On This Day in 2010 Franklin Brito Became a Martyr for Liberty and Human Rights in Venezuela

"I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter

 

Fifteen years ago on  August 30, 2020 Franklin Brito died on a hunger strike in Venezuela. Franklin was a farmer and a biologist whose land was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2000 according to CNN. Other news agencies place the date of expropriation anywhere between 2003 and 2004. 

Brito exhausted every recourse and was repeatedly driven to the extreme option: the hunger strike. El Universal out of Caracas offers a chronology of the expropriated farmer's odyssey. 

In the video below, published on October 28, 2009, after over 90 days on hunger strike that Franklin was carrying out, he explains how all of this began. 

Hunger strikes are the ultimate recourse in the arsenal of non-violent resistance, and over the years around the world it has succeeded at times but in places like Cuba, Ireland, and now in Venezuela human beings have died on hunger strikes.

In Cuba the names of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are remembered as is Bobby Sands of Northern Ireland (who the Castro dictatorship built a memorial to in Cuba) and Venezuela's Franklin Brito is part of this select grouping that demonstrates the ultimate price when engaging in a hunger strike.

The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations both recognize the right to private property, despite the fact that it is frequently violated. It is a human right that is acknowledged on a global scale and is expressly stated.

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article XXIII of the American Declaration states: "Every person has a right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home."

When Franklin Brito's family said that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom," they were simply stating the facts of the matter. Brito states in the video below, which was shot on November 19, 2009, that he is defending human dignity.

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

 The Venezuelan government said that Franklin Brito was mentally unstable and took him to a military hospital, and placed him under an armed guard.. The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.

The tactics Mr. Chavez is using in questioning the mental stability of his adversaries, and smearing them, even in death, is straight out of his Cuban mentor's repertoire. Friends and family of Franklin Brito had best organize the facts and evidence surrounding his case protect it and duplicate it so that it cannot be seized and destroyed. They should engage in speaking out anywhere and everywhere to counter the avalanche of slander and libel from regime apologists against a man who can no longer defend himself.

Hugo Chávez nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, exacerbating food shortages in Venezuela with Chavez forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate just like Cuba did decades ago.

It is not madness to take extremes in the defense of liberty and justice, but it is madness to repeat the same failed policies that have bankrupted and destroyed nations the world over and expect a different outcome in your own homeland.

Franklin Brito was a sane man confronting an evil system, and through his protest embarrassed the Venezuelan dictatorship. The regime sought to disappear him and drove him to his death.

Three years later Hugo Chavez was dead. Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver trained in Cuba before embracing Chavismo, became the Venezuelan dictator's successor.   

Fifteen years have now passed, and Franklin Brito is not forgotten, and the evil of the regime in Caracas is now recognized around the world.

Earlier today Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado tweeted in remembrance of Franklin Brito and his importance in Venezuela's history.

Franklin Brito is a name that Venezuelans WILL REMEMBER FOREVER. The man who challenged the regime, stood firm, and gave his own life to defend what was his, his PROPERTY, his DIGNITY, OUR RIGHTS. Today marks 15 years since his death, which has a culprit: Hugo Chávez and his obsession with EXPROPRIATING, WHICH IS STEALING.

Below is the original Spanish text. 

Franklin Brito es un nombre que los venezolanos RECORDAREMOS SIEMPRE. El hombre que desafió al régimen, se paró firme y entregó su propia vida para defender lo suyo, su PROPIEDAD, su DIGNIDAD, NUESTROS DERECHOS.

Hoy se cumplen 15 años de su muerte, la cual tiene un culpable:… pic.twitter.com/ruRH4Q2VSm

— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) August 30, 2025

Franklin Brito: A Martyr for Liberty and Human Rights in Venezuela

 "I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter

 

(Above) Franklin Brito before and after engaging in 8 hunger strikes

Hunger strikes are the ultimate recourse in the arsenal of non-violent resistance, and over the years around the world it has succeeded at times but in places like Cuba, Ireland, and now in Venezuela human beings have died on hunger strikes.

In Cuba the names of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are remembered as is Bobby Sands of Northern Ireland (who the Castro dictatorship built a memorial to in Cuba) and Venezuela's Franklin Brito is part of this select grouping that demonstrates the ultimate price when engaging in a hunger strike.

Franklin Brito was a farmer and a biologist whose land was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2000 according to CNN. Other news agencies place the date of expropriation anywhere between 2003 and 2004. He exhausted every recourse and was driven to the final option: the hunger strike in 2005.El Universal out of Caracas offers a chronology of Brito's odyssey. In the video below published on October 28, 2009 after over 90 days on hunger strike Franklin was carrying out, he explains how all of this began.

The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations both recognize the right to private property, despite the fact that it is frequently violated. It is a human right that is acknowledged on a global scale and is expressly stated.

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article XXIII of the American Declaration states: "Every person has a right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home."

When Franklin Brito's family said that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom," they were simply stating the facts of the matter. Franklin Brito states in the video below, which was shot on November 19, 2009, that he is defending human dignity.

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

 The Venezuelan tyranny* said that Franklin Brito was mentally unstable and took him to a military hospital, and placed him under an armed guard.. The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.

The tactics Mr. Chavez is using in questioning the mental stability of his adversaries, and smearing them, even in death, is straight out of his Cuban mentor's repertoire. Friends and family of Franklin Brito had best organize the facts and evidence surrounding his case protect it and duplicate it so that it cannot be seized and destroyed. They should engage in speaking out anywhere and everywhere to counter the avalanche of slander and libel from regime apologists against a man who can no longer defend himself.

Hugo Chávez has nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, has exacerbated food shortages in Venezuela with Chavez forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate just like Cuba did years ago.

It is not madness to take extremes in the defense of liberty and justice, but it is madness to repeat the same failed policies that have bankrupted and destroyed nations the world over and expect a different outcome in your own homeland.

Franklin Brito was a sane man confronting an evil system, and through his protest embarrassed the Venezuelan dictatorship that sought to disappear him and drove him to his death.

Three years later Hugo Chavez was dead, and his successor Nicolas Maduro was a former bus driver who had gotten training in Cuba before embracing Chavismo. 

14 years have now passed, and Franklin Brito is not forgotten, and the evil of the regime in Caracas is now recognized around the world.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

*Use of the term tyranny is not a rhetorical exercise but defines what Hugo Chavez's democratically elected government has descended into a tyranny. There are two dictionary definitions of tyranny which are often related to each other. For example in the case of Cuba with Fidel Castro it is the state ruled by an absolute ruler but in the case of Venezuela it is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority" that applies.

Castro regime in Cuba demonstrates the relationship between human rights and property rights

"Human rights are property rights." - Foundation for Economic Education

The decision by the Trump Administration to enforce Title III of the LIBERTAD Act, that became effective on May 2, 2019, is good news. This has meant a chance for justice in the courts for property owners who had everything stolen from them by the Castro dictatorship. This is a triumph for human rights, a challenge to the erosion of private property rights, and a right ordering of human rights standards.

Human rights have a conservative pedigree that stretches back to the Middle Ages and to the Catholic Church. The first time in human history that a universal concept of human rights were applied to all living beings on the planet emerged out of a debate concerning the Spanish conquest of the Americas that took place in 1550-51 and is known as the Valladolid debate.

It is important to remember that property rights are human rights. Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property."

Universal human rights, and the rule of law, exist in order to protect those without power from the abuse of those who have it and exercise it with impunity. The importance of the protection of private property rights can be seen in the December 29, 2019 OpED by Mary O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal that provides a historical context that also looks at the present day in Cuba.

Thanks to the Trump administration, Americans whose property in Cuba was expropriated by the military dictatorship of Fidel Castro may finally have their day in court. New Year’s Day marks the 61st anniversary of the fall of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. A week later, on Jan. 8, 1959, Castro triumphantly entered Havana. Many Cubans had risked all to unseat Batista with the goal of restoring constitutional government. But Castro sought absolute power. He refused to hold elections and instead launched a purge. There were firing squads, dungeons and exile. Whole communities of peasants in central Cuba—where resistance to the tyranny was strongest—were displaced and sent to concentration camps on the western end of the island. To lock down power, Castro stripped citizens and foreigners alike of their property. State terrorism explains how the regime has survived.

What began to take place in Cuba in 1959 and over the next six decades, was also predicted on a theoretical basis that same year. The end of private property rights coincided with the systematic violation of all human rights, ending in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being considered a subversive document by the Castro regime. Murray Rothbard in his 1959 essay "Human Rights are Property Rights" explained how rights would disappear in a society that did not respect private property rights.

"The human right of every man to his own life implies the right to find and transform resources: to produce that which sustains and advances life. That product is a man’s property. That is why prop­erty rights are foremost among human rights and why any loss of one endangers the others.
For ex­ample, how can the human right of freedom of the press be pre­served if the government owns all the newsprint and has the power to decide who may use it and how much? The human right of a free press depends on the human right of private property in newsprint and in the other es­sentials for newspaper production. In short, there is no conflict of rights here because property rights are themselves human rights. What is more, human rights are also property rights!"

Time, and the courts, will tell but the enforcement of Title III of the LIBERTAD Act will empower and provide those who were expropriated with a chance at justice and the restoration of their private property rights. However, if it does work it will be a game changer in Cuba.

This may turn out to be the most important story about Cuba in 2019.

Franklin Brito: Martyred human rights defender tortured by Venezuela's regime

"I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter

Franklin Brito ( September 5, 1960 – August 30, 2010)

Franklin Brito was a farmer and biologist whose 250 acre fruit and vegetable farm was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2003.

Notice of expropriation

Hugo Chávez nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” This was done allegedly to address past inequalities in distribution. The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy exacerbated food shortages in Venezuela, just like the Castro regime did in Cuba.

Franklin Brito on his farm prior to it being seized in 2003.

Today, the fruits of this policy in Venezuela is rising malnutrition approaching famine levels, but for too long the humanitarian crisis was covered up.

Franklin Brito's ability to provide for his family was crippled when the Chavez regime took his land. The politicized courts in Venezuela, unwilling to provide a just decision, left him in a desperate situation.  

Despite its widespread violation there is a right to private property, it is an internationally recognized human right, in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Human rights and the rule of law exist in order to provide justice and protect those without power from the abuse of the powerful. Both have been long absent in Venezuela.

Sowed his mouth shut in 2004 protesting the Chavez regime.

Brito began a series of protests and demonstrations to defend his rights. Franklin exhausted every recourse until he was driven to the final option.  

The Venezuelan regime said Brito was mentally unstable because he had sown up his mouth and cut off one of his fingers on live television protesting the seizure of his land.

Franklin Brito protested Chavez regime's property seizure

The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.  

Franklin Brito exhausted every nonviolent recourse and was driven to the final option: six different hunger strikes that began in 2004. 

Franklin Brito on hunger strike holds up photo of himself prior to start.

During one of these hunger strikes on November 19, 2009 Brito explained what drove him:

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

Brito was taken by the military on December 13, 2009 held at the Military Hospital "Dr.  Carlos  Arvelo" in Caracas. He was taken under the excuse of protecting his health, but was subjected to cruel and unusual practices that rose to the level of torture and compromised his health.

Military Hospital "Dr.  Carlos  Arvelo"

He was kept next to an air conditioning unit at 8 degrees Celsius (46.4 degrees Fahrenheit). This unit also made a constant and incessant noise that made it difficult for him to sleep. Officials used the pretext of treating the "insomnia" to use medications for schizophrenia, specifically hallucinogens. This practice of using psychiatric "treatment" as a weapon against dissidents has been well documented both in Cuba under the Castro regime and in the Soviet Union.  Foro por la Vida Coalition of Venezuelan NGOs reported on further mistreatment that compromised the farmer and biologist's health.

Franklin Brito started having breathing problems attributable to the negligent performance of  doctors  who,  through  a  procedure  executed inefficiently, pierced  a lung, which resulted that this be filled with water; in this procedure he also suffers havoc in the glottis, generating  difficulties in  speaking. Is worth noting that this occurs in  mid-July, eight months after a Criminal Court decided  that only under the custody of state his life could be safe.

Franklin Brito died on August 30, 2010 in the Military Hospital "Dr.  Carlos  Arvelo" in Caracas. 

The tactics Hugo Chavez used, questioning the mental stability of Franklin Brito, weaponizing medical care to break him down both physically and psychologically using torture then smearing him, in death, were copied from the Castro regime's repertoire.

In Cuba Pedro Luis Boitel (1972), Orlando Zapata Tamayo (2010) and Wilman Villar Mendoza (2012) all died on hunger strikes protesting their unjust imprisonment and ill treatment while in the custody of regime officials.

In his last interview, Franklin Brito called on Venezuelans to be the authors of their own destiny and not rely on politicians.   



Franklin Brito's family stated that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom."

Nine years later and the wisdom of his advice and his courageous stand become more evident with each passing day.

On August 6, 1959 the Castro regime illegally confiscated 26 U.S. companies’ property.

Private property rights are also human rights.

Beef is a rare commodity, even at this butcher shop in Havana

On March 2, 1964, three years after the beginning of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, Castro told the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Hoy that “within ten years we will produce more milk than Holland and more cheese than France… By that date, we expect to exceed thirty million liters of milk [annually], so much in fact that we will have to export.” Soviet subsidies and trade with the Communist block meant that the embargo had no impact on Cuba’s dairy industry.

Despite this, two of the great failures of the economy established by the communist revolution have been cattle ranching and the dairy industry. The confiscations of private cattle ranches and of dairy companies at the beginning of the the revolution left these industries, of vital importance for the country, in shambles.

The Cuban communists, in addition to pillaging Cuban property owners, also stole the properties of several U.S. companies, and now justice is finally being served in the courts.

59 years ago today #Cuba #Castro illegally confiscated 26 U.S. companies’ property. The #LIBERTADAct holds the Cuban gov accountable, giving families long-denied access to justice. This stolen property benefits Diaz-Canel & the #CastroCronies, not the Cuban people #RevolutionFail

— Kimberly Breier (@WHAAsstSecty) August 6, 2019

Human rights, as an idea, have a conservative pedigree that stretches back to the Middle Ages and to the Catholic Church. The first time in human history that a universal concept of human rights in which they are applied to all living being on the planet emerged out of a debate concerning the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century.

Human rights and the rule of law exist in order to protect those without power from the abuse of the powerful.

The enforcement of Title III of the LIBERTAD Act, since May 2, 2019 is good news. The right to bring an action under Title III of the LIBERTAD Act means a chance for justice for property owners who had everything stolen from them by a dictatorship.

This decision means that victims of repression will be able to pursue justice through the courts, punish those in other countries who have profited from trafficking in stolen property.

Even in the United States the concept of private property rights was eroded with the 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo vs. City of London which ratified the right of using government power to condemn private homes to benefit a property developer.

However, in a communist state where the rule of law and human rights are not existent such as China for example Beijing has been described by Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University as "Kelo-on-steroids: neighborhoods are ripped down as skyscrapers go up." The same holds true, albeit at a smaller scale, in Cuba.

Often times the stripping of private property rights have unexpected and negative consequences. The destruction of Cuba's cattle and dairy industries are another cautionary example.

Cuba expert Mauricio Claver-Carone's gave important testimony on Capitol Hill on September 14, 2016 that spoke important truths on Cuba that are often overlooked in the public debate over U.S. - Cuba policy.  Including the reality that "all business decisions in Cuba are based on the political and control-based calculations of the Castro regime -- not on market forces."

Trade collapsed with Cuba during the Obama Administration

Trade between Cuba and the United States imploded under the Obama Administration. Peak year of U.S. trade in goods with Cuba was 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration. The two worst years in trade are the ones following the new Cuba policy launch in December of 2014. All of the details are available at the U.S. Census Bureau. The Cuban economy contracted in 2016 and at the same time military control over it has expanded.
 
This was a political decision by the Castro regime.  The dictatorship used openings in trade from the Clinton era (medical products in 1992 and agricultural products in 2000) to build up a pro-Castro lobby and to target congressional districts in agricultural states to advance its interests. The regime accomplished this by purchasing American exports and requiring U.S. corporations and members of Congress to sign "advocacy contracts" that turned them into lobbyists for the dictatorship as a condition of Cuba buying their goods.

News of this practice broke 15 years ago in USA Today and in The Miami Herald but goes unmentioned today. The Miami Herald in a October 5, 2004 editorial described this practice as "peddling influence for a communist state" and said that those engaged in the practice "should be required to register as agents of a foreign government."

John Kavulich, who was the head of the above mentioned U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council until 2005 explained in 2003 the significance of these "advocacy agreements" stating: ''These agreements are a corruption of the commercial process,'' ... ``Once you include an advocacy clause, they're no longer commercial agreements; they're political documents.''

Tourism in Cuba is not necessarily good for regular Cubans. The New York Times on December 8, 2016 reported how increased U.S. tourism to Cuba had meant more food shortages for Cubans because food production was geared to tourists, and the type of food foreigners eat that are not part of the traditional Cuban diet.

 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports on reforms in Cuba that undermine property rights

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has released a report documenting a worsening situation with regards to religious freedom in Cuba that has been picked up in the media. However,  reading through their report one finds that what many Cuba experts have been heralding as one of Raul Castro's reforms has a sinister underbelly that further undermines the already weak area of property rights. Even graves are not protected. The Miami Herald reported on June 9, 2015 that Cuban-American investor José Valdés-Fauli found when he visited the tomb of his maternal grandfather, Jacinto Pedroso, a Cuban businessmen and founder of the Pedroso Bank who had died in 1955 that his mausoleum had been sold, his remains thrown into a mass grave some time after 2013. Below is the excerpt of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide discussing this new legislation that negatively impacts property rights. The added bold for emphasis is mine.

New legislation, Legal Decree 322: the General Law on Housing, was announced on 5 September 2014 and came into force on 5 January 2015.1 The law is meant to regulate private properties, mostly homes, and enforce zoning laws. However, it has reportedly been used by government officials to claim the right to seize church properties and to force the churches into the role of paying tenant. Cuban lawyers have told CSW that although the law does not specifically mention religious groups, government officials have claimed it gives them the authority to expropriate property when they deem it ‘necessary.’ One legal expert linked to the Cuban Council of Churches and speaking anonymously told CSW that churches of all denominations and in multiple provinces are affected:

“They are applying the law rigorously. In the case of the churches it is worse. They propose to convert the church into a tenant. This has consequences. For example, the ‘new owner’ is able to decide what the church can or cannot do in this place. That is to say they lose autonomy. They cannot accept this. The situation is complicated.”1

The legal expert added that the most vulnerable churches are those to which the government has refused to issue a licence recognising them as a registered place of worship.2 However, at least one historic church property was targeted in the first half of the year. In May 2015 the leadership of the Maranatha First Baptist Church, in the city of Holguin, was informed by provincial Communist
Party and Housing Ministry officials that their property is to be confiscated and their status changed from owners to tenants. The church is affiliated with the Eastern Baptist Convention of Cuba, and over 800 people worship there on a weekly basis. It has held title to the property since 1947 and was officially registered in May 1954. Government officials threatened to confiscate the church property once before in 2011, but backed down after a high profile campaign; now, it seems, they may be attempting to apply the new legislation to justify their actions. Leaders of the church have published an open letter calling for support as they resist government attempts to seize their
property. Other churches have also reported threats of confiscation or destruction of property, which appear to be related to the application of Legal Decree 322. In May Reverend Fausto Polemo was informed by local authorities that his church in the city of Santiago de Cuba would be confiscated and demolished, and that he was prohibited from holding any more services. The church belongs to the Assemblies of God denomination, which is registered and recognized in Cuba. Similarly, Pastors Osmel and Madeleine de Calderón were told that their church in Loma Blanca, Upper Mayarí, Santiago Province and affiliated with the Apostolic Movement,3 must stop holding services. Members of their church have also been approached by government officials, warned to stop attending the church, and told to distance themselves from the couple. Reverend Alain Toledano, another Apostolic Movement leader, was told that his property in the city of Santiago would be confiscated. He has continued to make public calls for the government to clarify the status of his
property.

In May, a Request for Precautionary Measures was filed with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on behalf of Reverend Yiorvis Bravo, another Apostolic Movement leader. In 2013 a Camaguey court sanctioned a government move to expropriate his home, which is also the meeting place of his church. While the case predates the enactment of Legal Decree 322, the tactics
appear identical. Reverend Bravo was approached by Ministry of Housing officials in 2013 who offered to allow him and his family to remain in the property as tenants, if they agreed to submit all church activities for approval in advance. Reverend Bravo refused to comply and remains in the home, but while government officials have not yet made any move to evict the family, they have continued to maintain that the property is now theirs and they reserve the right to evict or relocate the family at any time.

1 More information on the law can be found at www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/09/24/cuales-son-las-principales-modificaciones-a-la-ley-general-de-la-vivienda/#.VXCxNM9Viko (Spanish)

2 Because the government has allowed only a handful of new church buildings to be built since the 1959 Revolution, despite massive growth in the churches through the 1990s and 2000s, a huge proportion of Protestants and some Catholics meet in what are usually referred to as house churches. This name is applied to any building where religious services are held and which is not legally registered as a place of worship. While the government mostly tolerated these house churches for
many years, it made it difficult and often impossible to register the buildings as places of worship. This meant that they were technically illegal and always vulnerable to harassment, fines and forced closure.

3 The government has refused to register the Apostolic Movement and considers it to be illegal.

Property and human rights in Cuba

Without human rights the "right" to buy and sell property is a right to expropriate the poor.


Newsrooms around the world are reporting with great excitement that Cubans will be able for the first time in half a century to buy and sell property. It is being hailed as an expansion of economic freedom. The reality is much more somber. Human rights are non-existent in Cuba. There is a powerful elite known as the nomenklatura that has the power, in practice, to do whatever it wants regardless of the "law." Property rights are human rights. Human rights are non-existent in Cuba. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to the dictatorship, is a subversive document to be cited in court proceedings after being confiscated from the home of a dissident not something to to be taught in schools.

Human rights and the rule of law exist in order to protect those without power from the abuse of the powerful. Even in the United States this concept has been eroded with the 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo vs. City of London which ratified the right of using government power to condemn private homes to benefit a property developer. However, in a communist state where the rule of law and human rights are not existent such as China for example Beijing has been described by Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University as "Kelo-on-steroids: neighborhoods are ripped down as skyscrapers go up."

"Enough of Evictions"

In reality, property can be taken from one owner and given to another with greater political influence. What has until now been a de facto practice for decades will be given a legal veneer in order to give the rich, powerful and politically connected [i.e. the nomenklatura] in Cuba the right to plunder the island. Variations of this took place in Russia and China. A practice that has already been going on for years in Cuba. Now the Cuban communists will become the oligarchs of a post-Castro Cuba.

Guillermo Fariñas arrested and beaten up for visiting hunger striker in hospital

Meanwhile, the level of violence against human rights defenders is increasing. EFE and AFP newswires reported that Guillermo Fariñas was arrested on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 while visiting hunger striker Alcides Rivera Rodríguez at the hospital. Guillermo's mother Alicia Hernandez told AFP that

"According to what I was told by someone who was with him, he was on his way in and (state agents) told him no, and there was some kind of melee and they arrested him. One of the agents held him, kept him in place, while another beat him. They have him in the police unit. They had never before physically abused him."

Jorge Luis Perez "Antunez" and Yris Pérez Aguilera
arrested and beaten for visiting hospitalized hunger striker

Three days earlier on October 31, 2011 around 4:00pm, activists Jorge Luis Perez "Antunez", Yris Pérez Aguilera [Antunez's wife], in the Arnaldo Milian Castro Hospital visiting Rivera Rodriguez, were beaten and arrested by State Security agents.

Also violently arrested before hand at around 3:15pm were activists Damaris Moya Portieles, Idania Yánez Contreras, Julio Columbié Batista and Yanisbel Valido among others totaling 20, who were gathered in the hospital lobby. Damaris Moya Portieles described what happened:

We were taken out of the hospital, dragged and beaten up to the cars of the Special Brigades, the patrol cars that state security had and well, the police. [...] From there we were taken to police instruction better known as "UPOC" and when we got there dragged out of the cars, and beaten up. I was already inside the unit and standing in front of the occupation room when my sister Idania Yanez Contreras arrived with three female guards from the Guamajal prison. They arrived hitting her with a closed fist to the abdomen, to the head, everywhere. There, I run to where the sister Idania Yanez Contreras is and try to take them off her although it is one of these women on top, she physically hold her hands completely peacefully saying please do not hit me any more. One of these women takes me by the hand and leads me to the front of the occupations room pushing me where the other two brought Idania by the hair and beat her and punched her.

Then I free myself from this woman that was holding me and I go to where my sisters Idania Yanes Contreras and Yanisbel Valido Pérez where. They were almost strangling Yanisbel because the color of her face was red, red, red and they were punching Idania a lot. Then a guard from Guamajal grabbed me who is a really tall and bulky woman who collides with me and my head falls on top of a fence. I'm hit on the head and there I have a very big bump, really huge. From there my hands and feet start to feel numb. It felt like my feet were inflamed ,they swelled up and they leave me lying on the floor and attack Idania with hits and punches she's dragged inward to the cell.

Idania Yánez Contreras badly beaten in the past and again this past week

Unfortunately, there is much more about this brutal episode and it is available in Spanish. Its disappointing that these three women and the other 17 activists, not being high profile international figures, suffer these brutal assaults and arrests that go unreported in the news wires. As in the case of Guillermo Fariñas they have suffered brutal beatings and arrest because they demonstrated their solidarity with a man who has spent a month on hunger strike demanding an end to the violence against nonviolent activists. The regime's response is to attack his visitors.

Both Idania Yánez Contreras and Yris Pérez Aguilera have been so badly beaten in the past that the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights had issued precautionary measures concerned about both women's physical integrity in 2011. Changes are taking place in Cuba but it is going from bad to worse. Without the rule of law, respect for human rights and escalating violence against nonviolent activists things are bound to get a lot worse.

Franklin Brito: A Martyr for Liberty and Human Rights in Venezuela

"I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter










(Above) Franklin Brito before and after engaging in 8 hunger strikes

Hunger strikes are the ultimate recourse in the arsenal of non-violent resistance, and over the years around the world it has succeeded at times but in places like Cuba, Ireland, and now in Venezuela a human being has died on hunger strike.

In Cuba the names of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are remembered as is Bobby Sands of Northern Ireland (who the Cuban dictatorship built a memorial to in Cuba) and now Venezuela's Franklin Brito has joined this select grouping that demonstrates the ultimate price when engaging in a hunger strike.

Franklin Brito was a farmer and a biologist whose land was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2000 according to CNN. Other news agencies place the date of expropriation anywhere between 2003 and 2004. He exhausted every recourse and was driven to the final option: the hunger strike in 2005.El Universal out of Caracas offers a chronology of Brito's odyssey. In the video below taken October 5, 2009 on day 93 of a hunger strike Franklin was carrying out in which he explains how all of this began:



Despite its widespread violation there is a right to private property enshrined both in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Organization of American States' American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. It is an internationally recognized human right and clearly stated:

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article XXIII of the American Declaration states: "Every person has a right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home."

When Franklin Brito's family said that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom," they were simply stating the facts of the matter. In the video below taken on November 19, 2009 Franklin Brito declares that:

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

The Venezuelan tyranny* said that Franklin Brito was mentally unstable because he had sown up his mouth and cut off one of his fingers on live television. The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.

The tactics Mr. Chavez is using in questioning the mental stability of his adversaries, and smearing them, even in death, is straight out of his Cuban mentor's repertoire. Friends and family of Franklin Brito had best organize the facts and evidence surrounding his case protect it and duplicate it so that it cannot be seized and destroyed. They should engage in speaking out anywhere and everywhere to counter the avalanche of slander and libel from regime apologists against a man who can no longer defend himself.

Hugo Chávez has nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, has exacerbated food shortages in Venezuela with Chavez forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate just like Cuba did years ago.

It is not madness to take extremes in the defense of liberty and justice, but it is madness to repeat the same failed policies that have bankrupted and destroyed nations the world over and expect a different outcome in your own homeland.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

*Use of the term tyranny is not a rhetorical exercise but defines what Hugo Chavez's democratically elected government has descended into a tyranny. There are two dictionary definitions of tyranny which are often related to each other. For example in the case of Cuba with Fidel Castro it is the state ruled by an absolute ruler but in the case of Venezuela it is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority" that applies.