July 13th now has a double significance for victims of communism in China and Cuba

  Free Chinese and free Cubans share a common day to mourn their victims of communism.

Over the past 32 years Cubans have mourned the 37 men, women, and children who were extrajudicially executed by Cuban government agents on July 13, 1994 when the "13 de Marzo" tugboat was attacked and sunk.

To mark 30 years of impunity on July 13, 2024 at Florida International University we held a vigil in memory of the victims, distributed information, and demanded justice for the 37 victims. 

Today, July 13 at 6:00pm at the Main Fountain at @FIU we held a 13 minute silent vigil to mark the day 30 years ago when agents of the Cuban dictatorship sank the "13 de Marzo" tugboat killing 37 men, women and children. #Truth #Memory #Cuba pic.twitter.com/5K3mFX3zgU

— Human Rights Violations in Cuba (@freecubafndtn) July 14, 2024

We have also paid homage to Chinese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and human rights defender Liu Xiaobo who died nine years ago on July 13, 2017 at the First Hospital of China Medical University, in Shenyang, China after being unjustly imprisoned from December 8, 2008 until his untimely death nearly 10 years later. 

It is likely that he died of a cancer made terminal by politically motivated neglect. Today marks five years since his passing. After eight years in "unofficial detention" his widow Liu Xia was finally allowed to leave China on July 10, 2018.

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. However, he was prevented from attending the prize ceremony.

In 2017 Xiaobo passed away while held in isolation under guard. pic.twitter.com/5gXJKMcOeH

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) July 13, 2026

Liu Xiaobo  was one of the authors of Charter 08 and signed it along with more than three hundred Chinese citizens. The Charter is a manifesto that was released on December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It calls for more freedom of expression, human rights, more democratic elections, the privatization of state enterprises and economic liberalization and would collect over 10,000 signatures.

 Charter 08 is reminiscent of the Varela Project that was initially signed by 11,020 Cubans in May of 2002 calling on the Cuban government to respect international human rights norms and engage in the same kind of reforms. Both were inspired by Vaclav Havel and Charter 77. Lamentably, the author of the Varela Project, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founding leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and a youth leader of the same movement, Harold Cepero Escalante were both extrajudicially executed twelve years ago on July 22, 2012 in a crash engineered by the Cuban dictatorship's agents.

The demand for justice remains unfulfilled in all these cases, but we must not despair.

We bear witness embracing truth and memory in defiance of the attempt to whitewash and forget. 

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained the importance of doing this in his 1986 Nobel Lecture on why it is important to remember:  

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." ... "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." 

In 2017, I was present at a candlelight vigil in Washington, DC on July 17th organized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation to pay my respects for Liu Xiaobo and demonstrate my solidarity with Chinese human rights defenders.

 On Saturday July 11, 2026 I was in front of the Cuban embassy in a vigil in solidarity with Cubans jailed for taking to the streets in over 50 towns and cities across Cuba, in remembrance of Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, and Christian Barrera Díaz during the 11J protests, for the 37 victims of the July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre and in remembrance of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante both killed by the secret police on July 22, 2012, and for Liu Xiaobo. Together with15 others I said prayers for these victims of communism, their loved ones, and for justice.

Today, July 13, 2026, we visited the Cuban and Chinese Embassies and briefly picketed the,, and distributed information to passersby.

We continue to remember, and demand justice. 

July 11, 2022
Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, Age: 36
Christian Barrera Díaz, Age: 24

July 13, 2017
Liu Xiaobo, Age: 61

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

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

Dr. Ricardo Bofill, founder of the Cuban human rights movement. Requiescat in Pace

 "I can't understand the hatred towards me. Because, really in the only field I’ve done battle, is the field of ideas." - Dr. Ricardo Bofill, 1987 in "Nobody Listened" documentary 

Dr. Ricardo Bofill in a PBS documentary in 2005

The founder of the human rights movement in Cuba passed away on this day seven years ago in Miami. Ricardo Bofill Pagés co-founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1976, dedicated his entire life to defending human rights and suffered years in Cuban prisons for it.

This blog has celebrated the work of Dr. Bofill over the years and will do so again today. His story and legacy changed the course of a nation, and the outcome is still playing out today. The 400th blog on this site was dedicated to him.

Honrar honra.Ricardo Bofill, una referencia ineludible en la defensa de los DD.HH. de los cubanos. pic.twitter.com/IwCGlPsxtt

— Regis Iglesias (@maverick18mcl) December 10, 2014

 On December 10, 2014 Regis Iglesias, spokesperson of the Christian Liberation Movement at 1:40pm posted a picture of Ricardo Bofill over twitter with the text: "Honoring honor. Ricardo Bofill, an essential reference in the defense of Human Rights of Cubans." He was and remains correct in his assessment of this man.

Ricardo Bofill, President of the organization that initiated the civic movement during 

the first exposition of dissident art, shortly before an assault by repressive forces

 In the 1987 documentary Nobody Listened, directed by Néstor Almendros and Jorge Ulla the world was introduced to Ricardo Bofill and the nonviolent human rights movement on the big screen.  Dr. Bofill is interviewed and discusses his circumstances as a dissident in Cuba engaged in the battle of ideas:

"I can't understand the hatred towards me. Because, really in the only field I’ve done battle, is the field of ideas. In this field I’ve had no response just prison and the police. And I don’t know why because the revolution controls all mass media. They have editorials, journalists, even many writers in the world. I don’t know why the response, time and again, has been jail. The response should come in the field I fight in, with ideas. I was arrested again in 1983. On that occasion, I was sentenced to 17 years in jail accused of activities in the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and the last period of prison began. For reasons of health and others I know not of in 1985 I was placed in the status I’m now in which is “conditional liberty with restriction of movement.”

Fidel Castro was asked the name of the human rights defender in another interview. The Cuban dictator dismisses his importance, but it is obvious in the context of his answer that he knows very well who this lone activist is, and views him as a threat.

Dr. Ricardo Bofill in the documentary Nobody Listened in 1987

 Why do they view Bofill's movement as an existential threat? The Castro dictatorship's ideology and revolution are based in violence and blood shed. The July 26, 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks is a failure not only in the short term defeat suffered by Castro's forces but in the long term degradation of Cuban society and the abandonment of dialogue, moral and ethical restraints in favor of a cult of violence nurtured by a dictatorship now in its 60th year in power. 

Even the men responsible for doing this now complain about the society their revolution has created.They blame Cubans for their poor behavior and customs. Of course men and women with sound moral groundings who speak clearly what they believe and defend human dignity and freedom have an unfortunate tendency to die under suspicious circumstances in Cuba.

There are two traditions battling for control in Cuba. One tradition, embodied by the Castro regime, based on violence and the destruction of the other has dominated Cuba's political discourse for over half a century. It views dissent as treason and demands unanimity; the only acceptable ideas belong to the dictatorship. 

The second, an older tradition that built the institutions of Cuban democracy in the 19th Century using nonviolent means, who founded companies with a social conscience such as Bacardi, that contributed to the common good until forced out of their homeland, and of the democrats who helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 are still there in Cuba's nonviolent civic resistance movement.

This is the movement founded by Ricardo Bofill and a handful of activists on January 28, 1976 that today is  a nationwide movement of thousands who are nonviolently engaged in the battle of ideas and the defense of human rights. Today's repression across the island continues to demonstrate that the Castro regime is terrified of what Ricardo Bofill started.

In an open letter written in 1986 Dr. Bofill rejected regime slanders and staked out their position as a movment: "We have nothing to do with the CIA, we do not participate in violent acts, we have no other weapon than the word, and we are going to use it while we have a breath of life left."

In 1988 he was forced out of the country by the dictatorship, but continued his human rights work from exile in Miami, while Gustavo Arcos remained and continued to do the work in Cuba.

Dr. Bofill meets President Reagan in The White House in 1988

 It is a long and frustrating struggle to achieve the freedom of a country in the grip of totalitarian rule. One must neither over estimate or underestimate what has been achieved and what remains to be done. This is a marathon, not a sprint that requires persistence and faith, not despair. 

Dr. Bofill told me that 35 years ago and it still holds true today.

This is what he did, and Dr. Ricardo Bofill's legacy will live on in Cuba and in the end will triumph over the forces of brute force and tyranny.

Requiescat in pace Professor.

 

Bad day for the Cuban dictatorship at the United Nations (Part 1)

Ambassador Mike Waltz highlights Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara's case at the UN

Yesterday, Cuba’s communist dictatorship in New York City at the United Nations demonstrated once again that one can win a vote, and still lose.

There was a vote on whether or not to have an additional debate on the Cuban embargo, and it won with 136 votes with nine against and 30 abstentions. This was a further erosion of 29 votes when compared to the resolution from October 2025. 

However the statement made by Ambassador Mike Waltz, U.S. Representative to the United Nations exposed the kleptocratic nature of the dictatorship, and the wealth of the Cuban dictatorship amidst the squalor lived by most Cuban people.

 Even more important, Ambassador Waltz highlighted and named some of the over 1,300 Cuban political prisoners jailed today.

 He called out the Cuban delegation for trying to shut down his presentation.

"For 67 years, the Cuban regime has enriched itself, its ruling elites, while abusing its people, strangling private enterprise, criminalizing dissent, and clinging to failed communist economics.

Colleagues, communism has never worked, it doesn’t work, and it will not work.

And when the Cuban people demanded something better, something different, to have a voice, the regime could choose to listen, but it did not. Instead, it chose to imprison 800 of its own people.

And I want to take a moment to read a few of their names. You should hear their names. You should see their faces.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara. You know what his crime was? He’s in maximum security prison. His crime, and this is according to the regime is “artistic expression.” His crime is being an artist, Mr. President.

Fernando Almenares Rivera. His crime? He’s a musician, and he writes songs the regime doesn’t like, calling for freedom.

Maykel Castillo Perez. Another musician in a maximum security prison. What did he do? He also wrote rap songs the regime doesn’t like.

This young man, this amazing young man, Duannis Dabel León Taboada, is a young poet. He’s a poet. He writes poetry, colleagues. 14 years in a maximum security prison.

And these two brothers, Jorge Martín, Nadir Martín Perdomo. The UN—you all—have condemned their imprisonment and called for their release. See their faces as you make your speeches today. Remember them. Because they’re in prison for daring for freedom.

Colleagues, they’re not armed. They’re not violent. They carry flowers, and write poems, and write music. And for that, the regime beats them, detains them, and tries to break them.

These are the names the delegation here banging on the table doesn’t want you to hear. They don’t want this Assembly to hear it. They don’t like free speech. They don’t like dissent."

Yesterday, Vaclav Havel’s maxim written in his important essay, The Power of the Powerless, was seen in action. “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.”

Truth and facts are exposing the Cuban dictatorship before the international community, and shaking the regime's pillars to their very core.

This is the first of two blog entries on the UN vote.

Please join us on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 7pm at the Cuban Embassy in a silent vigil for Cuba's political prisoners and the victims of Castroism.