Remembering Laura Pollan and her heroic life

"They can either kill us, put us in jail or release them. We will never stop marching no matter what happens." - Laura Pollan

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died tonight at 7:50pm from heart failure at the age of 63. One week after she had fallen suddenly ill from a respiratory infection compounded with dengue fever and already existing condition as a diabetic. News wires from around the world: the BBC, AFP, AP, CNN, Reuters, The Washington Post, and The Miami Herald reported on the passing of the founder of the Ladies in White.



Prior to her husband's arrest in March of 2003 she was an apolitical high school literature teacher who loved cats and plants. That all changed when her husband, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, was sentenced to an unjust 20 year prison sentence for his activities as an independent journalist. He had been a nuclear engineer until being demoted in 1992 for ideological errors.

Within days of the March 2003 show trials and the unjust prison sentences the Ladies in White came into existence and Laura Pollan was one of the founders of the movement. Their demands were simple and direct. The freedom of their loved ones. Their methods were nonviolent, strategic, and well thought out. In a 2005 interview Laura Pollan stated their agenda: "We fight for the freedom of our husbands, the union of our families. We love our men."



Tonight the dictatorship has mobilized its state security forces around the country and they are visibly nervous. Women attempting to travel to Havana from the provinces to pay their respects to the former high school literature teacher now turned human rights icon have been arrested reports Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia and Yoani Sanchez.

For the world today and for future generations her life and courageous example are transparent and visible for all to see. It is important for those who may not know this woman and the movement that she led, that will now have to continue without her, that what she and the Ladies in White have accomplished be both remembered and acknowledged. Blogs such as Uncommon Sense, Capitol Hill Cubans and Babalu have already started and others will continue over the days and weeks to come.

Lady in White Laura Pollán

Let us honor this woman who demonstrated since March of 2003 until her death resolute courage in the face of a brutal totalitarian dictatorship. Fortunately, for posterity her words are both written down and recorded and they will live on long after the Castro dictatorship is just a bad memory. At the same time the slanders, libels, assaults and mistreatment that she and other Cuban women have suffered for defending human rights and expressing themselves freely have also been documented.

Laura Pollan reunited with her husband Hector Maseda

It took eight years but in the Spring of 2011 Laura Pollan was able to embrace her husband now free from his unjust captivity. At the same time she continued the struggle for the freedom of the remaining Cuban political prisoners. The Ladies in White succeeded in freeing their loved ones imprisoned in the March 2003 Cuban Black Spring.

Returning to the sad news of the night

According to Yoani Sanchez reports that Laura's wake will take place over the next 2 hours at La Nacional funeral parlor at Infanta and Benjumeda in Central Havana on the 2nd floor in Chapel E. Ladies in White from around the country are trying to reach the capitol to pay their respects. The family has announced they will have a small private funeral and that Laura will be cremated afterwards. The picture below taken late last night was of the honor guard for Laura Pollan.

Honor Guard for Laura Pollan (Her husband Hector Maseda front on the right)

Tonight their was also a special service at La Ermita de la Caridad at 10:30pm for Laura Pollan. At least one of the Ladies in White was there, Blanquita Gonzalez the mother of former prisoner of conscience Normando Hernandez.


Excerpt from service at La Ermita in Miami for Laura Pollan

According to Yoani Sanchez, in a 2:00am tweet, starting Saturday at 9:00am and over the next three days a book of condolences for Laura Pollan will be available for signing at Neptuno 963 between Hospital & Aramburu in Central Havana in Cuba.

Over the past week I prayed for Laura Pollan's speedy recovery and tonight I continue to pray for her immortal soul, her family and friends. May her dream of a free Cuba where there are no political prisoners soon be realized.

Service for Laura Pollan on October 14 at Ermita de la Caridad

Reina Luisa Tamayo & the Cuban 12

How to brutalize the mother of a murdered prisoner of conscience, increase repression while deporting human rights defenders and cover it up with good press

Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger with photo of her son Orlando Zapata Tamayo

First they unjustly imprisoned her son, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. They beat him and tortured him to such an extreme that his only defense was the hunger strike. While on a water only hunger strike prison officials cut off his water for 18 days contributing to his death. As she tried to save her son’s life they secretly videotaped her and recorded her telephone conversations which they heavily edited in a pathetic attempt to white wash the Cuban dictatorship’s role in this atrocity.

Now the regime slanders, intimidates, beats and detains the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo as she attempts to attend mass and visit her son’s grave while trying to again white wash their image by inviting her to go into exile. In early November the Miami Herald reported that Reina Luisa Tamayo "was repeatedly hit on the head, thrown to the ground and gagged with a smelly rag that left her breathless," by Cuban state security agents, one of which told her to "Shut up, you lousy black."

Nine months after the untimely death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo followed by the brutal beatings of the Ladies in White the regime has used the forced exile of dozens of unjustly imprisoned prisoners of conscience to clean up its international image and distract press attention.

Nevertheless there remained 12 Cuban prisoners of conscience imprisoned from the March 2003 crackdown that wanted to stay in Cuba as of November 7, 2010. Under threats of an intensification of demonstrations and new hunger strikes agents of the regime bought some time stating that within 15 days to a month of the November 7th deadline these prisoners would be released. One of these 12 has been released and returned home since then: 68 year old Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique.

At the same time other activists are beaten and detained as repression increases around the island but the international community remains focused on prisoner "releases" into forced exile.

It is an effective strategy that needs to be challenged for the sake of Cuban civil society, the remaining prisoners of conscience and the nonviolent opposition. Now is the time for all persons of good will to spread the word on what is happening in Cuba and not allow themselves to be distracted. The dictatorship in Cuba for over half a century have been masters at the art of distraction. It is time for Cuban democrats and those in solidarity with them to look beyond the distractions and remain focused on the human rights situation on the island.

Remember the 11 prisoners of conscience from the Cuban Black Spring still imprisoned that were supposed to be released on November 7, 2010 according to agreement reached between the Catholic Church, the Spanish government and the Cuban regime:

Pedro Argüelles Morán

Oscar Biscet González

Eduardo Díaz Fleitas

José Daniel Ferrer García

Diosdado González Marrero

Iván Hernández Carrillo

Librado Linares García

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez

Angel Moya Acosta

Félix Navarro Rodríguez

Guido Sigler Amaya

These men are heroes in the mould of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. refusing exile after seven years in brutal conditions that have destroyed their health and led to the death of one of their brothers in the struggle: Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

However at the same time that the campaign for their release and that of the other political prisoners that remain incarcerated continues there remains the fact that as long as the laws are not changed or revoked that these freed prisoners will only make room for a new crop of prisoners of conscience.

Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina

Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, a grouping of Cuban human rights and pro-democracy groups in the East of the island, reports that Raudel Avila Lozada,Yoandri Montoya Aviles, Lester Mora Carbonell in Santiago de Cuba, Jorge Corrales, Rogelio Tavìo Jr., Gerardo Rodriguez, Yoandri Beltràn, Isael Poveda, Francisco Manzanet and Roberto Gonzales have all been detained by Cuban state security and were in custody as of November 20, 2010.

Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, the latest Cuban prisoner of conscience to arrive in exile in Spain, sick and physically run down expressed his sadness that there was no real political opening in Cuba but a "political white wash operation." The first winner of the Sakharov Prize, Anatoli Marchenko offered great wisdom when he observed: "I am convinced that publicity is the sole effective means of combating the evil and lawlessness which is rampant in my country today."

Today it is up to you to assist Cuba's Marchenko's in bringing attention to the systematic violation of human rights in the island. Two things that you can do immediately that will only take a moment is to sign petitions for the freedom of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.