Laura Pollán posthumously awarded the Democracy Service Medal

Honoring Laura Pollán two months after her untimely death

Democracy Service Award ceremony for Laura Pollán

Yesterday, December 14, 2011 marked two months since a mysterious and sudden illness claimed the life of Cuban human rights defender Laura Pollán at a Havana hospital in Cuba. It was also a day of celebration of her life and work on behalf of Cubans as well as friends and family recognizing Laura's martyrdom simultaneously in Havana and Washington DC.

Yolanda Huerga, representative of Ladies in White in the United States and her husband former prisoner of conscience Manuel Vasquez Portal

Laura Pollán was posthumously awarded the Democracy Service Medal by the National Endowment for Democracy in House Foreign Affairs Committee Room in the Rayburn building.

Panelists during discussion of "The Legacy of Laura Pollán"

Prior to the award ceremony there was a panel discussion "The Legacy of Laura Pollán:
the Struggle for Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba" that began at 4:00pm and was followed at 5:30pm by the actual award ceremony.

NED's Carl Gershman listening to remarks by Héctor Maceda in Havana

Additionally, there was a live feed from the US Interests Section in Havana with Laura's husband, Héctor Maceda, and daughter, Laura María Labrada Pollán, present as well as the new leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler who addressed the gathering.

For us, we feel that we must be the heirs of the example and the experience of the woman who founded, encouraged and gave international recognition to our group’s struggle for political prisoners, human rights, progress and opportunity for all. The awarding of this medal to Laura Pollán is the clear expression of the understanding and solidarity that we have received from the population of the Unites States throughout all these years of peaceful struggle against a Communist dictatorship that continues to batter our country.

This award arrives in a moment when the figure of Laura Pollán is becoming more present and powerful in our movement; at the hour when we have extended our presence to the other provinces of Cuba and have, with each passing day, a greater degree of popular support that the Cuba regime cannot deter.

This award to Laura Pollán is yet another element that obliges us to strengthen ourselves and to work united by our diversity, with respect for all opinions, devoted to our literary encounters, our prayers, our attendance at mass, our public marches, in which we are armed only with our passion for freedom and the flowers that symbolize our peaceful nature.

Thank you, dear friends, for this medal. It honors the personal path of Laura Pollán’s life and reaffirms the commitment of the Damas de Blanco to continue our work for love and freedom.

Laura María Labrada Pollán, Berta Soler and Hector Maceda on a live feed from the USINT in Havana with an American official also seated.

Senator Robert Menendez and Congress persons Ileana Ros Lehtinen, Albio Sires, Howard Berman, and David Rivera attended the award ceremony.

Berta Soler addresses the award ceremony

President Obama sent a message, with a message that Capitol Hill Cubans described as in poor form, but none the less honored Laura. The statement issued by the State Department, a day after her untimely death was excellent.

Past winners of the award include Lech Walesa, Lane Kirkland, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Vaclav Havel. Also sharing the award with Laura in 2011 is Floribert Chebeya who was murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010 for criticizing violent repression in that country.

Thomas R. Donahue, the 2006 Democracy Service Award winner was in attendance

Below is an excerpt of the full statement read out by Carl Gershman, the president of the National Endowment for Democracy, while presenting the Democracy Service Award to the representative of the Ladies in White in the United States, Yolanda Huerga:

Carl Gershman presenting the award to Yolanda Huerga, representative of the Ladies in White in the United States

Difficult struggles lie ahead, but the period of darkness is drawing to a close, and the light that is shining in the distance glows with the memory of Laura Pollán. She was a simple woman – a mother, a housewife, a teacher, someone who loved literature. Until her husband Héctor Maseda Guitiérrez was arrested along with 74 others in the Black Spring of 2003, she was not political. But from the moment he was taken away, she had a mission – to free her husband – and to do so, she rallied other women whose loved ones had disappeared to form the Damas de Blanco. Weekly they marched, dressed in white and carrying gladioli, the garments symbolizing the purity of their motives and the flowers their integrity and moral strength. And when they chanted “Libertad,” they did so not just for their husbands and fathers and sons and brothers, but for Cuba itself.

The regime reacted to their peaceful marches with violence and venom. The women were insulted, called traitors and mercenaries, and attacked by shock mobs. But they persisted, and as they did, their reputation and moral authority grew in Cuba and throughout the world.

Then, on September 24, when the women were being shoved and beaten by one of these mobs, Laura was personally attacked by an agent of the State Security. She fell into critical condition just eight days later and died on October 14, a martyr in the cause of freedom.

While people throughout Cuba mourned the death of Laura Pollán, the government responded with “infinite ideological rancor,” in the words of Yoani Sanchez. “Laura is gone,” she continued, “and now all the acts of hatred against her resonate even more grotesquely. Laura is gone and we are left with a country slowly waking up from a very old totalitarianism that doesn’t even know how to say ‘I’m sorry.’”

Yes, Laura is gone, but her memory lives on the hearts of Cubans. Her example of dedication to justice inspires others to fight on. The purity of her motives, the strength of her character, the depth of her integrity, and the force of her fearlessness will light the way forward. Her legacy will help Cubans build a new morality after more than half a century of political bondage, poisonous hatred, and dehumanizing lies. For all she did in her life that ended too soon, and for giving her last full measure of devotion to the cause of “Libertad,” the National Endowment for Democracy is honored to present posthumously to Laura Pollán its Democracy Service Medal.

Following the statement by the National Endowment for Democracy president the representative of the Ladies in White, Yolanda Huerga approached the podium and gave a moving acceptance speech of which an excerpt is translated below (original Spanish is online here) :

Today, exactly two months ago the heart of Laura Pollan, overflowing with love for Cuba, stopped beating, but her death, far from dividing the Ladies in White, strengthened and multiplied them throughout the island

If I were asked to define her character would say, she was like marble, white and strong.

Her husband and mine were colleagues of the same independent news agency, but neither she nor I had matured, then the confrontation with the dictatorship, Cuba's Black Spring united us, and cemented a friendship that was consolidated in the fray, in the fear of reprisal.

Often I cry for Laura. I miss her as a friend and above all her honest sincerity that sometimes surprised and sometimes irritated.

In the intense moments that she had to confront I saw her hardness of alabaster, her unwavering firmness and her serenity and her sense of humor flower when at every minute her life was in danger, mocking the oppressors and making them look ridiculous.

With her leadership the movement of the Ladies in White was no longer a group of women sending letters and making public statements, each one on her own, cohering definitely into a block where everything is decided by consensus and respect each one's opinion.

The Ladies in White, under the leadership of Laura, after succeeding in its first commitment: to see all prisoners released from the Group of 75 and other political prisoners and having reached an international visibility, that we never imagined at the outset, when we were a small group of women beginning our fight against the totalitarian regime, have been redefined as a force for defending human rights and democracy in Cuba.

Nobel Lecture on the successful nonviolent struggle in Liberia

The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work". Below is the Nobel Lecture of Leymah Gbowee that is extremely relevant to ongoing events in Cuba today.

Leymah Gbowee

Nobel Lecture

Nobel Lecture by Leymah Roberta Gbowee, Oslo, 10 December 2011

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies
Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Global Leaders
Women of Liberia, Women of Africa and Women of the world

This is the day the Lord has made and I and my sisters globally will rejoice and be glad in it.

Today marks a very historic day as the Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded to me, Tawakul, and my own President and Mother, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in honor of all women globally.

I am humbled and honored to have been selected by members of the committee and I receive the Prize in the name of women who continue to work for peace, equality and justice across the World. A moment of silence for Prof Wangari Maathai, Ms. Dheka Abdi, Ma Wleti Freeman, Ma Asata Kandakai, Ma Fatu Bah, Rebecca Flomo, Ma Klunah Brown, the seven Ivorian Women who lost their lives during the post elections violence and women across the world who lost their lives whilst fighting for peace, social justice and equality.

Early 2003, seven of us women gathered in a makeshift office / conference room to discuss the Liberian civil war and the fast approaching war on the capital Monrovia. Armed with nothing but our conviction and $10 United States dollars, the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign was born.

Women had become the "toy of war" for over-drugged young militias. Sexual abuse and exploitation spared no woman; we were raped and abused regardless of our age, religious or social status. A common scene daily was a mother watching her young one being forcibly recruited or her daughter being taken away as the wife of another drug emboldened fighter.

We used our pains, broken bodies and scarred emotions to confront the injustices and terror of our nation. We were aware that the end of the war will only come through non–violence, as we had all seen that the use of violence was taking us and our beloved country deeper into the abyss of pains, death, and destruction.

The situation in Liberia in those war years indeed re-affirmed the profound statement of Nobel Laureate, the late Dr. Martin Luther King when he said, "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones".
The women's Mass Action Campaign started in one community and spread to over 50 communities across Liberia.

We worked daily confronting warlords, meeting with dictators and refusing to be silenced in the face of AK 47 and RPGs. We walked when we had no transportation, we fasted when water was unaffordable, we held hands in the face of danger, we spoke truth to power when everyone else was being diplomatic, we stood under the rain and the sun with our children to tell the world the stories of the other side of the conflict. Our educational backgrounds, travel experiences, faiths, and social classes did not matter. We had a common agenda: Peace for Liberia Now.

We succeeded when no one thought we would, we were the conscience of the ones who had lost their consciences in their quest for power and political positions. We represented the soul of the nation. No one would have prepared my sisters and I for today — that our struggle would go down in the history of this world. Rather when confronting warlords we did so because we felt it was our moral duty to stand as mothers and gird our waist, to fight the demons of war in order to protect the lives of our children, their land, and their future.

There are many examples globally of such struggles by women. I believe that the prize this year not only recognizes our struggle in Liberia and Yemen. It is in recognition and honor of the struggles of grass roots women in Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, in Palestine and Israel, and in every troubled corner of the world.
So allow me to pay tribute to some of the giants in women's continued struggle to be free and equal. This prize is a tribute to:

• Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), for their courage in the face of arrest and torture, for remaining the voice and face of the suffering people of Zimbabwe;
• The Women of Congo, who have endured some of the worst acts of men's inhumanity to women. The World is well aware that the you still endure the horrific sexual violence that is the nature of the endless and senseless war in DRC;
• Women of Acholi Land in Uganda who in the face of the so-called Lord's Resistance Army's continued torture and rape remain advocates for peace and justice;
• Women of Afghanistan and many other places on earth where in the 21st Century women can be raped and still go to jail or sometimes be subjected to honor killing — this prize is a tribute to your cry for justice, freedom, and equality.

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, women of the world:

This prize could not have come at a better time than this; a time when global and community conversations are about how local community members and unarmed civilians can help turn our upside-down World, right-side up. It has come at a time when
unarmed citizens — men and women, boys and girls — are challenging dictatorships and ushering in democracy and the sovereignty of people;

Yes! It has come at a time when in many societies where women used to be the silent victims and objects of men's powers, women are throwing down the walls of repressive traditions with the invincible power of non-violence. Women are using their broken bodies from hunger, poverty, desperation and destitution to stare down the barrel of the gun. This prize has come at a time when ordinary mothers are no longer begging for peace, but demanding peace, justice, equality and inclusion in political decision-making.

I must be quick to add that this prize is not just in recognition of the triumph of women. It is a triumph of humanity. To recognize and honor women, the other half of humanity, is to achieve universal wholeness and balance. Like the women I met in Congo DRC over a year ago who said "Rape and abuse is the result of larger problem, and that problem is the absence of women in the decision making space". If women were part of decision-making in most societies, there would be less exclusive policies and laws that are blind to abuses women endure.

In conclusion let me again congratulate the Nobel Committee for awarding the Peace Prize to us three women. By this act you affirm that women's rights are truly human rights and that any leader, nation or political group that excludes women from all forms of national and local engagement is setting themselves up for failure.

Let this recognition serve as a renewed compact between women and World leaders, that commitments made to women through various UN and other global institutions' resolutions will be pursued with greater commitment and vigilance;
Let this be a renewed compact that the integrity of a woman's body and the sanctity of women's lives will not be subsumed under male-invented traditions;

To women of Liberia and sisterhood across West Africa who continue to band together to respond to crisis in our sub region; to women in Asia, the Middle East and the World: As we celebrate our achievement through this recognition let us remind ourselves that victory is still afar. We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph, our despair into determination and our fear into fortitude. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.

And, finally, Liberian women: thank you for making our country proud. Thank you for sitting in the rain and under the sun. This is your prize. This is our prize. The world used to remember Liberia for child soldiers but they now remember our country for the white t-shirt women. Who would have ever thought that Liberian women would have been among faces of women's global victory, but you did it. So thank you!

International Human Rights Day is the Castro Regime's Rights Violations Day in Cuba

We cannot celebrate Human Rights Day here in Cuba. We can't because they repress us and beat us. Right now there's an act of repudiation in front of the Ladies in White headquarters." - Bertha Soler, Lady in White, The Associated Press, December 9, 2011


International Human Rights day in Cuba, unlike many other parts of the world, is cause for hope not celebration. Hope that one day soon the human rights of Cubans will be recognized and respected. Hope that the international community will speak with one voice and tell the dictatorship in Cuba that Cubans have a right to their rights.

On December 9, 2011 Amnesty International issued an urgent action for Ivonne Malleza Galano arrested on November 30, 2011 while engaged in a nonviolent demonstration demanding that human rights be respected in Cuba. As of today her whereabouts remain unknown.

It wasn't always this way. 63 years ago Cuban diplomats representing a democratic Cuba assisted in the drafting and passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR). Despite the claims of the dictatorship in Havana, the UNDHR is a document profoundly influenced by the Latin American tradition.

Over the past half century the Cuban regime has and continues to work to undermine and make irrelevant the Universal Declaration of Human Rights both inside and outside of Cuba. In places like Syria, Libya, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Ethiopia, China and Argentina (regardless of ideology) the Castro regime has defended and collaborated with some of the worse human rights violators on the planet. However, in 2011 around the world people stood up for their human rights and many achieved the long sought goal of overthrowing tyranny despite the protestation of the Castro regime and its allies.

Meanwhile, the reality in Cuba is that over the years International Human Rights day in Cuba has been a time of repression and political terror against nonviolent activists. This year is no different over the past nine days at least 241 people have been arrested according to reports that have reached Roberto Guerra of Hablemos Press .

Nonviolent activists in addition to being subjected arbitrary detentions have also suffered brutal beatings leaving one human rights defender bleeding with a dilated kidney and another with a growing cyst in the back of her head. At the same time medical treatment has been at best negligent if not malicious. On October 14, 2011 Laura Pollán died one week after being admitted to a Cuban hospital under unusual circumstances.

Meanwhile many claim that progress is being made because the regime has engaged in some privatizations. Without private property rights to protect the poor and politically marginalized; privatization is a euphemism for the expropriating the poor.

Fireworks set off by a coalition of Cuban exiles from boats anchored 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Cuban capital, just outside Cuba's territorial waters. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Fireworks celebrating the International Human Rights Day were set off in international waters by a flotilla of boats led by the Democracy Movement and declared a provocation by the dictatorship. Associated Press journalists who attempted to interview Cubans along the Havana sea wall observing the fireworks were attacked by government organized mob.

The days leading up to International Human Rights Day on December 10 have been filled with human rights violations in Cuba. Unfortunately, it appears that the Castro regime will repeat its tradition of systematically violating human rights on human rights day.

Cuban human rights defenders maintain their steadfast hopes that this will change but know that there is much work yet to be done to see that International Human Rights day is once again cause for celebration and not repression in Cuba.

Freedom flotilla's fireworks seen from Cuba

Havana full of lights and lacking human rights. - Yoani Sanchez

The fireworks of the Freedom Flotilla as seen from the Havana sea wall and photographed by Orlando Luis Pardo.

Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez tweeted: "Despite rain, control and detentions the fireworks of the flotilla are visible. Havana full of lights and lacking human rights.

The El Nuevo Herald tweeted a quote from Ramón Sául Sánchez: "I'm very moved, the objective has been achieved."

Fireworks as seen from El Vedado in Havana, Cuba and photographed by Orlando Luis Pardo.

This isn't the first time the Democracy Movement has approached the Cuban coastline to protest human rights abuses in Cuba. On July 13, 1995 Cuban gunboats crushed the hull of Democracia, the lead boat in the flotilla. Video of what took place embedded below.

Amnesty International: Whereabouts of Cuban human rights activist unknown since Nov. 30

Amnesty International Urgent Action

Whereabouts of Ivonne Malleza Galano unknown since November 30

URGENT ACTION
CUBAN ACTIVIST IN INCOMMUNICADO DETENTION

The whereabouts of Cuban human rights activist Ivonne Malleza Galano are unknown after police detained her during a peaceful demonstration on 30 November in Cuba's capital, Havana City. Her husband, Ignacio Martínez Montejo, has also been detained after participating in the same protest.

On 30 November, Ivonne Malleza Galano, a member of the Ladies in Support (Damas de Apoyo) to the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), and her husband Ignacio Martínez Montejo were arrested by police officers while they were staging a peaceful demonstration against hunger and poverty and holding a banner with the slogan “Stop hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba” in Fraternity Park (Parque de la Fraternidad) in Havana City. Ivonne Malleza Galano was handcuffed and pushed into a police vehicle. Two police officers arrived, tried to confiscate the banner and detained her, along with Ignacio Martínez Montejo. Video footage posted on the internet shows Ivonne Malleza Galano being arrested by the police officers at Fraternity Park while the crowd gathered round her and asked the officers to let her go.

The whereabouts of Ivonne Malleza Galano are unknown and the authorities have not told her relatives whether she is still in police custody, whether she is facing charges, and where she is held. Ignacio Martinez Montejo is still being held at the Ninth Police Station (Novena Estación de la Policía) on Acosta Avenue, Diez de Octubre Municipality, in Havana City. It is not known if he has been charged with any offence.
Since the beginning of the year, the Cuban authorities have detained hundreds of people for short periods, to
prevent them from taking part in peaceful demonstrations.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
- Calling on the authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of Ivonne Malleza Galano, and to ensure that she has immediate access to her family, lawyer and any medical assistance she might require;
- Asking for details of any charges they face to be made public, and calling on the authorities to ensure that any legal proceedings against them conform to international fair trial standards;
- Urging the authorities to remove unlawful restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and assembly in Cuba.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 20 JANUARY 2012 TO:
Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente de la República de Cuba
La Havana, Cuba
Fax: +53 7 83 33 085 (via Foreign Ministry);
+1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to
UN)
Salutation: Su Excelencia / Your
Excellency
Interior Minister
General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución,
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +537 85 56 621, +1 212 779 1697 (via
Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu
Salutation: Su Excelencia / Your
Excellency
And copies to:
Attorney General
Dr Juan Escalona Reguer
Fiscalía General de la República, San Rafael
3, La Habana, Cuba
Salutation: Señor Fiscal General / Dear
Attorney General
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Ivonne Malleza Galano is a member of the Ladies in Support (Damas de Apoyo) to the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco). The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) are a group of female relatives of former prisoners of conscience and current political prisoners. They organizes peaceful marches where they distribute flowers and call for the release of those who are still detained. In 2005, the European Parliament awarded The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the Damas de Blanco.

The Damas de Apoyo emerged as a solidarity group who support and participate in activities organized by the Damas de Blanco. Members of the Damas de Blanco and Damas de Apoyo have repeatedly suffered harassment and intimidation during their
peaceful activities. On 5 August 2011, Ivonne Malleza Galano was detained by police officers and the security of the state trying to prevent her from leaving her home. Two police officers and two state security officers wearing plain clothes grabbed her and
forcibly pushed into a police car. She was released the same day without charges.
Names: Ivonne Malleza Galano, Ignacio Martínez Montejo
Gender: Ivonne Malleza Galano (f) Ignacio Martínez Montejo (m)
UA: 355/11 Index: AMR 25/006/2011 Issue Date: 9 December 2011

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