An open letter to General Raul Castro from a Cuban opposition leader (Part 1)

 On August 20, 2014 Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" made public an open letter to Raul Castro in which he denounced fraudulent reforms, and the murders of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero in Cuba and declared that national reconciliation necessitates justice, freedom and democracy. In the video below Antúnez read aloud the letter. Below is the first part of Antúnez's letter titled: "No, no and no Raul Castro." Antúnez is a former political prisoner and currently a national opposition leader based in Placetas, Cuba.

OPEN LETTER OF ANTÚNEZ TO GENERAL RAUL CASTRO

No, no, and no Raul Castro 

This, I think is the second or third time I write you, and as always without the slightest thought or desire that you would answer me, for the utter contempt and disgust emanating from your person does not let me do otherwise.

Mr. genocidal dictator,

Today marks 24 years and five months that with only 25 years, five months and 15 days of age I dared to oppose you. Surely your sycophants in the high command of the political police and the party commented on it. Remember dictator, that night you spoke in the city of Santiago de Cuba that appeal to the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, and as always a speech like so many of his brother that only a few paid him attention. I recall that I was in the square that you all call Revolution, where huge loudspeakers transmitted to people who were voiceless, hungry and above all deaf to your tiresome verbiage. It was a Thursday, March 15, 1990, Stalinist Europe had collapsed, the former Soviet empire was about to disintegrate and here in the Caribbean a senile caste clung to power and refused to implement reforms. For demanding them that late afternoon, your arrogant forces savagely beat me, their instruction corps tortured me and issued orders so that months later your lackey judicial system sanctioned me to imprisonment for the famous crime of "oral enemy propaganda."

Mr. dictator, believe that I should confess to you that at the time of my arrest I still did not know of the long and proven track record of crime and terror established by your brother and you: forced labor, UMAP concentration camps, the sad history of the captive peoples, without taking into account Castro’s interference into the internal affairs of other countries and international conflicts. Perhaps due to this ignorance, I only asked for reforms and shouted that communism was an error and a utopia. Today, after learning more about your system, I ask for your overthrow and catalog communism as an aberration and crime: the social plague of the twentieth century.

That day it was enough that as a Cuban and a youth, I was not free; that as a social entity something was lacking to be able to breathe and walk. I felt that I was forbidden to speak and that I should, either continue to use the mask, "to not look for trouble", or remove it and act and live in accordance with myself even if it meant suffering the most horrible repression. And that is what I did; I challenged you, General (without battles). I did it in spite of your known reputation as a cruel and bloodthirsty man. I did it, General and my only regret is not having had the courage, the opportunity, or perhaps the possibility of doing it long before then.

On the other hand, I also have to confess that it never occurred to me the idea that so much sick fury of hatred and harassment was to be applied against my person. That in the year 1993, three years after the arrest and serving my unjust imprisonment in case # 4 of 1990, the famous hall of crimes against State Security in the dark Santa Clara Provincial People's Court sentenced me, now in case # 5 of that year for alleged acts against your socialist revolution for which I had to spend 17 years and 38 days of uninterrupted political prison that gave me the opportunity to learn in the flesh the use of torture and humiliation as weapons of political repression.

Raul Castro, my case is known to you since it was you and not another who ordered the multiple raids and looting of which I have been a victim in my home during the past few weeks, where in the grossest show of force and impunity you sent your cowardly and opportunistic assault troops partially destroyed my home and stole more than once:  articles, appliances, office supplies, medicines, foods during these known actions that in Cuban slang are known as acts of thievery. After all, everyone does what they are taught.
 

August 23: Remember the victims of totalitarianism in Europe

We remember and pray for the departed marking the day 75 years ago when Nazis and Communists signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Below we have reproduced an announcement sent from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Black Ribbon Day 

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in cooperation with The Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the Joint Baltic American National Committee invite you to attend a special remembrance and wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, August 23rd (10:00 AM) commemorating Black Ribbon Day 2014.

Black Ribbon Day Commemoration
Date: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: Victims of Communism Memorial (intersection of New Jersey Ave. NW and Massachusetts Ave. NW)

Join us as we commemorate the victims of totalitarianism in Europe with a special remembrance and wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, August 23rd at 10:00 AM. This August 23rd marks the 75th anniversary of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which divided Europe and helped start the Second World War. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact stands as a reminder that although totalitarianism takes various forms, it only ever leads to death and destruction.

On May 22, 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 4435, which designated August 23rd as Black Ribbon Day. Congressman John Shimkus of Illinois, co-chairman of the House Baltic Caucus, sponsored the legislation. The legislation now moves on to the Senate. If the Senate passes a matching Resolution, the United States will join countries around the world in marking August 23rd as Black Ribbon Day and commemorating the millions of victims of Nazi and Communist regimes in Europe.

VOC, in cooperation with the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the Joint Baltic American National Committee, will distribute copies of Lest We Forget: Memory of Totalitarianism in Europe to every member of Congress. Lest We Forget is a publication of the European Platform of Memory and Conscience supported by the European Commission.

Please join us at this commemorative ceremony, where ambassadors and representatives of various ethnic communities will remember all the victims of European totalitarianism.

Please register for this event here.

If you are interested in laying a wreath at this event, please contact Travis.LaCouter@VictimsofCommunism.org.

Original source: http://us3.campaign-archive2.com/?u=91e76c85ef3ce77d7a53b176f&id=fdad8cc905&e=973b842cbc

Historical Lessons from Engaging Totalitarians: Business and High Technology

 A look back over a shameful and overlooked history

Auschwitz tattoo began as an IBM number. photo: Ian Waldie/Getty Images

Over the past few months there has been a vigorous debate around continuing economic sanctions on the dictatorship in Cuba and a series of manufactured controversies surrounding democracy promotion programs directed at the island. However, a couple that have gone  unaddressed are the conceits that American tourists, business, and high technology would somehow be game changers in Cuba and that "evolutionary change" would take place within Cuba.

Solidarity with dissidents in Eastern Europe from the West and a policy that took human rights into consideration did achieve great things there 25 years ago: the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Soviet Union two years later in 1991 with predominantly nonviolent movements.

The end result of ignoring the crimes of totalitarianism and engaging these regimes was one world war, and at least four genocides. Winston Churchill called the Second World War the "Unnecessary War" explaining in the preface to his book, The Gathering Storm:  "How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm." Would sanctions have prevented the death of over 60 million people between 1939 and 1945? When one does not support the nonviolent option for real and profound change that challenges the fundamental injustices of a dictatorship only two options remain: war or collaboration with tyrants. Both are unacceptable.

What did engagement through tourism, business and the exchange of high technology achieve in the early twentieth century? This first entry will focus on the role of engaging totalitarians with business and high technology. In the Cuba debate there is a lot of talk about computers and the internet as the magic bullets that will end the Castro dictatorship but often times attention is not paid to who is empowered in the transfer of technology. History demonstrates that this can be a disaster.

American businessman Armand Hammer played crucial rule in Soviet Union

 Saving the Soviet Union

Armand Hammer, and Henry Ford, both sold tractors to the Soviet Union. Such endeavors facilitated commercial ties between the Soviet Union and the United States, establishing the basis for further cooperation, dialogue, and diplomatic relations between the two countries. Pravda described Armand Hammer as a confidant of Vladimir Lenin and a "red millionaire" in the article titled "The Soviet Union that Hammer Built." Hammer was a key player in Lenin's New Economic Policy that consolidated Soviet rule in the 1920s. The Black Book of Communism estimates that 20 million were killed by the communists in the Soviet Union. The United States established the Export-Import Bank to encourage more trade with the USSR and having US taxpayers assume the risk during the Roosevelt Administration.

In addition to investments in the Soviet Union, Henry Ford had extensive relations and investments in Nazi Germany. This included factories assisting the Nazi war effort that continued through World War 2.

Enabling the Holocaust

Thomas J. Watson, (middle) head of IBM and president of the International Chamber of Commerce, and members of the ICC's board meet with Adolph Hitler in 1937.

Beginning with the National Socialists arrival in power the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provided the equipment with ground breaking technologies, precursors to computers, to identify and categorize holocaust victims. According to a October 8, 2002 article in The Village Voice "the infamous Auschwitz tattoo began as an IBM number. IBM engineered a strategic business alliance with Nazi Germany and provided the punch card technology that would be used in managing the vast apparatus of the Nazi death camps. More troubling is that the NAZIS were able to arrive in a town with lists of names of people identified as being Jewish. Where did they get the data? From IBM Germany's census operations and similar advanced people counting and registration technologies. IBM enabled the Holocaust.

Yahoo identified Chinese dissidents for regime who were jailed, tortured and killed

Hunting Dissidents and Building the Great Firewall in China
The optimists would say that was 1933. It couldn't happen now. Wrong. It already has in Communist China. Western companies are assisting Communist China in spying on Chinese nationals and having dissenters rounded up. Amnesty International in 2002 reported on Chinese prisoners of conscience including some who had died and been tortured while in detention. American corporations such as Cisco assisted the Chinese totalitarians in building an internet that serves the interests of the dictatorship and spies on the people of China. American companies have also assisted in targeting independent journalists and activists trafficking in information censored by the dictatorship and providing their location to the Chinese communist regime. Shi Tao, an independent journalist, was imprisoned for a decade because of Yahoo but thanks to having family in the United States he was able to sue and the American technology company settled out of court. Other dissidents were not so lucky and were jailed, tortured and killed. The communist regime in China has been in power since 1949 and according to The Black Book of Communism has a tally of 65 million victims.

Principled diplomacy, international human rights standards combined with nonviolent interventions by civil society have been shown to produce positive change without wholesale bloodshed.  Democracy, or human rights, promotion using principled nonviolent means can always be improved, but should not be discarded.

Unfortunately, the history of the twentieth and twenty first centuries have shown that corporations engaging with totalitarian dictatorships be it the Nazi Third Reich under Adolph Hitler, the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin, the Peoples Republic of China under Mao Ze Dong and Deng Xio Peng, or Communist Cuba under the Castro brothers businessmen peddling high tech equipment have not only provided legitimacy to these dictatorships but assisted in systematizing gross human rights violations and prolonging their rule.

Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero may have been extrajudicially executed

Police block Oswaldo Paya's children from attending Carromero's show trial. (AP)

 The extrajudicial killings of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante are both  back in the news in connection with an alleged Cuban defector Ortelio Abrahantes Bacallao, 42, who claims to be related to former MININT chief Jose Abrantes and to have information on the killings of the two Christian Liberation Movement activists. The alleged Cuban defector is being held in a migrant detention center in the Bahamas according to Juan O. Tamayo.

The machinations of Cuban state security, trained by the East German Stasi, are inscrutable. However, it is important to remember that the evidence that Oswaldo and Harold were killed by Cuban state security on July 22, 2012 does not depend on the declarations of a lone defector but two years of evidence accumulated, and the behavior of the Cuban government. For example, two years later the autopsy reports have yet to be turned over to the families of the two victims despite formal requests.

One of the survivors of the events that day, Angel Carromero, was subjected to a show trial to cover up the Cuban government's role in the killings of the two men. Oswaldo's children were barred from attending the trial of the man the Cuban government said was responsible for the crash.

SMS text messages and the initial declaration of a government official at the hospital in Bayamo pointing out that a second car was involved corroborate Angel's account of what happened.  Angel Carromero has gone on the record granting interviews, writing a book and speaking at a parallel forum in the United Nations Human Rights Council

At the same time high profile figures from around the world have called for a transparent and international investigation into these two deaths. 

There is much more hard evidence already out there that Oswaldo and Harold were murdered in a state security operation orchestrated by the Cuban government that demands an international investigation then the word of one defector. Furthermore it appears that 1) they weren't killed in the crash but 2) afterwards and not from injuries sustained in the car and 3) these two activists may have been extrajudicially executed in a premeditated manner.

Yoani Sanchez on how foreign press in Cuba can transition from hostages to collaborators

The controversy over the "reporting" of the Associated Press in Cuba has served as an opportunity to revisit the techniques and tactics of the Castro regime in muzzling foreign news agencies in Cuba. Yoani Sánchez's August 12, 2014 article offers an important insight by an independent journalist who lives in Cuba.

Big Brother stands as judge of journalistic “objectivity.” [The text says that CPI can temporarily or permanently cancel press credentials for “lack of journalistic ethics… or objectivity.’” Minrex is the Foreign Ministry]

Reporting is the Least of It

By Cuban independent journalist, Yoani Sánchez, in 14ymedio:

A few years ago I met a foreign correspondent based in Cuba who related an absurd and revealing anecdote. The International Press Center (CPI) had called him in to warn him about the content of an article. Receiving the summons didn’t surprise him, because warning calls like that were a common practice of this agency in charge of registering and controlling foreign journalists living on the Island. Nor could he refuse to appear, because he depended on the CPI for his credentials to report on a nature reserve and even to interview a government minister. So there it was.

The reporter arrived at the centrally located building on 23rd Street, where the CPI is headquartered, and was led to an office with two annoyed looking men. After bringing him coffee and talking about other things, they got to the point. They reproached the journalist for a report where he had referred to Cuba as “the communist Island.” This was a huge surprise to the correspondent because previous warnings he’d received were for “reporting only on the bad things about the Cuban reality,” or “not treating the leaders of the Revolution with respect.” But he never imagined that this time he would be scolded for the complete opposite.

But yes, the censors who minutely examine the cables written by foreign agencies had not been at all pleased with the use of the adjective “communist” to characterize our country. “But the Communist Party governs here, right?” asked the incredulous reporter. “Yes, but you know the word looks bad, it doesn’t help us,” responded the higher-ranking official. The man stood there in shock for a few seconds while trying to comprehend what they were saying to him and think of a response other than laughing.

The correspondent knew that annoying the CPI could bring more than just a slap on the wrist. Also in the hands of this institution is permission for foreign journalists to import a car, rent a house and—at that time—even to buy an air conditioner for their bedroom. The dilemma for the reporter was to give in and not write “the communist Island” any more, or to engage in conflict with the institution, where he had everything to lose.

The mechanisms of control over the foreign press go far beyond warning calls from the CPI. Should a correspondent get married on the Island, start a family in this land, his objectivity comes into doubt. The intelligence organs know how to pull the strings of fear to cause damage or pressure to a loved one. Thus, they manage to temper the level of criticism by these correspondents “settled” in Cuba. The perks are also an attractive carrot to keep them from touching on certain thorny issues in their articles.

I know one foreign journalist who, every time she writes a press release about the Cuban dissidence, adds a paragraph where she declares, “the Government considers this opposition to be created and paid from Washington”… But her texts lack the phrase she could add to give the readers another point view, briefly communicating, “the Cuban dissidence considers the Island’s government a totalitarian dictatorship that has not been subjected to scrutiny at the ballot box.” This way, those who consult the press release could draw their own conclusions. Sadly, the objective of correspondents like her is not to inform, but to impose an opinion framework that is as stereotyped as it is false.

Press agencies need to strengthen and carefully review their codes of ethics when dealing with Cuba. They should control the time their representatives spend on the Island, because as the long years pass here emotional bonds are created that the regime can use for blackmail and pressure. An objective examination—every now and again—wouldn’t be a bad thing, given the possible coercion and Stockholm Syndrome their employees might suffer. The credibly of an information giant sometimes depends on whether a new imported car, or a beautiful young Cuban partner, is valued more than a commitment to journalism.

Take care foreign press agencies! Your representatives in these parts are always in danger of becoming hostages, first, and then collaborators, of the ruling regime.

English translation courtesy of Translating Cuba.