Update on March 18, 2013 attack on Ladies in White

Taken from Pedazos de la Isla

State organized mobs assault the Ladies in White

Stoning against the Ladies in White, neighbors come out in their defense

On the night of March 18th, the Cuban political police organized a mob of more than 200 people to attack a group of 50 Ladies in White in Palma Soriano who were holding their monthly meeting, dedicating it to the 10th anniversary of the Black Spring crackdown when 75 dissidents were arrested and sentenced to prison.  These actions resulted in the hospitalization of one of the Ladies in White and the violent arrests of various neighbors who came out in their defense.

Belkis Cantillo, the representative of the Ladies in White in the province of Santiago de Cuba, was present and explained to this blog that the meeting took place without any incidents, but “at around 4 PM, when we were going to leave the house, we noticed that there were mobs on each corner.  It was then that act of repudiation began“.

Cantillo estimated that there were about 200 people in the acts of repudiation, many of them drunkards, and all of them responding to the orders of the political police.  Some of the agents who were at the forefront of the mobs were Edgar, Norberto, Yunier, Ernesto, Rodolfo and Agustin (the latter a chief of the Confrontation Unit in Santiago de Cuba), although the activist points out that these are just code names, seeing as the agents never use their actual names.

In addition, there were underage students in the mob.  They were taken there by their teachers.
“The teachers would tell the kids to scream insults at us like ‘worms‘”, said Cantillo, “but the majority of the parents showed up, angry, and punished their children and took them away from there.  They also confronted and protested against the teachers for taking them there without their authorization“.

The mobs remained outside of the home of Denia Hernandez and started to throw rocks against the walls, windows and roof.  There were also underage children inside- 3,8,12, and 15 years old.  The eldest being Martha Beatriz Ferrer, daughter of Belkis and leading dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

“These kids were terrorized.  All they could hear were the rocks crashing against the walls.  It felt like it was raining rocks, it wouldn’t come to an end“, recounts Belkis, “And the political police was just there, controlling those mobs, encouraging them“.

At one point, one of the rocks landed inside the house of a neighbor.  Clearly bothered, he came out to defend the women.  He wasn’t the only one.

“This man came out to defend us.  He told the police officers to stop the violence“, said the Lady in White, “and many other people came out to defend us- both men and women.  In fact, there were 6 women (neighbors) who stood up for us.  They started to shout at the mobs, asking why they were throwing rocks at us because we were only defending our rights”.

The result of the displays of solidarity was the beating and arrest of the 6 women at the hands of the political police.  Each of them were taken away to an undisclosed location.  Two of them were identified on Jose Daniel Ferrer’s Twitter account (@jdanielferrer) as Jessica Hernández and Maricela Chea.

Meanwhile, the Lady in White Miraida Martin was physically assaulted by the mobs when she stepped out of the house.  The aggression was so intense that she had to be urgently rushed to the clinic of Palma Soriano, where they had to give her oxygen, according to another tweet by Ferrer Garcia, which also detailed that she was in “a very delicate state of health“.

The home of Denia Hernandez remained under police vigilance long after the mobs began to disperse at around 9 PM.  It remained that way all night long.

Belkis Cantillo said that despite the fact that they were very violent moments, the Ladies in White were not afraid, although they are “very worried about the women who defended us and were assaulted.  They are still detained and were very beaten up, being held in an undisclosed location“.

Her husband and UNPACU leader, Jose Daniel Ferrer, added on Twitter that the 6 women demonstrated a high level of bravery and expressed that “when everyone who desires a better future does the same as Jessica, Maricela, and the rest of the neighbors, the abuses, the hunger, and the misery will come to an end”.


For more information from Cuba, contact: Belkis Cantillo- Cell Phone: +58-323-612

Cuba's Black Spring Ten Years Later: Ladies in White brutally attacked

URGENT!!! Victims of police and Castroite brigades violence need voices of solidarity. - Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, March 18, 2013 at 6:04pm over twitter

Lady in White Marina Montes Piñón beaten with blunt object in December 2012

Ten years ago, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia was being threatened with a death sentence for his role as one of the organizers of the Varela Project, a citizen initiative to reform the Cuban system and bring it into line with international human rights standards. Today, ten years later, on March 18, 2013 he is calling for solidarity on behalf of a group of Cuban women beaten up by Castroite rapid response brigades and the political police in the interior of the island.

The worse repression is not in Havana, but in the interior of the island in places like Palma Soriano in the east of Cuba in the province of Santiago far away from the prying eyes of the diplomatic corps and international media.

Today rock throwing mobs organized by state security assaulted the home of Lady in White, Denia Fernandez Rey. What follows below is a translation of the tweets posted by Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Robert J. Guerra of Hablemos Press, Angel Moya Acosta and the Ladies in White in real time as the attack unfolded and the aftermath.

The tweets began at 4:41pm on March 18, 2013 with Jose Daniel Ferrer reporting: Palma Soriano. Act of repudiation against fifty Ladies in White commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Black Spring. This was followed immediately by another offering that for more information on the act of repudiation against the Ladies in White to call +5358323612 and speak with Belkis Cantillo present at the home under assault.

At 5:14pm Jose Daniel tweeted that the violence was escalating: "Rapid Response Brigades attack the home of Denia Fernández, where there are five children, with stones." Three minutes later Robert J. Guerra of Hablemos Press reports that there is an "act of repudiation" underway at the "home of Lady in White Denia Fernandez in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba" after the women "holding literary tea."

At 5:48pm the official Ladies in White twitter account confirms that the act of repudiation is underway and that their representative Belkis Cantillo is present at the home under siege.  

At 5:50pm Robert J. Guerra of Hablemos Press reports "Ladies in White beat up in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba. Two women hospitalized for receiving blows to the head." 

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera is a Victim of repeated assaults

The blows to the head are not accidental but a systematic targeting of certain activists. There are other recent examples and one that needs to be mentiones is the case of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, she is the president of the Rosa Parks Women's Movement for Civil Rights. On International Women's Day 2013 in Cuba a woman was spitting up blood due to a beating administered to her by a male state security agent on the morning of March 7, 2013 for a nonviolent demonstration she had participated in. The attack was so brutal that they knocked her out and she had to be taken to a hospital. When she finally regained consciousness, regime agents kicked her out of the hospital. This was not the first time that she had been the object of such an attack by an official of the Cuban government. 

At 6:02pm Jose Daniel confirms that the "Ladies in White of Altamira have been battered" and that the "political police have detained the women." He reports one minute later that one of the women has been beaten into unconsciousness.

At 6:44pm Angel Juan Moya Acosta, former prisoners of conscience and husband of Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler - who was not allowed to travel with his wife out of Cuba - reports: "Police brutality and mass arrests against Ladies in White in Palma Soriano, mounted on buses and disappeared."

At 8:43pm Jose Daniel tweets "Communist Brigades beat and police arrest six women for expressing outrage at the violence against the Ladies in White. He identifies two of the six women detained as "Jessica Hernández, and Maricela Chea." 

Jose Daniel informs a moment later that "Lady in White and UNPACU activist Miraida Martin is at a local Polyclinic being given oxygen following police violence" and that the Doctor attending her "does not authorize transferring Miraida to Santiago de Cuba because she is in a very fragile state." But at 8:47pm he reports that Due to "political police pressure Miraida is discharged still feeling very bad," and is "driven to Santiago." 

This is the same tactic that has been used against other women who dare to dissent in totalitarian Cuba and was most recently witnessed in the case of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera.

The international mainstream news media in Cuba have not reported on these attacks and the UN has organized activities on the status of women in Cuba and failed to even mention the violence visited upon Cuban dissidents who happen to be women.

Lady in White Marina Montes Piñón

 Human rights defenders the world over, understand a very basic equation that holds true everywhere: Silence = Death but there is another equation that is implicitly understood but rarely voiced Constructive Noise = Life. Not just any noise but constructive noise that seeks out the facts and attempts to ascertain the truth of a situation and report it to others.

Due to repeated beatings Yris has developed a cyst

 The images posted here are not of the attacks on March 18. Those have not been available yet, but these are photos of other Cuban women that for their dissent were physically brutalized. The dictatorship attacks women in Cuba because it fears their power and courage. It is for that reason that ten years later on the anniversary of the Black Cuban Spring the forces of repression in the island are mobilized.

The Regime Strikes Back: International Human Rights Day in Cuba

Despite massive orchestrated regime repression combined with a propaganda offensive the opposition was able to celebrate international human rights day in Cuba with courageous defiance.

 

On International Human Rights Day the Castro regime engaged in a triple attack. First it shut down cell phones and home telephones of activists and independent journalists so that it was difficult if not impossible for them to communicate. (This tactic was first documented and used successfully on a national scale by the dictatorship during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba in March of 2012.) By 12 noon today activists such as Orlando Luis Pardo were tweeting that "cell phones of the majority of activists and Cuban civil society leaders including the Ladies in White were blocked."

Secondly the dictatorship organized rapid response brigades led by state security to lay siege to the homes of activists and when the activists took to the streets in nonviolent protest these government agents violently ended the demonstrations and detained the activists. At 9:24am today Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez tweeted that "independent journalist Carlos Rio Otero was impeded from leaving his home by police patrol."This repression started in the early morning and has continued throughout the day and into the night. Tonight at 9:53pm former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya tweeted that "the home of activist Eduardo Pacheco was under siege in Cardenas Matanzas" and that "repressive forces were wielding knives and shouting no one will go out."As was done yesterday, a large number of activists were arbitrarily detained to prevent them from participating in activities on International Human Rights Day. Bertha Soler, the spokesperson of the Ladies in White was beaten up and arrested yesterday then released only to suffer the same indignity again today.

Thirdly, over the internet the Cuban government and its sympathizers recycled propaganda on the non-achievements of the revolution and attacked the U.S. Embargo while claiming that news of human rights violations in Cuba were lies manufactured by counter-revolutionary elements and the Yankees. A number of the claims made about U.S. sanctions were factually inaccurate.
 
In reality, the human rights situation in Cuba over the past four years has gone from bad to worse. At the same time that sanctions have been loosened. The only bright spot was the product of a sustained international and national campaign for the release of Cuban prisoners of conscience arrested during the 2003 Black Cuban Spring which succeeded in getting all of them out of prison by March of 2011. Nevertheless there are new prisoners of conscience who have replaced them and the international community does not seem to have the same level awareness and commitment that it did back in 2003 generating greater impunity.

Unfortunately, one of the byproducts of this lessened solidarity and increased impunity it is feared may be the suspicious deaths of high profile activists such as Laura Pollan and Oswaldo Paya not to mention human rights defenders such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Wilman Villar Mendoza, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Sergio Díaz Larrastegui and now the life of  Calixto Ramon Martinez hangs in the balance.  

The Castro regime struck back today with its arsenal of repressive tools and agents of influence abroad, but despite the dictatorship's efforts to silence the opposition it failed. Protests and marches went on, signs were posted and leaflets were distributed across the island and a national pots and pans protest was successfully carried out. International Human Rights Day in Cuba demonstrated that nonviolent and creative resistance can overpower the most sophisticated plans of the regime.



Opposition activist and former prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia was able to post an important video tonight (embedded above) outlining the nonviolent nature of the Cuban civic movement's struggle for freedom in Cuba and its objectives.


The Rosa Maria Paya, of the Christian Liberation Movement was able to post an audio on the state of human rights in Cuba that demands justice for her father Oswaldo Paya in addition to freedom for Calixto Ramon Martinez and Josvany Melchor Rodriguez both unjustly imprisoned.

All of this was accomplished despite the increased repression and danger to the lives of these activists.

At the same time people of good will abroad can help reduce the level of impunity in Cuba by pressuring for increased scrutiny on the regime. Please take a few minutes of your time to visit the Free Cuba Foundation and sign three petitions in order to demand justice, freedom and an end to repression.

Amnesty International designed its symbol of a candle surrounded by barbed wire inspired by the proverb: "It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness." It is important to remember the power of shining the light of truth into darkness and its great nonviolent power.