisted that there had been violence especially against you. What precisely happened that day of your arrest?

AR: An official who has become known for beating and abusing people, whose alias is “Camilo,” crossed Avenue 31 [in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre] with a group of people, crossed directly to beat me. He says “identification” or “ID card,” something like that, but simply to mention it. No one in uniform came, they didn’t identify themselves, and they immediately pounced on me.

When I put out my hands so they wouldn’t grab me, they rained punches down on me. They grabbed me by the neck, and threw me to the ground, there was a group of between 10 and 15 people — people who were there said it was something like 12. And when they threw me on the ground they began to kick me, to punch me, and at that moment someone punched me in the left eye, thank God their knuckle didn’t go into my eyeball, only the edge, this gave me a strong contusion in the eye which even bled. After they picked me up, they took me to the cop car, and against the car they were still hitting me, in the chest, all my ribs, it was a total beating. Thank God I didn’t have any fractures but I certainly could have.

CF: In the dungeon, what else did they do and how did they treat you?

AR: When they took me to the detention center on Acosta Avenue, which is a center for ordinary crimes of the Police Technical Department of Investigations (DTI), on arriving there, there was still this individual Camilo with two other characters he goes around with, who were also trying to provoke me, manhandling me, trying to provoke an incident.

This individual Camilo recorded me with a video camera, everything that was going on, but there appeared a major from the police station itself and these things were stopped until they took me to the cell. And yes, the next day, the people who had charge of me in that place had a completely different attitude. It was one of total respect, both physically as well as my moral integrity. I had medical attention, the doctor was a very kind person, she checked me over completely, looked at my eye, healed the eye. And the officials there, of the police, they behaved with respect.

It’s also incredible how the prisoners identify with people who come there for political reasons and they always call you “political” and the people are in solidarity with you.

CF: Do you think the delay had to do with having you look better before they let you out?

AR: Yes, it’s possible that had some weight, evidently there was a lot of pressure from many different directions, I think. What they were trying, in my opinion, was a short detention, of a few months or something like that… but at first what they did was very rough, they made a circus out of it, including statements they made themselves that didn’t apply to the crime of “resistance” and then at the end they simply didn’t have much of a way to justify what was happening and well, they released me.

CF: The photo that was distributed showing you in the cell, is it real?

AR: As I have mentioned to several people I would have to look at it in detail, and since I got out the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. If it was taken, it was taken while I was sleeping. No one took any photo of me while I was awake, although they took a video on my arrival. But I can tell you, I have to see the photo calmly to be able to analyze it. I saw it from above, if it shows I was hit in the eye, and it was that area, I had a shirt like that, the color of the walls was similar and those things.

CF: What do you think the intentions are between the work of the police and the strategic tasks of the State Security?

AR: That’s hard to know being in a cell, is something that I can not fully distinguish, what I can tell you is that contrasting the treatment and attitude of the people of the State Security, who are clearly unscrupulous people, they strike without any restraint, and the treatment received at the DTI station, it was completely different.

CF: Will you continue Estado de Sats? What are your plans now?

AR: The project of course will continue and I would say even more forcefully. The idea of the project State of Sats, of the campaign “For Another Cuba,” has to do with respect for the rights of Cubans, with respect for the human being first and foremost, with the opportunity to debate, to openly discuss, and I think that with this beating this was the main thing they showed me: this way is the way for Cuba to change, and clearly violence is the enemy. Now more than ever I believe that the work requires total dedication.

I send a huge hug [to those who supported me], I’ve always said that in this type of situation those who most need support is the family and my elderly parents feel very very supported by everyone and this gave them tremendous strength.

Courtesy of Translating Cuba and Capitol Hill Cubans

Cuban sentenced to 2 years in prison for being a labor activist

Ulises González Moreno (photo: Ivan Hernandez Carrillo)

Iván Hernández Carrillo is reporting over his twitter account that Cuban labor union activist Ulises González Moreno was sentenced on November 28, 2012 to two years in prison for his labor organizing activities in a trial whose outcome had already been decided before it even started. The imprisoned activist's wife, Jacqueline Daly, is devastated by the news.

According to Cuba Sindical, González Moreno is 45 years old and was detained on November 15, 2012 at his home located in Concordia # 414 apartment 2 in Central Havana by two plain clothes state security agents who identified themselves as members of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).

The following day when his wife went to where her husband was being detained she was told that he would be tried for "Peligrosidad Social" (Social Dangerousness), which indicates that the activist has a predilection to in a possible future commit a crime against the regime. This law has been used to persecute nonviolent activists.

Human Rights Watch in their 2009 report  New Castro, Same Cuba stated that the "Criminal Code offense of 'dangerousness,' which allows authorities to imprison individuals before they have committed any crime, on the suspicion that they are likely to commit an offense in the future. This 'dangerousness' provision is overtly political, defining as 'dangerous' any behavior that contradicts Cuba's socialist norms." This is a thought crime and is profoundly Orwellian.

Ulises is a prisoner of conscience arrested, convicted and sentenced for what he thought and for what he might have done in the future as a labor organizer.

The following is a translation and compilation of some of the tweets sent out by Iván last night:

@ivanlibre #Cuba As customary, the tyranny rigged an arbitrary trial condemning Ulises González Moreno for being an independent unionist 

@ivanlibre #Cuba telephone of Jacqueline Daly, wife of Ulises González, condemned to 2 years in prison, is +0115358061724 @RRepublicaCuba

@ivanlibre Once again it is proven that in #Cuba justice does not exist, here justice is blind. pic.twitter.com/0yTU3MeF 

 @ivanlibre Ulises González Moreno's wife very tense, disgusted, sad for her husband's unjust penalty of 2 years in prison pic.twitter.com/oVgSzVLp

Ulises González Moreno and his wife Jacqueline Daly (photo: Ivan Hernandez Carrillo)

 One day after independent journalist and human rights defender Antonio Rodiles was released after 19 days in prison another activist, Ulises González Moreno, is unjustly sentenced to two years in prison for being an independent labor union activist and human rights defender. The repression in Cuba by a half-century old totalitarian dictatorship continues as does the need to resist it.

Antonio Rodiles, Nonviolence and the Solidarity of the Shaken

"Now we must continue, of course, with greater strength. The moral is that things have to change and the violence has to end."- Antonio Rodiles

 "Until the day Cubans unite to impede that another is repressed, until that day they will continue to repress us. It is that day, this is already the day." - Father. Jose Conrado

Antonio Rodiles released from prison today (photo Yoani Sanchez)

 Antonio Rodiles was arrested on November 7, 2012 for inquiring about a colleague, independent lawyer and journalist Yaremis Flores, who had been imprisoned earlier that same day. He was beaten up, given a black eye and bruised all over he was then charged with "resisting authority" and threatened with remaining in his cell until the show trial ( in which it is understood that sentence is dictated by the dictatorship prior to the start of the trial). Thirty seven activists in total would be arrested over the course of November 7 and 8th, 2012. Yesterday afternoon we learned that Antonio Rodiles, the last of the 37 detained in the crackdown, had been freed after 19 days in a prison cell.

Picture smuggled out of detention of Antonio Rodiles

 There had been a national and international campaign for this activist's release and Amnesty International had issued a timely urgent action. Pictures had been smuggled out of the prison showing the black eye before it had completely healed. One of the reasons Rodiles was held for all this time was for the bruises and damage done by the beating to heal and not have is bloodied, bruised visage broadcast all over the world.

In addition to the important program of interviews he has conducted called State of SATS the testimony he offers in the Al Jazeera program People and Power below on the Cuban reality is powerful and accurate. It is this type of truth telling that unnerves totalitarian regimes.


Thankfully for the time being the solidarity of the shaken has been sufficient to free this courageous person.

The Crackdown and its Aftermath in Havana and Placetas

Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez (detained 11/13) Antonio Rodiles (detained 11/7)

The crackdown on nonviolent activists that began in Havana and spread to Camaguey on November 7 and 8, 2012 with 37 arrests spread to Placetas on November 13, 2012 with another 10 activists detained. Now a Cuban intellectual and communicator based in Havana, Antonio Rodiles, finds himself badly beaten with a black left eye along with several other bruises, the product of an unprovoked attack by state security agents in plainclothes and awaiting trial in a Cuban jail on the charge of "Resistance." He has been locked up now since November 7, 2012. On November 13, 2012 members of the Central Opposition Coalition in Placetas, Cuba marched to ratify a Declaration of Principles for the coalition. Ten of the marchers were arrested but most were released afterwards but Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez continues to be held in a Cuban jail. Below is a list of the ten arrested on November 13, 2012.

1.Yaite Cruz Sosa
2. Yanisbel Valido Pérez,
3. Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez
4. Yris Pérez Aguilera
5. Yolaine García Naranjo
6. Yenny Barallobre Columbié
7. Santa González Pedrosa
8. Damaris Moya Portieles
9. Arturo Conde Zamora
10. Yanoisi Contreras Aguilar.

The response of Cuban civil society inside and outside of the island has been to organize campaigns for the release of those still detained and to denounce the violence visited upon the activists. Below is a video of Cuban civil society members gathered on November 11, 2012 to outline what happened on November 7-8, 2012.


On November 14, 2012 in Placetas, Cuba Yris Pérez Aguilera joined together to march to the place her husband Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez was being arbitrarily detained demanding that he be released or that they arrest her. She was arrested by State Security and continues to be held in detention on November 15, 2012, but she managed to get out a audio recording of the march and her arrest.

Crackdown on nonviolence in Cuba

37 nonviolent activists detained over the course of two days in Cuba.

According to sources in Cuba this is the shirt Angel Santiesteban Prats  was wearing when he was arrested.

Scores of activists were detained in Cuba on November 7 and 8, 2012 and two of them are being threatened with long prison sentences. Antonio Rodiles is still being held and is accused of allegedly "resisting arrest", the number of his case file is 62886. Yoani Sanchez reported that the first arrest in the ongoing crackdown occurred on the morning of Wednesday, November 7, 2012 with attorney Yaremis Flores followed by the arrests of Antonio Rodiles and Laritza Diversant.Other activists were detained as they went to the police station to demand the release of those arrested and were themselves arrested.

How and why did this wave of repression in Cuba begin? According to pastor and blogger Mario Félix Leonard Barroso in a statement made to the Cuban Democratic Directorate the aim of the crackdown was to prevent the peaceful gathering of various individuals involved in a project to lobby the regime to ratify its human rights commitments with the United Nations:

"I signed the Citizens Demand for Another Cuba and also I promote it. This afternoon, November 8, a meeting was to be held at the home of Antonio Rodiles, of State of SATS, with several people that promote the Demand in the provinces. It was an unannounced meeting, it was for the promoters of the Demand. But since yesterday, they started arrests of people who were going to participate."

Some background information is necessary here on two important projects of Cuban civil society. The first is the State of SATS, a project led by Antonio Rodiles that has its objective, "to create a plural space for participation and debate, where open and frank debate is exchanged. The project sponsors panel discussions, forums and other events that are filmed and broadcasted on the Internet." The second is a petition initiative signed by hundreds of Cubans inside and outside of the island and submitted to the National Assembly of People's Power on June 20, 2012 which in part states:

That immediately put into practice the necessary legal safeguards and policies conceived in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it ratify the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations, signed by the Government of Cuba on February 28, 2008 in New York City. This would ensure full respect for citizens no matter what their ideas or their political-social outlook and that the rights of everyone to their opinions who disagree with the government to have them restored. We consider these essential rights in the formation of a modern, free and plural Cuba, that welcomes everyone equally and inserts our sovereignty into a dynamic and increasingly global world. We are committed to a democratic transformation, where everyone can present their views and contribute to its realization.

List of 37 Cuban activists arrested on 7 and 8 of November 2012 compiled by the Cuban Democratic Directorate:

Activists detained in Havana

1. Yaremis Flores Julián 

2. Laritza Diversent 

3. Antonio Rodiles 

4. José Díaz Silva 

5. Yoani Sánchez 

6. Claudio Fuentes Madán 

7. Arabel Villafuentes 

8. Mario Alberto Hernández 

9. Julio Aleaga Pesant 

10. Ailer González 

11. Andrés Pérez 

12. Mario Morago 

13. Vladimir Torres 

14. Rolando Rabanal 

15. Luis Fumero 

16. Veisant Boloy 

17. Angel Santiesteban Prats 

18. Mario Morales 

19. Reinaldo Escobar 

20. Agustín López 

21. Angel Moya Acosta 

22. Librado Linares García 

23. Eduardo Díaz Fleitas 

24. Iván Hernández Carrillo 

25. Félix Navarro 

26. Guillermo Fariñas 

27. Eugenio Leal 

Activists detained in Camagüey 

28. Virgilio Mantilla Arango 

29. Humberto Galindo Moya 

30. Elicardo Freire Jiménez 

31. Angelo Guillermo Alvarez Olazábal 

32. Pablo Jiménez Santarrosa 

33. Fautino Calá Rodríguez 

34. Jeiser Torres Morales 

35. Santos Manuel Hernández 

36. Luis Alberto Alvarez 

37. Isbel Freire Jiménez