Extrajudicial killing in Cuba: 46-year old badly beaten by members of Castro's Revolutionary National Police dies

Extrajudicial killing in Cuba

Jorge Luis García Pérez (better known as “Antúnez”) reported over Facebook the extrajudicial killing of Alejandro Pupo Echemendía, a 46 year old Cuban national by the Revolutionary National Police on August 9, 2018. Antúnez also posted the testimony of Elizama Mujica Cabrera, the wife of the victim.

On the night of this Thursday, August 9, the walls of the cells of the police unit in Placetas, Villa Clara, were sprayed with the innocent blood of 46-year-old Alejandro Pupo Echemendía, who died as a result of the beating of clubs. batons, blows of night sticks, kicks, thrown to the ground that gave him the police there, while Pupo Echemendia convulsed product of a nervous breakdown that he suffered as a result of being the victim of an unfair accusation.

This moving testimony is from his wife Elizama Mujica Cabrera given within a few hours of the horrendous crime. In the next few hours we will publish important proofs of the murder, such as images and testimonies during the funeral, and the most shocking still, the overwhelming testimony given to us by one of the people who claimed to have witnessed the events, that is, from having seen how, when, why and who murdered Alejandro Pupo Echemendía.

Photos show Alejandro's body covered in bruises and eyewitness accounts hold the agents of the Castro regime responsible.

Below is another photo revealing the physical harm visited on Alejandro Pupo Echemendía by regime officials.

The New U.S. Cuba Policy: A good first step

The reality versus the spin

President Trump at the Manuel Artime Theater with Cuban Americans

 
Friday, June 16, 2017 was a good day  for Cuba's freedom at the Manuel Artime Theater. On February 3, 2017 White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced that the Trump Administration was in the midst "of a full review of all U.S. policies towards Cuba" and that human rights was a priority.  Over four months later with the input of all interested parties in the government having a voice a new policy was announced in stark contrast to what the prior Administration did.

The Trump Administration took a first step to address the previous Cuba policy's shortcomings releasing the "National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba" that begins by defining what will guide this new policy:

My Administration's policy will be guided by the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as solidarity with the Cuban people.  I will seek to promote a stable, prosperous, and free country for the Cuban people.  To that end, we must channel funds toward the Cuban people and away from a regime that has failed to meet the most basic requirements of a free and just society.

The previous US Cuba policy was drawn up in secret, excluding Congressmen, Senators and even the State Department but included high ranking members of the Castro regime, among them Raul Castro's son, Alejandro Castro, with a small group of Administration officials led by an individual with a degree in creative writing. The end result did not advance U.S. national interests, marginalized Cuban dissidents, and worsened human rights in Cuba.

Cuban Americans where told that the new Cuba policy was unchangeable and Hillary Clinton openly campaigned on lifting sanctions on the Castro regime and her running mate Senator Tim Kaine said, "...we may have a fast or slow process, but we're not going back". This led the Brigade 2506 to endorse Mr. Trump for President on October 25, 2016.  Donald J. Trump got 54% of the Cuban American vote in 2016 that helped him win Florida. Elections have consequences and Cuba policy is being changed.

What is taking place now is a debate over what U.S. Cuba policy should be defined by what would serve the just interests of the United States. The previous policy failed on several counts and needs to be dismantled and replaced.  The memorandum and Friday's statement by President Trump is a good start but much more needs to be done.

Critics of President Trump's Cuba policy announcement such as Fabiola Santiago call this policy announcement "window dressing, a way for Trump to save face with Bay of Pigs veterans and his Cuban-American supporters," trying to downplay its importance but the howls of indignation indicate that it is not cosmetic.

The Miami Herald Editorial praising the new Cuba policy, "Trump right to make Cuba pay for its intransigence," will give some insight into all the angry noise from those who backed the previous policy:

Trump’s new measures are designed to exert more pressure on Havana to reform itself." ... "Trump is right to recalibrate this policy without jettisoning it wholesale. In one of the most important changes, transactions with the Business Administration Group, S.A — GAESA — will be prohibited. GAESA is the company of the Cuban Armed Forces that, according to estimates, controls 60 percent of the Cuban economy."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article156494959.html#storylink=cpy

This recalibration is a shift in direction but how far it will go depends on what is done over the next three years. When the previous Administration announced the new Cuba policy on December 17, 2014 in a post titled "Obama's Legacy: Normalizing relations with an Abnormal Regime" the observation was made that "President Obama in his address gave the impression that the economic embargo had been completely lifted and that is not the case."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article156494959.html#storylink=cpy

Then, the Obama White House took a step in a drive to set a new policy that over  2015 - 2016 would continue to radically change U.S. Cuba policy. The Obama State Department politicized the human trafficking report to benefit the Castro regime, and took Cuba off the list of state terror sponsors. President Obama signed executive orders repeatedly loosening sanctions, carried out an official state visit that helped to raise the profile of Raul Castro's son Alejandro Castro as a successor, ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to share information with the Castro regime's secret police in October 2016, and finally shut the door on fleeing Cubans in January of 2017. All of this that unfolded could be traced back to secret negotiations begun in mid 2016, a handshake between President Obama and Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's funeral on December 10, 2013, although formally announced on December 17, 2014.

June 16th, like December 17, 2014, marked a turning point in Cuba policy. In both cases claims were made that exceeded the changes announced at the time. What was announced on December 17, 2014 set the direction on Cuba policy for the rest of the Obama Administration.  However on both occasions a tone was set that was equally important.

President Obama described the premeditated act of state terrorism carried out on Fidel and Raul Castro's orders on February 24, 1996 as a "tragic circumstance" on December 19, 2014 while ignoring the open indictments on members of the Cuban military directly involved in the shoot down by U.S. courts. The human rights situation in Cuba during the Obama administration deteriorated and there was a body count that coincided with the normalization drive that first began in 2009 and continued to the end of that Presidency.

President Trump identified the Castro regime for what it is and denounced it for its past crimes in dramatic contrast with his predecessor:

"To the Cuban government, I say:  Put an end to the abuse of dissidents.  Release the political prisoners.  Stop jailing innocent people.  Open yourselves to political and economic freedoms.  Return the fugitives from American justice -- including the return of the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. And finally, hand over the Cuban military criminals who shot down and killed four brave members of Brothers to the Rescue who were in unarmed, small, slow civilian planes.  (Applause.) Those victims included Mario de la Pena, Jr., and Carlos Costa."

Last year during the campaign Donald Trump met with Cuban exiles and listened to their concerns. Attending the gathering on Friday where Cuban opposition activists from the island such as Angel Moya, Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", Antonio Rodiles, Martha Beatriz Roque, and young Cuban millennials such as Rey Anthony Lastre who'd taken to the streets to protest the previous policy in 2014 and 2015 when Hillary Clinton advocated the lifting of the Cuba embargo when she visited Florida International University. 

Among the human rights activists sitting front and center behind President Trump was Rosa María Payá Acevedo whose father Oswaldo Payá and friend Harold Cepero were both murdered on July 22, 2012 for denouncing the fake change the Castro regime was preparing to carry out. Rosa is 28 years old. She was able to talk to President Trump and hand him information on Cuba Decide's campaign for a plebiscite and on the murder of her dad and friend.

Contrast this with how she was treated by the Obama Administration when Rosa María attended a press conference, as an accredited member of the press (she'd been writing a blog for a newspaper) she was threatened by the State Department spokesman that if she asked a question she would be forcibly removed to avoid offending the sensibilities of Castro's Foreign Minister. The exchange was caught on video by other journalists who were present.

Sitting nearby was Sirley Avila Leon, who was the victim of a brutal machete attack in May of 2015 planned by Cuban state security in retaliation for her opposition activities.

Also present was Silvia Iriondo of Mothers Against Repression, who was aboard the one Brothers to the Rescue plane that made it back on February 24, 1996 the day two other planes of that same organization where shot down in a premeditated act of state terrorism ordered by Fidel and Raul Castro.

Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, the most well known opposition group in the island, released a letter supporting the Trump Administration's shift in Cuba policy and thanking President Trump for mentioning them during speech:

In my capacity as leader of the Cuban non-violent human rights defenders, the Damas de Blanco, I am honored to convey to you the warmest thanks from all the members of our organization, including our four Damas recently sentenced to up to 3 years in prison, for your kind mention of our struggle. These days, Mr. President, when most of the World responds with a deafening silence to the harassment, arbitrary detentions, beatings, house searches, and robberies against peaceful opponents, human rights activists and defenseless women, your words of encouragement are most welcomed. 

Important elements of the dissident movement in Cuba, victims of repression are supporting this change in direction and rhetoric. Time will tell if this positive turn of events signals a profound and continuing change in Cuba policy that unfolds over the years to come.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article156480324.html#storyl

Jose Marti, The White Rose remembered at FIU and opposition activists honored

La Rosa Blanca [The White Rose]

The White Rose

The first Cuban exile organization came into existence on January 28, 1959 in New York City to denounce mass executions then being carried out in Cuba by the Castro regime. This new organization was called "La Rosa Blanca" [The White Rose] after a poem by Jose Marti.  It has been said, although it is possibly apocryphal, that when a friend betrayed him to the police José Martí sent him the following poem:

Cultivo una rosa blanca

En julio como en enero,

Para el amigo sincero

Que me da su mano franca.

Y para el cruel que me arranca

El corazón con que vivo,

Cardo ni ortiga cultivo,

Cultivo una rosa blanca.  

It translates to English as follows:

I cultivate a white rose 

In July as in January 

For the sincere friend 

Who gives me his hand frankly. 

And for the cruel person who tears out 

The heart with which I live, 

I cultivate neither nettles nor thorns: 

I cultivate a white rose.

This poem is a message of reconciliation that is ever relevant and is at the heart of the first Cuban exile group opposed to the Castro brothers. The United States in January of 1959 had recognized the Castro regime and had full diplomatic relations. One year later on January 28, 1960 these Cuban exiles, Rafael Diaz-Balart among them, were arrested when they tried to place flowers at a statue of Jose Marti in Central Park in New York City despite having obtained the proper permits.

The resistance to the Castro tyranny was a natural reaction to the terror imposed by the totalitarian regime in the first days of January 1959 at a time when the United States was mistakenly supporting that regime believing that it would lead to a restoration of democracy  following the Batista dictatorship (1952 - 1958).

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" and Felicia Guillén Amador with the Diaz-Balart brothers

Fifty eight years later the Castro regime continues to destroy Cuba and The White Rose gathered at Florida International University's Law School building named after Rafael Diaz-Balart to award the "Juana Gros de Olea" prize to two patriots of the internal opposition: Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez" and Felicia Guillén Amador who continue to resist tyranny in Cuba.

It is also important to recall that another White Rose emerged independently halfway around the world years earlier resisting another dictatorship. 

Pope Francis in Cuba Day One: Papal Call for Dialogue Rejected by Castro Regime

Castro regime dialogues with the United States but rejects dialogue with dissidents


Pope Francis arrived in Havana, Cuba this afternoon and was received by Raul Castro in a military ceremony at the airport. The speech by His Holiness touched on a number of key elements from Cuban history while praising the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba:

For some months now, we have witnessed an event which fills us with hope: the process of normalizing relations between two peoples following years of estrangement.  It is a sign of the victory of the culture of encounter and dialogue, “the system of universal growth” over “the forever-dead system of groups and dynasties” (José Martí, loc. cit.).  I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentialities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world. I place these days under the protection of our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Blessed Olallo Valdés and Blessed José López Pieteira, and Venerable Félix Varela, the great promoter of love between Cubans and all peoples, so that our bonds of peace, solidarity and mutual respect may ever increase.

During the day the news of mass arrests of democratic opposition activists begin to appear in the social media. Former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Librado Linares was detained and handcuffed following a provocation by a National Revolutionary Police (PNR) official impeding his attendance at the Papal Mass in Havana. Cuban dissident, Antonio Rodiles, reported this morning that more than 20 Ladies in White had been arrested.

Meanwhile Cubans in the island (Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez") and in the diaspora (Ramon Saul Sanchez) continued to engage in a hunger strike and a fast respectively to call for independent Cuban civil society to be included in the new political context and the voice of the Cuban people to be heard.

Later this evening over social media it was reported that various dissident leaders were invited to meet with Pope Francis in a low profile gathering at the Apostolic Nunciature but were arrested as they left their homes to meet with the Pontiff. Independent journalist Ivan Hernandez Carrillo reported that Angel Moya and Berta Soler, were invited by Apostolic Nuncio in Havana to meet the Pope, leaving home they were arrested. Marta Beatriz Roque was also detained and returned to her home to prevent her meeting with His Holiness.

Yenisleydis Millo and her husband, activist Carlos Olivera, were arrested in Colón, Matanzas at 11:09pm. At 12 minutes to midnight Berta Soler over twitter reported that Rapid Response Brigades besieged the Ladies in White headquarters in Lawton. 

These actions by the Castro regime are a rejection "of the culture of encounter and dialogue" praised by Pope Francis during his speech at the welcome ceremony organized by the dictatorship. The international community needs to keep a close eye on events in Cuba that goes beyond the scripted performance of the Castro regime. People of faith need to keep Pope Francis and the people of Cuba in their prayers.

State security organizes mobs to attack Cuban resistance leaders

 Update: State security agents repeatedly made death threats against Jorge Luís García Perez “Antunez” in reprisal for his trip to Panama and the Summit of the Americas

Jorge Luís García Perez “Antunez and Iván Fernández Depestre

ACT OF REPUDIATION ORDERED AGAINST JORGE LUÍS GARCÍA PÉREZ ANTUNEZ. STATE SECURITY OPERATION AND CASTRO MOBS SURROUND HIS HOME

Link to audio denouncing regime action (In Spanish): https://youtu.be/n_Ulli4Q0Bk

Placetas, Villa Clara April 14, 2015. Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", National Secretary of the National Resistance Front Orlando Zapata Tamayo denounces over telephone that Cuban State Security has given orders to the populace of Placetas, to do a violent act of repudiation in reprisal for his presence as a member of the Cuban resistance last week at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

"It's a big crowd around my house in the 7ma del Sur, I’m with former political prisoner Ivan Fernandez Depestre and also alert the world that the son of my wife, Yedier Rodriguez and his girlfriend who are minors are in my house. Castro mobs in retaliation for the defeat that we gave them in Panama are preparing an act of repudiation and also to the journalist and Sakharov Laureate Guillermo Fariñas. In the city of Placetas they have closed all workplaces and schools under the threat that if they are not going to the repudiation act against Antúnez their wages will be suspended," said Antúnezto the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance issues a call of alert to international human rights organizations and the free and democratic community of the world for the freedom of and physical integrity of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antúnez, former political prisoner Iván Fernández Depestre, as well as his wife’s son, Yedier Rodriguez and his girlfriend.

Original press release in Spanish http://www.directorio.org/comunicadosdeprensa/note.php?note_id=4405

Castro regime's unchanging ways and American pragmatism

 "Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance." - Václav Havel

Journalist Karen Caballero escorted out by Cuban state security

Last week the Castro regime took part in the Summit of the Americas, in what was supposed to be a gathering of democracies and turned it into a violent circus where civil society activists were threatened, harassed, slandered, libeled and physically assaulted. However it didn't end there when heads of state were allotted 8 minutes to speak, Raul Castro took 49 minutes.

To add insult to injury, an accredited journalist, Karen Caballero, anchor and correspondent for TV/Radio Martí after entering to attend a press conference with the Cuban foreign minister at the Summit of the Americas was expelled from the gathering by Cuban state security agents.  TV/Radio Marti is affiliated with Voice of America (VOA) and the U.S. government. Despite this the Voice of America Spanish website has remained silent on this incident of harassment, although it was reported on by CNN in Spanish on its website, and the U.S. president thanked Raul Castro for his "spirit of openness."

Yesterday, the President made his recommendation that Cuba be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism ignoring the clear and present danger that it represents. At the same time Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", who had been attacked by state security agents in Panama last week found his home in Placetas, Cuba surrounded by state security and others told to go and engage in an act of repudiation at the activist's at home or face reprisals at work and school.

The White House is engaged in what Pat Buchanan describes as the tradition of ruthless American pragmatism. In the Forum 2000 Conference in 2009, Vaclav Havel called President Obama to task for engaging in that practice with the Dalai Lama:

I believe that when the new Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize postpones receiving the Dalai Lama until after he has accomplished his visit to China, he makes a small compromise, a compromise which actually has some logic to it. However, there arises a question as to whether those large, serious compromises do not have their origin and roots in precisely these tiny and very often more or less logical compromises.

The devil is in the details. Many who advocate for a principled engagement with the regime are troubled by the ruthless pragmatism of the Obama administration and how it could set back both US national interests and the freedom aspirations of the Cubans on the island. Human rights and norms of civility need to be upheld if they are to survive.

Human rights deteriorating in Cuba

"In the single session on Cuba, three activists complained that repression of government opponents and human rights workers in the country has continued and even increased since the announcement of normalization of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations last December." - Latin American Herald Tribune, March 20, 2015

Testifying before the IACHR on the general human rights situation in Cuba

On March 19, 2015 in the late afternoon in the Rubén Darío room, the one and only hearing on the human rights situation in Cuba during the 154 Period of Sessions was held at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The complete presentation is available online in Spanish and runs 54 minutes and 8 seconds.

However, for the sake of brevity there are some key observations that underline the reality that the human rights situation in Cuba under the Castro dictatorship is worsening:

In 2013 there were 5,718 arbitrary detentions documented in 2014 the number increased to 8,519. This is 1.49 times higher than the previous year. Source: CIHPRESS.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International on the situation in Cuba warned:

 “We have been receiving incredibly worrying reports about a rise in harassment and short-term detentions of dissidents throughout 2014 which has continued in recent weeks. Prisoner releases will be no more than a smokescreen if they are not accompanied by expanded space for the free and peaceful expression of all opinions and other freedoms in Cuba.” 

Death threats and torture are common practices by agents of the dictatorship that are well documented and still continue in Cuba. The presentation on March 19, 2015 began with excerpts of two video interviews documenting the February and June 2014 raids on the home, arbitrary detentions and tortures of Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez", and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera who testified before the IACHR in 2013. Following this testimony two IACHR members expressed concerns about reprisals against IACHR petitioners.

Also highlighted in the testimony was the arbitrary detention, beating and torture of human rights defender Juan Carlos González Leiva. The fact that Juan Carlos, who is an attorney, also happens to be blind and was physically brutalized while he could listen to his wife being manhandled by state security agents at the same time only compounds the outrage that took place on January 9, 2014. Source: Frontline Defenders.

Sara Martha Fonseca shows bloody spot were officials pricked her with a needle

 Human rights defender and resistance activist now political refugee, Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo gave testimony about her life in Cuba. Particularly disturbing was the account of being injected with a debilitating substance while walking with the Ladies in White and finding a spot of blood and finding a needle mark on her skin. Photograph of the blood spot on her white dress was presented to the IACHR. The full presentation in Spanish is available below.

   

Subcommittee Hearing: Human Rights in Cuba: A Squandered Opportunity

Hearing live streamed here starting at 10:00am EST with Cuban opposition activists.

                         Antúnez                          Berta Soler            Sara Martha Fonseca              

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations | 2172 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Feb 5, 2015 10:00am to 1:00pm

Chairman Smith on the hearing: “This hearing will examine the still-deplorable state of human rights in Cuba, especially the regime’s treatment of Afro-Cubans, who face discrimination on a day-to-day basis.  The Obama Administration, in its haste to achieve a breakthrough in Cuba, missed an opportunity to better conditions on the island and to hold the Castro regime to certain basic human rights standards in exchange for normalizing relations.  The Administration is wrong to attempt a sea change in policy toward Cuba without congressional input and in apparent disregard of well-established law, not to mention concern for the well-being of the Cuban people, who suffer under a communist dictatorship which has shown no signs of reform.”

WITNESS:

Mr. Jorge Luis García Pérez
Secretary General
Cuban National Civic Resistance Front

Ms. Berta Soler Fernández
Leader
Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco)

Ms. Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo
Member
Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco)

Mr. Geoff Thale
Program Director
Washington Office on Latin America

Over the past two days, first in the Senate and today in the House of Representatives hearings on Cuba have been held to discuss changes in Cuba policy and ramifications of freeing Cuban spies.

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera returns to Cuba tomorrow and leaves a message of concern

Stay vigilant and watch over activists in Cuba.

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera concerned about her husband

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera is worried about her husband's life and safety. Yris is a human rights defender and president of the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights. She has spoken before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland and returned to Cuba to continue her activism. 

She recently traveled outside of the island again to attend meetings in Spain and in the United States to denounce what is taking place in Cuba while at the same time recognizing that within the Cuban populace there is an awakening underway in which many Cubans are demanding their freedom and calling for the end of the rule of the Castro brothers.

Tomorrow she returns to Cuba not knowing what awaits her. 

Her husband,   Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" has written an open letter to Raul Castro denouncing the dictatorship while describing with great detail how it operates.  Yris fears for his life and the reprisals for writing his defiant letter.

In the short video below she expresses her concerns regarding Jorge Luis's health following an injection during his June 2014 detention with an unknown substance. Antúnez described the episode where he recieved the injection:

It begins and he says: "Something to Declare?" and I said, "Yes, I will not shut up, and I will not leave." The people of the Special Brigade appear and they say "bring him" and I think they are bringing someone as a witness, and a man appears in a white coat who wordlessly jumps me and places me in a choke hold. My hands are in handcuffs behind my back. “And what did you tell me?[ and he responds ] I will not shut up, and I am not leaving! ... When I came to, I was in an open air prison cell exposed to the sun, thrown on the floor, and they had given an injection "for me to be revived." That session they did to me twice. The second time they threw me against the doors of the offices, and they told me: No more magic for you!"

He has been suffering intermittent bouts of fever shortly afterwards that have persisted to the present day. Their home was attacked by state security again on August 28, 2014 in the early morning hours.

Friends of freedom and human rights please keep an eye on the plight of Yris and Jorge Luis. Their lives just might depend on it.

An open letter to General Raul Castro from a Cuban opposition leader (Part 2)

On August 20, 2014 Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" made public an open letter to Raul Castro in which he denounced fraudulent reforms, and the murders of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero in Cuba and declared that national reconciliation necessitates justice, freedom and democracy. In the video below Antúnez read aloud the letter. Below is the second part of Antúnez's letter titled: "No, no and no Raul Castro." Antúnez is a former political prisoner and currently a national opposition leader based in Placetas, Cuba.

Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez"

No, no, and no Raul Castro 

Mr. General, and now that you also self-title yourself President of the Councils of State and Ministers, I know well how many letters opponents have sent to you from inside and outside asking you to make reforms and a political opening as well as to convene elections. They ask as if you really were a president and as if in Cuba there was in power a real government and not a tyranny. We know that at any moment, you Machiavellian and opportunistic henchman will accept what they ask for and conduct a popular consultation, i.e. sham elections under your control, where as in Venezuela the totalitarian ruling party continues in power. And it is not a secret, the desperate and cunning maneuvers you and your acolytes perform to manufacture supposed opponents assuring with them the dynastic and ideological succession.

But be forewarned General, and is one of the reasons for this letter, that we, honorable and committed to the future of our country, Cubans are not going to accept that fraudulent and cosmetic change that you are concocting. Know also that the Cuban Resistance does not expect or want reforms implemented by the criminal tyranny over which you preside. The only reforms accepted by us are those that from following your ouster or abandonment of power are realized by the people from the bottom up.

Mr. dictator, enough tricks, that you will not serve a new term, that is not important to us. That you carry out reforms in the economic and immigration arena, that's a lot of lies, and it did not matter to us either. That your regime upgrade your model is another fallacy and lie. That's more of the same.
That monetary reform will come is a tremendous trick and a lie, General. We the people of Cuba, need a democratic system where a market economy prevails. One, two, three or a hundred thousand currencies do not matter, as long as there is a centralized and suffocating economy like your totalitarian system. We do not want with you Mr. dictator, reforms or openings, you are not our owners, nor should you dictate our guidelines.

We know that your time on earth is running out, and that powerful interests have shown the intention of pandering, or sharing huge profits at the cost of the pain and sacrifice of the Cuban people.
General Raul Castro, for warning about the danger of fraudulent change, you ordered the assassination of Oswaldo Payá and the young Harold Cepero. I doubt that you now have sufficient thugs to continue killing thousands and thousands who like Payá and Harold continue to denounce your tricks and continuity maneuvers.

For Laura Pollan, a defenseless woman, you sent your hired murderers to do away with her, because you could not defeat her in her Sunday marches on Fifth Avenue. It did not bother you that she was a woman and justice of her clamor. But Laura also defeated you, cowardly General, for her brave troops of the Ladies in White survived the cruel execution of their leader and is now spreading like patriotic wildfire throughout the Island.

Pedro Luis Boitel, Olegario Charlotte Pileta, Orlando Zapata, Wilman Villar, and many others, who had the courage to sacrifice themselves for the sake of freedom and respect for their dignity had already defeated you. Honor that both you and your thugs threatening to kill me in retaliation for my slogan “Neither will I fall silent nor will I leave Cuba." They themselves also just a few days ago, during one of the many arrests of those that I have been victimized, they tortured and beat me, since according to them and you, I sabotage the attempts of your tyranny to normalize relations with the United States.

Please know General Raul Castro that neither the absurd injunction of house arrest that weighs against me and the obvious threat of being killed, will make me change in my purpose that is that of thousands of Cubans. You will not be able to, Raul Castro; you cannot subdue a people who are tired of living without freedom, as you can not realize the international effort that is brewing against the cause of freedom in Cuba. That plot, Raul Castro, will not succeed, whether it comes from Havana, from Washington, from Brussels, or even from Vatican City. They won’t be able to, General, because I know that both you, your family, and that cruel and bloody Party, will be excluded from any process of democratic change as they signify the negation of democracy itself.

And tell your subordinates, General, I'm here and will be here in my beloved homeland of Placetas from which you will not take me out neither your repressive forces or you yourself, or anyone, and that my humble abode, though desecrated, vandalized and looted by your entourage will remain a bastion of resistance, struggle, shelter and sanctuary for my countrymen who fight against you and in favor of freedom and justice. And tell them also General, your promoters and cronies, your spokesmen be they in Miami, in Washington, in Brussels, in Havana, or the Vatican itself not to continue rubbing their hands. We say no to continuity because here in Cuba there will not be reconciliation without there first being justice, freedom and democracy.

And as presentiment also tell some governments that call themselves democratic and which are within the plot, that they are wasting their time General, that the fact that Cubans need and hope for international solidarity, that does not mean that one country or foreign power, no matter how powerful or influential will be part of our process of change, because Cubans, those inside and those outside, are convinced that the solution of Cuba must and should be resolved between Cubans, exempting you and yours of course General, that for the damage you and yours have done to our nation, do not even deserve to be called Cubans.

Raúl Castro Ruz, on behalf of the people of Cuba, my fellow prisoners, and the victims of your dictatorship, I tell you no, no and no.

From Placetas, in the center of Cuba Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”, who “Neither will I fall silent nor will I leave Cuba." 20 de agosto de 2014.