Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Young Cuban religious freedom defender blocked from leaving Cuba

Cuban religious freedom activist Félix Yuniel Llerena has been banned from travel after he returned from his first trip outside of Cuba.

 

Félix Yuniel Llerena banned from travel

Religious Freedom Defender Blocked From Leaving

19 Jun 2017

By Christian Solidarity Worldwide

A religious freedom defender has been blocked from leaving Cuba to attend a conference on human rights and democracy. Fếlix Llerena López was preparing to board his flight on Saturday 17 June, when state security agents approached him and took him into an office where they informed him that he was barred from leaving the country. 

While Llerena López was not given a reason for the travel ban, he was told that it had been put in place after he returned from a visit to the United States (US) in May, his first trip outside of the country. Llerena López works with the Patmos Institute, an independent civil society organisation which promotes freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all and inter-religious dialogue. While he was in the US, he raised concerns about FoRB violations in meetings with US government officials and members of Congress arranged by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Llerena Lopez was expelled from university shortly after his return.

In addition, last week, a prominent leader in the Apostolic Movement, Pastor Alain Toledano, was visited by state security agents and Communist Party officials at his home in Santiago de Cuba, who showed him an ‘acta de advertencia’, or a pre-arrest warrant, which he is concerned may also be used to block him from traveling abroad.

 In a statement to CSW, Pastor Toledano said, “…the strategy that the police are using here is that they come one by one to the house, they don’t send a citation, nothing written down, and they don’t give you a copy of the ‘actas de advertencia’ against you, even if you ask for one, since they know it can be used against them. They are perfecting their methods so as not to leave any traces of their persecution and acts of evil against the churches and ministries, even as we suffer here in the country.”

While the government requirement for an exit visa was dropped in 2013, there has been an increase in the number of Cuban activists involved with independent civil society organisations and the defence of human rights or democracy being blocked from leaving the country. In one example, that of Karina Gálvez, who works with Convivencia, an independent civil society organisation in Pinar del Rio. The government has brought trumped up charges against her which prevent her from leaving the country. In other cases, like that of Llerena López and also Berta Soler, a leader of the Ladies in White Movement who was prevented from leaving the country last month, officials have simply blocked them from boarding flights out of the country with no official justification given. 

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: “We are deeply concerned by what has happened to Felix Llerena López and Pastor Toledano over the past week, and condemn what appears to be a wider strategy of arbitrarily blocking certain human rights and democracy activists, including religious leaders and FoRB defenders, from leaving the country. We call on the European Union, the United States and other members of the international community to raise this with the Cuban authorities and to push for the right of freedom of movement to be respected for all, especially those who are involved in peaceful religious activities and the promotion of universally recognised human rights.”

Related article:

• Cuba Cuban activist expelled from university 10 May 2017  

Travel agencies getting sued for misrepresenting conditions in Cuba to tourists

Travel agencies rosy picture of Cuba has a legal downside

Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin: what travel agencies show (left) what tourists see (right)

Lonely Planet pitches Cuba as "old school cool" and an "escape from the hustle and bustle" but at the bottom of the web page has one line of caution: "The US Center for Disease Control has issued a travel alert suggesting that pregnant women postpone travel to Cuba due to the presence of the zika virus." The Castro regime has a poor history of timely reporting of epidemics on the island, placing tourists at risk.  Canada's Sunwing travel agency pitches Cuba as "Paradise…with a history." However it fails to mention that the resort they were sending tourists to in Cuba had "water problems" which meant little or no water for at least 12 days according to a March 22, 2017 Global News article. In a follow up article on March 24th Global news reported on  the Starfish Cayo Santa Maria resort in Cuba:

Travellers told Global News they had little or no fresh water for their entire trip to the resort, making it impossible to flush toilets, take showers or wash their hands.
Some, like Donna Carvalho of Georgetown, Ont., returned to Canada and went almost immediately to hospital with severe diarrhea, vomiting and an excruciating headache. Carvalho was placed in isolation for five hours and released after she said doctors concluded she had likely become ill from unsanitary conditions at the resort.
Carvalho said she witnessed the hotel restaurant using a “dirty rag” to clean dishes, cutlery and glassware in lieu of a dishwasher. Other travellers described similar nauseating experiences.

The Canadian government has said that the ill served tourists, many of whom returned home very sick can sue the travel agency.  It is not only Sunwing that needs to worry about a lawsuit but also the British based Thomas Cook travel agency.  James and Kathryn Longhurst booked their dream honeymoon to Cuba for a two-week all-inclusive getaway in Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin, Guardalavaca that cost the newlywed couple $6,235.     Three days in, Mr Longhurst fell so ill his tongue turned black. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was given injections and put on IV drips. Returned home and continued to feel ill. They are now suing Thomas Cook.  Mrs. Longhurst also became ill. The newlyweds cited "filthy conditions" as the cause of the illness observing in a March 23rd article in The Sun that "dining restaurants were poorly kept with food not “covered properly”, “insects and birds” flying around the buffet area, staff not wearing gloves while handling food and the same utensils used for different dishes."

James Longhurst was put on an IV drip on his honeymoon

Tourism was supposed to be a magic bullet that would help to open up Cuba, but the reality has been more of a mixed bag with some unexpected downsides for everyday Cubans while strengthening the most repressive elements in the island. However at the same time tourists visiting the island on more than one occasion have encountered the real Cuba that the Castro regime spends considerable resources trying to conceal from outsiders. Nevertheless news accounts emerge that should give prospective visitors pause.

It is true that tourism provides hard currency to the Cuban military, that runs the tourism industry on the island shoring up the dictatorship, but not expected was that it would also generate food shortages among everyday Cubans as The New York Times reported on December 8, 2016.

Foreign tourists misled by travel agencies can seek justice and exercise their rights back home, but not in Cuba. Meanwhile Cubans have less access to food while the military and the Castro regime get richer off of foreign tourists prolonging the life of the dictatorship.

Vacation Travel to Cuba: How it shores up a totalitarian dictatorship

“Tourism only fuels the [Castro] regime's repressive machinery.” - Sirley Ávila León

Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and Ambassador James Cason

 Today at the University of Miami the words of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet on the current reality in Cuba and its parallels with the Apartheid regime led to a new reflection on tourism to the island.  In the past have written on the fact that the Cuba is a totalitarian dictatorship and visiting it will not lead to a better understanding of the island, but often just the opposite being turned into an agent of influence for the Castro regime. This has happened before to travelers who visited the Soviet Union during Stalin's mass killings and manufactured famines, or Nazi Germany in the midst of Hitler's holocaust. In both cases travelers returned praising the dictatorships and proclaiming that "they worked" and were the future.

Dr. Biscet today at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies explained that freedom to travel in Cuba remains non-existent and all travel is controlled by the Castro dictatorship.  Furthermore as was the case in South Africa during the Apartheid regime Cubans must show identification to travel between provinces, and report to the Committee in Defense of the Revolution if they wish to stay at the home of a friends or family member when traveling in the island.

Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito denied entry to her homeland to see ailing mother

The reality that Cubans do not have the right to enter and exit their homeland was also demonstrated today with Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito. She was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba and immigrated to the United States in March of 2012. Ana Margarita was forced to return at 10:00am this morning after having arrived yesterday at 2:00pm at José Martí International Airport. She had traveled to Cuba to see her mother who is ill and may soon die.

Ana Margarita shows cuts from broken glass during scuffle at airport (CubaNet)

The independent news platform CubaNet reported that Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito was an independent journalist who had worked with various independent publications, including CubaNet among them. CubaNet reached her brother, Pablo Perdigón who had gone to pick up his sister only to find as he informed the reporter: "A colonel from the airport told me that she is turned around, that I could not see her. I had to return to Sancti Spiritus, because we rented a car to go get her." Her brother added that the soldier who met with him told him "some glass was broken and she was injured." This was the second time she had tried to travel to Cuba, the first being in March of 2015 when she and her daughter were taken off the plane while it was still in Miami and told that she was not permitted to enter. However her Cuban passport remained valid and she thought she could try again at a future date. Yesterday she learned that was not the case and spent the night detained on the airport in Havana and was sent back to Miami today.

This is not the first time that a daughter born in Cuba is unable to return to see a dying parent. In the summer of 2013 Blanca Reyes, a Cuban national living in Spain was denied permission to see her dying father. Her dad died on October 15, 2013 and the grieving daughter tweeted: "My father died today in Cuba did not see him for 9 years the Cuban government stopped me. UNTIL WHEN MY GOD?"  Three years later and the question continues to resonate. Both Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito and Blanca Reyes were nonviolent civil society activists who respectively practiced journalism and defended human rights as a Lady in White. There is no reason that they should not be able to enter and exit their homeland, especially when a loved one is ill or dying.

However, some of the Cuban Americans that have been granted entry to Cuba ended their visits tragically.

• Young Cuban American Víctor Barroso lost an arm on November 18, 2012 and spent 28 months falsely imprisoned following a car crash in Cuba. He went to Cuba to visit family and is now trying to raise funds for a prosthetic arm. 
• On November 22, 2013 Brandon Bjorn Ross, a 31 year old American citizen visiting Cuba with his mother Onelia Ross, who is of Cuban origin, went out to take pictures in the early morning around the Hotel Nacional in Havana. The next time his mom saw him was at the morgue to identify her son's body. Government officials said that he had fallen from the roof of the hotel, but refused to provide Onelia an autopsy report and quickly cremated her son's body without her authorization. 
• Alberto Romero (age 39), a Tampa based marital and family law attorney, was murdered in Cuba while visiting extended family on January 8, 2015. He was found tied up with a family friend, beaten, stabbed multiple times and with one hand severed.

There have been other cases involving non-Cubans over the years, but the fact that speaking the language and having family there does not guarantee a safe stay should speak volumes to prospective visitors.

Cuba remains an island under the brutal grip of a totalitarian dictatorship with an economy run by the military and the Castro family. This also means that tourism dollars go straight into shoring up the dictatorship's Ministry of the Interior and the Military. There is no due process and the legal system is subject to the arbitrary whims of the dictatorship. Reporting on outbreaks of disease are also subject to the whims of the dictatorship. Independent media are persecuted and outlawed and independent reporting on crime is incomplete and accurate information hard to come by.

Daisy B. Peñaloza, a preschool teacher residing in Bakersfield, California on June 28, 2016 wrote "Thinking about a vacation in Cuba? Don't" in The Bakersfield Californian that summed it up best:

Obama’s rapprochement has not empowered Cuban society. Every dollar that tourists spend in Cuba exclusively strengthens and enriches the billionaire Castro family and literally hurts the Cuban people. Worse yet, as in Nazi Germany, tourists unwittingly become tools of the regime. Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was toppled, not by tourism and commerce, but by economic ruin, a globally sustained dissident movement and persistent sanctions.

However she did allow that principled travel to the island could serve a positive purpose.

A humanitarian or religious visit, whereby the seeds of free expression are scattered and left to germinate, is the type of visit that will make a true and lasting difference in the lives of Cubans.

It is important to remember that Cubans do not have the freedom to travel in their own homeland and as Dr. Biscet observed are subjected to an internal pass system reminiscent of the South African apartheid regime. Visiting Cuba for sun and fun while Cubans are being discriminated against in their own country while tourism dollars go to perpetuate their repression is immoral.

The State Department Cuba advisory that the media is not highlighting

Placing Cuba in its proper international context

 
This blog has raised questions about the U.S. Embassy in Havana and the language in its advisories with regards to Cuban Americans. Incidentally, these advisories have garnered much press attention. The language has been changed and the State Department has explained the reason why.

At the same time a new issue arises over the hype of  American travel to Cuba. Why has the media not focused on the State Department's advisory for U.S. citizens that now warns that anyone can be detained at any time for any purpose and that the security services and "judicial" system falls far short of international standards. Here is the exact language:

U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba should be aware that the Cuban government may detain anyone at any time for any purpose, and should not expect that Cuba’s state security or judicial systems will carry out their responsibilities according to international norms.

In fact, when a former U.S. intelligence officer Mike Himsworth posts a copy of the advisory on twitter he is ridiculed by the pro-Cuba travel crowd and his warning dismissed.

@_akshun_ It's the State Dept.'s travel advisory. Missing/Ignoring it is their prerogative. https://t.co/Xqx7Z44stR pic.twitter.com/uPPqBr2AMF

— Mike Himsworth (@MikeHimsworth) May 1, 2016

Cuba and North Korea do have a lot in common and the refusal to recognize the repressive nature of both totalitarian regimes places at risk those who travel there believing these two countries are just like anywhere else.  

The State Department recognizes this as do U.S. intelligence officers but the news media and others are presenting a sunny image of a despotic regime that may endanger American lives. Meanwhile there is a public discussion of placing a travel ban on North Korea due to American tourists being arbitrarily detained there and sentenced to long prison terms.

Questions for the US embassy in Havana, Cuba on U.S. Citizens Services section addressing Cuban Americans

 Some questions about the US embassy in Havana and its warnings to Cuban Americans

Cuba is a lawless autocracy with exhibit A being its response to the Varela Project, a citizen initiative that should be legal within existing Cuban law, but instead led to a massive crackdown and long prison sentences in 2003. This is further concrete proof that the regime in Cuba is a tyranny.

Within this context the statement from the United States embassy in Havana regarding the rights of Cuban-Americans and natural born Americans of Cuban descent is of great concern. The Obama administration has engaged in a policy of unilateral concessions in an effort to normalize relations with the Castro dictatorship. This has emboldened the regime in Cuba. Repression and violence are spiking in numbers not seen in decades.

The US embassy issued some serious warnings to Cuban borns and their children last year and after bad press over the past week quickly changed the language. Initially it gave a number of ominous warnings:

Dual Nationality
The Government of Cuba does not recognize the U.S. nationality of U.S. citizens who are Cuban-born or are the children of Cuban parents.  These individuals will be treated solely as Cuban citizens and may be subject to a range of restrictions and obligations, including military service.  The Cuban government may require U.S. citizens, whom the Government of Cuba considers to be Cuban, to enter and depart Cuba using a Cuban passport.  Using a Cuban passport for this purpose does not jeopardize one's U.S. citizenship; however, such persons must use their U.S. passports to enter and depart the United States.  There have been cases of Cuban-American dual nationals being forced by the Cuban government to surrender their U.S. passports.  Despite these restrictions, Cuban-American dual nationals who fall ill may only be treated at hospitals for foreigners (except in emergencies).  See the paragraph below on Consular Access for information on Cuba's denial of consular services to dual American-Cuban nationals who have been arrested, as well as the paragraph below on Children's Issues for information on how dual-nationality may affect welfare inquiries and custody disputes.

Cuban-American dual nationals should be especially wary of any attempt by Cuban authorities to compel them to sign "repatriation" documents.  The Government of Cuba views a declaration of repatriation as a legal statement on the part of the dual national that she/he intends to resettle permanently in Cuba.  In several instances, the Government of Cuba has seized the U.S. passport of dual nationals signing declarations of repatriation and has denied these individuals permission to return to the United States.

The crowd that is backing engagement and has the ear of the White House came out to discount the above statement as false.  Now the U.S. embassy page reads as follows:

Dual Nationality  
The Government of Cuba does not recognize the U.S. nationality of U.S. citizens who are Cuban-born.  These individuals will be treated solely as Cuban citizens and may be subject to a range of restrictions and obligations. The Cuban government may require these individuals to enter and depart Cuba using a Cuban passport.  Using a Cuban passport for this purpose does not jeopardize one's U.S. citizenship; however, such persons must use their U.S. passports to enter and depart the United States. 

Now there is an attempt to back track and say that the matter has been cleared up.  Pedro A. Freyre, the Chairman of International Practice at Akerman LLP, says in a CBS4 interview with Hank Tester that one can rest easy that what the U.S. embassy posted was false. He also tried to downplay it stating: “What I look at is what has been happening, what is happening on the ground. Never mind there is an obscure statement in a sub file of a U.S. Embassy in obscure location.”

Attorney Freyre should speak with whoever was informing him on the location of the statement on the U.S. embassy page because he misspoke. The statement was displayed on the main page of U.S. Citizens Services ( http://havana.usembassy.gov/service.html ). This was not an obscure and hidden statement as Mr. Freyre implies. Quite the opposite and for that reason this controversy raised alarm, is far from cleared up, and raises a number of important questions.

1. Was this a trial balloon to intimidate Cuban American travelers now that with the number of U.S. travelers increasing they are no longer needed? 

2. Who at the U.S. embassy in Havana placed the controversial text on the website in 2015? 

3. Did they receive instructions to do so from the State Department?

4. Is this unique to Cuba or does the State Department give erroneous information to prospective American travelers heading to other countries?

5. The Castro regime enforces its rules and regulations arbitrarily to suit the dictatorship's agenda. Is it now tightening up now on Cuban American travel because non-Cuban Americans are visiting the island in large numbers?

Things are getting worse on the human rights front for Cubans living in the island. Why wouldn't also worsen now for Cuban Americans visiting the island while American corporations are willing, with U.S. approval, to discriminate against them to appease the Castro regime?