"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)
"Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future." - Elie Wiesel
Secret police in plain clothes firing live ammunition at protesters on August 5, 1994
28 years ago on August 5, 1994, a thousand Cubans marched through the streets of Havana chanting "Freedom!"and "Down With Castro!" They were met with
brutal repression, including regime agents dressed in plain clothes shooting live rounds at unarmed
demonstrators.
Cubans chant "Freedom" and "Down with Castro" on August 5, 1994 in Havana
Last year on July 11, 2021 it happened again, but this time it was not just in
Havana, but across the island with tens of thousands of Cubans
participating in over 50 cities and towns. The response of the
dictatorship was the same as 1994, but this time the images reached the
world almost immediately.
Cubans chant "Freedom" "Patria y Vida" and "Down with the dictatorship" on July 11, 2021.
In 2013 photographs taken during the 1994 protests by Karel Poort, a Dutch visitor, were made public and confirmed the anecdotal accounts of that day. Cuban dissident Regis Iglesias described how the dictatorship militarized the streets in an effort to terrorize the populace:
A convoy of trucks crammed with repressive special troops and a vehicle
with a 50 caliber machine gun on top patrolled up and down the long
street.
Little has been reported on this, but some of the images and sounds remain. This combined with testimony of those who were there provide a better idea of what took place.
What happened?
Five hundred of the Cubans had arrived at the Havana sea wall
(El Malecon) to board a launch that was rumored was going to be taken
to Miami. These people were not seeking to overthrow the dictatorship
but did want to live in freedom.
They were met by the Castro
dictatorship's secret police who told the crowd to
disperse.
Instead of diffusing the situation another 500 Cubans joined
in and they began to march along the Malecon chanting "Freedom!"and
"Down With Castro! After marching for a kilometer, a hundred Special Brigade members and plain clothes police confronted the protesters firing live rounds into the crowd.
Secret police aiming handgun at protesters on August 5, 1994
28 years later and the full details of what transpired remains mostly silenced despite the pictures of regime officials pointing their handguns
at the demonstrators combined with reports of the sounds of gun shots
and wounded protesters echoing down through the years in anecdotal
stories about that day.
Eyewitness account
Ignacio Martínez Montero
Ignacio Martínez Montero posted on la Voz del Morro a first hand account of what happened that day that is translated to English below:
Then came theyear94One hotAugustof thatyear's day,I'd arrived at mymother in laws home inCubaandChacónin the heart ofOld Havana,near theMalecón,for that reason alone, after visitingmymother in law, I sat, like many,on the wall ofthe bay,very close to wherestill today the famous Casablanca launch travels in and out. That year wasturbulent, constantly talking aboutboatsdiverted toMiami,andthe tugboat. Maybe that's whythe specialbrigade trucks arrived and attacked allof us who were sitting.
Our response tothis aggressionwasonly to clamorfor freedom. It has been saidthat we threwstones; but all thatis a lie, the truth was thatwe were tired ofso much aggressionandwithoutagreeing to we began towalk togetherscreaming,Enough, Down with the revolution... Andbefore reaching HotelDeauville,abattalion waited for us thatattackeduswith sticks andiron rods. It was they whomade the big mess.They broke my lefteyebrowand left me semi-lame.Yes, there wereassaults andthe aggressors had guns, but not among thecivilians.One oftheboyswhowentwith us,who was calledthe Moor,evenwhilehandcuffed, they shot himin thetorsoandit was amiracle that he did not die. Who do you thinkpaid forthat?No one.
They put us in a truckwhere theyreceived us with beatingsonlyto convince us to scream "Viva Fidel." They took us tothe police stationlocated atLand Malecon.Hours laterI was taken toCalixtoGarcía hospital. There theyattended to my foot and I treated the eyebrow wound; the medical certificate, never appeared.From thereweboardedanother busand were takentothe prison15/80, I could say"kidnapped" because nobody knew where we were. Somekids andnephews of my dad, who werewith us, were released immediately.A boycould not take itand ended uphanged.No one learned of this; butwe are manythe witnesses whoknowwhat reallyhappened thatAugust 5th 1994, the day of Maleconazo.
Twenty eight
years later and the Castro regime continues in power terrorizing,
beating, torturing and murdering nonviolent dissidents, and shooting young black men in the back, but some Progressive Americans want to apply Cuban style policing
in the United States, and claim that there is a lot we can learn from
them.
We invite all people of good will to remember some of the victims of the Cuban dictatorship.
Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was a 36-year-old singer who was shot in the back by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) in Havana on July 12.
There are others, but they have not been officially recognized.
This is the case of Christian Díaz,
age 24, disappeared after joining the 11J protests. Relatives on July 12
reported him missing to the PNR in Cárdenas. Police told his father that
Christian was jailed in Matanzas. On Aug. 5, officials informed his
family he’d drowned in the sea and was buried in a mass grave. His
family is convinced he was beaten to death.
Hopefully, the events of July 11, 2021 and August 5, 1994 will wake up more to
the true nature of the Castro dictatorship, and the need to be in
solidarity with the Cuban people, not their oppressors.
Bodies from July 26 Moncada Assault. MCL turns in Project Varela petitions
Today, the Castro regime, its fellow travelers and agents of influence
will continue the lie that something positive occurred on July 26,
1953. The only way that they can accomplish this exercise is by
rewriting and
omitting history. Here is some of what they won't tell you.
July 26, 1953 was a tragic day when Cubans killed Cubans in a failed attempt to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista with an attack on the Moncada Barracks.
In the early morning hours of July 26, 1953 a group of Cubans led
by Fidel Castro assaulted the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.
Approximately, 18 government officials were killed and 28 wounded in
the attack. 27 rebels were killed and 11 wounded. 51 of the surviving
99 rebels were placed on trial. Fidel Castro turned himself in after
seeking guarantees for his safety and was also put on trial.
Aftermath of the July 26, 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks
This attack turned Fidel Castro into a national figure. He would go on to
name his movement, the July 26th Movement.
Between 1902 and 1952 with moments of great glory and great shame the
Cuban Republic transited through 17 democratically elected presidents.
One of them, Gerardo Machado elected in 1925, despite constitutional
prohibitions, he had the constitution modified and ran for re-election
in 1928. He became a despot,
and was removed from office by force in 1933. This led to a return to
democracy.
Cuban presidents from 1902 to 1952, and dictator Batista 1952-1959.
Tragically, this democratic republic was brought to an end on March 10,
1952 by Fulgencio Batista. Batista was a military man who had entered
the presidency in free and fair elections in 1940 ( in coalition with
the communist party) and left office in 1944. He returned to Cuba under
the presidency of Cuba's last democratically elected president, Carlos Prio and within days of the next presidential elections, when Batista saw that he could not win at the ballot box, carried out a
successful coup against the democratic order that had existed from 1902 -
1952.
Fidel Castro during his trial on October 16, 1953 addressed the court in what became known as the "“History Will Absolve Me” speech:
“Let me tell you a story: Once upon a time there was a Republic. It had
its Constitution, its laws, its freedoms, a President, a Congress and
Courts of Law. Everyone could assemble, associate, speak and write with
complete freedom." …"Public opinion was respected and heeded and all
problems of common interest were freely discussed. There were political
parties, radio and television debates and forums of public meetings. The
whole nation pulsated with enthusiasm.”
The promise made by the July 26th Movement was to restore the preexisting
democratic order along with reforms. The Castro brothers ended a
seven year authoritarian dictatorship, and replaced it with a communist
dictatorship that has ruled over Cuba for 63 years and counting.
The
Castro dictatorship was not a break from Batista but a continuity into
more profound tyranny that continues to kill Cubans.
Contrast this with what Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) did. In the midst of a
totalitarian dictatorship were all media are controlled by the
government along with economic life they managed to lead a movement that
persuaded more than 35,000 Cubans to identify themselves, demand
democratic reforms, and the restoration of human rights knowing that the Varela Project petition
they were signing could lead to losing their jobs, having their
children denied access to higher education and in the worse case prison.
On 5/10/02, MCL members delivered 11,020 Varela Project signatures to the National Assembly. (Jose Goitia/AP)
The images of the movement, unlike the Castro regime's are nonviolent
and inclusive and focus on liberation and reconciliation not violence
and killing. They do not seek to destroy or slander anyone but
to free a people.
Coordinators of the Varela Project
Oswaldo and his movement rejected hatred and violence. They never killed anyone and offered
a path to a nonviolent democratic transition.
Oswaldo's nonviolent legacy has
continued beyond him and is a positive tradition for Cuba. His nonviolent
struggle followed two of the basic principles outlined by nonviolence practitioner Michael
N. Nagler: "We are not against other people, only what they are doing.
Means are ends in the making; nothing good can finally result from
violence."
Oswaldo Payá receives the Sakharov Prize in Strasbourg, France in 2002
In December 2002, thanks to lobbying and pressure from Spain,
Oswaldo Payá was able to travel to Strasbourg, France to receive the
European Union's Sakharov Prize and address the chamber where he outlined the movement's position to an international
audience.
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.
Sixty nine years after the tragic events of July 26, 1953 the Castro
regime celebrates this shedding of blood between Cubans as "the victory of ideas,"
but in reality it was the triumph of brute violence and terror in the
short term by Batista's forces on that day and in 1959 by Castro's
forces.
In Cuba the government has turned it into a day of drinking,
parties, parades, speeches and the colors red and black prominently
displayed. This all occurs with prominent military displays and
propaganda images worshiping violent revolution.
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 half a century.
It views dissent as treason and demands unanimity; the only acceptable
ideas are the dictatorship's.
These civic activists were courteous, and respected the dignity of all Cubans. Some were feminists who obtained the right of Cuban women to vote
in the old Republic and went on to defend the rights of poor women to a
decent education and better opportunities.
They nonviolently resisted
the imposition of Castro's totalitarian regime and either went into
exile, prison, were killed, or despite great odds are still struggling
for Cuban freedom on the streets of Cuba today.
Ten years after the July 22, 2012 murders of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante and it remains clear that the future belongs to the
nonviolent resistance. The dictatorship may have killed two of its great
nonviolent leaders, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas,
but in doing so exposed its own brutal nature and undermined itself.
What a post-Castro Cuba will look like can already be intimated.
Castroism will be relegated to a sad and cautionary chapter in Cuban
history that it deserves to be.
May
10, 2002 will be a day of celebration in Cuba commemorating the day that
the first 11,020 signatures of the Varela Project
were presented to the National Assembly demanding human rights and
democratic reforms.
"Down with the dictatorship - Homeland and Life" Cuba, July 11, 2021
July 11, 2021 will also be a day of celebration for the day that tens of thousands of Cubans peacefully gathered across the island demanding freedom and an end to dictatorship.
International Human Rights Day will once again become a day to celebrate and observe human rights in Cuba and not a day of repression. The Cuban Republic's human rights tradition and the role it played in the drafting and passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948 will be
restored and celebrated in Cuba.
Finally, the phrase "Patria o Muerte" will be rejected, and "Patria, Libertad y Vida" embraced.
Cuba is a place where the government imprisons, forcibly exiles, or
kills citizens who peacefully petition for change within the existing
constitutional framework in defense of human rights.
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante, two martyrs for democracy in the Americas, were killed on July 22, 2012 by Castro's secret police.
Oswaldo Payá was sixty years old at the time that he was murdered by agents of the Castro regime. He was a family man and lay Catholic from Havana, an engineer, who in September 1988 founded the Christian Liberation Movement with fellow Catholics in the neighborhood of El Cerro, and over the next 23 years would carry out important campaigns to support human rights and a transition to democracy in Cuba.He would speak out against human rights violations and demand dignity for victims, even if it meant criticizing the US for the mistreatment of Al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base prison in 2002.
Despite this, Harold and other students were expelled from
the university for signing it and sharing it with others. The secret
police would organize a mob to "judge", scream at, insult, threaten and
expel the students who had signed the Varela Project. Following his expulsion on November 13, 2002, Harold wrote a letter in
which he cautioned that "Those who steal the rights of others steal
from themselves. Those who remove and crush freedom are the true
slaves."
Expelled from
the university for signing the Varela Project together with other
students. He entered a seminary and began studying to enter the
priesthood, but left to join the Christian Liberation Movement and
became a human rights activist.
On
May 10, 2002, Oswaldo, along with Regis Iglesias and Tony Diaz Sanchez
of the Christian Liberation Movement, turned in 11,020 Varela Project petitions, and news of the petition drive was reported worldwide.
Regis Iglesias and Tony Diaz Sanchez were sentenced to long prison sentences in March 2003 following show trials, along with 73 other Cuban dissidents. Many of them had taken part in the Varela Project and, nearly eight years later, were forced into exile as an alternative to completing their prison sentences.
In spite of the crackdown, Oswaldo would turn in another 14,384 petition signatures with Freddy Martini on October 5, 2003. He would spend the next eight years campaigning for the release of his imprisoned compatriots and continuing campaigns to achieve a democratic transition in Cuba.
Ten years, two months and twelve days after turning in the first Varela Project petitions while traveling with two international visitors in Eastern Cuba on a Sunday afternoon on July 22, 2012, Oswaldo and Harold were killed. Cuban state security bumped into the car they were driving, and when the vehicles stopped, with everyone still alive in the car, they approached the driver, striking him in the temple with the butt of a pistol. Within hours, the lifeless and brutalized bodies of both men would appear.
These are somber times with a pandemic raging across the world, killing millions, in part, due to the lack of transparency of the Chinese Communist Party. Thousands have died in Cuba from COVID-19, in part because of the decision of the Cuban Communists to highlight their domestic vaccines, waiting months to inoculate their populace while vaccines were being distributed across the rest of Latin America.
Oswaldo Payá, when awarded the Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought on December 17, 2002, spoke prophetically when he said: "The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people." "The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized."
In the midst of darkness, it is important to remember these points of light that give us hope and a path to freedom and improved human rights in Cuba, and around the world.
Oswaldo Payá, Harold Cepero, and others living and dead have laid the groundwork that made possible the nonviolent character of the mass nationwide protests that marked a new before and after in Cuban history on July 11, 2021.
"Whoever
destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the
whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture
to have saved the whole world." - Mishnah (1135-1204)
Harold Cepero Escalante (January 29, 1980 - July 22, 2012)
Harold Cepero Escalante was born in the town of Chambas, in the province of Ciego de Ávila on January 29, 1980.
He was drawn to his local Catholic Church in Chambas while in High
School.
In 1998, at age 18 he moved to Cuba's third largest city, Camagüey, and began his studies at the University of Camagüey. He also
began, along with other university students, to take part in informal
conversations with Father Alberto Reyes Pías.
Student expelled for signing the Varela Project
In 2002 Harold together with other university students signedthe Varela Project.
The Varela Project, named after the 19th century Cuban Catholic Priest Felix Varela
who resisted Spanish colonialism, was a citizen initiative that
gathered signatures to hold a referendum to change existing laws in
order to reform the Cuban legal system
to bring it in line with international human rights standards. The Christian Liberation Movement (MLC) had
followed the letter of the law in organizing the campaign.
Harold knew that this regime pushed petition drive was a direct reaction
to the Varela Project and refused to sign it. He also began to explain
this among students at the university in the dormitories and hallways
without fear. This is when the threats of expulsion from the university
began.
The dictatorship's "petition" quickly passed through the rubber stamp legislature without
debating the Varela Project, which according to the Cuban law drafted by
the regime meant that it should have been debated by the National
Assembly.
On November 13, 2002 State Security organized a mob to judge and expel Harold Cepero and Yoan Columbié, another youth who signed the Varela Project. They were screamed at, insulted, threatened and finally expelled.
This is a 2002 interview with Harold Cepero, and other students expelled from school for signing the Varela Project.
With all due respect and the sincerity that they deserve, I think the arguments abound for our defense. Apparently
the motive for this act, or I do not know how to call it, is our bad
attitude towards the politics that prevail in our country today. The other, our approval of the Varela Project.I will start
by saying that said project is a project of law signed by over eleven thousand Cubans
(electors) and gathers up the fundamental needs of our people. I
do not know why they are attempting (you who are now in a privileged
situation with
respect to us and those who think like us) to repress something that is
not motivated by, nor has its origin in the hatred of the people, but
rather in
openness, mutual respect, and dialogue.
Theyfromtheir condition as:students, professors, PCC, UJC, etc., are breaking the lawof the Republic.They are trying totrample onour dignity, that is of equal worth to theirs, a recognition andlegal statustodevelop fully. Therefore, I think it totally unfairwhat they are attempting todo.Thisis a violationof international law, the Constitutionandabove all againstourpeople.
The Varela Projectis totally legaland recognizedpublicly byFidelCastro.Also, ifwe support itbecause we believe itisjust andsoIwould like them toconsider it.The thingswe ask for do notexcludeanyone, we simplywanta space (whichbelongs to us)inthe social life ofCuba.
Expelling usis not the solutionneitherfor them or for us, it would be betterto ask yourself why are there young peoplewho are filledwith concernand worry for the welfareof the country.It would begood that theyexplainto the students andto the peoplewhat theVarelaProject is, what does it ask, and sogiveeveryone the rightto think andchoose.
Today we arekicked out ofthe universityfor this.Tomorrow it could beoneof you forjust beingdifferent, for permitting yourself to think.
They are wanting toperpetuatesomething that it is noteven knownif it is fair, and in this manner they are denyingthe progress ofa society thatwantssomething new, something thatreallyguaranteesa dignified place for every Cuban. They are pressuringpeople orpreventing them fromexpressing theirtrue feelings, they are cultivatingfear inthe nation.
Under the pretextof defending freedomthey areattacking it. Martíwould say it like this: "The knifethat is stabbed inthe name of freedomis plungedinto the chestof freedom". Theyshould thinkif at the bottom of this attitudethere is a realrespect for freedom, becauseto sayfreedom,to be free,isnot to snatch thefreedom of others. I therefore ask that before theyexpel usask themselveshow long can they keepsilent the mourningandthe reality ofCuba, and remind them thatthe damage theycando to us isdamage thattheydo to themselves. Andmore: it isa direct threat toevery Cuban.
Those who stealthe rights of othersstealfromthemselves.Those whoremoveand crushfreedomare the trueslaves.
Scores of Varela Project activists were
arrested less than a year later in a crackdown that started on March 18, 2003 and became known as the Cuban Black
Spring. Within days 75 human rights defenders, independent journalists, and Varela Project organizers were sentenced to long prison terms and recognized as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. Other Varela Project petitioners were threatened with the death penalty.
Leaves seminary, and becomes a human rights defender
In 2003 Harold entered the Seminary of the City of Camaguey
and spent the next two years there. In 2005 he is transferred to the
San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana.
In 2009, Harold left the seminary
and joined the Christian Liberation Movement and begins to coordinate
its youth group and became a member of the Coordinating Council of the MLC. He organized workshops on leadership training.
Harold understood that those who engaged in repression were also not free stating "[t]hose who removeand crushfreedomare the realslaves."
Martyred ten years ago today.
Three years later on July 22, 2012 Harold Cepero Escalante was killedin Bayamo, Granma with Oswaldo Payá, the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement while on their way to conduct trainings in Eastern Cuba.
Investigations, and a hearing over the past decade
On July 22, 2015, Javier El-Hage and Roberto González
of the Human Rights Foundation released a 147-page report titled The Case of Oswaldo Payáconcluded it was "the result of a car crash directly caused by agents
of the State, acting (1) with the intent to kill Oswaldo Payá
and the passengers in the vehicle he was riding, (2) with the intent to
inflict grievous bodily harm to them, or (3) with reckless or depraved
indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to the life of the most
prominent Cuban activist in the last twenty-five years and the
passengers riding with him in the car."
People of goodwill that wish to send a message to the international
community that the deaths of Oswaldo
and Harold need to be investigated should sign the petition circulated
by the Christian Liberation Movement. They are demanding truth and
justice for their murdered founder Oswaldo Payá, and murdered youth
leader Harold Cepero.