Year one of the Trump Administration and a new Cuba policy: Trade is up and detentions are down

A look at some numbers for 2017 and U.S. - Cuba relations.

President Trump at the Manuel Artime Theater with Cuban Americans in 2017

Cuba in 2017 remained a repressive totalitarian regime with prisoners of conscience, and a one-party communist dictatorship that has used its military and intelligence apparatus to control Venezuela, turning that nation into a colony that it is plundering.Things had gotten worse for Cubans, especially following the Obama Administration's engagement with the Castro dictatorship, including a state visit in March of 2016. The current Administration has rolled back a number of Obama era Cuba policies, spoken out on the human rights situation in Cuba, and Ambassador Nikki Haley defended the morality of U.S. sanctions on the Castro regime.

Despite the claim by the architect of the previous Administration's Cuba policy, that President Trump's turn around on the Obama Administration's Cuba policy would fail, trade between the United States and Cuba was at its highest level in 2017 following its collapse between 2014 and 2016 when the previous Administration was pushing its new Cuba policy.

President Barack Obama announced his new Cuba policy on December 17, 2014 and the following year U.S. trade in goods with Cuba dropped $118.9 million from $299.1 million in 2014 to $180.2 million in 2015. This economic relationship has improved under the Trump Administration despite news that the Cuban economy is worsening and the regime's creditors are nervous.

Trade peaked under Bush in 2008 and began a steady decline under Obama

Obama Cuba policy flawed
President Obama downplayed commuting the sentences of three Cuban spies, including Gerardo Hernandez who was serving a life sentence for his role in a murder conspiracy that claimed four innocent lives in 1996 and freed them the same day.  This was part of the price paid to free an American hostage, Alan Gross, that had been an impediment to normalized relations.

President Obama does the wave with Raul Castro at a baseball game in Cuba

The Obama Administration apparently ignored the mysterious attacks that began in November of 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Havana when 24 American diplomats and their dependents suffered severe injuries, including brain trauma.

On the human rights front the Obama Administration's new Cuba policy was also a disaster. The suspicious deaths of human rights defenders such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo (2010), Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (2011), Laura Inés Pollán Toledo (2011), Wilman Villar Mendoza (2012), Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (2012), and Harold Cepero Escalante (2012) is a terrifying alternative to the long prison sentences that the Castro regime would use to take opposition leaders out of circulation, as was the case in 2003, during the Bush administration.

Some of the Cubans killed by the Castro regime during the Obama years

Over the eight years of the previous Administration (January 2009 through January 2017) high profile activists met untimely deaths that appear to have been carried by Castro's state security service. The same spy agency that President Obama's October 2016 Presidential Directive on Cuba orders the CIA to share intelligence with.

The number of politically motivated arbitrary detentions documented by the Havana based, Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation since 2008 demonstrates a dramatic rise in repression between 2008 and 2016, that spiked dramatically in the year of the Obama Administration's new Cuba policy announcement in 2014 from 6,424 arbitrary detentions in 2013 to 8,899 in 2014. This also occurred with troubling incidents of violence by regime agents.

 During President Obama's last year in office the number of arbitrary detentions reached their highest number since 2010 with 9,940 arbitrary detentions. Despite this, on his way out of office in January 2017, President Obama closed the door on Cuban refugees.

Under Trump's first year a dramatic reduction in arbitrary detentions in Cuba
During 2017 there were 5,155 Cubans arbitrarily detained, and although still far too high, it is a dramatic improvement over 2016. There are still prisoners of conscience enduring horrid and dangerous conditions in Cuban prisons and dissenters sent to psychiatric institutions for punishment.

However in the area of religious freedom. Things have gotten worse in Cuba. "From January to December 2017 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) recorded 325 separate violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Cuba. Christians across a wide range of denominations were affected. Many of these cases involved large numbers of victims. By comparison, CSW reported 220 FoRB violations in Cuba in 2014, 180 in 2013, 120 in 2012 and 40 in 2011."

Overall the changes in tone and substance by the current Administration, so far, have been an improvement over the previous failed policy of the prior Administration that scrapped an old policy that was containing the regime, replacing it with one that legitimized the dictatorship, marginalized democrats, and negatively impacted U.S. interests.

The Trump Administration has taken positive steps, with its policy changes on Cuba, but more needs to be done.

Human Rights in Cuba: From Bad to Worse with Obama Administration's Cuba Policy

Arbitrary detentions and religious repression reach worse levels in over a decade in Cuba

Only two Ladies in White able to attend Mass in Colón, Matanzas today. 

At least forty five women were arrested today in Cuba for trying to attend Mass and silently protest on behalf of their loved ones who are political prisoners. Imagine for a moment an elderly woman arrested and disappeared for trying to engage in the above action. This happened today to Asunción Carrillo. Yesterday Sol Garcia Basulto, a correspondent for independent media '14ymedio' was arrested.

Cuban based human rights organization documented 620 politically motivated arbitrary detentions in Cuba during October 2016 brings this year's total to 9,125 arrests. This surpasses the total number of politically motivated arrests for all of 2015. Two months still remaining in 2016 but already the number of arbitrary detentions in Cuba are the highest in a decade. The human rights situation is dramatically worsening in the island. Reverend Núñez Velázquez of the Apostolic Movement, an unregistered network of Protestant churches was targeted and jailed for allegedly being too loud during his church service.

This includes religious freedom that has dramatically deteriorated over the past year according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The dictatorship began to confiscate 1,400 Churches on the island and to demolish others in the first half of 2016.

As the two year mark is approached on the Obama Administration's reset of Cuba policy the results leave a lot to be desired.

Valentine's Day in Cuba: State Security imprisons 63 women for honoring Laura Pollan

Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler at the far right in the Cubre Terminal

Tonight, Angel Moya, a former prisoner of conscience and husband of Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler tweeted: "63 Ladies in White arrested in 32 hours by DSE repressive forces, some Ladies in White were arrested several times." Valentine's Day in Cuba takes on its original meaning: the power of love resisting brutality and injustice in the worse of places.

Why did State Security engage in a crackdown against so many nonviolent women?

There are two fundamental reasons. First, they can get away with it. The international media has been mostly silent during this crackdown. They would prefer to report on who is able to obtain a passport and who is being denied one by the dictatorship as they pursue the Castro regime's spin trying to sale cosmetic changes as real reforms. Secondly, the dictatorship fears the power of these women exercising nonviolent resistance and they still fear its founder the martyred Laura Pollán.



February 13, 2013 was the 65th anniversary of Lady in White founder Laura Pollán's birth in Cuba. The Ladies in White are a non-violent human rights movement established in March of 2003 in the midst of a massive crackdown in which their loved ones were unjustly imprisoned for exercising their fundamental human rights.  The first spokeswoman of the Ladies in White was Laura Pollán whose leadership forged a national movement that was also known and respected internationally. She died on October 14, 2011 following a mysterious illness and medical neglect.

The Ladies in White renamed themselves after Laura Pollán and have carried on defending human rights and calling for the release of all of Cuba's political prisoners. Its thanks to their courageous stand that Angel Moya is not in prison today. He was arrested on March 18, 2003 and condemned shortly afterwards in a summary show trial to 20 years in prison along with 74 others who faced stiff sentences of up to 28 years in prison. Thanks to the Ladies in White, not one of them is in prison today.


Yesterday, the Ladies in White gathered on Neptune Street in Havana, Cuba at what had been Laura Pollán's home when she was still alive to honor her and celebrate her life.

State Security mounted a huge operation detaining, beating and harassing the women trying to attend the gathering.  At the end of the day when members of the Ladies in White sought to leave Havana and return to their home provinces they were rounded up. Among those detained was the new spokeswoman Berta Soler who spent the night with her compatriots in detention and Angel Moya.

She got home three hours ago, and her husband Angel Moya tweeted the news: "Berta is already at home, State Security threatens to open a case against her."

Still trying to get news about the remaining women who were unjustly detained for trying to pay their respects to a nonviolent martyr on her birthday and have spent St. Valentine's Day behind bars.

IAPA condemns increased harassment in Cuba

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere. Today, it condemned over 400 detentions over the month of September in Cuba, the systematic violation of free expression and intimidation of foreign press correspondents. For more information on Cuba from IAPA the April 6, 2011 country report is also available here.



Points to the absence of solidarity of Latin American governments with the Cuban people

Miami (September 29, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned a recent escalation in Cuban repression of dissidents, violations of freedom of expression and obstacles to foreign correspondents, an issue that will be taken up by a special committee of the organization at its General Assembly to be held in Lima, Peru, October 14-18.

In an incident Tuesday political police officers beat and insulted Martha Beatriz Roque, head of the Cuban Community Communicators Network (RCCC), Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique, a member of that organization, and Berta Soler, of the Ladies in White group and a former political prisoner, who declared, “I have been arrested and mistreated many times … but never like I was beaten today.” She added, “The blows really hurt, but what hurts more is the lack of freedom.”

IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín said, “The lack of respect in Cuba for freedom of expression, of the press and of assembly -- pillars in any political system that should respect human rights -- are a reflection of an archaic regime that stifles and harasses criticism and demands for change by citizens.”

The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission reports that the repression of independent and opposition media has become more frequent, and that this month alone 400 arbitrary detentions have taken place, ranging from a few hours to several days – the highest number of arrests in the last 10 years according to that organization.

“Added to this repression, “Marroquín declared, “is the regime’s failure to abide by promises to allow greater access to the Internet – all of which just goes to show the fear the authorities have of the flow of information and how they seek to prevent effects such as those of the Arab Spring.”

Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21, added that the repression is also aimed at the foreign press. He recalled the cases of the new bureau chief of Agence France Presse news agency and that of Mauricio Vicent, correspondent of Spanish newspaper El País and Cadena Ser radio, both of whom were denied permission to work in Cuba.

“What is noteworthy is the absence of solidarity shown by Latin American governments to the Cuban people and their failure to denounce human rights violations. The only solidarity we have noted to date is that which the governments are giving the Raúl Castro regime,” Marroquín said.

He added that while the government freed imprisoned journalists during the Black Spring (March 2003), the majority of whom were sent into exile in Spain, “it now appears that the regime has redoubled its efforts to punish and censor all dissidence.”

Since July last year, following talks between the Cuban authorities, the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government, a total of 22 independent journalists have been released from jail and ordered to leave Cuba, most of them going to Spain.

http://www.sipiapa.org/v4/index.php?page=cont_comunicados&seccion=detalles&idioma=us&id=4619

Amnesty International Issues Urgent Action for Detained Members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba

Document - Cuba: Dissidents arrested in Cuba

UA: 265/11 Index: AMR 25/005/2011 Cuba Date: 1 September 2011

URGENT ACTION

DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBA

Eleven members of a dissident organization and three of their relatives have been detained , without being told of any charges against them , since their arrest on 28 August in Cuba. They have not been allowed access to their families.

National coordinator of UNPACU, José Daniel Ferrer García, reports on September 3 that dictatorship wants to try detainees for public disorder after regime agents beat them up and arrested them over the weekend.

Eleven members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unión Patriótica de Cuba, UNPACU), an umbrella group of dissident organizations from the east of Cuba have been detained without charge since 28 August. Three other men, who are relatives of the detainees, are also in detention. According to relatives they are being held at a State Security facility on the outskirts of the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Footage of Cuban dissident detained on Sunday, August 28 uploaded by UNPACU

Twenty-seven members of UNPACU met at the house of Marino Antomarchit in the town of Palma Soriano, in the south-eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, to discuss the current crackdown against dissidents in the province. Witnesses state that around 140 members of the security forces, including the National Revolutionary Police (Policía Nacional Revolucionaria), State Security and members of the prison service surrounded the house at 1pm. Shortly afterwards, tear gas canisters were launched into the house, where Marino Antomarchit’s two-year old daughter and 76-year-old mother were also present, causing nausea and coughing of those who were there. At 5:40pm, between 30 to 40 members of the security forces entered the house and reportedly beat the men and caused damage to the house. The 27 UNPACU members were arrested as were three relatives who had come to the house after the arrival of security forces. Sixteen of the men were released on 31 August, all without charge. Eleven of them remain incarcerated in overcrowded conditions and have not been allowed family visits.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

calling on the authorities to charge those detained on 28 August with recognizable criminal offences or release them immediately;

asking them to ensure that anyone charged is given a fair trial in compliance with international standards;

urging them to immediately cease the harassment and intimidation of members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and any other citizens who seek to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.

P LEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 13 OCTOBER 2011 TO :

Head of State and Government

Raúl Castro Ruz

Presidente

La Habana, Cuba

Fax: +53 7 8333085 (via Foreign Ministry); +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)

Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)

Salutation: Su Excelencia/

Your Excellency

Interior Minister

General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra

Ministro del Interior y Prisiones

Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba

Fax: +537 8556621, +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)

Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu

Salutation: Su Excelencia/

Your Excellency

And copies to:

First Secretary, Cuban Communist Party of Santiago de Cuba

Lázaro Espósito

Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Santiago de Cuba

Avenida Garzón 51

Plaza de Martes

Santiago de Cuba

Provincia de Santiago de Cuba

Cuba

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:

Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBA

Additional Information

The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is a recently formed umbrella group of dissident organizations, primarily in Santiago de Cuba but also in neighbouring provinces of eastern Cuba. UNPACU seeks democratic change in Cuba via non-violent means. UNPACU’s coordinator is former prisoner of conscience, José Daniel Ferrer García, who was released in March 2011 following eight years imprisonment.

The last few weeks has seen increasing repression against dissidents in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), a group of female relatives of former prisoners of conscience and current political prisoners, and the Ladies in Support (Damas de Apoyo), have for the last month faced arbitrary arrest and physical assault from members of the security forces and government supporters as they have tried to carry out a weekly silent protest march after attending mass at the cathedral in Santiago de Cuba city. Other dissidents, the majority of them from UNPACU and many with close ties to the Damas have also faced harassment and intimidation from the security forces and government supporters and are increasingly victims of arbitrary arrest.

Name: Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya

Víctor Campa Almenares

Pedro Campa Almenares

Andrés García Almenares

Yosvanys García Infante

The other names have not been verified

Gender m/f: All the detainees are male

UA: 265/11 Index: AMR 25/005/2011 Issue Date: 1 September 2011

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/005/2011/en/f1325a4e-4f3e-458d-84f4-679d41d6ab6b/amr250052011en.html