"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Anti-Semite, racist, advocate of terrorism, and genocide honored in Cuba and in Germany.
Karl Marx's heirs in Cuba: Miguel Diaz-Canel (left) and Raul Castro (2nd from
left).
The Castro regime finally celebrated May Day, four days late, on Friday, but Cuban workers have nothing to rejoice about. In Cuba, there are no legal independent unions, and workers do not have the right to strike or bargain collectively. 72% of Cubans live in poverty, defined by the World Bank as a daily income of less than $1.90.
Prior to Cuba's 1959 communist revolution, that was supposed to empower workers, but stripped them of their rights and agency, Cuban trade unions over a half century had achieved much for their members, and Cuban society at large.
Labor legislation passed in 1938 guaranteed workers' rights such as the minimum wage, pensions that assumed a constitutional character; and the creation of the Central of Workers of Cuba Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC in Spanish) on January 28, 1939. All of the above made trade unionism an important factor in Cuban civil society.
In 1940 a new Constitution was drawn up that respected labor rights, and strengthened them,
and ushered in a period of competitive elections in which power was
contested. The right to strike was recognized in the 1940 Constitution.
This translated into real world gains for Cuban workers. For example,
the sugar union "managed to impose a guarantee clause, thanks to which
the workers of the sector obtained an extra salary of 13.42%, known as
the sugar differential." In 1945, with half a million affiliates, the
CTC was the second largest trade union in the region.
Professor James W. McGuire and Laura B. Frankel in their paper published in the Latin American Research Review,
“Mortality Decline in Cuba, 1900-1959: Patterns, Comparisons, and
Causes” found that “Cuba's progress relative to other Latin American
countries at reducing infant mortality was even greater from 1900 to
1960 than from 1960 to 1995. During the earlier period, Cuba led all
Latin American countries for which data are available at raising life
expectancy and reducing infant mortality. From 1960 to 1995, by
contrast, it came in fourth and fifth respectively.”
Cuba celebrates International Workers' Day
Thousands of Cubans filled the country's squares on Friday to celebrate International Workers' Day and the 205th anniversary of Karl Marx.
Marxism-Leninism took power in 1959, and worker's rights began to evaporate along with wealth generation in the wider society.
On January 22, 1959 the CTC was replaced by the CTC-Revolucionaria. In the X Congress, held in November 1959. And in the XI Congress, November 1961, the delegates renounced almost all the achievements of the labor movement: "the nine days of leave for sickness, the supplementary Christmas bonus, the weekly shift of 44 x 48 hours, the right to strike and an increase of 9.09%, among many others.
The original intellectual author of this debacle is Karl Marx, and unfortunately despite the repeated disasters his ideology has caused around the world, many continue to advance his political agenda.
Bronze statue of Karl Marx given to German town by Communist regime in China.
Marx's writings demonstrate that the German philosopher is the
father of the Communist ideology that has cost over a 100 million lives,
and other endemic problems found in Marxist regimes. Marx's early
formulation of communism is antisemitic and offers a "solution" to the "Jewish Problem."
"Money is the Jealous God of Israel, beside which no other God may
exist. Money abases all the gods of mankind and changes them into
commodities. The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become
the god of the world. In emancipating itself from hucksterism and money,
and thus from real and practical Judaism, our age would emancipate
itself...by destroying the empirical essence of Judaism, the Jew will
become impossible." Source Karl Marx-Engels Collected Works (London 1975ff),vol. iii,pp146-74
His early defense of using terror, one of the key elements of Totalitarianism is also problematic.
"We are ruthless and ask no quarter from you. When our turn comes we shall not disguise our terrorism." Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, vol. vi pp 503-5
"Far from opposing the so-called excesses, those examples of popular
vengeance against hated individuals or public buildings which have
acquired hateful memories, we must not only condone these examples but
lend them a helping hand." Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, vol. vii p 239
Karl Marx in the essay “Forced Emigration,” in the New York Daily Tribune, 22 March 1853 seems to view the elimination of classes and races as a necessary part of revolution:
Society is undergoing a silent revolution, which must be submitted to,
and which takes no more notice of the human existences it breaks down
than an earthquake regards the houses it subverts. The classes and the races, too weak to master the new conditions of life, must give way.
In a July 30, 1862 letter to Frederick Engels, his chief benefactor, Marx described nineteenth-century German socialist, Ferdinand Lassalle, in a racist manner:
The Jewish Nigger Lassalle . . .fortunately departs at the end of this
week . . . It is now absolutely clear to me that, as both the shape of
his head and his hair texture shows – he descends from the Negros who
joined Moses’ flight from Egypt (unless his mother or grandmother on the
paternal side hybridized with a nigger). Now this combination of
Germanness and Jewishness with a primarily Negro substance creates a
strange product. The pushiness of the fellow is also nigger-like.
"Maybe I’m a born rebel, maybe I’m someone who needs a lot of meaning to live my life besides money." - Jimmy Lai,
June 18, 2020, interviewed by AFP
Check out this documentary by the Acton Institute.
"When Hong Kong’s basic freedoms come under attack, newspaper publisher and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai finds himself in the crosshairs of the state and must choose between defending Hong Kong’s long-standing liberties, or his own freedom."
"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th'
banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th'
young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th'
comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward". - Mr. Dooley ( Finley Peter Dunne), 1902
On World Press Freedom Day
the map of press freedom prepared by Reporters Without Borders is bleak
with a darkening tide of censorship across the globe. Despite having a First Amendment to the Constitution that protects free speech and freedom of the press the United States today has 44 countries ahead of it with greater press freedoms. This confirms the observation of the late conservative polemicist Joseph Sobran, who passed away in 2010 that “the
U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.”
It gives me no comfort to be able to say, but hey Cuba, our next door
neighbor, is at 172 much less
free then the United States. As a citizen and a patriot this is one list that if
not number one, the U.S. should strive to be in the top ten. It
has not been there for some time. The ten most censored countries
in the world according to the Committee to Protect Journalists are also
terrible places to live not only for journalists but everyday people.
A free press is a benchmark of a free society that needs to be
celebrated and defended from both external and internal threats to its
good works. Since it is a free institution, it must be self-policing and
only answer to its customers on the basis of the quality of the
journalism.
The eight countries with the
greatest press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, in
contrast do not have refugee exodus crises.
Today is a day to honor courageous and professional journalists who take
their work seriously, but are willing to poke fun at themselves as
Finley Peter Dunne did 115 years ago. It is an ironic tribute that his
skewering of the self-important news media has been edited down and
turned into a challenge to some journalists to "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." On this day let us comfort journalists afflicted for practicing their trade in closed societies.
Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca and Sulmira Martínez Pérez jailed in Cuba
Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was sentenced to five years in prison on July 28, 2022 for “enemy propaganda and resistance,” and he has been jailed since June 5, 2021. The Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement condemning the so-called "legal proceeding":
“Cuban authorities have already unjustly held journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca behind bars for more than a year; now he faces years more in prison simply for sharing information,” said CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, Natalie Southwick. “Valle’s sentencing is a clear sign that the Cuban government is back to its old playbook, using the extreme measure of jailing journalists to maintain its censorship regime.”
Sulmira Martínez Pérez, a 21-year-old Cuban black woman, was detained on January 10, 2023 by State Security for sharing memes on her Facebook page in which she expressed her intentions to organize a nonviolent demonstration in Cuba, reported Melissa Martin, Ph.D. in her April 5, 2023 Op-Ed, "U.S. Demands Release of Cuban Sulmira Martínez Pérez Unlawfully Jailed by State Security – Let Her Go" in The Published Reporter. On March 17, 2023 Sulmira was transferred to Guatao prison in Havana, reported journalist Mónica Baró who cited the 21-year-old’s mother, Norma Perez. Nearing the three month mark of her arrest, she remains in custody. According to her mom, the charges against Sulmira have changed from “propaganda against the constitutional order” to “instigating a crime,” a more serious charge applied to many July 11, 2021 protestors.
"One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without
freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a
democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers,
there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No
democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and
no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our
creed." - George Meany, 1979
Dear Mr. Smalls,
There is an independent worker led movement in Cuba. There is no right to strike or collective bargaining in Cuba today. Union organizers are persecuted, jailed, and some have been killed by the current government in power.
They are the descendants of the pre-1959 labor movement. For the sake of brevity will focus on five individuals: four union activists, and a bricklayer who engaged in human rights activism, and will provide some historical context.
Recommend that you research and look for yourself into the plight of these activists, and what international human rights groups have to say about it..
Ivan Hernandez Carillo (L) and Ulises González Moreno (R).
This 2016 AFL-CIO communication to the Cuban government about the violence visited upon Ivan Hernandez Carrillo when he returned to Cuba after visiting unionists and human rights defenders in Europe and the United States should be a starting point to learning more about this labor activist.
August 4, 2016
His Excellency Raul Castro Ruz Republic of Cuba Plaza de la Revolution Havana, Cuba
Your Excellency:
On behalf of the twelve and a half million working women and men of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), I write to express our deep concern over the violent treatment of independent trade unionist and journalist Ivan Hernandez Carrillo after his return to Cuba from an extended trip abroad meeting with unionists and human rights activists in Europe and the United States.
According to reports, on Sunday, July 31, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was arrested during a search of his luggage at Havana's José Marti International Airport. Police confiscated his phone, passport and luggage, and detained him.
He was then taken to the police station after being kicked, beaten and forcibly thrown into a police car. Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was held in deplorable conditions in a police station without access to communication. His family was denied contact or further information regarding his brutal treatment and detention. He was released in the middle of the night on August 2, with no charges and no explanation of his treatment and detention.
In 2011, Hernandez Carrillo, a leader of Cuba’s Independent Trade Union Coalition (CSIC, in Spanish), was freed from prison after eight years of detention subsequent to a wave of arrests and detentions in 2003. Since then, he has suffered recurring harassment and arrest. If the government of Cuba wishes to live up to the human rights standards and commitments if has made, he and others must be allowed to exercise their rights of freedom of expression and association.
We will continue to monitor the situation faced by Mr, Hernandez Carrillo and CSIC activists. We hope to see concrete action regarding labor and human rights and signs of real change consistent with the transition toward normalized relations between Cuba and the United States. The respect for human rights should accompany such a process.
Sincerely,
Richard L. Trumka President
cc: Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, Embassy of Cuba, Washington, DC
Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its sixty-seventh session, 26–30 August 2013
No. 17/2013 (Cuba)
Communication addressed to the Government on 25 February 2013
Concerning Ulises González Moreno
[...]
Communication from the source
3.Ulises González Moreno, a 45-year-old Cuban national, married to Ms. Jacqueline Daly and residing at Flat 2, 414 Concordia (between Gervasio and Escobar), Centro Habana, Havana, is Deputy Secretary-General of the organization known as the Sindicato Independiente de Carpinteros por Cuenta Propia (independent syndicate of own-account carpenters), which is affiliated with the Confederación de Trabajadores Independientes de Cuba (confederation of independent workers of Cuba). (These bodies are not officially recognized.) According to the source, Mr. González Moreno is a human rights defender who has worked to defend the right of association and has discharged his duties in a civically responsible and peaceful manner.
4.The source reports that Mr. González Moreno was arrested at his home by two plain-clothes National Revolutionary Police officers, who took him to the Second Police Unit in Zanja. Subsequently, on 28 November 2012, he was transferred to Valle Grande Prison, a facility attached to the Prison Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
5.Mr. González Moreno was detained under an arrest warrant issued at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office on charges of pre-criminal social dangerousness on the basis of his links to antisocial dissident elements, pursuant to Act No. 62 (the Criminal Code) and Act No. 5 (the Code of Criminal Procedure).
6.According to the source, the charges were actually brought in retaliation against Mr. González Moreno for refusing to act as a police informer. It is alleged that the threat to indict him for pre-criminal social dangerousness was reiterated by officers during Mr. González Moreno’s interrogation on police premises.
7.On 27 November 2012, a summary trial took place before the Centro Habana Municipal People’s Court. The Court found Mr. González Moreno guilty of pre-criminal social dangerousness for “carrying out dissident activities” and for “having links to antisocial elements” and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. According to the source, the defendant’s court appearance was manipulated and controlled by the State security services.
8.Accordingtothesource,anindictmentforestablishinglinkswithantisocial elements entails the criminalization of peaceful private and political relations between citizens, who should not have to align their opinions with those of the Government in every instance. The source recalls that article 20, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
9.The source reports that the defendant’s counsel, Amelia Rodríguez Cala, was unable to act in his defence because of the summary nature of the trial.
10.The source states that Mr. González Moreno was arrested, held in custody and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, not for committing any offence, but for exercising his rights and freedoms in accordance with international law and Cuban legislation. The source considers that this case demonstrates the way in which dissidents are criminalized on the grounds of antisocial behaviour.
11.The source adds that the offence of pre-criminal social dangerousness creates a climate of legal uncertainty in which citizens fear punishment even when they have committed no offence whatsoever.
12.The source concludes that Mr. González Moreno’s detention is arbitrary. Mr. González Moreno was convicted solely for carrying out trade union activities in a peaceful, civicallyresponsibleandindependentmanneroutsidetheestablishedtradeunion organizations that are controlled by the Government. The source recalls that article 23, paragraph 4, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the right of everyone “to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests”.
13.According to the source, the criminal offence of pre-criminal social dangerousness is arbitrary and unjust insofar as it is used as a legal basis for imprisoning citizens who have committed no actual offence whatsoever. To leave it to a judge, tribunal or court to decide whether or not a person is likely to commit an offence in the future is an arbitrary measure, particularly when it is used to imprison political opponents. To maintain contact or links with dissidents, or even to be a dissident, is not an offence. The source recalls that article 11, paragraph 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.”
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a bricklayer and human rights activist. The
following information about him was provided by Amnesty International in 2004 and 2010.
In June 2003 Amnesty International declared 75 new Cuban
prisoners of conscience after they were detained in a massive government
crackdown on dissent which began on 18 March 2003. This brief report
gives an account of the charges and arrests of four new prisoners of
conscience.
[...]
Orlando Zapata Tamayo Date of arrest: 20 March 2003
Sentence: No trial yet, but charged with “desacato”, “desordenes publicos”, “public disorder”, and “desobediencia”.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo is a member of theMovimiento Alternativa Republicana,Alternative Republican Movement, and a member of theConsejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica, National Civic Resistance Committee.
He has been arrested several times in the past. For example he was temporarily detained on 3 July 2002 and 28 October 2002. In November 2002 after taking part in a workshop on human rights in the central Havana park, José Martí, he and eight other government opponents were reportedly arrested and later released. He was also arrested on 6 December 2002 along with Oscar Elías Biscet3, but was released on 8 March 2003.
Most recently, he was arrested on the morning of 20 March 2003 whilst taking part in a hunger strike at theFundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier,Jesús Yánez Pelletier Foundation, in Havana, to demand the release of Oscar Biscet and other political prisoners. He was reportedly taken to the Villa Marista State Security Headquarters. He has not been tried yet, but the prosecutor is reportedly asking for three years’ imprisonment for “desacato”, “desordenes publicos”, “public disorder”, and “desobediencia”.
He has reportedly been moved around several prisons, including Quivicán Prison, Guanajay Prison, and most recently, Combinado del Este Prison in Havana. According to reports, on 20 October 2003 he was dragged along the floor of Combinado del Este Prison by prison officials after requesting medical attention, leaving his back full of lacerations.
3. SeeCuba: Continued detentions following mass arrests in February and December 2002(AI Index: AMR 25/001/2003)
Death of Cuban prisoner of conscience on hunger strike must herald change
Amnesty International has urged Cuban President Raúl Castro to
immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience
after a political activist died following a hunger strike.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was reported to have been on hunger strike in
protest at prison conditions for several weeks before his death in
Havana on Monday.
“The tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo is a terrible illustration
of the despair facing prisoners of conscience who see no hope of being
freed from their unfair and prolonged incarceration,” said Gerardo
Ducos, Amnesty International’s Caribbean researcher.
A full investigation must be carried out to establish whether
ill-treatment may have played a part in his death”, added Amnesty
International.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was arrested in March 2003 and in May 2004 he
was sentenced to three years in prison for “disrespect”, “public
disorder” and “resistance”.
He was subsequently tried several times on further charges of
“disobedience” and “disorder in a penal establishment”, the last time in
May 2009, and was serving a total sentence of 36 years at the time of
his death.
“Faced with a prolonged prison sentence, the fact that Orlando Zapata
Tamayo felt he had no other avenue available to him but to starve
himself in protest is a terrible indictment of the continuing repression
of political dissidents in Cuba.
“The death of Orlando Zapata also underlines the urgent need for Cuba
to invite international human rights experts to visit the country to
verify respect for human rights, in particular obligations in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
Background information Orlando Zapata Tamayo was one of 55 prisoners of conscience who have been adopted by Amnesty International in Cuba.
The majority were among the 75 people arrested as part of the massive
March 2003 crackdown by authorities against political activists. With
no independent judiciary in Cuba, trials are often summary and fall
grossly short of international fair trial standards, once sentenced the
chances of appeal are virtually nil.
Between 1902 and 1952 the Cuban labor union movement through collective bargaining and strike actions obtained the following for workers.
Creation of the Ministry of Labor in 1933, there had been no government body specifically in charge of labor matters before that.
Employer liability established in 1933 for work place accidents.
Eight-hour work day and the right to unionize established in 1933.
Labor Nationalization Law established in 1933 obligating that 50% of workers and employees hired by businesses, and management had to be native Cubans.
.Labor legislation passed in 1938
guaranteed Cuban workers' additional rights to: a minimum wage, pensions that
assumed a constitutional character; and the creation of the Central of
Workers of Cuba Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC in Spanish)
Cuba's 1940 Constitution further enshrined workers rights into its fundamental law with 26 articles which included:
Article 66: The maximum working week shall be 44 hours, equivalent to 48 in wages...
Article 67. The right to paid vacation of one month for each 11 months of work
in each calendar year is established for all manual and intellectual
workers. Those who, because of the nature of their work or other
circumstances, have not worked the 11 months, are entitled to paid rest
in proportion to the time worked.
Article 69. The right of syndicalisation is acknowledged to employers, private
employees and workers, for the exclusive purposes of their
economic-social activities.
Article 71. The right of workers to strike, and of employers to stop work, is recognized, in conformity with regulations which will be established by
law for the exercise of both rights.
Article 72. The system of collective labour contracts, which employers and workers are compelled to execute, shall be regulated by law.
Article 74. The Ministry of Labour shall see, as an essential part among others
of its permanent social policy, that in the distribution of
opportunities to work in industry and commerce, no discriminatory
practices of any kind prevail. In removals of personnel and in the
creation of new positions, as well as in new factories, industries or
businesses that are established, it shall be obligatory to distribute
the opportunities for work without distinction as to race or colour,
provided the necessary qualifications as to ability are met. It shall be
provided by law that every other practice shall be punishable and prosecutable on Official initiative or at the instance of an affected party.
Strong
trade unions and labor legislation in the Cuban Republic were key factor s
in rising living standards, improved healthcare outcomes, and the defense of Cuban democracy.
Professor James W. McGuire and Laura B. Frankel in their paper published in the Latin American Research Review,
“Mortality Decline in Cuba, 1900-1959: Patterns, Comparisons, and
Causes” found that “Cuba's progress relative to other Latin American
countries at reducing infant mortality was even greater from 1900 to
1960 than from 1960 to 1995. During the earlier period, Cuba led all
Latin American countries for which data are available at raising life
expectancy and reducing infant mortality. From 1960 to 1995, by
contrast, it came in fourth and fifth respectively.”
On January 22, 1959 the CTC was replaced by the CTC-Revolucionaria. In the X Congress, held in November 1959, the Secretary General, David Salvador Manso,"said that the workers had not gone to the event to raise economic demands but to support the revolution." And in the XI Congress, November 1961, the delegates renounced almost all the achievements of the labor movement: "the nine days of leave for sickness, the supplementary Christmas bonus, the weekly shift of 44 x 48 hours, the right to strike and an increase of 9.09%, among many others.
There is no freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly in Cuba. There are no
democratic election, and there is no method of securing human rights against the Cuban state. Proof of this was seen in the July 2021 protests were President Miguel Diaz-Canel gave the order to attack unarmed protesters.
Mario Chanes de Armas
The Miami Herald, Mon, Feb. 26, 2007
MARIO CHANES DE ARMAS, 80
Funeral today for former Cuban political prisoner
A one-time comrade of Fidel Castro and former Cuban political prisoner will be buried Tuesday in Miami after suffering a heart attack.
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA El Nuevo Herald
Mario Chanes de Armas, the Cuban political prisoner who served the longest sentence in modern times and symbolized the struggle for civic freedom in 20th century Cuba, will be remembered today with a funeral service in Miami.
Chanes, 80, who suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday, spent his life in prison and in exile, but no adversity convinced him to halt his quest for a democratic future for his homeland.
Certainly not during the 30 years he spent in prison for opposing the regime of Fidel Castro, his comrade-in-arms during the failed raid on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in 1953.
In the past two years, Chanes' health deteriorated rapidly as a consequence of Alzheimer's disease. His memory failed, and in 2005, he was admitted into an assisted living facility in Hialeah.
Chanes died at Hialeah Hospital, where he had been taken in serious condition. His closest relatives were at his bedside.
''He died with the serenity and peace that accompanied him his whole life through,'' said his sister, Belén López. `He was a marvelous and kind man, willing to help everybody in exchange for nothing, a man of an earlier era.''
THE EARLY YEARS
Born in the Marianao neighborhood of Havana on Oct. 25, 1926, Chanes took up commerce after graduating from high school.
Because of his leadership abilities, he soon became a labor leader in the Havana areas of Puentes Grandes and Ceiba and later extended his influence as an organizer to other provinces.
He was on his way to becoming an influential figure in Cuban labor circles, when the military coup of March 10, 1952, led by Gen. Fulgencio Batista, forced him to reassess his future.
Chanes gave up his labor work and joined the underground, where he conspired against Batista. That is where he met Fidel Castro, during a meeting with young people opposed to Batista's regime.
''A dear friend of ours, photographer Fernando Chenard Piña, knew a gentleman named Fidel Castro Ruz, and we began to meet in a house at 109 Prado in Havana,'' Chanes recalled during a long interview with El Nuevo Herald in 2003.
Along with Chenard, Chanes became chief of the secret cells that trained young men in the use of firearms, in preparation for the raid on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. Chanes drove in the third car behind Castro and was wounded in the hand before retreating.
Captured days later outside Santiago de Cuba, he was tried and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, but he was released in 1955 in a general amnesty to the raiders. He then moved to Miami and worked here as a dishwasher.
CASTRO CALLS
Not long thereafter, Castro summoned him from Mexico and asked him to join the expeditionaries aboard the yacht Granma. Chanes did not hesitate to take up arms again. On Dec. 2, 1956, he and 81 other rebels landed on the eastern coast of Cuba.
After the failed landing, Chanes managed to reach Havana, where he directed sabotage teams. He was arrested again, and was in prison when the revolution triumphed, on Jan. 1, 1959.
Chanes became disenchanted by the shift in the revolutionary process toward communism and tried to pull away from the circles of power.
On July 17, 1961, he was arrested on charges of conspiring to assassinate Castro and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. He always maintained that the charges were fabricated, pointing out that no weapons or compromising documents were ever found in his possession.
`A PLANTADO'
Refusing to accept the routine in prison or even wear prison garb, Chanes identified himself as a plantado -- a disobedient inmate -- until July 16, 1991, when he was released.
Chanes found exile in Miami in 1993.
He went on to became a tireless activist for the release of Cuban political prisoners and called for the democratization of Cuba at numerous international conferences. Until 2003, Chanes worked actively in the group Plantados, along with other well-known former political prisoners with whom he served time in Cuban prisons.
Chanes took up the banner of peaceful reconciliation among Cubans and vigorously supported all activists who practiced domestic opposition on the island.
Chanes is survived in Miami by his sisters Belén, Mercedes, Aleida and Merceditas. His son, Mario, died in 1984.
Visiting will begin at 5 p.m. today at the Bernardo Garcia Funeral Home, 4100 NW Seventh St., Miami. Burial has been set for Tuesday.
Miami Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report.
David Salvador was born in Ciego de Avila in August 1923, of a working-class family. At an early age he became convinced that only socialism and nationalism could free Cuba's peasants from their perennial poverty.
At the age of twenty-two he made a radio speech in which he accused the Communists of betraying the workers. Subsequently, an un-successful assassination attempt was made against him.
Salvador became associated with the Cuban People's Party which was almost assured of winning the 1952 election, but on the 10th of March that year Batista staged his coup d'etat, and set up a second dictatorship.
Salvador immediately set up an underground resistance against Batista which was to last seven years.
When Fidel Castro made his attack on Moncada barracks on the 26th of July, 1953, Salvador began to make contact with Fidelistas, and he became one of the founders of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba.
Soon he took over as the leader of revolutionary labour throughout Cuba, a position which he held until 1960. On October 18th, 1958, Salvador was arrested by the Batista police in Havana.
He was released when the revolution triumphed on January 1st, 1959, and he became the secretary-general of the revolutionary CTC.
But by September 1959, people began to question why so many 26th of July leaders were being replaced by Communists. The purge of leaders had begun.
Salvador complained about what was happening, and in March 1960, he resigned as secretary-general.
On the 5th of November, 1960, just two years after he had been arrested by Batista's police, Salvador was arrested by Castro's police.
He was sent to La Cabana prison for political prisoners where the living conditions are inhuman, and the guards frequently brutal.
His collar bone was broken by the butt of a guard's rifle.
David Salvador was still the elected leader of 1,200,000 Cuban workers during his first year of imprisonment, but he remains in La Cabana serving a thirty-year sentence for his loyalty to the cause of the Cuban revolution.
Another example of how the Castro regime continues to deny Cubans their right to enter and exit their homeland as a tool to silence dissent and criticism both inside and outside of Cuba was reported in the Canadian press on April 20, 2022.
"Cuban-born Toronto resident Glenda Corella Cespedes told CBC News she was travelling with her non-Cuban friend Mary Guaragna to attend her brother's wedding. She said she was carrying suitcases filled with medications and supplies for her mother, who recently underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer, and for a sick family friend. Corella Cespedes said she had her Canadian passport with her but knew that, as a Cuban citizen, she was required to enter Cuba on a Cuban passport. Cuba charges its citizens $360 for the passport and another $160 every two years. Corella Cespedes said she had paid her fees recently and had her documents in order."
...
"And then I saw five immigration officers come on the plane and they said everyone could get off except Glenda Corella Cespedes." Her friend Mary Guaragna told CBC that "at that point, we both sort of looked at each other and became quite concerned. I mean, I was as white as a ghost and Glenda more so than myself. "Canadians that were exiting the plane were just kind of looking at us as though, you know, we could have been terrorists. We felt awful." The women said one of the officers took Corella Cespedes's passport and left them on the plane for about 20 minutes as cleaners boarded and worked around them. A man who appeared to be a more senior immigration officer then boarded, Guaragna said, and "presented Glenda with a piece of paper saying 'denial.' With no explanation at all. "And I said to this man, who spoke English quite well, 'What seems to be the problem?' In my mind, as a Canadian, [I was] thinking we could debark, go somewhere, speak to them, perhaps even pay a fine and allow my friend to continue on with her vacation. "And he just said, 'She knows what she did, she knows what she did.' And at that point I kind of looked over at Glenda and Glenda sort of gave me a signal to not say anything further."
...
"Corella Cespedes said her problems began when she liked a Facebook comment that criticized a well-connected Communist Party supporter in Gibara who works as a doctor in the local hospital where Corella Cespedes once worked as a nurse.The doctor is part of a three-woman musical group who performed for Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero when he visited earlier this year. After posting video of the performance, the doctor was criticized on social media for serenading Marrero rather than pressing him on the hospital's state of neglect and a lack of medicines and food for patients. A number of critical comments came from former residents of Gibara now living outside of Cuba. The original video has since been deleted. Corella Cespedes said her parents soon began to receive warnings from local Communist Party members to tell their daughter to stop commenting and posting."
The Castro regime blocks Cubans from delivering aid to family members in order to impose its ideological litmus test. This is another example of the expansive internal blockade imposed by the Castro regime that exists in Cuba.
Posts
