#Nonviolence: 20 years after the silent call for justice in Cuba

"What's past is prologue" - William Shakespeare

Hard to believe that it has been 20 years since we sent this OpEd outlining our nonviolent commitment to justice for victims of the Castro regime. Still so much left to do. https://t.co/UH51tDRS7k

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) December 29, 2018

Below is the OpEd published in the Miami Herald twenty years ago today. It continues to set the context for the present struggle for a free Cuba. Vigil for the victims of the Castro regime are held every year at FIU on February 24th and July 13th.

  Published Monday, December 28, 1998, in the Miami Herald
FREE CUBA FOUNDATION

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Join our silent call for justice

``Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are vigilant.''-- Mahatma Gandhi

IN A FEW DAYS the world will be marking the 40th anniversary of the systematic denial of human rights and basic human dignity in Cuba. The 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was observed in Cuba by beatings and arrests of dissidents and human-rights activists leading up to and on the anniversary itself.

It is sad to note how far the Cuban government has sunk. It was 50 years ago that the Cuban delegation, representing a democratic and constitutional republic, wrote the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The members recognized that this document would have been ``accepted by that generous spirit who was the apostle of our independence: Jose Marti, the hero who -- as he turned his homeland into a nation -- gave us forever this generous rule: `With everyone, and for the good of everyone.' ''

Last Dec. 10 a spiritual heir of the 1948 Cuban delegation held up copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the New Testament and was knocked down and dragged away by Cuban police. Today the mere support of those principles enunciated by the Cuban delegation in 1948 leads to beatings, arrests, and in some cases, deaths.

We shall raise here a silent call for justice. We shall use petitions, silent vigils, and fasts to raise the issue of justice for those who no longer can speak. We will not forget those innocents who died at the hands of the Cuban government such as:

 On Dec. 22, 1997, Sebastian Arcos Bergnes died of a cancer that was allowed to spread until terminal while he sat with violent criminals in a Cuban prison cell. His crime was being a human-rights activist and the vice-president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

 On March 29, 1997, Joachim Lovschall, a 26-year-old Dane studying Spanish at the University of Havana, was shot to death by Cuban state-security agents while crossing a street in Havana. Nearly two years later no disciplinary or lawful investigation of the guard who killed Lovschall has begun despite Denmark's official protests.

 On Feb. 24, 1996, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, Carlos Costa, and Pablo Morales where blown out of the sky over the Florida Straits while searching for Cuban rafters in international waters. The Cuban pilots responsible for the shootdown have yet to face justice for their actions.

 On July 13, 1994, an estimated 41 men, women, and children were drowned by agents of the Cuban government for the sole crime of exercising their right to leave Cuba. The Cuban government has not held a proper investigation, brought those responsible to justice, or recovered the bodies of the victims and returned them to their families.

We call on all people of goodwill to join our silent call for justice. Let others know of these travesties.

We have embraced the principle of nonviolence, and we seek the truth as our ends. Gandhi said:

``Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer, and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.''

We call on people everywhere who share our passion for justice to join us. Nearly a year ago we signed an Accord for Democracy in which the final line quoted Marti's noble sentiment: ``With everyone, and for the good of everyone.''

Let us work so that in Cuba once again this will become a reality and not just a noble sentiment.

Susana Mendiola
Chairwoman,

Viviana Mendiola
Vice President,

Marco J. Alonso
Treasurer,

John Suarez
Coordinator,
Free Cuba Foundation
Florida International University

Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald 

One day after a silent protest demanding justice for Brothers to the Rescue, President Obama arrives at FIU

Will the President answer a mother's question about her murdered son?

Silent vigil at FIU on February 24, 2015 broadcast over CBS 4

President Barack Obama will be at Florida International University today at an event that has been
billed as a "Town Hall" but is a closed event. Those who will be attending have most likely been "selected."

This is just a day after a silent protest for justice was held at FIU by family members of the four men murdered on February 24, 1996 in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down.  The university community, including Mark Rosenberg the President of FIU, took part in the silent vigil.



Following the vigil the families of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Pablo Morales laid flowers at a tree dedicated to the four men on March 7, 1997.  Miriam de la Peña, whose son Mario was killed on February 24, 1996, spoke on camera summarizing the events that led to her son's death and concluded by asking President Obama why did he free her son's murderer who was serving a double life sentence?

Mass for Brothers to the Rescue at Our Lady of Charity in Coconut Grove

 The families held a Mass at 8:00pm at Our Lady of Charity in Coconut Grove where the officiating priest gave a masterful homily on truth and justice as necessary conditions for authentic reconciliation while at the same time analyzing the Lord's Prayer and its command to forgive in order to be forgiven.

Freeing an unrepentant criminal who is then celebrated as a hero by an unrepentant dictatorship are not grounds for reconciliation and peace. This action is the definition of an injustice.The president's decision to commute the sentences of three Cuban spies including Gerardo Hernandez serving a life sentence for conspiracy to commit four murders will not be seriously addressed by him today. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail wrote "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The rising violence against democratic activists now in Venezuela is connected to the Castro regime and the U.S. policy of appeasing the Cuban dictatorship will only make things worse.  

The February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown and national reconciliation

Tuesday, February 24, 2015 will mark 19 years since Fidel and Raul Castro ordered Cuban MiGs to hunt and shoot down two Brothers to the Rescue planes that at the time were in international airspace killing Armando Alejandre Jr. (45 years old), Carlos Alberto Costa (29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (24), and Pablo Morales (29). A thorough international investigation carried out by the Inter-American Commission on the merits made public in 1999 concluded:

"Cuba is responsible for violating the right to life (Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, who died as a result of the direct actions of its agents on the afternoon of 24 February 1996 while flying through international airspace."

Furthermore with the issue of justice for the four victims and their families the IACHR report stated:

"Cuba is responsible for violating the right to a fair trial (Article XVIII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of the relatives of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, in that to date the Cuban authorities have not conducted an exhaustive investigation with a view toward prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators and have not indemnified those same relatives for the damage they suffered as a result of those illicit acts."

Beginning the week following the Saturday, February 24, 1996 shoot down the Free Cuba Foundation, a student movement founded at Florida International University in 1993 at the time with a second chapter at the University of Miami Holds Candlelight vigils at both universities. On Saturday, March 2, 1996 members of the Free Cuba Foundation participated in a flotilla that sought to journey to the spot both planes were shot down and hold a memorial service. 

FCF members in flotilla on March 2, 1996

On December 12, 2001 the leader of the Cuban spy ring, Gerardo Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to commit murder in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down. President Barack Obama on December 17, 2014 commuted his life sentence and returned Mr. Hernandez to Cuba. 

For the past 18 years members of the Free Cuba Foundation have gathered at the main fountain at Florida International University beginning at 3:21pm, the time the first plane was shot down, in a silent vigil until 3:27pm, the time the second plane was shot down. Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales were on the first plane.  Mario de la Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. were on the second plane.

 

Since 1996 silent vigils held at FIU for justice for Brothers to the Rescue

 Next Tuesday, February 24 at 3:21pm sharp FIU students, members of the FIU community and the families of the four men murdered in 1996 will for the nineteenth time gather at the main fountain at Florida International University in a silent vigil for justice.

This silent vigil seeks to remember the facts in the service of truth while demanding justice. Truth, memory and justice are necessary elements for a real and lasting national reconciliation. 

Join the hundreds of FIU students who since 1996 have done their small part standing up for national reconciliation in Cuba by demanding truth and justice in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down.