Pope Francis in Cuba Day 2 the halfway point: A Call to Service in the Midst of a Crackdown

"Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people" - Pope Francis, Homily in Havana, September 20, 2015

Pope Francis officiates Mass in Havana, Cuba today

Tonight the Associated Press reported that the Vatican spokesman confirmed that some dissidents were called and invited to events where they would receive a greeting from Pope Francis. "Monsignor Federico Lombardi says no formal meeting was planned. Lombardi says the dissidents never showed up but he cannot confirm that it was because they were arrested." Over twitter Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva both informed through their respective accounts that they had been invited and the circumstances surrounding their arrests by Cuban state security. This is the second time that dissidents have been invited to an event to meet the Pope and been detained.

The regime's resistance to change was on display yesterday when opposition activists that His Holiness wanted to meet with privately were arrested outside their homes while trying to reach the Apostolic Nunciature. Today scores of activists were rounded up to prevent them from attending the Holy Mass with Pope Francis at 10:30am. Nevertheless four opposition activists were caught on film, with one of them able to reach Pope Francis and receive a blessing before the three were taken away by state security agents. Univision managed to catch the whole affair on film and it is embedded below and is a visual testament to the totalitarian nature of the regime.


Meanwhile although His Holiness has not addressed the repression committed against dissidents on the island, Pope Francis has continued his pastoral mission. The excerpt of the Homily given by Pope Francis at the Holy Mass in Havana at the Plaza of the Revolution today, Sunday, September 20,  2015 focused on the nature of service and is a powerful reflection that merits being studied and prayed upon:

The call to serve involves something special, to which we must be attentive.  Serving others chiefly means caring for their vulnerability.  Caring for the vulnerable of our families, our society, our people.  Theirs are the suffering, fragile and downcast faces which Jesus tells us specifically to look at and which he asks us to love.  With a love which takes shape in our actions and decisions.  With a love which finds expression in whatever tasks we, as citizens, are called to perform.  People of flesh and blood, people with individual lives and stories, and with all their frailty: these are those whom Jesus asks us to protect, to care for, to serve.  Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it.  That is why Christians are constantly called to set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those who are most vulnerable.

There is a kind of “service” which truly “serves”, yet we need to be careful not to be tempted by another kind of service, a “service” which is “self-serving”.  There is a way to go about serving which is interested in only helping “my people”, “our people”.  This service always leaves “your people” outside, and gives rise to a process of exclusion.

All of us are called by virtue of our Christian vocation to that service which truly serves, and to help one another not to be tempted by a “service” which is really “self-serving”.  All of us are asked, indeed urged, by Jesus to care for one another out of love.  Without looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is doing or not doing.  Jesus tells us: Whoever would be first among you must be the last, and the servant of all”.  He does not say: if your neighbor wants to be first, let him be the servant!  We have to be careful to avoid judgmental looks and renew our belief in the transforming look to which Jesus invites us.

This caring for others out of love is not about being servile.  Rather, it means putting our brothers and sisters at the center.  Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” in trying to help.  Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.

Jonathan Watts, of The Guardian, spoke with Angel Moya who described how at least 31 activists had been detained from attending the Mass this morning, but that was not the complete number and he was still obtaining further information. Here is an excerpt of Mr. Watts's report:

I just spoke to Angel Moya, a prominent activist who said at least 31 people were detained this morning to prevent them from attending the pope’s mass. “They are the ones we know of, but we are still counting,” he said. Moya was among them. After being held in a police station from 5am to 11:30, he said he was picked up along with his wife, Berta Soler – the leader of the Damas do Blanco (Ladies in White) group that campaigns for prisoner releases. With more than 20 other activists from the group who were gathered ahead of their planned journey to Revolution Square, when the police moved in with what he described as a “repressive, aggressive operation that was specifically targeted to prevent us from attending the public mass.”

The world has been opening to Cuba and Cuba would like to open to the world, but a dynastic totalitarian dictatorship is unwilling to do anything that would endanger the continuation of its 56 years in power. The image of the Maoist mass murderer Ernesto "Che" Guevara casts a shadow not only over the Plaza of the Revolution in Cuba but the world in general, and it is a legacy of bloodshed, terrorism and war in the pursuit of ideological ends. This includes resisting an authentic opening in Cuba where Cubans are the authors of their own destiny and imposing that model in Venezuela. Refusing to recognize this difficult reality will have dire consequences for the region.

International Human Rights Day 2014 and the Enduring Legacy of Dr. Ricardo Bofill

"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

International Human Rights Day in Cuba 2014 and men and women in Cuba continue to be arbitrarily detained, harassed and beaten for peacefully demonstrating in favor of human rights. Thanks to courageous activists across the island the world learned about these injustices today via twitter moments after the repression unfolded and at the same time the nonviolent actions of nonviolent opposition and human rights activists. Here is a brief sampling of some of those voices:

Sayli Navarro reported tonight that "in Colon 5  Ladies in White gathered together where Caridad Burunate  lives and handed out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Angel Juan Moya at 8pm described over twitter how today, on December 10th, police beat Lady in White Adisnidia Dallet with a pistol while arresting her. He attached the above photo.

At 5:14pm the Ladies in White reported that the latest news was that hundreds had been detained and their counterparts abroad posted a press release.

Yoani Sanchez reported at 3:21pm over twitter that "police arrested and warned 14 y medio reporters for 'doing something illegal' ... but [Yoani exclaimed] they are doing journalism!"

 Rosa María Payá Acevedo at 1:24pm over twitter provided the context for what was taking place: "December 10th will go down in history as the day of State Security brutality. This is how the Government makes a mockery of human rights in Cuba."

At 12:36pm today the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) tweeted that "communist hordes assaulted the home of Elder Perez, of MCL in Majibacoa and beat up his wife who is pregnant."

Via telephone the Cuban Democratic Directorate today documented numerous demonstrations taking place across the island and also interviewed Sonia Garro who was sent home yesterday after spending two years, eight months and 22 days along with her husband and neighbor arbitrarily detained and is currently under house arrest. None of the three activists have undergone a judicial proceeding.

Ricardo Bofill, Cuban human rights pioneer

Regis Iglesias, spokesperson of the Christian Liberation Movement at 1:40pm over twitter posted a picture of Ricardo Bofill with the text: "Honoring honor. Ricardo Bofill, an essential reference in the defense of  Human Rights of Cubans."

These courageous activists are the disciples of Dr. Ricardo Bofill. Dr. Ricardo Bofill along with Martha Frayde and Eddy Lopez founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1976. In 1987, Nobody Listened, the documentary directed by Néstor Almendros and Jorge Ulla first introduced the world to Ricardo Bofill and the nonviolent human rights movement in this video.

Later in the same documentary, in the video above,  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.”

 Following the interview with Bofill in an interview with Fidel Castro the name of the human rights defender is raised. Castro dismisses his importance, but it is obvious in the context of the interview that he knows very well who this lone activist is.  Bofill went into exile and the leadership of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights passed to Gustavo Arcos who died of natural causes in 2006, but remains an icon of the Cuban human rights movement.

What started in 1976 as three activists based in Havana, in and out of prison, is now 38 years later 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 them.

Is there a nationwide crackdown underway in Cuba?

Human Rights Defenders violently repressed today in Cuba

Activists home raided and ransacked at 6am today. Both arrested

A half-dozen members of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU), including its leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, were beaten and arrested yesterday on their way to Las Tunas from from Santiago de Cuba.

At 6:00am today (June 11, 2014) in Cuba the home of Cuban democracy activists Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" and Yris Perez Aguilera was assaulted as they slept and ransacked by state security agents.  They were beaten and taken away. Following their arrest Yris managed to send out some tweets informing what happened:

They have us in police instruction after they raided our house @yriscuba
SOS In deep sleep Political police raided the house @yriscuba
They assaulted our home. @yriscuba

Damaris Moya Portieles, president of the Opposition Movement for a Free Cuba, from Santa Clara informed the Cuban Democratic Directorate that she had "recieved a message of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera that says that "at six in the morning her home was raided by the National Revolutionary Policy and State Security, where they were arrested and at this moment are in the Police Instruction unit here in the city of Santa Clara." 

At 12:29pm the Cuban Democratic Directorate tweeted that twelve activists of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo (OZT) Front in Camagüey were detained for demanding freedom for Yris and Antunez.

At 10:38am over twitter Roberto Guerra, a Cuban independent journalist and head of the Hablemos Press news service, reported that he had been beaten up and left bloodied by agents of the Castro regime (pictured below).

Independent journalist assaulted by regime agents

Martha Beatriz Roque, former prisoner of conscience, was beaten outside her home by two women who refused to identify themselves then a regime agent approached and explained that she could not leave her house.

Members of The Ladies in White, including its leader Berta Soler, and her husband Angel Moya were arrested today reported Henry Constatin. 

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez", Yris Perez Aguilera, Berta Soler and Roberto J. Guerra have spoken out about the human rights situation in important venues and you can watch them online. A great way to help them would be to raise their profile by sharing their presentations and allowing others to get to know them.

 A conversation with Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez "Antúnez of Cuba
http://youtu.be/R131CwqsEeg

Yris Perez Aguilera addresses the United Nations Human Rights Council
http://youtu.be/0fHYX-UNTQc

Interview with Berta Soler and the Ladies in White
http://youtu.be/5S9xk9u7YUM

Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez - Oslo Freedom Forum 2013
http://youtu.be/awGkZDOev8E  

Valentine's Day in Cuba: State Security imprisons 63 women for honoring Laura Pollan

Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler at the far right in the Cubre Terminal

Tonight, Angel Moya, a former prisoner of conscience and husband of Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler tweeted: "63 Ladies in White arrested in 32 hours by DSE repressive forces, some Ladies in White were arrested several times." Valentine's Day in Cuba takes on its original meaning: the power of love resisting brutality and injustice in the worse of places.

Why did State Security engage in a crackdown against so many nonviolent women?

There are two fundamental reasons. First, they can get away with it. The international media has been mostly silent during this crackdown. They would prefer to report on who is able to obtain a passport and who is being denied one by the dictatorship as they pursue the Castro regime's spin trying to sale cosmetic changes as real reforms. Secondly, the dictatorship fears the power of these women exercising nonviolent resistance and they still fear its founder the martyred Laura Pollán.



February 13, 2013 was the 65th anniversary of Lady in White founder Laura Pollán's birth in Cuba. The Ladies in White are a non-violent human rights movement established in March of 2003 in the midst of a massive crackdown in which their loved ones were unjustly imprisoned for exercising their fundamental human rights.  The first spokeswoman of the Ladies in White was Laura Pollán whose leadership forged a national movement that was also known and respected internationally. She died on October 14, 2011 following a mysterious illness and medical neglect.

The Ladies in White renamed themselves after Laura Pollán and have carried on defending human rights and calling for the release of all of Cuba's political prisoners. Its thanks to their courageous stand that Angel Moya is not in prison today. He was arrested on March 18, 2003 and condemned shortly afterwards in a summary show trial to 20 years in prison along with 74 others who faced stiff sentences of up to 28 years in prison. Thanks to the Ladies in White, not one of them is in prison today.


Yesterday, the Ladies in White gathered on Neptune Street in Havana, Cuba at what had been Laura Pollán's home when she was still alive to honor her and celebrate her life.

State Security mounted a huge operation detaining, beating and harassing the women trying to attend the gathering.  At the end of the day when members of the Ladies in White sought to leave Havana and return to their home provinces they were rounded up. Among those detained was the new spokeswoman Berta Soler who spent the night with her compatriots in detention and Angel Moya.

She got home three hours ago, and her husband Angel Moya tweeted the news: "Berta is already at home, State Security threatens to open a case against her."

Still trying to get news about the remaining women who were unjustly detained for trying to pay their respects to a nonviolent martyr on her birthday and have spent St. Valentine's Day behind bars.

65th Anniversary of Lady in White founder Laura Pollán's birth observed today in Cuba

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return. - Genesis 3:19

Ladies in White gathered in Havana on Calle Neptuno at the headquarters of their organization in order to observe the 65th anniversary of the birth of one of its founders,  Laura Inés Pollán Toledo who died under suspicious circumstances on October 14, 2011.

Today, was also Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent,which  also underscores human mortality and the beginning of a period of fasting and repentance. 

It was also a day in which the dictatorship mobilized its political police and state security apparatus in an effort to block, repress, beat up, and humiliate women attempting to reach Laura's home which is now the headquarters of the Ladies in White.

Sara Marta Fonseca, who appears in the photo above, directly behind Laura, on one of the walks of the Ladies in White tweeted how she was mistreated, roughed up and  beaten as she tried to attend the Literary Tea on Neptune Street to honor Laura's memory today:

Ladies in White Yanelys Cabrera and I, Sara Martha Fonseca, arrested when trying to participate in the literary tea at the headquarters of the Ladies in White. Patrol 570 left me on a deserted road stranded in the Lisa municipality. Hold State Security Department responsible for what may happen to me. Heading back to Ladies in White head quarters. I received blows to the head, back, arms, and back. I'm dizzy but will exercise my right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly. Yanelys and I arrested again heading to the Ladies in White headquarters.

Around the world human rights defenders remembered Laura Inés Pollán Toledo on the anniversary of her birth. The Human Rights Foundation tweeted in Spanish "Today is the 65th birthday of Laura Pollan see the interviews granted to HRF in 2010" and posted them in their twitter stream.

Yoani Sanchez over twitter described the atmosphere on Neptuno Street as a "tense situation throughout the day around the Ladies in White headquarters with a great police cordon and numerous arrests."

The home was surrounded by political police, state security agents and rapid response brigades. Women were threatened, detained, beaten up and dragged away told not to go to pay homage to the late Laura Pollán on the anniversary of her birth or accompany her daughter Laurita and husband Hector Maseda on this difficult day.

The tally at the end of the day tweeted by Angel Moya summed it up succinctly an hour ago: "Ladies in White homage for Laura Pollan ends in Havana, results 50 Ladies in White from different provinces present while 36 were arrested."

The dictatorship in Cuba thought when they arrested 75 activists 10 years ago on March 18, 2003 and sentenced them to long and unjust prison terms in show trials that they had crushed the opposition.  Instead Laura Pollan and the Ladies in White who had previously not been politically active mobilized to free their unjustly imprisoned loved ones. Over time what had been a narrow campaign to release their family members became a broader cause to free all of Cuba's political prisoners. 

Laura and the Ladies in White were first tested with brutal force by the regime's state security apparatus. Broken bones, and bloodied by rapid response brigades did not silence or detain these women. The release of all of their loved ones after the brute force failed to break them did not lead them to end their cause. 

Finally, the violence returned and a mysterious illness followed by medical neglect lead to Laura's death on October 14, 2011 but the Ladies in White continue to march for human rights and freedom. 

Tyrants may study how other freedom movements succeeded in overthrowing their allies of yesteryear and they may murder the Vaclav Havels and Corazon Aquinos of Cuba but what they fail to learn is that as long as a people are enslaved they will struggle to be free. 

Furthermore, despots fail to understand that our time here on Earth is short and we must make the best of it. One way to engage in a worthwhile existence is to spend it resisting tyranny and struggling for justice. Laura Pollán demonstrated this throughout her life and her memory is and will continue to be honored precisely because of that struggle to make Cuba and the world a better place. Human beings come from dust and will end up as dust, but human actions will determine what will become of human souls.

Dozens of Ladies in White and other activists beaten and arrested leaving Santa Rita Church today

We cannot celebrate Human Rights Day here in Cuba. We can't because they repress us and beat us. Right now there's an act of repudiation in front of the Ladies in White headquarters." - Bertha Soler, Lady in White, The Associated Press, December 9, 2011

Bertha Soler arrested today in Havana, Cuba

Update: 7:49pm December 9, 2012: Angel Moya reports over twitter that "More than 100 Ladies in White were violently arrested on the eve of December 10, institutionalized violence against women."

Bertha Soler made the statement at the top of the page one year ago today. She is unavailable for comment today because she along with 44 other Ladies in White was beaten up, dragged, and arrested emerging from Santa Rita Church in Havana, Cuba.

On the eve of International Human Rights Day in Cuba 45 Ladies in White and at least eight activists were arrested and beaten by agents of the Castro regime. The mainstream news based in Havana so far has been silent but Cuban independent journalists and activists are once again scooping the news bureaus via twitter. These journalists have a lot more to lose than being deported from Cuba. For example, Calixto Ramon Martinez Arias is on day 29 of a hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment since September 16, 2012. Another Cuban writer, Angel Santiesteban, has been sentenced to five years in prison for thinking differently and having the courage to set it down to paper.

The price paid by Cuban independent journalists often times is not measured in money but beatings and years in prison.

First learned of the crackdown through the Ladies in White official twitter account which stated: "Try to communicate with Lady in White Berta Soler and message says that her phone number does not exist." A short time later another tweet appears:  Arrests, repudiation rallies, the Ladies in White phones interrupted, is happening right now throughout Cuba.

Less than 20 minutes later Yoani Sanchez confirms "arrest of William Cacer Diaz who is in the station of Alamar together with Angel Moya and other activists."Angel Moya is the husband of the leader of the Ladies in White, Bertha Soler and he is also a former prisoner of conscience.

Bertha Soler and Angel Moya

 At 3:45pm Ivan Hernandez Carillo confirms the "detention and arrests of the Ladies in White who walked through 5th Avenue of Havana today and that they have been taken to whereabouts unknown." Ivan Hernandez Carillo is an independent journalist and labor activist who spent many years in prison for his nonviolent activism and journalism. Nevertheless he begins to tweet in increments of 140 characters a report of what took place today in Cuba:

Witnesses to event tell me that at 3rd & 26th, Miramar, Havana were paramilitary women of the regime in civilian dress in three buses. The women, experts in karate, dressed as civilians and part of  the political police, dragged, beat and arrested the Ladies in White. In addition to the 45 Ladies in White arrested, there was news of another eight activists who accompanied them that were also arrested. "The Ladies in White were dragged and beaten through the street" said an eyewitness, who added, "that what the regime did to them was disastrous."

News of the crackdown was confirmed via other twitterers who provided additional details. For example Felix Navarro, a former prisoner of conscience, reported that "[a]lso beaten and arrested was Angel Moya Acosta when he exited the Church of Santa Rita today."

The blogger Sayli Navarro cited Roberto J. Guerra of Hablemos Press as the source and reported that 44 Ladies in White and more than eight activists were detained in Havana and that it took place at 3rd and 26th.

Within the past hour through the twitter account of Roberto Guerra there is news that some of the Ladies in White and opposition activists are being released. The names provided are Yadira Bonbino, Santos Manuel Fernandez, Daniel Millet, Magaly Norvis, and the president of the Ladies in White Bertha Soler .

Ladies in White gathered in Havana, Cuba

International Human Rights Day 2012 requires the scrutiny of the international community along with courageous journalists to report what is going on in Cuba. The pretext for today's violent crackdown reports Diario de Cuba is that according to State Security they were arrested for not respecting the grief of the Cuban people over Chavez's health.

Al Jazeera Reports on Nonviolent Opposition in Cuba

  Al Jazeera reporter with a hidden camera reports for the program People and Power on the nonviolent opposition in Cuba. The text below is taken from the youtube page where the video report has been posted.



After 53 years of revolution, Cubans are increasingly exasperated by the restrictions imposed on them by the country's change-averse communist regime. In spite of, or perhaps because of, recent modest economic reforms, activism is growing as the government's opponents overcome their fear of arrest and take to the streets. But it is not easy. Today, even the church based Ladies in White -- a group of women relatives of imprisoned activists - say they are routinely spied on and arrested. Nevertheless, inspired by the Arab Spring, the Ladies are determined to keep up their protests, sensing that the regime's grip on power is fading and that sooner rather than later it will be forced to give way.

Filmmaker view: Filming undercover in Cuba

Following the 2011 economic reforms announced by the Cuban government for the 52nd anniversary of the country's revolution, there was widespread speculation about the possibility of comparable political reforms that would end the persecution of dissidents and the Communist Party's grip on power.

But it took a courageous Cuban journalist to make an insightful current affairs programme about it. Today, that journalist, Ivan Hernandez, is in hiding.

My first ever attempt to meet up with Ivan in a Havana bar, back in September 2011, failed for fear of being arrested by the political police on his tail.

I was on a tourist visa and aware that any encounter with political dissidents could mean immediate expulsion from the country and a permanent ban from returning.

To Fidel Castro, Ivan is a "counter-revolutionary" working for the American right-wing Cuban lobby. In reality, Ivan is just an independent freelance journalist, albeit one with a very critical view of the Cuban Revolution.

But in 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring against the government and publishing "false information". He was sent to a high security compound, isolated in an individual cell and deprived of contact with anyone other than his guards for months on end. His crime was merely to write reports about how difficult life was for the ordinary Cuban.

In 2011, Ivan was freed as a gesture of good will on the part of Fidel Castro towards Pope Benedict, ahead of his 2012 visit to Cuba. The released prisoners were given the option of leaving the island. Most of them did. But not Ivan.

"This is my country," he told me when I asked him about his decision, "why would I leave? This is my calling, my mission - to tell the truth. Life is terrible here. There's a US blockade against Cuba, and inside Cuba there's a blockade of the government against the people."

I was impressed by Ivan's determination. I thought that following him undercover as we contacted other political dissidents and victims of state-sponsored violence could illustrate what it is like to be critical of Fidel Castro in Cuba today.

Ivan liked the idea and we worked out a way to make it happen without being arrested. First, the programme had to be anonymous to protect everybody connected with me in Cuba who was unaware of what I was doing. We feared reprisals against my landlord for renting out a room to me, or my friends and colleagues who live and work in Cuba. Any suspicion against them could end their careers and seriously affect their daily lives.

From the start, Ivan warned me that one-out-of-every-five Cubans is suspected of being a police informer and that few people can be absolutely trusted. He said we needed to film with mini hidden cameras and concoct a plausible cover story for me, the foreigner in the team.

In successive trips we took cameras into Cuba without raising any suspicions and in May 2012 we started shooting. The very first challenge was to portray the lives of dissidents under surveillance without being detected. We decided that giving the activists cameras to record their own video diaries was the best option.

We established a security protocol by which if the dissident with the camera did not report back to one of us within a specified period of time, we had to assume that he had been detained. We had a network of pre-determined "safe houses" and arrangements to call each other using public phones at a given time.

I taught Ivan some counter-surveillance techniques learned by covering other conflicts but he was well used to this himself.

Filming with Berta Soller, the leader of the Ladies in White protest movement, was one of our first tasks. Aware that her apartment was under constant surveillance we used a key-fob camera to get shots as we walked up to her building, although as it turned out, our work was made easier by the fact that too many policemen and "local informers" could be persuaded to look the other way for $5.

We managed to film five interviews without being followed. Then we took the decision to meet Antonio Rodiles, a 40-year-old with a degree in Physics who had left Cuba for work and had chosen to return to defy the government's censorship from within.

In 2010, Antonio founded Estado de SATS, or State of SATS. "SATS" is a Scandinavian word that refers to the instant just before the actor has to face the audience or the runner hears the bang. The moment of greatest concentration, the adrenaline rush that precedes an explosion. State of SATS is "an initiative of young artists, intellectuals and professionals in search of a better reality". The best known work of SATS are the film-debates, produced in Antonio's own home, that circulate with great success on Cuba's alternative information networks.

But Antonio's home was surrounded by CCTV cameras. Once inside the house, we went to check the backyard, which overlooks the sea, and as we were unpacking Antonio pointed out the CCTV cameras that could possibly be filming us.

"Come on, I'll show you." We followed him and filmed him pointing at the cameras. We had to assume from that point on that we might have been spotted. But we filmed the interview anyway and left looking over our shoulders. Once in the car, we decided to lay low for a day.

Our next mission was rather ambitious: to attempt to film a one-man protest against the government in Revolution Square. Ivan had advanced knowledge of the event through a contact and we had a couple of days to plan it.

We assigned a second crew, two European-looking Cubans, to film in the area in the guise of tourists at the time the protest was to take place. I would be covering the opposite end of the square to film the protest from afar. The protester, a rickshaw driver, had not even started holding up a sign that said "Down with Repression", when three policemen surrounded and handcuffed him.

I caught the moment on camera, but my colleagues, who were supposed to be closer to the action, were nowhere to be seen. I just did not know what had happened to them.

The police saw me. I turned off the camera. One of the agents who had just arrested the protester came up to me and grabbed the camera. He started flicking through the images, thinking they were stills. He could not see anything wrong but questioned me for 10 minutes, then warned me "be careful with what you film" and let me go.

I walked away from the square pretty fast. An hour later I met Ivan. Our second crew had been detained. That night, my landlord got a call from state security inquiring about me. He came to tell me with a worried look on his face. "What’s going on?" I bluffed my way out of it, but when he left, I took all my belongings and drove for two hours out of Havana.

Ivan continued filming on his own until July 22. That day, Oswaldo Paya, one of the most prominent dissidents, was killed in a car crash that his daughter claimed was "not an accident".

Ivan and I met. He wanted to film the funeral. He said it could turn into a demonstration. Knowing that I was now suspected we realised that if I went there after what happened, we risked losing everything we had filmed. So Ivan volunteered.

"I'll go and film it. I'll send you the footage in two weeks." He left in a hurry. I did not have time to even shake his hand.

Two weeks later, I got the footage from a colleague who had gone to Cuba as a tourist to pick it up. I emailed Ivan to confirm that I had received it. But he did not reply. His phone was permanently "out of range". I can only assume he is still in hiding.

Then on November 8, Antonio Rodiles, one of our main interviewees, was arrested and detained. This film, which will probably go to air as Antonio is in a cell for daring to speak his mind, will no doubt confirm the government's suspicions of him  - but like all the dissidents we spoke to in our film, he would not have had it any other way. Only by speaking out, they say, will Cubans bring change to their country.

There are some indications that Cuba may decide to allow emigration from January next year. Perhaps it is a sign that the government is finally acknowledging that economic reforms need to be followed by deep political reforms and a transition to democracy.

For the sake of Ivan, Berta Soller, Antonio and all the other dissidents, one can only hope so.

Despite Repression National ‘Zapata and Boitel Live’ March for Freedom Goes On

In the midst of threats and arrests activists carry on in Cuba

Boitel-Zapata National March for the Freedom of Cuba underway

Moments prior to his arrest Cuban blogger Luis Felipe Rojas managed to send out two tweets on the morning of September 12, 2011 the first announced: The national march for the freedom of Cuba Boitel-Zapata has commenced from Duaba Beach in Baracoa. 26 activists, Roberto Gonzalez detained.

Immediately following the above tweeted message Luis Felipe sent another which was just a url that linked to the picture he had taken and posted (reproduced above). The young man wearing the yellow hat and sporting the sunglasses is opposition youth leader Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina.

The Cuban Democratic Directorate interviewed Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina, prior to his Monday detention, and obtained an official statement outlining the purposes of this march, which is still ongoing:

"The idea is to transit along the same paths that Maceo did in the invasion from East to West, but in this case, we will send a message of peace, hope, freedom and claim to those who have misgoverned us over half a century. In a peaceful manner, we will convey the spirit that today, in these times, the Cuban people and the nation are calling for a space that is democratic and of liberty. "

The National March for Freedom "and Zapata Boitel Live" will take as its route the central highway and has no end date.

"The flame should be taken to Mantua, at least, Pinar del Rio, in western Cuba," Rodriguez said Lobaina.

The objectives of the march are:

1) that the regime in Cuba respect, promote and publish the universal declaration of human rights, ratifying international covenants of these rights.

2) That it cease the repression against the opposition and the people of Cuba.

3) Freedom without exile for all political prisoners, repeal of the legal framework that fosters these imprisonments.

Originally the march had been planned for September 8 but organizers and participants began to be detained by State Security agents the day before.

On hunger strike: Ramón Velásquez Toranzo

One of the activists detained and held over the weekend, for wanting to march, was former prisoner of conscience Ramón Velásquez Toranzo. He declared himself on hunger strike the moment he was arrested and even though he is now been released continues refusing to eat food. His daughter, Rufina Velázquez @RufiVCuba, has tweeted her father's demands:

Threatened again with imprisonment if he dares to step outside his home. He has decided to go on hunger strike. Principal points of his protest, respect for all human rights. Respecting right to walk freely for our country.Respect for the right to request respect. Respect for the democracy that on one day you signed. Respect that we are humans that we are nonviolent pacifists. That a UN representative visit the island and interview Cubans in order to measure and document human rights violations committed each day.

These detentions did not end the march but delayed its start by four days. Although the participants were arrested moments later on the morning of September 12 they had achieved their aim: the march is underway in Cuba.

Many of the organizers and participants would again spend at least a night and jail subjected to threats of long term imprisonment. Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina @LobainaCuba tweeted that during his detention: "Political police threatened me with 20 years in prison according to them if I continue promoting peaceful marches. They fear the people will join."

Finally, Rolando asked for friends and followers to re-tweet the following message translated to English and reproduced below:

TR @LobainaCuba TO FRIENDS & FOLLOWERS I ask you to divulge this: We will continue taking to the streets and asking for freedom and rights in #Cuba

Another of the marchers Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia this evening reported on the fate of one of his compatriots who participated in the march and remains detained tonight:

TR @jdanielferrer Recently out of a cell yesterday Angel Moya was newly detained in Holguin. There he remains. What fear the tyranny has of a peaceful march!

Cuba and the triumph of love over hate and death

Later this month on February 23 and February 24 two anniversaries of innocent men extrajudicially executed by agents of the Cuban regime while trying to save the lives of others will be observed.

One year ago on February 23, 2010 at 3:00pm Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after 83 days on hunger strike demanding an improvement of treatment for all prisoners. He was demanding an end to systematic abuse and torture that has been documented in Cuban prisons. Prison officials responded to his water only hunger strike by denying him water, in an attempt to break his spirit, but instead contributed to his death.

15 years ago on February 24, 1996 three Brothers to the Rescue planes searched the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters. Cuban MiGs provided information by Cuban spies that had infiltrated the group hunted them in international airspace and shot down two of the small civilian planes with air to air missiles leading to the deaths of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr. Studies on Cuban rafters state that tens of thousands of rafters have died trying to reach freedom. Brothers to the Rescue came into existence in 1991 precisely to save lives and in the end saved thousands of refugees.

Mohandas Gandhi’s observation that “[t]he willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful retort to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God or man” has been proven right in the above mentioned events and in events unfolding in Cuba today.

Since January 28, 2011, Alejandrina García de la Riva has been on a water only hunger strike demanding that her husband, Diosdado González Marrero, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience imprisoned since 2003 be freed. On February 1 Diosdado González Marrero and another prisoner of conscience from 2003, Pedro Arguelles Morán went on hunger strike demanding their own freedom and the freedom of nine other prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the Black Cuban Spring in 2003.

On Friday, February 4, 2011 Angel Moya Acosta, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience also imprisoned during the 2003 crackdown was told that he would be released from prison. Angel rejected the offer saying that prisoners of conscience Guido Sigler Amaya, Pedro Arguelles Moran, Librado Linares and Eduardo Díaz Fleitas all suffering from illness be released first.

The totalitarian dictatorship in Havana exposes itself as the evil and life destroying system it is, by slandering its victims in a systematic effort to spread the "big lie," and in doing so expose the profound spiritual corruption it suffers from and the need for the regime to end in favor of a free society where all Cubans have a right to say what they think and associate freely without fear and enjoy all their fundamental human rights as was done in most of Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991.

It is important to raise awareness about Alejandrina, Diosdado, Pedro and Angel in their efforts to save lives and demand freedom for prisoners of conscience imprisoned since 2003 who should never have spent a day in jail much less 8 years. Their courageous stand needs to be recognized and honored and in doing so provide them with a measure of protection.

On June 22, 1963 in a speech in Detroit, Michigan Martin Luther King Jr said that “If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” All of these men and women have not only demonstrated that they are fit to live but that they are moral exemplars that all can learn from.

An international call has been made to all people of good will to join in a 24-hour water only fast starting at 3pm on February 23, 2011 the day and time that Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on hunger strike followed by a silent vigil the following day from 3:21pm to 3:28pm to correspond with the times Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. were shot down on February 24. They all demonstrated with the lives they led and by how they died that the Bible passage, John 15:13 is as relevant as ever: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Armando Alejandre Jr, Carlos Costa, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Mario De La Peña and Pablo Morales live on in the lives they saved and in the memories of all who know them. In rejecting hatred and vengeance while embracing love and justice they are honored.

Liberty's Vindication: The Time for Change is Now!

Liberty's Vindication

Freedom, justice and truth have found a faithful and inseparable sincere testimony in the conduct, courage and perseverance of the seventy-five Cuban intellectuals unjustly imprisoned during the Black Spring of 2003.

The selfless love of these men, together with their wives and daughters, mothers and sisters organized the famed Ladies in White have brought a glimmer of hope for all Cubans.

These noble concepts germinate fully in our country as perfect tributes of the men and women during this protracted struggle for the conquest of the essential freedoms for the people of Cuba.

From these murky and polluted cells we raise our voices as a demand for all human rights for all Cubans, the international covenants on civil and political, economic, social, and cultural rights for our citizens. For the unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

We demand the immediate cessation of the cruel and inhuman treatment against the loving and peaceful Ladies in White.

We proclaim the feasibility of peaceful change towards freedom and democracy in Cuba our country.

In accordance with these lofty goals,


The SEVENTY-FIVE intellectuals imprisoned for the inalienable right to freedom of thought:

Oscar Elías Biscet González

Human Rights Activist

Julio Cesar Gálvez

Independent Journalist

Ricardo González Alfonso

Normando Hernández

Regis Iglesias Ramírez

Writer

Member of the Christian Liberation Movement

Project Varela Organizer and All Cubans Forum

Ángel Juan Moya Acosta

Human Rights Activist

Given in the Combinado del Este, national prison, on February 17, 2010




Original Spanish text below:

Vindicación de la Libertad

La libertad, la justicia y la verdad han encontrado en fiel e inseparable testimonio en la conducta sincera, valiente y perseverante de los setenta y cinco intelectuales cubanos encarcelados injustamente durante la Primavera Negra de 2003.

El amor altruista de estos hombres, juntos a sus esposas e hijas; madres y hermanas organizadas en las insignes Damas de Blanco, han propiciado una luz esperanzadora para todos los cubanos.

Estos conceptos nobles germinarán a plenitud en nuestra patria como tributos perfectos de sus hombres y mujeres durante esta prolongada lucha por la conquista de las libertades esenciales para el pueblo de Cuba.

Desde estas celdas lóbregas y polutas alzamos nuestras voces como reivindicación de todos los derechos humanos para todos los cubanos, los pactos internacionales civiles y políticos, económicos, sociales, y culturales para nuestros conciudadanos. De la libertad incondicional de todos los prisioneros políticos y de conciencia.

Exigimos el cese inmediato de los tratos crueles e inhumanos contra las amorosas y pacíficas Damas de Blanco

Proclamamos la factibilidad de cambios pacíficos hacia la libertad y la democracia en Cuba nuestra patria.

En conformidad con estos sublimes objetivos:

Los SETENTA Y CINCO intelectuales encarcelados por el inalienable ejercicio de la libertad de pensamiento:

Oscar Elías Biscet González

Activista de Derechos Humanos

Julio Cesar Gálvez

Periodista Disidente

Ricardo González Alfonso

Normando Hernández

Regis Iglesias Ramírez

Escritor

Miembro del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación

Gestor del Proyecto Varela y el Foro Todos Cubanos

Ángel Juan Moya Acosta

Activista de Derechos Humanos

Dado en el Combinado del Este, Prisión Nacional, El día 17 de febrero de 2010