Remembering on Christmas Eve those in prison for acts of conscience: A Call to Action

"Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."- Hebrews 13:3

Prisoners of conscience are observing Christmas Eve in terrible conditions in China, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, and many other places around the world. It is impossible to list them all here but it is important to remember them. Here are a few that represent the many who remain unnamed.

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo jailed since 2008 was tried on Christmas day in 2009

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo on Christmas day in Communist China six years ago today was being condemned in a show trial to eleven years prison. Two days prior he was able to make a final statement in which the nonviolent character of his struggle was made evident:

“I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies.” 

He is still jailed today and has been detained for seven years. He is being punished for co-authoring Charter 08, a proposal for political and legal reform in China. Campaigns are underway around the world raising attention on his plight and calling for his freedom. His family has been blocked from visiting him.

Vladimir Morera Bacallao on hunger strike and in intensive care

Despite the hype around U.S. - Cuba relations the human rights situation under the communist dictatorship of the Castro family remains bleak.  This Christmas finds several Cuban human rights defenders on hunger strike protesting their unjust incarceration and at least one who may not see the New Year. On December 17, 2015 the Cuban Democratic Directorate and the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance released an open letter to President Obama highlighting their concerns for the following imprisoned activists:

This December 10, 2015 – International Human Rights Day – more than 300 activists were arrested in Cuba. This continues a pattern of over 8,000 politically-motivated arbitrary detentions this year. Political prisoners continue to be unjustly jailed in Cuba. Some have responded to this injustice by declaring themselves on hunger strike leading to additional punishments by prison officials. Among these political prisoners, we are deeply concerned by the current plight of seven: Geovanys Izaguirre Hernandez and Laudelino Mendoza who have been imprisoned since November 6, 2015 for writing a sign that read, “We want change, and no more hunger;” Hugo Damian Prieto Blanco, who was detained on October 25, 2015 accused of charges of public disorder; Vladimir Morera Bacallao arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for writing on the wall of his home, “I vote for my freedom and not in elections where I cannot elect my president,” he has been on hunger strike since October 9th demanding his freedom; also, on hunger strikes since December 1, 2015, Felipe Martínez Companioni and Alexander Palacios Reyes, jailed for handing out human rights fliers; and Javier Jouz Varona since December 14, 2015 when he was imprisoned for carrying out opposition activities in the streets.

On December 22, 2015 Radio República reported that Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Morera Bacallao had been "urgently" transferred from Guamajal prison to "Arnaldo Milian" provincial hospital in the city of Santa Clara in serious condition and he was placed in intensive care.
Vladimir's wife, Maribel Herrera reported to Diario de Cuba that "He is very weak and delicate, weighing 45 kilos, and is still on hunger strike, not eating anything, drinks little water and won't allow them to feed him intravenously.
 
Human rights activist Angel Moya reported over social media that 40 activists, members of the Ladies in White, were arrested on December 22, 2015 by the political police and state security agents to prevent them holding a Christmas party and handing out toys to needy children.

Nonviolent opposition activist and prisoner of conscience  Leopoldo López

Despite the popular rejection of the Maduro regime on December 6, 2015 in Venezuela's elections to the National Assembly the plight of prisoners of conscience in that troubled South American country remains worrisome with reports that there are currently 75 behind bars. The democratic opposition has had a message of reconciliation and a call for an amnesty for political prisoners following their December 6, 2015 victory.  Meanwhile Nicolas Maduro has rejected the call and is trying to carry out a Christmas Coup against the newly elected National Assembly that has the support of a vast majority of Venezuelans. 

Leopoldo Lopez, the emblematic national figure who surrendered to the Maduro regime before a gathering of tens of thousands of his supporters on February 18, 2014 to a process that has been neither transparent or fair demonstrates with his continued imprisonment the dictatorial nature of the current regime. Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International on the politicized verdict in the show trial on September 10, 2015 said: 

“The charges against Leopoldo López were never adequately substantiated and the prison sentence against him is clearly politically motivated. His only ‘crime’ was being leader of an opposition party in Venezuela.”

Prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Thuy jailed since 2010

In Vietnam there are approximately a 135 political prisoners according to a July 2015 report by Human Rights Watch.  Amnesty International has an urgent action underway for Tran Thi Thuy and has recognized her as a prisoner of conscience providing her background and the circumstances surrounding the 2010 arrest:

Tran Thi Thuy is a trader, Hoa Hao Buddhist and land rights activist. She was arrested in August 2010 and tried with six other land rights activists by BếnTre Provincial People’s Court on 30 May 2011. She was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment under Article 79 of the Penal Code for “activities aimed at overthrowing” the state, and five years’ house arrest on release. According to the indictment, all the activists accused of having joined or been associated with Viet Tan, an overseas-based group peacefully campaigning for democracy in Viet Nam. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has stated that the detention of the seven activists including Tran Thi Thuy is arbitrary and should be remedied by their release and compensation. Tran Thi Thuy is currently detained in An Phước Detention Centre, Bình Dương province, which is approximately 900 km from where her family lives; it takes them three days to get there.

 Unfortunately, Vietnamese prison officials are using the denial of medical care as a weapon to coerce a confession from the land rights activist:

Tran Thi Thuy first became ill around April 2015 while detained in a facility at Long Khánh town in Ðồng Nai Province. A prison doctor diagnosed a tumour on her uterus, but she was not provided with treatment. A prison officer told her to admit her crimes or “die in prison”. She has difficulty walking, needing a crutch or help. Her family have provided her with traditional medicine. She also has high blood pressure for which she takes medication. Tran Thi Thuy is in severe physical pain and has told her family that she has felt on the verge of death at several points in recent months. The denial of medical treatment in these circumstances could amount to torture and therefore a violation of the Convention against Torture, which came into force in Viet Nam in February after ratification last year. 

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. observed in his April 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" addressed to fellow clergy counseling patience and tolerance with existing racial injustices in the United States that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." This is the bumper sticker quote most are familiar with, but Reverend King continued in the letter explaining, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

A half century later and the wisdom of his words are becoming manifest in a world where compromises made with totalitarian regimes, such as China, for the sake of the financial gain of a few have resulted in a planet that is more polluted and where human rights and freedom have been in decline for nearly twenty years.

People of good will have a responsibility to do what they can. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in an address to the European Parliament on December 17, 2002 explained that "[t]he cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized." Please join me in speaking up for these and other political prisoners and remember, that although helping them in a utilitarian sense we also help ourselves, that more importantly we must do this because it is the right thing to do. The great Czech dissident Václav Havel explained back in 1990 that "[t]he salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility." It begins with you. Will you do your part?

Cuban mother denounces her disabled son's unjust imprisonment as blackmail by Cuban regime

"There are political prisoners in Cuba; the son of a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) was sentenced to 12 years in jail for the sole reason of being the son of a MCL member."- Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, September 23, 2011 interview

Rosa María Rodríguez Gil addresses the UNHRC in Geneva

One day a secret policemen approached Rosa María Rodríguez Gil and demanded that she become an informant spying on other members of the human rights group of which she is  a member. She rejected their offer saying that she would not be subjected to blackmail. They warned her that her learning disabled son, Yosvani Melchor Rodríguez, would pay. Three days later he was arrested on March 19, 2010 and held in custody for nine months then subjected to a show trial and given a 12 year prison sentence. 

Rosa responded by denouncing the blackmail and demanding the immediate release of her innocent son. Two years later and her son is still unjustly imprisoned and international attention draws some attention to his plight. Early one morning her sister, Dalia Margarita Rodríguez, who is a cancer survivor, gets a phone call they ask her if she is related to  Rosa and they ask Dalia her son's name. She answered all their questions truthfully and then they tell her to talk to Rosa and to take care of her son or that he would end up the same way.

 
Now more than five years after his arrest on June 24, 2015 with her son still in prison, Rosa María Rodríguez Gil addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and called for her son's freedom denouncing Yosvani's unjust imprisonment. In the video above beginning at 2:28:20 you can watch what transpired and below is a transcript of her statement before the Council:

Thank you very much Mr. Chairman,

My name is Rosa Maria Rodriguez Gil, I am a member of the Coordinating Council of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and I live in Havana, Cuba.

For my activism and commitment to the MCL and Oswaldo Payá, who with Harold Cepero died in circumstances that have not been cleared up; because I refused to collaborate with the Cuban political police, my son Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez, a young man with psychological problems, was arbitrarily arrested, subjected to a show trial, where the prosecution was unable to demonstrate evidence of an alleged crime of trafficking in persons that he did not commit, they sanctioned him to 12 years in prison and he has spent 5 years in the prisons of Cuba.

My son is being punished as a vendetta for my participation in the civic and constitutional campaign for a referendum where the people can freely decide whether if they want democracy.

Not content to kidnap my son, the Cuban authorities denied Yosvani even the right to parole, that all inmate has on the island once they have passed the half way point of the sanction imposed, in this case unjustly.

I come before this honorable forum to ask for justice and that my son Yosvani Melchor Rodriguez be released immediately, that the blackmail and threats against me and against all Cubans who peacefully work for human rights and real change to democracy with the people's participation cease.

Thank you very much.

In an interview on the same day with Radio República she described how the dictatorship's diplomat interrupted her, along with several anti-democratic states, questioning her credentials when she addressed the Council and how she was able to finish her statement. Rosa María also recalled how others in the council chamber approached her to express their admiration for her courage, some taking pictures with her.

Unjustly imprisoned: Yosvani Melchor

Two years + three months later the demand for truth and justice for Oswaldo and Harold continues

"The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits 'atrocities' but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future." - George Orwell

Two years, and three months ago today Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were killed in Cuba. The Christian Liberation Movement continues to gather signatures for a petition demanding an international investigation. International dignitaries are already demanding an investigation among them Nobel Peace Laureates Lech Walesa (1983) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984).

One of the survivors of the incident on July 22, 2012, Ángel Carromero, has spoken on the record and last week visited Miami to give his testimony at the University of Miami, Radio República, Voces de Cuba and other media outlets.

On October 20, 2014 The Washington Post published an editorial challenging the Cuban dictatorship's version and lack of a proper and thorough investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold below is an excerpt pertinent to their case:

THE OTHER day, Fidel Castro wrote an opinion column for Cuba’s state-run newspaper, Granma, as he has done periodically from retirement. He lavished praise on an editorial in the New York Times that called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. But Mr. Castro had one complaint: The Times mentioned the harassment of dissidents and the still-unexplained death of a leading exponent of democracy, Oswaldo Payá, and a younger activist, Harold Cepero, in a car wreck two years ago.

The assertion that Cuba’s authoritarian government had yet to explain the deaths was “slanderous and [a] cheap accusation,” Mr. Castro sputtered.

So why has Cuba done nothing to dispel the fog of suspicion that still lingers over the deaths? If the charge is slanderous, then it is long past time for Mr. Castro to order a thorough investigation of what happened on an isolated Cuban road on July 22, 2012. So far, there has been only a crude attempt at cover-up and denial.

We know something about what happened, thanks to the eyewitness account of Ángel Carromero, the young Spanish politician who was at the wheel of the rental car that was carrying Mr. Payá and Mr. Cepero to a meeting with supporters. Mr. Carromero, who visited Washington last week, told us the car was being shadowed by Cuban state security from the moment it left Havana. He said his conversations with Mr. Payá as they traveled were mostly about the Varela Project, Mr. Payá’s courageous 2002 petition drive seeking to guarantee democracy in Cuba. Many of Mr. Payá’s supporters in the project were later arrested and imprisoned. 

After the wreck, Mr. Carromero was pressured by the Cuban authorities to describe it as an accident caused by his reckless speeding. But he reiterated to us last week that what really happened is that the rental car was rammed from behind by a vehicle bearing state license plates. Mr. Carromero showed us photographs of the damaged car, damage that seemed inconsistent with a wreck caused by speeding. But the precise details of what happened are unknown and need to be cleared up by a credible investigation. Mr. Payá’s family has sought one for two years, without success. When the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States sent a query to Cuba about the case, they got no answer. Nothing.

Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" still needs your help ( An update )

"I refuse to abide by any law or regulation that may co-opt the free exercise of my rights as a citizen of my right as a free person."-  Jorge Luís García Pérez “Antúnez” June 25, 2014

Antúnez and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera at UM in 2013

Jorge Luís García Pérez “Antúnez” is back home with his wife and fellow activist, Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, and under house arrest awaiting a trial for civic unrest with no set date as of yet. The fact that he is as home is not due to Cuban law. The "law" in Cuba is a code that is observed or ignored based on the arbitrary whims of the dictatorship. 

Antúnez and Yris are back home because of the unexpected attention and support surrounding their arbitrary detention and the regime's inability to break Jorge Luis's spirit using choke holds, beatings, and unknown substance injected into his system. His future will be determined not by the law but the political calculations of the dictatorship. Therefore the two petitions launched last week one in Spanish directed at the Castro regime and another in English directed at international figures to pressure the dictatorship need to be maintained and supported

Antúnez in a conversation with the Cuban Democratic Directorate on July 25, 2014 explained how things stand:

“Right now I am processed with the File # 651 of 2014 of the Criminal Processing and Instruction Unit of Villa Clara. I am being instructed by Joaquín Piedra León. According to the document whose faculties are conferred by Article 27 of the Criminal Procedure Act and the prosecutor who accuses me, or placed this measure is Daylí Carrazana Rodríguez. This is a document duly signed and also stamped” 

Jorge Luís is not backing down. He explained his position very plainly in the same June 25, 2014 conversation:

"I've always said, will say, hold and maintain that I refuse to abide by any law or regulation that may co-opt the free exercise of my rights as a citizen of my right as a free person. That is why I reserve the right when I deem appropriate and strategic to give an answer to this situation. According to them, I have to ask permission to move from Placetas and to travel to places outside of Placetas; they must be places like hospitals. I know this is nothing but a crude maneuver, primarily for closing me off, to suffocate, to handcuff my movements, to stop the work being done by the Resistance Front at this moment.

Since they refuse to be silenced by intimidation and torture their lives remain in danger. The best ways to protect them is to demand accountability on the violence visited against them and to continue to demand that a transparent and international investigations into suspicious deaths like those of Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante.

On this occasion the dictatorship in Havana misjudged the reaction inside and outside of Cuba to the violence and terror visited on this courageous couple.


Meanwhile the door and lock to their home remains smashed up as can be seen in the above video were Yris relates what happened on the morning of June 11, 2014 at around 6:00am when state security agents kicked down their door and took them both away.

Circumstances of the second arrest
 
They had been released on the morning of Friday, June 13, 2014 only to be arrested again on the evening of Sunday June 15, 2014 when they were out walking together and came across a homeless man laying in the middle of a public road who was not receiving attention from the authorities. Protesting that the regime expended resources having them followed at the time that it would ignore someone in distress collapsed in the middle of the street.