Franklin Brito: A Martyr for Liberty and Human Rights in Venezuela

 "I’ve learned of the death of hunger striker Franklin Brito. It appears that Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata" - Yoani Sanchez, August 31, 2010 on twitter

 

(Above) Franklin Brito before and after engaging in 8 hunger strikes

Hunger strikes are the ultimate recourse in the arsenal of non-violent resistance, and over the years around the world it has succeeded at times but in places like Cuba, Ireland, and now in Venezuela human beings have died on hunger strikes.

In Cuba the names of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo are remembered as is Bobby Sands of Northern Ireland (who the Castro dictatorship built a memorial to in Cuba) and Venezuela's Franklin Brito is part of this select grouping that demonstrates the ultimate price when engaging in a hunger strike.

Franklin Brito was a farmer and a biologist whose land was expropriated by Hugo Chavez in 2000 according to CNN. Other news agencies place the date of expropriation anywhere between 2003 and 2004. He exhausted every recourse and was driven to the final option: the hunger strike in 2005.El Universal out of Caracas offers a chronology of Brito's odyssey. In the video below published on October 28, 2009 after over 90 days on hunger strike Franklin was carrying out, he explains how all of this began.

The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations both recognize the right to private property, despite the fact that it is frequently violated. It is a human right that is acknowledged on a global scale and is expressly stated.

Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article XXIII of the American Declaration states: "Every person has a right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home."

When Franklin Brito's family said that he stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom," they were simply stating the facts of the matter. Franklin Brito states in the video below, which was shot on November 19, 2009, that he is defending human dignity.

"I am not doing this strike for something material or because persons have behaved badly towards me - that one could say are corrupt. I am doing this strike for dignity and justice. I believe that these are the greatest values that a human being should have."

 The Venezuelan tyranny* said that Franklin Brito was mentally unstable and took him to a military hospital, and placed him under an armed guard.. The Red Cross, Caracas Clinical Hospital and the Venezuelan Psychologists' Association said that Franklin Brito was of sound mind.

The tactics Mr. Chavez is using in questioning the mental stability of his adversaries, and smearing them, even in death, is straight out of his Cuban mentor's repertoire. Friends and family of Franklin Brito had best organize the facts and evidence surrounding his case protect it and duplicate it so that it cannot be seized and destroyed. They should engage in speaking out anywhere and everywhere to counter the avalanche of slander and libel from regime apologists against a man who can no longer defend himself.

Hugo Chávez has nationalized 2.5 million hectares as part of a “land reform drive.” The so-called reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, has exacerbated food shortages in Venezuela with Chavez forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate just like Cuba did years ago.

It is not madness to take extremes in the defense of liberty and justice, but it is madness to repeat the same failed policies that have bankrupted and destroyed nations the world over and expect a different outcome in your own homeland.

Franklin Brito was a sane man confronting an evil system, and through his protest embarrassed the Venezuelan dictatorship that sought to disappear him and drove him to his death.

Three years later Hugo Chavez was dead, and his successor Nicolas Maduro was a former bus driver who had gotten training in Cuba before embracing Chavismo. 

14 years have now passed, and Franklin Brito is not forgotten, and the evil of the regime in Caracas is now recognized around the world.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

*Use of the term tyranny is not a rhetorical exercise but defines what Hugo Chavez's democratically elected government has descended into a tyranny. There are two dictionary definitions of tyranny which are often related to each other. For example in the case of Cuba with Fidel Castro it is the state ruled by an absolute ruler but in the case of Venezuela it is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority" that applies.

Venezuela is a Cuban Colony, and Maduro is its viceroy selected by Havana

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto tweeted on July 23rd message & photo from Cuban agent in Venezuela:
"Dear Graciela Ramírez sends us this photo with a message: 'Our troops with Atilio in Caracas." They will not be able to snatch victory from the people of Bolívar and Chávez!'" https://t.co/jYFgGEQStc

— Center for a Free Cuba (@cubacenter) August 25, 2024

Cubans were present on the ground in Venezuela prior to election day, and at least four unscheduled flights took off from Havana and arrived in Caracas on July 30,2024 reported Diario Las Américas, citing a source from the island.

“I cannot confirm whether they were carrying passengers or not, nor what they were carrying and what the purpose of these flights would be,” the source explained at the time.

The first plane, the Conviasa A340 executive plane, which President Miguel Díaz-Canel normally flies on, left Havana and landed in Caracas on the morning of Tuesday the 30th. The second, rented from Turkish Airline, also left the Cuban capital for Caracas, where it arrived at midday. The third aircraft, from Cubana de Aviación, left Havana after one in the afternoon.

According to the source, at the time of sharing this information, a fourth aircraft would have been preparing to leave Cuba for Venezuela.

In an interview published on August 17,2024, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado acknowledged Cuba's ongoing involvement in Venezuela's internal affairs. 

"National and international human rights organizations have issued severe objections...Several Venezuelan opposition victims have recounted atrocities [by Cuban captors]. We have long known that Cuba has had a negative impact in a variety of areas, including repression, persecution, espionage, and torture. And we have witnessed some callous acts in recent days."

The Castro regime spent four decades attempting to overthrow Venezuela's democracy before finally succeeding in 1999 when Hugo Chavez took power, and consolidated their control under his successor Nicolas Maduro in 2013.

Raul and Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, at Fidel Castro's 90th birthday

Bertrand de la Grange, a two-decade reporter for Le Monde in America, first for Canada and subsequently for Mexico and Central America, was born in Tangier to a French family and educated in Grenoble. 

He is one of the world's top Latin America experts, and in a one hour interview published by The Objective on August 25, 2024 gave his analysis of the role played by Havana in the Venezuelan crisis. Basically, Venezuela is a Cuban Colony, and Nicolas Maduro is its viceroy selected by Havana. Here is a rough English translation of an excerpt of the full transcript available in Spanish.

Now, Latin America is once again, or not necessarily once again, but it is still experiencing upheavals that have been displaced in a certain way, particularly in Venezuela, which was a country that had been fairly peaceful despite Fidel Castro's various attempts to send guerrillas of all kinds with Cubans, with Venezuelans and with other guerrillas and that had always failed. Now Venezuela is experiencing a very, very complex moment, and I would say that I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic, because it is very difficult to know what is going to happen.

We know what Maduro wants, but he does not represent anything, because Maduro is an instrument of Cuba, an instrument of Havana and has no capacity to make his own decisions. And I am fascinated to see that everyone is talking about Venezuela, about the actors within Venezuela, but very little about the main actor that is not seen, which is Cuba. 

Cuba tries not to make too many statements, even in its own press it gives little space to what is happening in Venezuela, for a very simple reason: it does not want to attract attention and to start a real debate about the importance of Cuba in the search for a solution or, in reality, about Cuba's participation in the problem.

Cuba has made Venezuela a colony, it is exploiting it, it is using its oil for its own needs. It is the very exceptional phenomenon, let us say, of a small island that has taken over the world's leading oil power. Because we must not forget that Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, even though it has lower quality oil than that found in the Persian Gulf countries.

That said, for the moment, the debate is limited to within the Venezuelan political class. Or rather, I would say the political class, which is the opposition, and the mafia that is in power, because we must not confuse: those in power are not ordinary politicians, they are really a gang that has been consolidated since the death of Hugo Chavez.

We can say many things about Chavez, but it was an attempt at a nationalist revolution supposedly controlled from Cuba, because that is what it is from the beginning, Venezuela is controlled by Cuba. Chavez's heir is an heir chosen by Havana. It is the Cuban Communist Party itself that chose him. We must not forget that Maduro was trained in the School of Cadres of the Communist Party of Cuba, he had training there, he is a person who is not very bright, as everyone knows.

What is happening now is an attempt from outside to solve the problem. There we clearly see the groups in struggle. We have the Puebla Group, which is the group of the continental left, also adding Spanish elements that participate, in particular the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has a nefarious role.

That group has already split, curiously, between those who do not want to negotiate anything, that we must continue, that Maduro has won, and the others who say that at least we have to save face, present the minutes, although in the end if they are presented they will be false minutes, but at least pretend to be within the rules of the Venezuelan electoral system.

There are three countries that are the most important, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico – Mexico has distanced itself a bit lately – they have taken a slightly different position. What they really want is to confirm the victory, the supposed victory of Maduro, but they are willing to sacrifice Maduro, because Maduro is not convenient for them. He is such a nefarious character that they are looking for an alternative. Either through a coalition government, as Lula and Petro themselves have proposed, or to hold new elections, which is totally ridiculous.

Even the Chavistas do not want new elections because they say "if we have won, why hold new elections?" We are in this dilemma, with these three countries, now especially Colombia and Brazil, which are very clear allies of Chavismo and Cuba, who are trying, through supposed moderation, to help in the search for a solution.

 

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Hope, prayers, and solidarity for pro-democracy activists taking part in today's elections in Venezuela

In remembrance of Génesis, Geraldine, Anthony, Robert, Bassil, and the many others.

 Civil society and the democratic opposition face a great challenge: Ensure all votes of Venezuelans are counted, and the results respected. This election in Venezuela is being held under a dictator who has said he will not hand over power, and is doing all he can to steal it.

Nicolas Maduro has warned that if he loses the election there will be a bloodbath in Venezuela.

Maduro is a dictator, the Venezuelan government is a narco-tyranny with some extremely nasty actors that have demonstrated over the past 25 years the willingness to kill large numbers of Venezuelans to hang on to power.

The Venezuelan dictatorship has been trained by the worse thugs in Havana, Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing. They are experts in the use of violence and terror to hang on to power.

The best chance to defeat them is neither through appeasement or violence, but through strategic nonviolent resistance. I have been witnessing it over the past weeks, and hope to see it continued today, and in the days to come, when Maduro attempts to hang on to power.

My hope is informed by the late Czech dissident Vaclav Havel's definition of the word that is not equated with success but rather the certainty that what one is doing is both good and coherent. In 1990 in the book, Disturbing the Peace, Havel explained how he viewed hope.

“Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

My prayers, hope and solidarity with Venezuelans in the pro-democracy movement in their ongoing struggle for restoring democracy in Venezuela.

Gloria al Bravo Pueblo!

  

Reviewing the historical record: The case for undoing Obama's Cuba policy and how it will help Venezuelans.

Reviewing some "highlights" of the Obama record on Cuba and why it must be reversed.

Dictator Raul Castro and President Barack Obama

Detente with the Castro regime had and continues to have negative and unintended consequences. The consensus with Europe established in 1996 in the EU Common Position, linking improved relations to improvement in human rights, was ended. The influx of cash and international legitimacy during the Obama Administration emboldened the dictatorship to behave more aggressively in the region, and against the democratic opposition in Cuba. 

It was a policy born of secrecy, great injustices, skirting Congressional oversight, and U.S. law. A former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States warned that the policy would "represent a billion-dollar windfall to Cuba’s hospitality sector - all of which is co-owned by the regime, with most of the industry operated by the military, and much of  it located on property confiscated from US nationals."

On April 17, 2009 President Barack Obama said that his Administration sought "a new beginning with Cuba" and stated further that he was “prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues — from human rights, free speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues.” The White House also marginalized Cuban dissidents and downplayed their importance early on in 2009 refusing to meet with them.  

Strong man Daniel Ortega and President Obama in 2009

Despite normal relations and high level outreach early in the Obama Administration both the Ortega regime and the Chavez regime pursued closer relations with Russia and China. Cuban intelligence services have played a large role in both Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Embracing Hugo Chavez in 2009 did not help democracy in Venezuela

Less than eight months later Alan Gross was taken hostage in Cuba. Alan Gross was arrested on December 3, 2009. This American citizen spent 25 days in a Havana jail before being visited by a U.S. diplomat. By that time Alan Gross had been approached by a Cuban “attorney” who just happened to be representing five Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States for espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. This Cuban attorney represented Alan Gross before his show trial and later appeals.  Alan Gross’s supposed crime was attempting to provide Internet access to the local Jewish community in Cuba.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Cuban dissident and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, died in Havana, Cuba on February 23, 2010 at the age of 42 after more than eighty days on a water only hunger strike. During the hunger strike prison officials denied him water for more than two weeks in an effort to force him to end the strike contributing to his death.   

In February 2010  Ramiro Valdes, then age 77, was hired "as a consultant for that country's energy crisis" but his expertise is not in energy.  Valdes was the Vice President of the Council of State and Minister of Communications in the Cuban government. His role in Communications was figuring out in 2007 a way to muzzle the internet, what he called a "wild colt of new technologies."

Nicolas Maduro and Ramiro Valdes

Commander Ramiro Valdes, founder of the Castro regime's feared Ministry of the Interior, head of the organization between 1961 and 1968 and was viewed by some as "the No. 3 man in the Cuban hierarchy." He is the architect of Cuban totalitarianism's repressive apparatus and assisted Chavez and Maduro in building the Venezuelan version.  

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011 from heart failure at the age of 63. One week after she had fallen suddenly ill from a respiratory infection compounded with dengue fever and already existing condition as a diabetic. Secret police limited access in the hours prior to her death. Furthermore a Cuban medical doctor described her death as caused by purposeful medical neglect.

Report of Cholera outbreak in Manzanillo, in eastern Cuba, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to the reporting of the outlawed independent press in the island. State controlled media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. The BBC reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with Cholera in Havana. The dictatorship stated that it has it under control.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante were last seen alive at 1:50pm Eastern Standard Time on July 22, 2012, on a Sunday afternoon, and were later extrajudicially executed by agents of the political police, who staged a car crash. The location of their killings in Cuba remains to be determined. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas had both the international stature and political savvy to oversee a non-violent transition in Cuba. He was critical of the policy pursued and called it fraudulent change. This may have contributed to his untimely death.

Some of the weapons bound from Cuba to North Korea in 2013

The Cuban government was caught on July 15, 2013 trying to smuggle tons of weapons hidden under bags of sugar to North Korea through the Panama Canal on a North Korean-flagged ship from Cuba with undeclared military cargo.” Among the weapons sent by Cuba to North Korea were found: "A total of 25 standard shipping containers (16 forty-foot and 9 twenty-foot) and 6 trailers were found, for a total of about 240 tons of arms and related materiel." Cubans provided North Koreans with surface to air missile systems, two MiG 21 jet fighters, 15 MiG-21 engines, eight 73 mm rocket propelled projectiles (PG-9/PG-15 anti-tank and OG-9/OG-15 fragmentation projectiles) to be fired with recoil-less rifles, as well as a single PG-7VR round, a high explosive antitank tandem charge to penetrate explosive reactive armor, were also in the shipment. 

Nevertheless, the Administration continued outreach to the Castro regime through secret negotiations, its policy of unilateral concessions, that included loosening sanctions, and skirting laws prohibiting travel to Cuba by re-designating it "people to people contact." This policy was a reboot of a legal tactic carried out by the Clinton Administration in the 1990s. 

Barack Obama and Raul Castro on December 17, 2014

President Obama announced his new Cuba policy on December 17, 2014 to great fanfare but downplayed commuting the sentences of three Cuban spies and freed them the same day. These spies had planned terrorist acts on U.S. soil on orders from Havana. The ring leader, Gerardo Hernandez, was serving a life sentence for his role in a murder conspiracy that claimed four innocent lives in the February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down. 

Cuban spies plotted terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

The Kerry State Department threatened the daughter of a martyred dissident in order to protect the sensibilities of the Castro regime's foreign minister in 2015. Not to mention claiming that there was no room for dissidents at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana later that same year.

On March 2, 2015 the government of Colombia seized a shipment of ammunition bound for Cuba on a China-flagged ship due to a lack of proper documentation. The BBC reported that "officials said about 100 tons of gunpowder, almost three million detonators and some 3,000 cannon shells were found on board. The ship's records said it was carrying grain products." 

China-flagged ship smuggling ammunition bound for Cuba in 2015

Hxagon, a consulting and technology company that provides risk assessments and predictive analysis in emerging markets, concluded: "Two big shipments of weapons seized in 20 months means that this is probably a regular occurrence."  

On May 29, 2015, despite a long history of international terrorism, the Obama State Department removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This did not end the Castro dictatorship's promotion of terrorism to advance its policy aims.

Leticia Ramos and Augusto Monge attacked in Panama by Cuban secret police

On April 8 - 9, 2015 parallel to the Summit of the Americas in Panama agents of the Castro regime engaged in acts of repudiation to shutdown down dialogue and parallel and official events. At Porra park in Panama City  a group of Cuban dissidents were physically assaulted when they sought to lay flowers before a bust of Jose Marti by Cuban secret police. Carlos Alberto Montaner reported on twitter that the ringleader of the attacks in Panama. was Colonel Alexis Frutos Weeden, head of Cuban intelligence in Venezuela.

Secretary Kerry on August 20, 2015 reported that "the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis."  Four years later and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is repeating the same mantra as the situation in Venezuela has spiraled out of control and become a humanitarian catastrophe.

On January 7, 2016 The Wall Street Journal broke the story that in June 2014 an inert US Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a training exercise was "wrongly" shipped on to Cuba when it was supposed to be on its way back to the United States. Since 2014 the United States had been privately asking the Cuban dictatorship to return the missile but refused to do so when first discovered.  It was returned shortly after the story broke in the above mentioned paper.

President Obama does the wave with Raul Castro at a baseball game in Cuba

 In March 2016, the month that President Obama visited Cuba in the midst of a human rights crackdown, the Cuban government signed a confidential military cooperation and intelligence-sharing agreement with North Korea reported the Paris based publication Intelligence Online. The Cuban dictatorship, under Raul Castro, has had extensive relations with the Hermit Kingdom.

In April 2016 Nicaragua purchased 50 Russian battle tanks at a cost of $80 million. Vladimir Putin signed a new security agreement with Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega that same year. 

On May 15, 2016 Henry Ramos Allup, the head of the National Assembly of Venezuela was complaining over social media of the leadership role played by a Cuban general and 60 Cuban officers over the Venezuelan military to maintain Maduro in power and continue exploiting Venezuela's natural resources.

On September 2, 2016 warned about the dangerous spin in Associated Press reporting, done to maintain their Havana bureau, repeats Castro regime propaganda as news because the claims made in "Cuba reports remarkable success in containing Zika virus" would lead travelers to go to Cuba believing the Zika virus threat in Cuba is over. 

On September 9, 2016 The Washington Times in the article “Cuban military expands its economic empire under détente” reported: 

“The military’s long-standing business wing, GAESA (Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group), assumed a higher profile after Gen. Raul Castro became president in 2008, positioning the armed forces as perhaps the prime beneficiary of a post-detente boom in tourism. Gaviota, the military’s tourism arm, (a subsidiary of GAESA) is in the midst of a hotel building spree that outpaces projects under control of nominally civilian agencies like the Ministry of Tourism.” The same article also reported that “Gaviota has 62 hotels with 26,752 rooms across Cuba, pulling in some $700 million a year from more than 40 percent of the tourists who visit Cuba.”

The military general in charge of GAESA is Luis Alberto Rodriguez, General Raul Castro’s son in law.  

American diplomats started being harmed in attacks in November of 2016. On December 7, 2016 the United States and Cuba held their fifth Bilateral Commission meeting where they celebrated progress on U.S.-Cuba relations, and signed 11 non-binding agreements on health, the environment, counter-narcotics, and other areas of cooperation. No word on these attacks.

Source: Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN)

On January 2, 2017 Raúl Castro presided over a military parade in Havana where marching troops chanted about shooting the American President in the head: "Obama! Obama! with what fervor we’d like to confront your clumsiness, to give you a cleansing with rebels and mortar, and send you a hat of lead to the head.”
 
On January 12, 2017 the Obama Administration provided further concessions to Cuba gutting the Cuban Adjustment Act and ending the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program that had bothered General Castro for years.  

On January 16, 2017 the Obama State Department issued a statement that "the United States and Cuba [had] signed a bilateral Law Enforcement Memorandum of Understanding to deepen law enforcement cooperation and information sharing." American diplomats were suffering serious harm, including mild traumatic brain injury, permanent hearing loss that included loss of balance, headaches, and brain swelling. Yet, according to The Wall Street Journal no complaint was made until February of 2017.  

Cuban troops in military parade chant they'll shoot President Obama in the head

 On January 17, 2017 President Obama granted clemency to Oscar López Rivera, a founder of the Armed Forces of National Liberation Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), a movement responsible for more than 130 bombings in American cities - including one in New York City on January 24, 1975 that went off in the Fraunces Tavern during lunch hour killing four people. Unrepentant, López had 10 years added to his sentence when he and another FALN member were caught plotting a prison break that included killing their prison guards. On November 17, 2017 Mr. 
López Rivera received the Order of Solidarity from the Cuban government.

In March 2017 Lonely Planet pitches Cuba as "old school cool" and an "escape from the hustle and bustle" but at the bottom of the web page has one line of caution: "The US Center for Disease Control has issued a travel alert suggesting that pregnant women postpone travel to Cuba due to the presence of the zika virus." The Castro regime has a poor history of timely reporting of epidemics on the island, placing tourists at risk. Travel agencies are being sued by disgruntled tourists.

In November 2017 former Cuban diplomat, Jose Antonio "Tony" Lopez was also linked to terrorists responsible for the June 17, 2017 bombing in Bogota, Colombia that killed three and injured nine according to prosecutors in the South American country. 

U.S. Embassy in Havana

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a preliminary report on February 15, 2018 and an accompanying editorial studying health impacts on 21 U.S. government employees in Havana between December 2016 and August 2017. These individuals had severe injuries and the bottom line on medical findings are that: "Concussion-like symptoms were observed in U.S. government personnel in Cuba after they reported hearing intensely loud sounds in their homes and hotel rooms and feeling changes in air pressure caused by an unknown source. The symptoms were consistent with brain injury although there was no history of head trauma."

OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro, former Foreign Minster for José Mujica, Uruguay's leftist president, stated In a December 2018 conference on human rights in Cuba: “It is estimated that there are some 46,000 Cubans in Venezuela, an occupation force that teaches how to torture and repress, that performs intelligence, civil identification, and migration services.”  

The publication New Scientist reported on January 8, 2019 that "thousands of Zika virus cases went unreported in Cuba in 2017, according to an analysis of data on travelers to the Caribbean island. Veiling them may have led to many other cases that year." Founded in 1956, New Scientist is the world’s most popular weekly science and technology magazine.  The article should raise concerns for travelers to the island. However they did forget to mention that the Castro regime in the recent past failed to report Dengue (1997) and Cholera (2012) outbreaks in Cuba. Jailing those who warned the world of the threat.

In February 2019 reports emerged that lawsuits were filed by both American and Canadian diplomats impacted by health attacks in Cuba. Twenty six (26) American diplomats and their family members were harmed in Havana, but Cuban officials claimed that the diplomats had preexisting conditions.  In the Canadian case it has been reported that "nine (9) adults and five (5) children from diplomatic families have developed unusual illnesses in Havana, with symptoms including nausea, dizziness, headaches and trouble concentrating." These are the same symptoms reported by the Americans.

Timeline of health attacks in Cuba targeting U.S. and Canadian diplomats.

Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaidó in an interview on May 29, 2019 in El Nuevo Herald reported that "[t]he intelligence network has been somewhat diminished by cutting off the supply of oil to Cuba [with sanctions]. The support of our allies leaves these networks without funding. Through these actions that network is weaker than a year ago."

Treasury Secretary’s Mnuchin’s statement that the new policy is “a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime,” and the objective “to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services,” within the context outlined above is a reasonable policy that should have been instituted a while ago.

Why should the US allow the flow of tourist dollars to Havana while thousands of Cuban soldiers repress Venezuelans? The ‘people to people’ travel was designed to circumvent the law which bans tourism to the island, and during President Obama’s détente this led to an expansion of military control over the Cuban economy. It was a failure (as was President’s Carter similar détente in 1977-1980 and Clinton's 1994-2000) and needs to be completely reversed to restore a policy of containment.

Judge Afiuni sentenced to five years in prison nearly 10 years after show trial that demonstrated the rule of law had died in Venezuela.

Judge Afiuni is innocent and was imprisoned for following the law and not the whims of a dictator.

Judge Afiuni jailed for exercising her judicial independence and respecting the rule of law.

Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was imprisoned on December 10, 2009 for doing her job. She observed the rule of law and followed both the laws of Venezuela and international law. This is why Hugo Chavez slandered, imprisoned and tortured her. Despite the horrors visited upon her she refused to be silent and continued to speak for human rights and the rule of law. This is why today in a mockery of justice she was condemned by a "judge" following the orders of Nicolas Maduro and his Cuban handlers to five years in prison.

It is important to remember what happened nearly a decade ago, and how this criminal regime attacked, imprisoned and terrorized this good and courageous judge.

Judge María Lourdes Afiuni ruled that a near three year pretrial detention of Eligio Cedeño, a banker accused of corruption, ran afoul of the two year limit prescribed in Venezuelan law and authorized his conditional liberty on December 10, 2009.  The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions had already declared Cedeño's detention arbitrary. 

The judge was detained the same day, ironically on human rights day, and jailed.

The next day President Hugo Chávez in an appearance before government officials, broadcast on national television and radio, he called Judge Afiuni a "bandit"who should be imprisoned for thirty years, "even if new legislation was required to achieve that result." He instructed the Attorney General and the President of the Supreme Court to punish Judge Afiuni as severely as possible to prevent similar actions by other judges.



Days later Chávez reaffirmed that Judge Afiuni was "correctly jailed" and advocated that she be sentenced to 35 years in prison. 

On December 16, 2009 decrying what they termed “a blow by President Hugo Chávez to the independence of judges and lawyers in the country,” three independent United Nations human rights experts "called for the immediate release of a Venezuelan judge arrested after ordering the conditional release of a prisoner held for almost three years without trial." The experts warned that “[r]eprisals for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed functions and creating a climate of fear among the judiciary and lawyers’ profession serve no purpose except to undermine the rule of law and obstruct justice.”   The UN experts also said that the "immediate and unconditional release of Judge Afiuni is imperative.” 

This did not happen. The Chavez regime doubled down and subjected her to a political show trial.

Judge María Lourdes Afiuni imprisoned 2009 - 2013

Judge Afiuni was charged by prosecutors in January of 2010 with "corruption, abuse of authority, and “favoring evasion of justice.” Prosecutors provided no credible evidence to substantiate the charges." She was held for over a year in prison during which "Judge Afiuni was raped and suffered physical and psychological violence, including death threats from other inmates." She was then transferred to house arrest.  

In 2011 Noam Chomsky, a Chavez ally, lobbied for the Judge's release and criticized Hugo Chavez for having her arrested, but to no avail.

In a 2011 interview with The Guardian Judge Afiuni spoke plainly:  "There is no judicial independence. I'm here as the president's prisoner. I'm an example to other judges of what happens if you step out of line."  She was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and in February 2011, following cancer surgery, placed under house arrest.

Hugo Chavez died of cancer on March 5, 2013 and Judge Afiuni was released from house arrest on June 14, 2013. Foreign Policy, in a 2013 article, described the conditions set forth for her release from house arrest. 

"Even though she has never been tried or convicted for any offense, and in spite of the prosecutor’s lack of any evidence against her, she will have to appear in court every fifteen days. She is also banned from traveling abroad or speaking to the media."

Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was called to attend a sentencing hearing on March 20, 2019 and is still being harassed and threatened by the Maduro regime. This afternoon she was informed by her attorney that she had been sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Nearly a decade later it can be said that December 10, 2009 was the day the rule of law died in Venezuela. Since then judges and legal professionals know what the consequences are of exercising their constitutionally guaranteed functions and respecting the rule of law: being publicly slandered, imprisoned, and subjected to torture.
 
The Venezuelan Attorney General who slandered Judge Afiuni's good name and took part in her persecution fled into exile and denounced the Maduro regime in 2017.  A Venezuelan supreme court justice defected in January of 2019. They know what are the consequences of exercising independence of thought, much less action.

Please share the hashtags: #AfuiniIsInnocent and #AfiuniEsInocente over social media. Visibility and attention can offer her some protection from this cruel regime.