"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)
Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died three days after beating by political police
Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) was beaten and arrested by the Castro regime's police on Thursday, May 5,
2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8,
2011.
Nine years ago the headlines circled the world in English and in Spanish covered by Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AFP, AP, EFE that a Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46)
had been beaten and arrested by Cuban regime police on Thursday, May 5,
2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8,
2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. He was buried Sunday, on Mother's Day.
According to dissidents who attended and media accounts more than 80 attended Juan Wilfredo Soto's funeral
despite a heavy police presence and state security operation that
blocked some activists from attending. The government agents responsible
for this man's extra-judicial death must be held accountable if not by
national laws then by international law. At the funeral a Cuban pastor
spoke about the life of the Cuban activist and the circumstances
surrounding his death.
Funeral procession for Juan Wilfredo Soto on Mother's Day
Nine years have passed and justice has not been done in this case.
Nevertheless we must remember, and with this exercise of memory continue
to demand justice for Juan Wilfredo and his loved ones.
Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia at dissident gathering with yellow shirt
The Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany in August 1939 signing a so-called "non-aggression pact" that had secret protocols that divided Central Europe, and partitioned Poland between the two totalitarian powers. Day later, beginning with Nazi, Germany and followed a few days later by the Soviet Union they invaded Poland and met in the middle to celebrate their victory together.
Soviet and Nazi soldiers fraternize after conquering Poland in 1939
The Nazis and the Soviets remained allied until Sunday, June 22, 1941 when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. Prior to that they were sharing intelligence, logistics, and the Soviets were turning over Jewish refugees to be sent to the death camps. The end of World War Two was a historic victory ending suffering for victims of the Nazi regime. But we must remember that for victims of the Soviet regime in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the suffering continued for another 46 years under one of the aggressors that started this terrible war.
History matters and we must remember both how the war started and how it ended. We must also remember that although some Nazi war criminals were brought to justice at Nuremberg none of the Soviet war criminals ever were.
The Soviet Union should not be given a pass for their role in this terrible chapter in history.
Marilyn Buck: Terrorist and Political Prisoner died in 2010
Marilyn Buck died of uterine cancer at the age of 62 at her Brooklyn home
but let us also remember the lives she cut short in the name of a
failed revolutionary ideology she wanted to impose on Americans via
bombs and guns there names were: Edward O'Grady, Waverly "Chipper" Brown, and Peter Paige.
Murdered by Marilyn Buck in an act of terrorism
Edward O'Grady was a native of Nyack and a graduate of Nyack High School
before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. He was a long time
member of the Jackson Hose Company # 3, a unit of the Nyack Volunteer
Fire Department, as was his father before him. At the time of his death,
Edward left behind his wife Diane and three children, a son Edward,
Jr., age six, and two daughters Patricia, age two and Kimberly, age 6
months. O'Grady's daughter Kim is got married, but thanks to Marilyn Buck her father was not there to walk her down the aisle.
Edward O'Grady
Waverly Brown had a
seventeen year-old son and two grown daughters. He had a girlfriend in
Nyack (Brown was separated from his wife). His mother, Dorothy DeLoatch,
lived in Lawrenceville, Virginia,
the small southern town where she was born sixty-seven years before the
robbery. Brown liked to help out with the garden whenever he visited
her. She had a small vegetable garden in which she grew corn, peas,
lettuce and squash. Today, Waverly's son Gregory carries on his father's
tradition as a police officer with the United States Postal Police.
Waverly Brown
Peter Paige began his
employment with the Brinks Corporation as a guard in 1956. Never a
stranger to hard work, he served Brink's loyally for 25 years until his
untimely death in 1981. At the time of his death at age 49, Paige left
behind a wife Josephine, a daughter Susan, (19) and two sons Michael
(16) and Peter (9). He was also survived by six brothers and sisters.
Peter Paige
A scholarship fund was set up in memory of the two slain police officers.
Alexander Alazo is a man who has been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition and was living out of his car for months. He shot up the Cuban embassy at 2:00am and hurt no one. The Castro regime calls him a terrorist. Meanwhile, the same regime declared Marilyn Buck an activist and political prisoner after she killed to police officers, and a security guard in a politically motivated bank robbery. When will the regime in Cuba stop sponsoring, sheltering, and training terrorists?
"Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to
seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers." - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948
May 3rd, since December 1993 has been recognized by the international community as World Press Freedom Day. It is observed on the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of press freedom principles drafted by African Journalists and passed on May 3, 1992 at a UNESCO seminar on "Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press," held in Windhoek, Namibia.
Today, this blog will focus on press freedoms in Cuba, or better put their systematic absence.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2020 edition of their World Press Freedom Index. revealing that Cuba dropped from 169th in press freedom in 2019 to 171st in 2020 edging out Saudi Arabia to become part of the 10 worst ranked countries in the index.
The Paris based press freedom organization disclosed in their 2020 summary how coverage of Cuba in the international press is slanted and often repeating official news that echoes the dictatorship because those who are critical are expelled from the country creating a chilling effect on those who remain behind.
CUBA
Constant ordeal for independent media
A self-styled socialist republic and one-party state, Cuba has continued year after year to be Latin America’s worst media freedom violator. Miguel Díaz-Canel’s election as president in April 2018, after 59 years of repression under the Castro family, has made no difference. The regime maintains an almost total media monopoly and the constitution prohibits privately-owned media. The few Cuban bloggers and independent journalists are threatened by the government and watched by security agents, who often take them in for questioning and delete information in their devices. Journalists regarded as especially troublesome are often arrested and jailed. The authorities also control the coverage of foreign reporters by granting accreditation selectively and expelling those regarded as too “negative” about the government. The gradual improvement in Internet access nonetheless constitutes grounds for hope about the future of press freedom in Cuba.
Cuban journalists continue to be targeted and silence in the time of COVID-19 when independent journalism is more important than ever. Yoel Bravo Lopez, a citizen journalist from Villa Clara who in mid-April
reported over social media an increase in COVID-19 cases at a retirement
home in Santa Clara, was arrested on Monday,
April 20, 2020 by State Security, interrogated for several hours, fined
3,000 pesos ($120) and threatened with “going to prison just like Jose
Daniel Ferrer” if he continued disseminating information the government
considers “contrary to the public interest.” This is not an isolated
case. Mónica Baróon detained on Friday, April 17, 2020 was also interrogated, fined 3,000 pesos ($120)
under the Decree Law 370 rule that regulates the use of the internet in
Cuba, and also threatened with prison. Mónica Baró Sánchez was awarded the Gabo Prize 2019 for her article ’The blood was never yellow.’ Other journalists targeted in recent weeks are Yoe Suárez and Waldo Fernández Cuenca, of DIARIO DE CUBA; and Camila Acosta and Julio Antonio Aleaga, of Cubanet.
Little wonder that Cuba in 2020 is among the 10 worse countries for
press freedom in the world according to Reporters Without Borders.
However, it is also important to point out that this has been a terrible reality for the past 61 years with the arrival of the Castro dictatorship to power. Prisoners of conscience have been an every existent reality through all that time that continues into the present.
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces
Since this is World Press Freedom Day we are focusing on the case of imprisoned Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces, who is in poor health and has been in prison since September 11, 2019. His son, Roberto José Quiñones Castro, who resides in the United States, has been campaigning for his dad's release, picketing the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC.
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces was unjustly imprisoned for five years for being an independent attorney in Cuba in 1998. No longer able to practice as a lawyer upon his release, he became an independent journalist.
Roberto Quiñones was physically assaulted on April 22, 2019.
On April 22, 2019 Roberto de Jesús Quiñones was beaten up for covering the trial of a religious couple sentenced to prison for homeschooling their kids. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported on April 24th what had happened:
On April 22, at around 2:00 p.m., Cuban police agents detained Quiñones,a contributor to the news website CubaNet, as he was standing outside of the Guantánamo Municipal Tribunal, according to CubaNet and the Association for Press Freedom (APLP),
a Cuban press freedom organization. At the time of his detention,
Quiñones was covering the trial of two Cuban evangelical pastors facing
charges for homeschooling their children, CubaNet reported.While
being transported in the police car, agents beat Quiñones, injuring his
mouth, tongue, and right thumb and causing an inflammation in his right
ear, his wife toldAPLP.
Picket on August 13, 2019 outside the Cuban embassy in Washington DC.
On April 27, 2020 Cubanet released a new video in Spanish by Roberto José Quiñones Castro warns that his dad's health is deteriorating and again calls for the release of his father, Roberto de Jesús Quiñones.
Below is a letter by three prominent international human rights organizations calling for the release of Roberto de Jesús Quiñones released today on World Press Freedom Day.
May 2, 2020
To: President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
President of the Republic of Cuba
Office of the President
Hidalgo Esq. 6
Plaza de La Revolución,
CP 10400
Sent via email: despacho@presidencia.gob.cu
Dear President Díaz-Canel,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Amnesty International, and Article 19 Mexico and Central America Office are writing to call for the immediate release of jailed journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces amid the sweeping COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ most recent annual survey conducted on December 1, 2019, there were at least 250 journalists behind bars around the world, including in Honduras, Venezuela, and Cuba. On March 30, CPJ published an open letter to world leaders urging the release of all journalists imprisoned for their work. The situation of Cuban journalist Roberto Quiñones appears particularly dire, so we are reiterating that call to you on his behalf at this time of grave public health concern.
Roberto Quiñones, a lawyer and contributor to the news website CubaNet, has been imprisoned in the Guantánamo Provincial Prison since September 11, 2019, where he is serving a year-long correctional labor sentence. A Guantánamo court sentenced Quiñones in August 2019 after he refused to pay a fine for charges of “resistance” and “disobedience” stemming from his April 22, 2019, arrest while reporting on a trial.
In September 2019, Amnesty International named Quiñones a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his freedom of expression, and called for his immediate and unconditional release. In November 2019, representatives of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, as well as the Special Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression from the UN and IACHR, informed your government that the Working Group was investigating Quiñones’ case as a potential case of arbitrary detention and violation of due process.
Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights guarantee the right to “seek,receive and impart information” freely, and include specific protections for journalists. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cuba signed in 2008, provides for the right to hold opinions “without interference” and the right to freely “seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,” including on issues of public interest.
We remind you that Cuba must guarantee these rights, which are particularly relevant to the current global context.
Cuba also has a duty to protect its population amid the COVID-19 pandemic without discrimination, including those deprived of their liberty. According to the World Health Organization, “People deprived of their liberty, and those living or working in enclosed environments in their close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population.”
Imprisoned journalists have no control over their surroundings, cannot choose to isolate, and are often denied necessary medical care. In addition, some individuals appear to be at particular risk of severe illness or death linked to COVID-19, including older individuals and people with pre-existing medical conditions, according to the WHO.
Roberto Quiñones is no exception. In letters published by CubaNet on October 1 and March 5, Quiñones has described his conditions at the Guantánamo Provincial Prison, which include overcrowding, poor food and water quality, and lack of adequate medical attention. Quiñones was reportedly subject to retaliation for publishing this information in the form of “disciplinary measures,” including denying access to phone calls and barring him from outdoor spaces in the prison.
Quiñones has served more than half of his year-long sentence, during which time he has suffered from escalating health problems, including psoriasis that, according to CubaNet, has worsened in detention, and significant weight loss due to gastrointestinal complications, according to his wife. With detainees at increased risk from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuban government must release Roberto Quiñones.
Mr. President, no journalist should have to choose between silence or prison. On this World Press Freedom Day, we urge you to release Roberto Quiñones, protect the free flow of information, and guarantee that all journalists in Cuba are able to perform their fundamental role in society, free of any reprisals.
Sincerely,
Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ)Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19 Mexico & Central America Office
Latest updates on the story, and brief overview of Cuban diplomacy post-1959
Damage to column and Jose Marti statue at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC
Thursday, April 30 at 2:00am a man wielding an AK-47 fired three dozen rounds into the Cuban Embassy in Washington, DC. Embassy officials confirmed that no one was harmed, but there was some damage to the building.
SUV driven by the alleged shooter.
D.C. police arrested the man on the scene and a day later we learned that the individual, Alexander Alazo, 42, of Aubrey, Texas "had been living in his car and moving from state to state for
several months." Officials said that he "drove to Washington on Wednesday to target the Cuban
Embassy 'because he wanted to get them before they got him, referring to
the Cuban government, for the constant threats from the organized Cuban
criminal organization,' according to court papers."
Police "believe he had been sleeping at rest stops and in parking lots for at least nine months" and was "off his meds."
The Castro regime has tried to exploit this tragic episode by blaming U.S. Cuba policy and Castro's foreign minister pointed out "the responsibility of States to protect diplomats accredited to them and their facilities." The Center for a Free Cuba pointed out that the assailant had been arrested on the same day as the attack, but that the "scores of diplomats harmed since 2016" in Havana and was "still not cleared up."
Individual in custody within hours of the attack in which no diplomats were harmed. Meanwhile at US embassy in Cuba scores of diplomats harmed since 2016 and still not cleared up. What was that about “the responsibility of States to protect diplomats”? https://t.co/pS8DGLrbDD
Regime apologists began to tweet away that the attacks had never
happened, that they were psychosomatic, and a long series of unhelpful
talking points echoing the Castro regime's unhelpful response since
2016. The mystery surrounding the harm done to Canadian and U.S. diplomats remains unsolved.
Castro regime officials are calling the attack an act of terrorism and one of the dictatorship's diplomats based in New York City, Alejandro González Behmaras, posted a tweet denouncing the "act of terrorism" and the claim that "terrorism has never frightened Cuban diplomats!"
Last night's shooting against #Cuban Embassy in Washington is an act of terrorism. But terrorism has never frightened Cuban diplomats! We will continue to perform our duties on behalf of the noble people we have the honor to represent #SomosCuba#SomosContinuidadpic.twitter.com/tWiWRv5RuC
— Alejandro González Behmaras (@Behmaras1) May 1, 2020
Ambassador González Behmaras, who undiplomatically participated in the disruption of an event discussing the plight of political prisoners in Cuba on October 16, 2018, fails to mention that this lack of fear is due to the Castro regime viewing and promoting terrorism as a legitimate tactic.
Ambassador González Behmaras disrupts event on Cuban political prisoners
The Castro regime has explicitly viewed terrorism as a legitimate tactic to advance its revolutionary objectives. In 1970 the Cuban
government published the "Mini Manual for Revolutionaries" in the
official Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) publication
Tricontinental and translated it into many languages, written by Brazilian urban terrorist Carlos Marighella,
which gives precise instructions in terror tactics, kidnappings, etc.
and translated into numerous languages which were distributed worldwide
by the Cuban dictatorship. There is a chapter on terrorism that declares, "Terrorism is a weapon the revolutionary can never
relinquish." This manual is still circulating today.
The Cuban dictatorship has trained terrorists that targeted the United States and other countries in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s with acts of violence with the objective of altering political behavior. John Hoyt Williams in a 1988 article in The Atlantic reported:
"In the Arab world some 3,000 [Cuban advisers] can be found in Libya
and Algeria, among other things training terrorists and Polisario
guerrillas."
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on September 19, 2019 reported that "two
members of Cuba’s UN mission engaged in activities harmful to U.S.
national security, we asked them to leave the U.S. Members of Cuba’s UN
mission are also restricted to stay in Manhattan. We take any and all
attempts against the National Security of the U.S. seriously."
Nevertheless, this does not excuse violence carried out against the Cuban Embassy or against Cuban diplomats, but it does call for governments hosting a Cuban diplomatic delegation to be vigilant and aware of their past bad acts. The Free Cuba Foundation condemned the attack on the Cuban embassy, but at the same time recalled the past bad actions of Cuban diplomats.
We condemn the attack on the Cuban Embassy while at the same time recognizing its problematic history as a center of espionage, and past attacks by embassy staff against non-violent protesters . https://t.co/BLcT5OmZQT
We look forward to the day that the Cuban diplomatic corps return to the professionalism and democratic convictions of past great diplomats such as Willy De Blanc,Guy Pérez-Cisneros and Ernesto Dihigo. Individuals who played a leading and constructive role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
However, we cannot ignore the bad actions of Cuban diplomats in the United States since 1959, and what follows is only a partial revisiting of some of the most egregious examples.
New York City, New York (1969)
A Black Panther plot to bomb five Manhattan department stores on April 3, 1969 during the Easter shopping rush was broken up by the indictment of 21 members of the militant group on April 2nd. The Chicago Tribune reported
that they had planned to "set off bombs in the midtown stores of Macy's
Alexander's. Bloomingdale's, Korvette's and Abercombie & Fitch. The
bombings were to be accompanied by gunfire in the crowded stores." They
had also planned to dynamite the tracks of Penn Central railroad at six
location and bomb a police station in the Morrisania section of the
Bronx to divert police from the railroad bombings.
On April 10, 1969
Andrew Tulley reported in the Reading Eagle
that that the Communist Cuban mission to the United Nations has become a
financial and propaganda headquarters for promoting revolution by black
militants and white radicals. ... Specifically, it was said, these
include the Black Panther Party. The United States denied re-entry visas to two Cuban U.N. diplomats
..."as a normal reaction to evidence that the Cuban mission is engaged
in extensive subversive activities. One of the two diplomats, Jesus
Jimenez Escobar, a mission counselor, is described as one of the Havana
regime's leading experts in the export of revolution." Tully had met
one of the five other Cuban diplomats then under investigation in Cuba in 1959:
Lazaro Espinosa, third secretary at the U.N. missions was introduced to
him by Che Guevara at the Havana Hilton Hotel as Castro's "leading
technician in terrorism."
In
1983 the Castro regime provided financial and logistical support for
the Wells Fargo armored car robbery which netted the Macheteros $7.1
million dollars of which $2 million made its way back to Cuba via a diplomatic pouch. The whole story is detailed in a Hartford Courantinvestigative piece published in 1999. Below is a 2012 local news story about the case. The main culprit in the crime, Victor Manuel Gerena, is still a fugitive from American justice and is believed to be in Cuba. New York City, New York (1994)
The
United States expelled two Cuban diplomats on April 12, 1995, for having assaulted
people last August (1994) protesting in front of Cuba's mission to the United Nations. The diplomats, Edmundo Suarez Hernandez, a
counselor, and Saul Hermida Griego, an attache, and their families were
told are to leave by midnight Sunday. The Cuban Foreign Ministry responded with
a statement that the incident in August had been "provoked by terrorist
groups who go around unpunished because of the inefficiency of the New
York police."
On August 30, 1994 anti-Castro protesters chained themselves to the Cuban Mission door. Cuban diplomats attacked them with sticks, screaming, "Cuba
Our Way!" Two diplomats wielded a crowbar and ax handle. More
than a dozen police officers suffered injuries.
Four Cuban Mission employees were arrested on assault charges. All four
were released after claiming diplomatic immunity.
US officials said it's unusual for diplomats to be expelled for violent behavior.
Washington, DC (2000)
On April 14, 2000 nonviolent protesters gathered in front of the
Cuban Interests Section in Washington DC. In the early evening, a band
of about 10 Cuban
diplomats, alleged to have been drinking took off their coats, ties and
jewelry, began screaming obscenities and yelling threats, and
indiscriminately attacked 20 peaceful protesters with fists and sticks, even injuring a Secret
Service officer. Among the Cuban diplomats engaged in the violent assault, according to one of the victims, was Gustavo Machin Gomez.
The Castro regime's belief that terrorism is a legitimate instrument of struggle stretches back to their own bombing campaigns, and plane hijackings in the 1950s in their struggle against Fulgencio Batista.
Fidel Castro in 1978 gave a speech where he lied when declared that the Cuban revolution had never engaged in terrorism, but perhaps revealed more than he planned saying: "if the Cuban government
were to dedicate itself to engage in terrorism, and to respond with
terrorism to terrorists, we believe we would be effective terrorists.
Let no one think otherwise. If we were to dedicate ourselves to
terrorism with all certainty we would be efficient." Terrorism is part of the Castro regime's DNA, of course Ambassador Alejandro González Behmaras isn't afraid of terrorism he is part of a diplomatic corps that has engaged in and sponsored it over decades.
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