Sunflower Uprising?: Cuban dissidents announce call for nonviolent protests in public parks across Cuba

"#8S MARCH CUBA Sunday, September 8 we call for a national protest for our rights, for our freedom, to greater repression of the tyranny, greater firmness and solidarity for a free, democratic, just and prosperous Cuba at 10:00am to the public parks in any part of the country, with a sunflower in hand." - translated from the poster below

There are times when we need to recognize signs, when things come together in unexpected patterns. The European Union has behaved terribly in its new policy towards Cuba legitimizing the oldest dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere. On September 8-9, 2019 the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini will be visiting Cuba. She is the same European leader who called the regime in Cuba a "one party democracy."
But Europe is not of one voice on this matter.
The Swedish government on June 17, 2019 withdrew a proposal that would have ratified the EU-Cuba deal covering trade and political dialogue because two of Sweden's political parties, the Liberals and Christian Democrats, said they would vote against it if it was taken to parliament because "they would not back the agreement until there are significant changes in the Cuban regime's stance on human rights."

There have not been significant changes, and prisoners of conscience continue to exist in Cuba. On August 26, 2019 Amnesty International identified five new prisoners of conscience in the island. According to the Spanish based NGO, Prisoners Defenders, they have identified 125 imprisoned opposition activists. Independent journalists in Cuba continue to be beaten up and jailed for practicing their profession and attempting to report on government abuses.

The One Free Press Coalition launched their seventh monthly "10 Most Urgent" list (ranked in order of urgency) on September 3, 2019, calling attention to the most pressing cases of journalists under attack for pursuing the truth in the world. Number one on the list is Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by agents of Saudi Arabia. Sixth on the list is independent Cuban journalist Roberto Jesús Quiñones. He is presently at home waiting for the political police to take him to prison.

Cuban journalist Roberto Jesús Quiñones sentenced to a year in prison

Yesterday in an interview published by Cubanet, the independent journalist explained, "I am waiting for them, at any moment they will come to confine me." In that interview Roberto Jesús explained his pessimism with the upcoming visit of EU representative Federica Mogherini to Cuba next week. What was done to him by Cuban government agents as outlined in the One Free Press Coalition website deserves condemnation by the European Union not complicit silence:

On April 22 Cuban police beat and detained Roberto Jesús Quiñones while he was covering a trial as a contributor for CubaNet. Upon his release five days later, Cuban authorities alleged his conduct during detention constituted “resistance” and “disobedience,” for which they imposed charges and a fine. On August 7, a municipal court of the Cuban city of Guantánamo sentenced him to one year in prison for refusal to pay the fine. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned Cuba’s “flagrant disregard for legal norms.”

Human rights violations in Cuba are systematic. Cubans are not free to travel outside of Cuba and many are arbitrarily denied that right by the dictatorship. This led Guillermo del Sol Pérez to initiate a hunger strike on August 15, 2019 after his son was denied the right to travel. He has lost 42 pounds and his health is worsening.

Guillermo del Sol Pérez: on hunger strike since August 15th

September 8th is the feast day for Our Lady of Charity, known affectionately as "Cachita", and she unites Cubans together both inside and outside of the island. This year it falls on a Sunday. She is also a touch stone of Cuban identity. Catholics take sunflowers to the shrine to Our Lady of Charity which is located in Santiago de Cuba.
September 8th is also the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Christian Liberation Movement, whose leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and youth leader Harold Cepero Escalante, were extrajudicially executed by Castro's secret police on July 22, 2012.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante

Sundays in Cuba, since 2003, is a day when the regime's state security services target, harass, detain, and physically assault, women who are peacefully assembling to demand for an end to prisoners of conscience in Cuba. These women formed a movement in the Spring of 2003 called the Ladies in White.

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo:  February 13, 1948 – October 14, 2011

Like Oswaldo and Harold, the founding leader of this movement, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo , died under suspicious circumstances in 2011. Today people of good will fear for the life of another Lady in White, Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda who is suffering from a mysterious illness that Cuba's doctors at one point say is tuberculosis and at another say it is lung cancer. Either way her condition continues to deteriorate.

Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda before and during her jailing.

These are some of the reasons why on September 8th brave souls will be protesting in Cuba to reject repression and to demonstrate their solidarity with the Ladies in White, who are regularly assaulted for nonviolently gathering on Sundays.
Rosa María Payá Acevedo tweeted in Spanish, "On September 8th Cubans bring sunflowers to the Virgen of Charity, many are sold on the streets for several days before. Now, after our announcement, they tell me that they CAN'T FIND SUNFLOWERS in Havana. A dictatorship that fears flowers and people! #S8GoOutToTheStreet"

El #8S los cubanos le llevamos girasoles a la #VirgendeLaCaridad, se venden muchos en las calles desde varios días antes
Ahora, después de nuestra convocatoria, me dicen que NO ENCUENTRAN GIRASOLES en #LaHabana
Una dictadura que le teme a las flores🌻 y a la gente!#8SalPaLaCalle pic.twitter.com/sReP9e1j3V

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) September 6, 2019

It is also why the secret police are working over time to shutdown the protests before they start with preemptive arrests and sunflowers have disappeared in Havana.
It is all the more reason why people of good will should denounce the oldest and most ruthless dictatorship in the Western hemisphere and go to the street on September 8th with a sunflower in hand and love for liberty in their hearts.

Statement taken from UNPACU website.

Solidarity and Firmness:

UNPACU and Cuba Decide call for peaceful demonstrations

Our response to the increased repression of the regime against peaceful opposition and citizenship on the occasion of the celebration of the Joint Council between the Dictatorship and the European Union in Cuba.

Members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and promoters of Cuba Decide, after a thorough analysis of the notable increase in repression for political reasons and violations of the rights of the Cuban people, have decided to summon Cubans to demonstrate publicly next Sunday, September 8, at 10 am. Let’s go to parks and other public places in our country, to express:

1. Our solidarity with the brave Ladies in White , repressed week after week by the dictatorship; journalists and independent artists; defenders of religious freedoms and LGBTIactivists who suffer persecution; and all the peaceful people and organizations that promote respect for human rights and the change of system towards democracy in Cuba.
2. Our rejection of repression against the Independent Civil Society and the people in general:

-No more political prisoners.

-No more police abuse against defenseless citizens.

-No more Cubans victims of violations of their right to leave and return to their country.

-No more beatings and torture in prisons.

-No more assaults and robberies in the homes of dissidents.

-No more violent detentions, harassment and persecution against peaceful human rights defenders.

1. Our repudiation of the implementation of a Political Dialogue, Cooperation and Trade Agreement (PDCA) between the European Union and the Castro-communist regime that has not been conditioned to concrete changes in the country’s political-economic system that guarantee the cessation of repression and Respect for the basic freedoms of citizens, in open contradiction with the principles practiced by European nations.
    
2. Our request to the European Union to demand the participation of civil society and the opposition in any negotiation process with the dictatorship; and slow down the implementation of the PDCA until the specific reforms required by the regime are clarified. Reforms that should include:
   • The release of all political prisoners and the total harassment and violence of State Security and the police against human rights defenders and citizens.
   • The recognition of the civil, political, economic and cultural rights of Cubans , including the right to change the country’s political system into a binding referendum to allow citizens to participate in free, fair and plural elections for the first time in more than 60 years.

We appeal to the solidarity of the international community to curb the impunity of the tyranny that intends to lash out at our coordinators and activists with new assaults, robberies, violent detentions and imprisonment, as they have done in the past in the face of the silence of European negotiators.

We hope that this time the voice of Europe will be raised in the person of its High Representative to support those who defend the same democratic values that the European Union professes.

To a greater repression of tyranny, greater firmness and solidarity of those who fight for a free, democratic, fair and prosperous Cuba.

Signed:

Members of the UNPACU and promoters of Cuba Decide.