Remembering Celia Cruz 17 years after her passing, and setting the record straight on the Smithsonian's omissions about her life

"Forgiving is not forgetting. Forgiving is remembering without pain." - Celia Cruz

Celia Cruz October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003

Edited version taken from Center for a Free Cuba's CubaBrief.

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, better known as Celia Cruz, died 17 years ago on July 16, 2003, she was 77 years old, and across the world millions mourned her passing. Waves of grief were especially felt in Miami, Florida and Hoboken, New Jersey, both containing large Cuban exile communities. 

I too mourned her passing, and grieved that she had never been able to return to her homeland because of a cruel and despotic dictatorship. 

Although she was a resident of New Jersey Celia spent a lot of time in Miami, and I had seen her around town over the years, and when I graduated from FIU in 1992 she was awarded an honorary degree along with President George H.W. Bush. Will never forget President Bush's look of surprise when she grabbed in a bear hug  or how the crowd of students went wild when she shouted "Azucar" in the midst of the graduation ceremony. She had also received honorary degrees from Yale and the University of Miami.

FIU president Modesto Maidique with Celia Cruz at FIU in 1992

Mourning for Celia was nearly universal, except in her homeland Cuba where official media printed a small note on her passing recognizing Celia as an “important Cuban performer who popularized our country’s music in the United States,” it went on to say that “during the last four decades, she was systematically active in campaigns against the Cuban revolution generated in the United States.”

Sadly, the reason for the Castro regime's hostility towards Celia Cruz, her refusal to bow to Fidel Castro, her legacy defending freedom of expression, and the high price she paid is absent from a March 5, 2020 video by the Smithsonian Institution titled "Why Is Celia Cruz Called the Queen ofSalsa? #BecauseOfHerStory." 

Ariana A. Curtis, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is interviewed by a student identified as Mincy that omits key parts of Celia's history conflating her with the immigration experience in America, when she was a Cuban Exile barred by the Castro dictatorship from returning to her homeland, and her music banned to the present day in Cuba. This is the portion of the interview that describes her departure from Cuba:

   "Ariana A. Curtis: Because especially during the early 1960s when she left, that was right after the Cuban Revolution, you know. And so, Cuba was in the news a lot about politics, and about socialism, and about military things. But she really wanted to be able to show this "other side" of Cuba, right. The arts and culture side. And so, she definitely used her style, sort of like satin dresses with the ruffles, and like these long trains.   
 Mincy: People migrate here and they tend to change their names and change who they are so that they can get jobs or so that they can get opportunities. So, they hide that part of themselves in order to like grow in this country, it's so important that we have an example that Celia Cruz did not hide herself."

This omits much of Celia's history, and does something that the Queen of Salsa never did, and that is hide who she really was. And this process did not begin with this interview, but stretches back several years. 

Fidel Castro had tried to create a situation that forced the salsa singer to pay him homage, but Celia refused. Salserísimo Perú, a site created in Peru by three journalists to share information on salsa and tropical music offers a more complete and accurate history than the Smithsonian Institution. Below is an excerpt of Celia Cruz's first "encounter" with Fidel Castro.

    "In the early months of 1959, Celia Cruz was hired to sing with a pianist at the house of the Cuban businessman Miguel Angel Quevedo.  Quevedo owned the magazine Bohemia, the most influential in Cuba and who had supported the revolution in the last few years.  The guerrilla movement with a certain Fidel Castro in front proclaimed in Santiago the beginning of the revolution. For the Guarechera, Fidel was ending free expression and the arts in her country.  The night of the show in the home of Quevedo, Celia was singing standing next to the pianist, when suddenly the guests started to run to the front door of the house. Fidel Castro had arrived.  Neither she nor the pianist moved and continued singing. Suddenly, Quevedo approached Celia and told her that Fidel wanted to meet her because in his guerrilla days, when he cleaned his rifle, he was listening to Burundanga. Celia replied that she had been hired to sing next to the piano, and that was her place. If Fidel wanted to meet her, he would have to come to her.  But the commandant did not do that."

Since Celia Cruz refused to bow to the new dictator, and wanted to continue to live the life of a free artist, she had to flee Cuba. However, when her mom was ill, she tried to return to see her in 1962, but was barred from entering the island by Castro. When her mother died Celia was again blocked from attending the funeral. Because she was not an active supporter of the regime, her music was banned in Cuba.

Celia is in good company. Other major Cuban artists who have had their music banned in Cuba are Olga Guillot, Rolando Lecuona, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Israel Cachao López, Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría, Mario Bauza, Arsenio Rodríguez, Willy Chirino, and Gloria Estefan.

According to the 2004 book, Shoot the singer!: music censorship today edited by Marie Korpe there is increasing concern that post-revolution generations in Cuba that are growing up without knowing or hearing these censored Cuban musicians could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in these and future generations.

This has been described as a Cuban cultural genocide depriving Cubans their heritage.

Twenty five years after the flotilla to pay tribute to the 37 victims of the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat Massacre: A reflection from back then

Twenty  five years ago, one year after the massacre, Cuban exiles gathered together and set out in a flotilla that peacefully invaded Cuban national territory to travel to the spot where the "13 de Marzo" tugboat sank and where the human remains of the 37 victims still reside never returned to their families to this day to hold religious services for them.

 Hard to believe that its been 25 years.  Found an old essay written  just returned from the flotilla on July 14, 1995 and reproduce excerpts below:

On the Straits

The purpose of the trip is peaceful. The mastermind behind this project is Ramon Saul Sanchez, of the Cuban National Commission. I leave Miami convinced that the possibility of death or imprisonment in Cuba is the likely outcome of this flotilla. As best as one can prepare for such terrible possibilities I am at peace with these grim prospects. Why are we doing this? We do it for the liberation of the Cuban nation. Because we feel a pain in our soul every time we see another raft intercepted in the straits, and we think of all those who have perished. We do it because of the senseless murder of [37] women and children and of the thousands more who have been murdered by Castro''s tyranny. We do it because we must.

[...]

It is still dark when we leave. We pray together for the fulfillment of our non-violent ceremony. We jump aboard a forty foot lobster boat. Ramon Saul Sanchez comes to our boat embraces and shakes hands with some of us. He apologizes that they don't have more room on the lead boat so that we can all travel together. A WSVN reporter and cameraman join us on departure and begin to do interviews. "This is a bad sign," someone says. "How do you figure?" replies another. "This is channel 7 covering us," he continues,"don't you know their motto: if it bleeds it leads." Gentle laughter among those who hear the exchange. 

Later they leave on a speed boat to interview someone else. We sleep and talk. As the hours pass and the sun climbs higher. Anticipation mounts, the smell of diesel and the choppy seas take their toll on the passengers. All of a sudden dozens of dolphins start jumping in the wake of the boat. God's creatures living free on the open sea. A sense of emotional uplift spreads through the boat. Temporarily we forget our worries and enjoy these creatures entertaining themselves and us.

[...]

As we near the12 mile limit we begin to see Cuban aircraft circling. We wave our flags and sing the Cuban national anthem. Joy fills our hearts our mission has been partially accomplished. We can see Democracia in the distance leading us further into Cuban waters. One of my compatriots asks if we have entered Cuban waters. Yes, we tell him. He throws a bucket over the side and draws the Cuban water out and pours it into a bottle shaped like the Virgin. This was his holy water: Cuban water.

At this point we begin to see a military helicopter circling the flotilla. We wave our flags and shout our greetings. The Brothers to the Rescue fly formation with some of the Cuban planes. We see a MiG high overhead, and I feel proud of these pilots in small propellar driven aircraft facing off with military helicopters and MiGs.

As we continue in, we can see the Havana skyline. Someone says they see someone signaling with a mirror from one of the buildings. We begin to make out four dots leaving the island and growing larger. We continue in further. La Democracia speeds ahead. As the ships grow larger; we can see that they are gunboats. 

Our captain stops. His brother tells him to go further, "know when to say when," he responds. As he ponders whether to go further or not. We stare out across the water as La Democracia tries to evade the gunboats and make it to the 6 mile limit. We can see the two gunboats pass on both sides of the ship. 

La Democracia turns around and speeds towards us. They're radio has been knocked out. We need to call the Coast guard. They've been rammed. They have wounded on board, among them Dade County Commisioner Pedro Reboredo, who is going into shock. Our captain radioed in and heads out as fast as the engines will take him.

I learn later that two of the Brothers to the Rescue planes flew over Havana and dropped bumper stickers over the capitol. This was done as a diversionary tactic when the Democracia was attacked by the Cuban gunboats. The bumper stickers read: "Comrades no. Brothers."

Today, as we've done since 1995 we held a silent vigil for justice for the 37 Cuban men, women, and children extra-judicially executed on July 13, 1994. Today, it was at the Embassy of Cuba in Washington DC. Wherever you are in the world I hope you'll join us in continuing this demand for truth and justice using nonviolent means.
 
''There are those who think that we should be full of rancor and a thirst for vengeance but I don't want revenge. I feel sorry for the people who assassinated my family. I can never be compensated for my loss. I will never be happy again with my family surrounding me. There will always be a tinge of sadness but I do want there to be a trial so that this situation can serve as a lesson and that these people or others like them in other parts of the world, don't do this kind of thing again. Not in Cuba. Not anywhere.''

Jorge García, July 13, 2004 (A decade after July 13, 1994 tugboat massacre) 

In 2006, in the year that we marked  10 years since the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown the Free Cuba Foundation at Florida International University had both Jose Basulto, of Brothers to the  Rescue and Ramon Saul Sanchez, of the Democracy Movement had a conversation about the realities of US-Cuba relations. A portion of the conversation was recorded and is available on Youtube.

The Castro Regime's role in legitimizing Communist China ending Hong Kong's autonomy

The Castro regime stabbed Hong Kong in the back on July 1st, but it should surprise no one.
 

Cuba diplomat introduces 53-country pro-CCP resolution at UN Human Rights Council 

On July 1, 2020 the Cuban dictatorship introduced a  resolution at the UN Human Rights Council praising China for the passing of the Hong Kong National Security Law.  Fifty three governments backed this resolution endorsing the death of a free Hong Kong.

The Chinese Communist Party in a secretive legislative process circumvented Hong Kong's sovereignty and imposed this new law a day earlier on June 30, 2020, the 23rd anniversary of the British handover of Hong Kong. This action is a breach of the agreement made with the British.  Professor Johannes Chan, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong in a BBC news report explained that "effectively, they are imposing the People's Republic of China's criminal system onto the Hong Kong common law system, leaving them with complete discretion to decide who should fall into which system." Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, in an interview with the BBC put it more succinctly, "It spells the death knell for Hong Kong."

However, this is consistent with Cuba's actions on the UN Human Rights Council over the years when they have been members. Below is a partial accounting of their defense of Communist China and its atrocities: 

The Castro regime was one of the few voices applauding the June 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China congratulating them for "defeating the counterrevolutionary acts." 

On February 2, 2009 during the Universal Periodic Review of China the Cuban Ambassador, Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios encouraged the Chinese regime to repress human rights defenders in China with more firmness. 

On March 21, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Castro dictatorship again applauded the human rights record of the People's Republic of China, and voted to block the effort of human rights defenders to hold a moment of silence for Cao Shunli. She was an activist who had tried to participate in China’s Universal Periodic Review, but was detained at the airport trying to get on a flight to attend the current session  and accused of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles." Within three months in detention and being denied medical care Cao Shunli died on March 14, 2014.

The Castro regime has had a relationship with China that stretches back to 1959 and saw a close relationship in the first years of Cuba's Communist revolution, but cooled with the Sino-Chinese split in 1966. Ernesto "Che" Guevara left Cuba siding with Mao Zedong and Communist China, while Fidel and Raul Castro backed the Soviet Union. Relations between the Castro regime and Communist China warmed again with the cooling of relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union during the Gorbachev years.  Cuba's defense of the Tinananmen Square massacre in 1989 was a key step to this new era of China-Cuba relations. Below is a presentation from earlier this year that explores this relationship in more detail.

However, the Cuban dictatorship's attack on human rights standards crosses ideological and geographical boundaries that extend far beyond China.

In the 1970s in addition to supporting guerrillas and terrorists the Castro regime also began an unusual relationship with the military dictatorship in Argentina helping to block efforts to condemn it at the United Nations Human Rights Commission for thousands of leftists disappeared by the regime. 

On April 15, 2004 when the United Nations Human Rights Commission decided by a single vote to censure Cuba for its human rights record a Cuban human rights defender Frank Calzon was physically attacked by members of the Cuban diplomatic delegation. According to Freedom House: "Witnesses said a Cuban delegate punched Mr. Calzon, knocking him unconscious. UN guards reportedly protected him from further assault by additional members of the Cuban delegation."

On March 28, 2008 the Castro regime’s delegation together with the Organization of Islamic Congress (OIC) successfully passed resolutions undermining international freedom of expression standards at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The non-invitation invitation of Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, by the Cuban Ambassador and the Cuban Minister of Justice in January of 2009 to visit Cuba later that same year. Only to be put off without notice again and again through 2009 and 2010 leading to this expert missing opportunities to visit other countries and on June 9, 2010, making the following statement:

“I regret that in spite of its clear invitation, the Government of Cuba has not allowed me to objectively assess the situation of torture and ill-treatment in the country by collecting first-hand evidence from all available sources.”

On May 28, 2009 amidst a human rights crisis in Sri Lanka the Cuban government's diplomats took the lead and successfully blocked efforts to address the wholesale slaughter there.

On August 23, 2011 the Cuban government along with China, Russia and Ecuador voted against investigating gross and systematic human rights violations in Syria.

On February 5, 2012 ALBA Countries reiterated rejection of "foreign interference" in Syria's internal affairs, expressing support for President Bashar al-Assad and confidence that he would resolve the Syrian crisis. ALBA Countries include Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Meanwhile in Syria President al-Assad  engaged in massacres throughout the country

On June 1, 2012 at a Special Session on the deteriorating human rights situation in Syria with a special focus on the massacre in El-Houleh the Cuban regime and its allies took a stand against holding the Assad regime accountable for its gross and systematic human rights abuses.

On July 15, 2013: “Panama captured North Korean-flagged ship from Cuba with undeclared military cargo.”  On March 6, 2014 the United Nations released a report indicating that the Castro regime was in violation of international sanctions placed on North Korea and had not cooperated with the investigation.

On March 17, 2014 the UN Human Rights Council “was divided” in its discussion of the atrocities in North Korea between those who want the case to be elevated to the International Criminal Court and those who reject outright the existence of a commission of inquiry and conclusions. The Castro regime vigorously defended the North Korean regime and denounced the inquiry.

On March 28, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council a resolution for “The promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, tried to safeguard this right” passed but with the narrow defeat of amendments that would have watered it down led by South Africa with the backing of Algeria, Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Out of that list of countries the one with the closest relationship with South Africa is Cuba.  

Prior to the Castro regime there had been a democratic order that instead of undermining international human rights standards, championed them and played an important role in the drafting of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Castro regime seeks to return to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term and their application is a mockery of the process and full of falsehoods.  Cuba, under the Castros' has spun the yarn that they are the David to the United States' Goliath, but the reality is that they are the villain both on the international stage and domestically terrorizing and exploiting their own populace.

If there is a country that best fits the definition of a David then it is Taiwan that for the past 70 years has faced off against the Goliath of Communist China.  Betrayed by the Democratic West, they have managed to not only survive and endure, but thrive building a free society with rising living standards, and competent governance that is the envy of the world.

If the international order were one based in freedom and human rights then Taiwan would be on the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Castro regime would be banned from this international human rights organization.


 

Vigil for Justice for July's Cuban and Chinese martyrs

"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night 
  

July 13th marks 26 years since 37 men, women and children were massacred by Cuban government agents who sank the tugboat they were on and used high pressure hoses to drown them. July 13th also marks three years since Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo died of "multiple organ failure" while still under the custody of the Chinese communists. Friends and family had expressed concern that he was not receiving proper medical care.
The moral failing of the West to back Chinese democrats in 1989 in order to pursue commercial interests with their communist oppressors led to the modernization and empowerment of Communist China into an economic and military super power that has reshaped the international global order.

The consequences are seen today with an aggressive communist regime in China that covered up a pandemic and allowed it to spread around the world and cripple the global economy. At the same time Communist China's  influence has corrupted international bodies, like the World Health Organization. 

Over the past three decades we have witnessed a modernized military that backs rogue regimes in North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba. This is part of the reason that human rights have been in decline around the world over the past fifteen years.
Inside China the human rights situation has also deteriorated. The political show trial of Chinese scholar, dissident and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo in 2009 who spent eight years unjustly imprisoned and died of medical neglect while in the custody of the Chinese communists. This treatment of a Nobel Laureate demonstrates the regime's cruelty and indifference to international opinion.


We have witnessed this with Communist China ignoring its treaty obligations with the United Kingdom and taking over Hong Kong through security legislation 27 years earlier than agreed to. Now the free people of Hong Kong will be subjected the totalitarian regime of Beijing.



The same holds true in Cuba where the embrace of commercial priorities, especially during the previous Administration coincided with the deaths of many high profile dissident leaders. On July 22, 2012 Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were killed for dedicating their lives to a nonviolent transition to democracy and freedom in Cuba.
Harold Cepero (age 32) was a youth leader in the Christian Liberation Movement of which Oswaldo Payá was a founder. In 2002 he was expelled from the university for his role in a petition drive to reform Cuban laws to bring them in line with international human rights standards. At the time he wrote a statement on the injustice of what was taking place not only for him, but Cuban society as a whole:

"They are wanting to perpetuate something that it is not even known if it is fair, and in this manner they are denying the progress of a society that wants something new, something that really guarantees a dignified place for every Cuban. They are pressuring people or preventing them from expressing their true feelings, they are cultivating fear in the nation."

Fear is being cultivated both in China and in Cuba by the secret police to perpetuate their respective totalitarian regimes, and they are using the internet to do it.  We must combat the effort to erase the past with actions that observe these anniversaries. Join us on July 13th at 12:00pm for a vigil at the Cuban embassy (2630 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009) to remember the 37 victims of the "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who died on July 13th, and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante who were killed on July 22nd. 

We will continue to remember.

July 13, 2017
Liu Xiaobo, Age: 61

July 22, 2012
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Age: 60
Harold Cepero Escalante, Age: 32

July 13, 1994
Hellen Martínez Enriquez. Age: 5 Months
Xicdy Rodríguez Fernández. Age: 2
Angel René Abreu Ruíz. Age: 3
José Carlos Niclas Anaya. Age: 3
Giselle Borges Alvarez. Age: 4
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte. Age: 5
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García. Age: 10
Yousell Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte. Age: 11
Yasser Perodín Almanza. Age: 11
Eliécer Suárez Plasencia. Age: 12
Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte. Age: 17
Miladys Sanabria Leal. Age: 19
Joel García Suárez. Age: 20
Odalys Muñoz García. Age: 21
Yalta Mila Anaya Carrasco. Age: 22
Luliana Enríquez Carrazana. Age: 22
Jorge Gregorio Balmaseda Castillo. Age: 24
Lissett María Alvarez Guerra. Age: 24
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro. Age: 25
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez. Age: 27
Leonardo Notario Góngora. Age: 28
Jorge Arquímedes Levrígido Flores. Age: 28
Pilar Almanza Romero. Age: 31
Rigoberto Feu González. Age: 31
Omar Rodríguez Suárez. Age: 33
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel. Age: 34
Julia Caridad Ruíz Blanco. Age: 35
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega. Age: 35
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel. Age: 38
Martha Mirella Carrasco Sanabria. Age: 45
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez. Age: 45
Rosa María Alcalde Puig. Age: 47
Estrella Suárez Esquivel. Age: 48
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero Alamo. Age: 48
Amado González Raices. Age: 50
Fidencio Ramel Prieto Hernández. Age: 51
Manuel Cayol. Age: 56 

Urgent Action for Keilylli de la Mora Valle: Young woman's life in immediate danger please let others know of her plight & ask Castro to free her now.

Please let the Castro regime know that you are concerned about her safety and want proof of life.

Life in danger: Keilylli de la Mora Valle

Keilylli de la Mora Valle is a courageous woman speaking out for human rights in a six decade old communist dictatorship. The Castro regime has tried to break her spirit, but having failed using the usual tactics of fear, harassment and imprisonment they are heightening the stakes interning her in a psychiatric facility, and are now alleging that she tried to take her own life. She is 27 years old.

On July 2, 2020 at 8:36am Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia posted a video of Raúl González alerting that Keilylli had been transferred to a Gustavo Aldereguia Hospital, that she had allegedly attempted suicide, and he warned that this could be a manipulation by the dictatorship and that this was an extremely serious situation.

T @jdanielferrer Very serious! Cienfuegos, #Cuba They say in the Gustavo Aldereguia Hospital that political prisoner Keilillí de la Mora Valle attempted suicide. Raúl González alerts about possible maneuver against this young fighter of Citizen Consensus, #UNPACU & @CUBADECIDE https://t.co/2xKVJ93o8W

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 3, 2020

We call on the international community generally, and the International Committee of the Red Cross specifically to request permission to meet with her and ascertain in what condition she is presently in.

On June 1, 2020 the Cuban opposition activist Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia posted a video of the young activist that shows a clear eyed and brave activist facing defiantly the prison time that she was facing. She retweeted the video and told Jose Daniel, "Be assured brother while they repress me more, the stronger I become." While in prison she was able to secretly record the poor conditions there, smuggle it out but was beaten up, punished and threatened with a longer prison sentence.

MT @jdanielferrer #Cuba Cienfuegos #UNPACU @Unpacuoficial & @CUBADECIDE activist Keilillí de la Mora Valle received notification from the Tribunal that they ratified the year and a half prison sentence they recently imposed on her for her opposition activism. https://t.co/bFzgCaA2FP

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 3, 2020

Keilylli de la Mora Valle is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and has been active on Twitter since March 2019 and describe herself as a free and independent Cuban who is 100% Anti-Castro.

A day later the UNPACU tweeted a copy of the documents showing that her appeal had been denied and she would be starting her unjust prison sentence.

T @UNPACUoficial #Cuba Sentenced to one & a half years in prison Keilylli de la Mora Valle, #UNPACU activist & #CubaDecide promoter. False charges made against her are: propagation of epidemic, disobedience, contempt & resistance. #NoMorePoliticalPrisoners #ChangeSystem https://t.co/YCRxZdY8hX

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 3, 2020

Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo tweeted on July 2nd that the "young 27-year-old political prisoner, has been subjected to cruel treatment, is on her 2nd hunger strike & now police say she 'attempted suicide' but no one has seen her. Danger increases every minute she remains in the hands of the regime." Rosa Maria is absolutely right, and her original tweet in Spanish is embedded below.

#Cuba joven prisionera política de 27años ha sido sometida a tratos crueles, está en su 2da huelga d hambre y ahora la policía dice que "atentó contra su vida" pero nadie la ha visto. El peligro aunmenta cada minuto que pasa en manos del régimen#FreeKeilyhttps://t.co/Av8Dk9raWq

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) July 2, 2020

The news that she has been sent to a psychiatric facility fills knowledgeable Cuban watchers with dread. The Castro regime has a long track record of using psychiatry as a political weapon and these institutions have also had a record of neglect in which patients have died from exposure.

The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba published in 1991 by Freedom House and Of Human Rights documented the interrelationship between Cuban psychiatry and the Cuban State Security apparatus to target dissidents.

The Psychiatric Hospital in Havana run by Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz Ducunge for forty years used the tools of psychiatry to torture dissidents and human rights defenders.

Three of 26 patients who died of exposure in 2010 in Cuba

 In January 2010 pictures smuggled out of Havana's Psychiatric Hospital revealed that patients were dying of exposure to the elements, and had suffered greatly through their time there. Claudia Cadelo, now exiled out of Cuba, wrote in 2010 her reaction to seeing this photos:

When I opened the little folder called “Mazorra” a series of monstrosities hit me in the face and I couldn’t stop looking at the cruel graphic testimony. A friend who is a doctor visited and while he analyzed images I didn’t have the courage to look at, expressions like, “Holy Virgin Mary, Blessed God, What in God’s name is this?” issued from his outraged throat, mixed with obscure pathologies and the names of diseases both treatable and curable. Enormous livers, tubercular lungs, and wormy intestines are the proof, Senora Arlin, of the sacredness of life in Cuba. Meanwhile The Roundtable throws a fit because the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo has unmasked a crumbling public health system, and they try to cover up the disgrace of seeing soldiers dragging and beating a group of women dressed in white with flowers in their hands. I ask myself, Gentlemen Journalists, when will they explain to Cubans the reasons why twenty-six mentally incapacitated people died in inhumane conditions during their confinement in Mazorra?

The dictatorship was forced to acknowledge what had happened thanks to the still unknown whistleblower and courageous independent journalists who made the images public and The New York Times reported on January 15, 2020 that "26 patients at a mental hospital died during a cold snap this week, the government said Friday. A Health Ministry communiqué blamed “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees." This is the institution that Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz Ducunge shaped over 40 years, and that PAHO celebrated with an award. This episode was quickly forgotten, and the mantra of Cuba's "great" health care system continued to be repeated in the press.

Amnesty International had also raised concerns in their report Psychiatry: A Human Rights Perspective in 1995 of what they saw on their only visit:

In Cuba, there have been allegations in recent years that not only the criminally insane but also political prisoners have been sent to forensic wards of state psychiatric institutions where they are kept in unhygienic and dangerous conditions and where they are exposed to ill-treatment either at the hands of staff or fellow inmates. In 1988 Amnesty International visited the Havana Psychiatric (Mazorra) Hospital in Havana. The delegation was permitted to visit one of the forensic wards - the Sala Carbó Serviá. However, the existence of a second forensic ward, the Sala Castellanos, was denied by a hospital official. It was this ward which was alleged to present harsh conditions and to be used for the punishment of prisoners.

Amnesty International reported that prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was sent to Mazorra on November 29, 1999 to Mazorra. He was sent to there by State Security agents and forced to undergo psychiatric examinations on several occasions.

Amnesty also reported how on December 4, 1998 Cuban dissident Milagros Cruz Cano, who is blind, was detained by State Security agents while waiting for a bus. She was initially held at the Maria Luisa police station in Havana where she was: "beaten by police officers which resulted in a swollen cheek and a bruise and scab below her eye. She was then transferred to Mazorra psychiatric hospital in Havana where she was held in an isolated cell called Córdoba. The conditions of detention were said to be degrading as she was held in a cell with iron bars which other patients and guards could see into and where she had to carry out all personal hygiene. She was released on December 14, 1998 without charge."

Observers need to take into account that in addition to negligence and indifference to human suffering that led to a situation in which more than 40 patients died of malnutrition and exposure to cold in a tropical country that this psychiatric hospital was also employed in the mistreatment and torture of Cuban dissidents and human rights activists. Officials need to know that they will be held accountable for her safety.

MT @anabelkisfg We hold @raulcastroruz & @DiazCanelB responsible for the physical & psychological integrity of @Keilylli, UNPACU member political prisoner admitted to the psychiatric ward of the Gustavo Aldereguia hospital in Cienfuegos. #Cuba #FreeKeilylli https://t.co/0QFwgo4WGr

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 3, 2020

The Cuban government has not permitted a visit by the Red Cross to their prisons since 1989. By comparison the United States has permitted over a 100 inspections at the prison on the US Guantanamo Naval Base since 2001. What is the Castro regime hiding in its prisons?

Will they allow independent international observers to visit with this young woman, and ascertain her mental and physical status?  The international community is beginning to pay attention on her plight. Below is a tweet from the OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro from July 2nd.

MT @Almagro_OEA2015 We demand that regime of #Cuba provide information on Keilylli de la Mora Valle, a political prisoner on the island, & that they stop the abuses & systematic violations of her rights & that of all prisoners of conscience on the island. https://t.co/ubNfoyf1EK https://t.co/EDufGjJqLU

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 3, 2020