A Concert of Sacred Music for the Victims of Communism

Remembering the victims of communism with sacred music

Concert tonight at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church

Tonight the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation hosted A Concert of Sacred Music featuring the Choir of the Synodal Cathedral of the Icon of Our Lady of the Sign in New York at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Washington, DC. 

In the program the conductor and choral director, Peter Fekula, provided a series of notes at the end where he explained the impact of the 1917 Revolution this type of music. "Russian Orthodox sacred music did not disappear" ... but continued to exist in a semi-underground state. Just as churches and monasteries were closed or destroyed, so too were the musical institutions and schools of the Russian Church dissolved or converted into secular institutions, no longer permitted to perform the role for which they were created."

 Fekula explained what happened to artists who refused to compromise. "Artists - composers, conductors, and singers - who did not submit to the demands of the atheist regime, or who simply failed to adapt to the new reality were publicly denounced, threatened and had their privileges revoked. Some were killed - the list of victims of Communist oppression in the Russian Orthodox Church contains he names of several composers who were martyred for their faith and activities."

The concert was both powerful and melancholic concluding with four selections from Alexander Dmitriyevich Kastalsky's Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, dedicated to all fallen soldiers of the Allied nations in World War One. Published in 1917, this piece was one of the last religious works published in Russia before the Bolshevik revolution.

The final piece played tonight remembered the victims of communism:

"Grant rest eternal in blessed repose, O Lord, to Thy departed servants, the victims of Communist oppression throughout the world, and make their memory to be eternal."

Kastalsky's work is also a reminder of the link between World War One and its role in creating conditions that the Lenin and the Bolsheviks were able to exploit to usher in a century of mass murder and degradation with the emergence of the Soviet Union, the first communist regime.

There is an effort underway called The Kastalsky Requiem Project to revive one of his works as a way of commemorating the centennial of the end of World War One in 2018. The aim of the project is to "give the full seventeen-movement version of the work its world premiere performance and recording [it] in the fall of 2018, with performances in New York, Washington, and Kansas City."

Communist censorship of music would continue over the next century. In the case of Cuba popular and iconic singers were banned and censored for refusing to submit to communist rule and living abroad.

Reviving these pieces of Russian Orthodox Sacred Music not only remembers the victims of communism but in playing this music defy the censors who sought to permanently silence these compositions.

The White House declares November 7, 2017 National Day for the Victims of Communism

 Thank you for recognizing the over 100 million victims of communism.

 

 

The White House

 

Office of the Press Secretary

November 07, 2017

National Day for the Victims of Communism

Today, the National Day for the Victims of Communism, marks 100 years since the Bolshevik Revolution took place in Russia. The Bolshevik Revolution gave rise to the Soviet Union and its dark decades of oppressive communism, a political philosophy incompatible with liberty, prosperity, and the dignity of human life.

Over the past century, communist totalitarian regimes around the world have killed more than 100 million people and subjected countless more to exploitation, violence, and untold devastation. These movements, under the false pretense of liberation, systematically robbed innocent people of their God-given rights of free worship, freedom of association, and countless other rights we hold sacrosanct. Citizens yearning for freedom were subjugated by the state through the use of coercion, violence, and fear.

Today, we remember those who have died and all who continue to suffer under communism. In their memory and in honor of the indomitable spirit of those who have fought courageously to spread freedom and opportunity around the world, our Nation reaffirms its steadfast resolve to shine the light of liberty for all who yearn for a brighter, freer future.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/11/07/national-day-victims-communism

Setting the record straight on the Cuban Adjustment Act and "Wet Foot Dry Foot" policy

Shutting the door on Cuban refugees and opening it to their oppressors

Closing the door on the victims of communism in Cuba 

Over the past eight years the Obama Administration has been making major concessions to the Castro regime with little in return or worse responding to blackmail. At the same time the human rights situation in Cuba has worsened, trade between the two countries has collapsed and there is a massive exodus of over a 100,000 Cubans.  The latest episode in this ongoing process is the further gutting of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act and the chief beneficiary will be the Castro regime sadly one of the potential big losers is South Florida.

Past is prologue
However it is important to review recent history to understand the full significance of what is taking place and how terrible it is for both US national security interests and that of free Cubans. The Obama Administration claims to have opened a "new chapter" on Cuba, but in reality it is a reboot of the worst aspects of the Carter and Clinton Administration's Cuba policies that prolonged the life of the Castro dictatorship while creating humanitarian tragedies during both their Presidencies with Mariel (1980) and the Rafter Crisis (1994 - 1995).  The Cuban Adjustment Act was in effect from 1966, to address a previous migration crisis but there was not a constant exodus of Cubans. Under the Nixon, Reagan and Bush 41 and Bush 43 presidencies there was not a single Cuban migration crisis. This leads to the question if it is not the Cuban Adjustment Act what other factor could explain the reason for these different migration waves? Under Carter, Clinton and Obama there were overarching efforts to normalize relations, even at the expense of US national interests. Two possibilities that are not mutually exclusive emerge: 1) Cubans believe that the free world will no longer be in solidarity with their desire to be free and in despair they flee. and 2) The Castro regime believes that it can use migration as a weapon to extract concessions from a White House that they perceive as weak and vulnerable.

With regards to the Cuban Adjustment Act one needs to look closely at the events during the Clinton Administration and how they set up the latest chapter of the gutting of the Cuban Adjustment Act by the Obama Administration on January 12, 2017.

How the Clinton Administration began to undermine the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1994 
The first effort to gut the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act  was initiated by President Bill Clinton who on August 19, 1994 stopped bringing Cuban refugees picked up on the high seas to the United States and took them to improvised camps on the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base. This was followed on May 2, 1995 with a further break in past practice when his Attorney General Janet Reno announced: "Effective immediately, Cuban migrants intercepted at sea, attempting to enter the United States or who enter Guantanamo illegally will be taken to Cuba." Never before had U.S. ships returned Cuban refugees to communist Cuba.  

This re-interpretation of the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1995 was done without consulting Congress, without changing the law and was the result of joint agreements between the United States and the Castro regime made public in a joint statement supposedly "to regularize further their migration relationship." This is how the highly irregular Wet Foot Dry Foot policy came into effect gutting the original intent of the Cuban Adjustment Act.  Before this day, the U.S. Coast Guard would rescue fleeing Cuban refugees who entered U.S. territorial waters and bring them to the United States. With the Wet Foot Dry Foot the U.S. Coast Guard began to to return those same fleeing Cubans to their captors. Six day later on May 8, 1995 a flashpoint of anger over the repatriations of Cuban refugees emerged with hundreds of Cuban exile shutting down the Port of Miami in protest over the arriving cruise ship Majesty of the Seas who had handed over Cuban refugees to the Coast Guard for "repatriation." The demonstrations would continue for weeks paralyzing highways and main intersections across Dade County, but "Wet Foot Dry Foot" continued.

How the Lottery benefits the Castro regime
But that was not all. As they say the devil was in the details. The agreement with the Castro dictatorship opened up a lottery for Cuban nationals between 18 and 55 years of age in which according to a 2009 report authored by Ruth Ellen Wasem, a specialist in immigration policy at the Congressional Research Service titled "Cuban Migration to the United States: Policy and Trends" they must answer "yes" to "two of the following three questions. Have you completed secondary school or a higher level of education? Do you have at least three years of work experience? Do you have any relatives residing in the United States?" If they win the lottery they must have a medical examination and are "given parole status with a visa that is good for six months." According to the above mentioned report by the Congressional Research Service: "Over the years, there have been reports of barriers the potential Cuban parolees face, such as exorbitantly priced medical exams, exit visa fees, and repercussions for family members who remain in Cuba."  Not stated is that the Castro regime could turn this lottery into a reward mechanism for Cubans loyal to the Castro regime while blocking those who are politically persecuted by the regime. Up to 20,000 Cubans a year can be granted visas through this lottery that has been in place since 1995.

Visas for Cubans during the Obama Presidency
The Obama Administration has made a point that now Cubans with visas who arrive in the United States will be able to enter and benefit from the Cuban Adjustment Act. The next question raised is who is being granted visas to come to the United States? The answer is troubling with regards to Cuba. The Obama Administration during its first term (August 4, 2011) announced a ban on visas for people who the State Department finds have been involved in human rights violations. Nevertheless, Juan O. Tamayo reported in the The Miami Herald on November 18, 2012 that human rights violators from Cuba are not only getting visas but residency in the United States: 

"Former Cuban provincial prisons chief Crescencio Marino Rivero made headlines over the past month amid allegations that he abused some prisoners and ordered guards to abuse others before he moved to Miami two years ago. But uncounted hundreds of other Cubans with nasty pasts are also living here, including State Security officers, snitches and collaborators, judges, policemen and members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the neighborhood watch groups."

The U.S. Embassy in Havana has denied visas to Cuban dissidents, such as poet Rafael Alcides, because since they are critical of the dictatorship they are viewed as a higher risk to stay in the United States than a loyal communist apparatchik. Therefore on one hand the victims of communism are less likely to find refuge in the United States while their oppressors get to retire in sunny Miami with great benefits. In 2013 Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro, a regime apparatchik and ardent communist was granted a visa to the United States. This is not the Cuban Adjustment Act but the perversion of it by the Clinton and Obama Administrations that are well on their way to shutting the door on Cuban refugees but leaving it open to their oppressors.

Shutting the door on Cuban doctors who are victims of trafficking
An estimated 31,000 Cuban doctors are sent by the Castro regime on "international missions." Other Cubans, who are not doctors, have been sent abroad to work and provide hard currency for the Castro regime and are working in inhumane circumstances. Cuban doctors in Cuba make approximately $25 dollars a month in salary. In 2008 The Miami Herald reported that "more than 31,000 Cuban health workers -- most of them doctors -- who toil in 71 countries brought in $2.3 billion last year, ..., more than any other industry, including tourism. Most of them are paid $150 to $375 a month, a small percentage of the cash or trade benefits the Cuban government pockets in exchange for their work." To place it into perspective, North Koreans working abroad are making between $120 and $150.

Juan Alfonso, a Cuban doctor, now living and practicing medicine in Chile, was interviewed by the PanamPost on October 15, 2015 and explained why he had to flee his homeland, "I will tell you something: I would have liked to stay in Cuba. I left because I could barely afford to buy a single egg to eat a day." The New York Times is trying to spin that Cuban doctors are fleeing to the United States because of the Cuban Adjustment Act and a special immigration program. Perhaps they should talk to this Cuban doctor who can offer an alternative explanation:

 "I was told that during a meeting of the [Communist] Youth, an Olympic athlete stood up and said he thought doctors should work extra shifts for free. The whole world applauded, and the motion passed unanimously. There is no union to defend doctors in Cuba. Many of us would wake up around midnight from hunger pains, and no one ever gave us anything; maybe a slice of bread, at the most."

The Cuban Medical Professional Program was established on August 11, 2006 to provide Cubans healthcare professionals in a third country conscripted by the Castro regime the ability to enter the United States. 

How the Obama Administration continued to undermine the Cuban Adjustment Act in 2017
Once again, as President Clinton did in 1995, the Cuban Adjustment Act was altered by President Obama without consulting with Congress that passed the law, but in secret negotiations with Castro regime. The Joint Statement of the United States and Cuban governments, signed on January 12, 2017 with reference to migration not only further guts the Cuban Adjustment Act but ends the practice of granting refuge to Cuban healthcare professionals trafficked to third countries and exploited by the Castro regime.

"In this framework, the United States of America shall henceforth end the special parole policy for Cuban nationals who reach the territory of the United States (commonly referred to as the wet foot-dry foot policy), as well as the parole program for Cuban health care professionals in third countries. The United States shall henceforth apply to all Cuban nationals, consistent with its laws and international norms, the same migration procedures and standards that are applicable to nationals of other countries, as established in this Joint Statement."  

Now for the most part, only Cubans granted visas, will be able to apply for residency in the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act. Unfortunately, based on the practices of the U.S. Embassy in Havana this means that many communist apparatchiks will be getting visas to the United States while the victims of the communist regime will find it more difficult to obtain visas the United States, much less apply for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. There is much cause to worry where this policy will lead but one thing is certain this has been underway for some time and already caused harm to this community and trends with this new policy will only make it worse.

This is both a shameful and harmful legacy.

The best way for friends of freedom in the incoming Administration to deal with it is to scrap both what the Clinton and Obama Administrations have  done to undermine the Cuban Adjustment Act, which is the law of the land and restore its original intent with a view towards looking out for both US national interests and the aspirations of Cubans seeking freedom while at the same time draining the swamp that has filled South Florida with human rights repressors, spies, and criminals working for the Castro regime. 

From the Archives:

The Miami Herald
Published: 05/08/95
Section: FRONT

Page: 1A

'WHERE ARE OUR BROTHERS?' EXILES VENT ANGER OVER REPATRIATIONS

JOHN LANTIGUA and ANDRES VIGLUCCI Herald Staff Writers


Hundreds of Cuban exiles turned Sunday into a day of protests, venting their wrath at the Clinton administration by blocking the road to the Port of Miami with trucks and sit-ins and scuffling briefly with police.


The demonstrations were a desperate gambit, a last-ditch effort to dissuade the government from plans to return to Cuba 13 rafters rescued by a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

"Where are our brothers?" demonstrators chanted, referring to the 13 rafters.

It was not clear if the cries of dismay were heard at the White House.

U.S. authorities remained tight-lipped about the rafters' fate. The Coast Guard, which took the rafters off the cruise ship Majesty of the Seas late Friday, said it was still awaiting instructions from Washington on where to take them.

There were many forms of protest Sunday.

Amid threats by exiles to use boats to shut off Government Cut, the only route in and out of Miami's port, the Coast Guard stepped up its presence in the channel, escorting departing cruise ships out to sea.
Some demonstrators had vowed to block the cut at 5:30 p.m. as the Majesty of the Seas headed back out on another weeklong cruise. But only two small motorboats flying Cuban flags waited at the mouth of the channel, and they never approached the massive ship. On the South Pointe pier, about 20 people waved flags and booed the passing liner.

A representative of the Archdiocese of Miami, the Rev. Francisco Santana, read a statement to reporters condemning the decision to repatriate Cubans. The statement was issued by Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman, long a champion of Cuban refugees and the archdiocese's highest-ranking Cuban exile priest.
And pilots for Brothers to the Rescue flew to within 20 miles of the coast of Cuba, trying but failing to locate the Coast Guard cutter carrying the rafters. The pilots had hoped to photograph the cutter if and when it turned over the 13 men to Cuban authorities.

The biggest and most visible action took place in the heart of downtown Miami, within sight of thousands of tourists.

Starting at 7 a.m., a crowd of as many as 500 people intermittently cut off access to the port -- where the Majesty of the Seas docked at dawn Sunday -- by blocking the road leading to it with vehicles and their own bodies. During the six-hour demonstration, they succeeded in shutting down the road several times for a total of about a half hour.

Dozens of Miami and Metro-Dade police officers were on the scene, and 10 people were detained. At least two were charged with failing to obey the directions of police officers and obstructing justice, but others were released without charges. Those arrested were later released without having to post bail.
Demonstrators collected money to help pay fines and towing charges.

At one point, demonstrators crashed through a metal barricade keeping them off the port road. There was brief struggle involving about 10 officers and 20 demonstrators. But in general there was little confrontation, and there were no injuries.

After the scuffle, demonstration leaders and Miami Police Assistant Chief Raul Martinez, a Cuban American, came to an agreement. The next two times the demonstrators blocked the street, the police allowed them through the barricades without resistance. On those two occasions, the demonstrators cleared the road voluntarily after about 10 minutes.

Miami Police Chief Donald H. Warshaw said his officers were getting ready for more demonstrations during the next several days if the rafters are returned to Cuba.

Leaders of Sunday's protest said they planned to meet today to plan further action.
A survey released by Spanish-language WLTV-Channel 23 showed the demonstrators' concerns were shared by many of Dade County's Hispanic adults. According to the three-day poll, two- thirds of them disagreed with the administration's decision to repatriate rafters.

But the poll also indicated Dade residents are sharply divided on the issue. Three-fourths of blacks and non-Hispanic whites support the new policy.

Under Clinton's toughened policy, negotiated in secret with the Cuban government, the 21,000 rafters held at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay will be granted entry into the United States, but all rafters picked up at sea will be repatriated.

Herald staff writers Elaine De Valle, Ana Menendez, David Hancock and Frances Robles contributed to this report.


JEFFERY A. SALTER / Herald Staff
CRIES OF DISMAY: Exiles angered over the new Cuba policy block a truck attempting to enter the Port of Miami, where the Majesty of the Seas docked Sunday. The demonstration lasted six hours.
JEFFERY A. SALTER / Herald Staff
© 1996 The Miami Herald.

Black Ribbon Day 2016 and the Struggle Against Forgetting

Never Forget 

Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau today, August 23rd issued an official statement recognizing Black Ribbon Day in an important act of remembrance that, in part, read:

Today, we honour the victims and survivors of Communism and Nazism in Europe, and all those around the world who continue to endure and fight against the oppression of totalitarian regimes. Black Ribbon Day marks the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This pact, signed in 1939 between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, allowed for the illegal political and territorial rearrangement of Eastern and Central Europe.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Nazi German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, officially called the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was signed 77 years ago today. Made public on August 23, 1939 the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with secret protocols setting out how the two regimes would divide Poland and the Baltic States.

World War 2 would begin with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East on September 17, 1939. The double invasion is dramatized in Andrzej Wajda's 2007 film Katyn. This important date in history and cautionary tale for democrats remains largely ignored.


However the Victims of Communism through their blog Dissident speaks truth to power calling on people of good will not only to remember the crimes of the Nazi regime but to take on a new task that remains to be done:

Unlike in the case of the Nazis, however, there has yet to be a comprehensive reckoning of all of the past Soviet crimes. Moreover, in Putin’s Russia we see concerted efforts to reclaim Soviet glory and to justify Soviet repression and mass murder. Now more than ever it is imperative the world recognize the fundamentally and necessarily evil character of socialist systems. Just as we would rightly reject the contention that national socialism was simply improperly implemented, so too we should reject the same assertion in the case of international socialism. No experiment in government has been run more often in more places at different times and under different conditions while leading every time to the same results—death, depravity, degeneration, and degradation of the human soul and the natural environment alike.

 It is important to recall that the worse war in human history with a loss of life not seen before or since was planned for in a diplomatic agreement with secret protocols between the regime of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the  regime of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Furthermore that although Nazi Germany was brought to an end in 1945 the brutality of Communist Russia continued through 1991 and today a former KGB intelligence officer rules in Russia.

The Czech writer Milan Kundera observed that "the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." This observation is especially relevant on this day and the efforts to erase this dark chapter of history must be resisted.

Captive Nations Week and the 4 Ingredients for Real Freedom

Captive Nations Week is the third week of July

In 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 86-90 which compels every President of the United States to proclaim the third week of July of each year as Captive Nations Week in commemoration of the "captive nations" (those still with Communist governments). In 2016 there are five openly communist dictatorships in the world: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.

Due to the normalization of diplomatic relations last year with the Communist regime in Cuba and the official visit by President Obama and his family earlier this year that Captive Nations Week will focus this year on Cuba and the continuing need for freedom. The Victims of Communism Foundation outlines with a cool presentation titled "Cuba Libre?" what are the four ingredients of a real free Cuba.

 More often than not the words “Cuba Libre” bring to mind that combination of good quality rum, Coke, and lime that refreshes in an almost medicinal way, especially on a hot and humid summer day. When we at VOC hear “Cuba Libre,” however, our thoughts turn to the Cuban people and their dreams of freedom, peace, and prosperity. A real “Cuba Libre” requires four crucial ingredients.

First, the rule of law. The communist dictatorship of the Castros is capricious, with Cubans (such as the Ladies in White and street artist El Sexto) subject to repeated and arbitrary detention. Furthermore, Cuban courts are subordinated to the executive and legislative branches (i.e., to Castro and the Communist Party), thereby denying them independence. The only rule in Cuba is that there is no rule beyond the will of Raúl. It is truly the rule of man over men.

What is desperately needed in Cuba is the rule of men under law. In other words, Cuba requires a government that is administered according to a publicly declared set of rules applied in an equal manner to all people regardless of the will of those making the decisions. One of the surest safeguards of the rule of law is an independent judiciary where the decisions of the courts in the particular cases before them are binding upon the executive and legislative branches.

Second, democratic self-governance. The Cuban regime represents not the interests of the Cuban people, but rather those of the Cuban Communist Party, and of its leader Raúl Castro in particular. One need only look at the example of Sirley Ávila León, a rural Cuban farmer turned community activist, to see this truth. Between 2005 to 2013, she was elected three times by her community as an unpaid delegate to an official legislative body. When she tried to fulfil the representative role she supposedly held and protest the lack of adequate schools in her district, eventually sharing her story on Radio Martí, she was labeled a mercenary, setting off a string of harassment and severe vandalism that culminated in May 2015 when she was brutally attacked with a machete.

One of the causes of the American Revolution was the denial of the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances, the right to ask the government to act in the interests of those whose persons and property it exists to protect. As Ms. Ávila’s example shows, Cubans enjoy no such right. They are punished simply for asking that the state fulfill its most basic duties. Until the Cuban people have a say in how they are governed, their interests will continue to count for nothing.

Third, free speech. Not only are Cubans prevented from speaking up to ask the Castro regime to improve their lives, but they are prohibited from speaking openly about matters of public interest at all. Dissidents are detained, arrested, or placed under house arrest before and during major meetings, like the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in January 2014. Private media ownership is prohibited. Plays are subject to regime approval before they can be performed, and some, like “The King is Dying,” by Juan Carlos Cremata, are banned.

Without free speech, the intellectual, cultural, and political life of the Cuban people will remain constrained. A robust civic spirit and an empowered citizenry require a public sphere where individuals can come together to clearly identify and openly discuss the most pressing issues of the day. Free speech is foundational to a genuinely representative government, as the limits enforced upon speech will always favor the interests of those who enforce the limits.

Fourth, free enterprise. The Cuban economy is centrally planned and dominated by state owned enterprises. Moreover, the most significant of these enterprises are under the control of the Cuban regime’s security apparatus and thus report directly to Raúl Castro. Any investment in Cuba requires government approval, and typically requires that the investor partner with the state. The government controls prices and allocates food rations to the people. Moreover, as Julio Shiling notes, “The regime has enormous businesses outside the territory of Cuba which have siphoned money away from the Cuban people.”

A system of free enterprise unleashes the creative potential of individuals. These individuals come together voluntarily to cooperate to meet the needs and wants of their fellows. Unlike a planned economy—where associations are compulsory and coercive and the kind, quality, and quantity of products and services produced are decided upon by those with political power—a system of free enterprise responds to human beings. Rather than shaping them, it is shaped by them.
Taken together, these four elements are the necessary ingredients to for a real Cuba Libre. It is our hope that, Cuba Libre raised in hand, we will one day soon toast Cuba’s freedom.

In Washington D.C.at the Heritage Foundation on July 13th the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation held the 2016 National Captive Nations Week Luncheon with Lee Edwards, Marion Smith and Michael Ryan presiding over the event. In addition country reports were made of the five remaining communist regimes in the world: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Vietnam.  

On Tuesday, July 19, 2016 from 6:30 PM at The Landmark Theater E Street - 555 11th St NW , Washington, DC will premiere the documentary HAVANA MOTOR CLUB  whose subject matter is Cuba's vibrant community of underground drag racers and their quest to hold Cuba's first official car race since they being outlawed by the Castro Regime in the early days of the revolution in Cuba.

After the premiere of the documentary the Victims of Communism Foundation is also delighted to be premiering their third addition to the Witness Project series. This 5 minute short features Sirley Ávila León, a courageous champion of human rights who was brutally attacked in her native Cuba and lived to not only tell her story but continue her fight for freedom on behalf of Cubans.

Get your tickets here while they are still available. Seats are limited.

Witness Accounts From The Frontlines of Cuba: Sirley Ávila León

Victims of Communism Commemoration, June 9, 2016 Washington D.C.

My name is Sirley Ávila León. I am Cuban and reside in Cuba. I was elected as a delegate to the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power in Cuba by my neighbors in June 2005, for the rural area of Limones, district #37, in the municipality of Majibacoa in Las Tunas province. The Assembly, which in theory is the entity that governs the country, in practice is controlled by the Communist Party of Cuba. The Assembly was composed of 81 districts, with more than 50,000 inhabitants. From the beginning of the two-day seminar in which I learned how to exercise my functions as a delegate, I connected well with everyone on account of my character and my rural roots. I began to become interested in the life of the citizenry in general, a life which is so damaged by the people’s complete lack of hope of escaping from the human, spiritual, and moral misery which they suffer. I say this because of what I heard there and because of the things I have heard people say in the street: “No one is going to change this; it can’t be fixed, but no one is going to knock it down either.” These are recurrent expressions among the people. From the first meetings of the Assembly I noticed the double standard of the leaders, who in reality were not interested in the people at all. The biggest problems were bureaucratic: because of so much corruption, the system did not function.

I learned from the people who voted for me that before 1992, the area had been one of the most productive in the province: there had been three primary schools, but due to the hydraulic plan implemented by Fidel Castro, they had been demolished in order to construct a reservoir which left part of the population destitute.

Children had to walk more than 9 kilometers on difficult paths in order to attend the nearest school; the parents, needing to accompany their children, had no time to cultivate their land, despite the cruel poverty in which they lived. To minimize the ill effects on their children, some emigrated to the towns of Calixto and Las Tunas and other places where there were schools, leaving their lands abandoned, and in some cases affecting third parties whom they’d previously provided with food and who now had to pay for all of their food needs.

As farmers they didn’t have a right to retire, and needed to begin a state-controlled professional life, for which many of them were prepared neither intellectually nor physically. It was depressing to hear their stories. Trusting in the Fidel Castro quote that I often heard in the media, that revolution means “changing everything that must be changed,” I gave my word to the farmers that I would fight to change their situation, no matter the consequences. I was unaware as yet of the monster that I was facing, unaware of the lack of rights and the dictatorship that exists in Cuba, a dictatorship that is capable of anything in order to keep itself in power and whose claim that power originates in the people is a constant lie.

I set myself to the task of demanding the school that the area needed so badly. For six months I went to the municipality and the province. During the first months of 2006, without any result, I went to the Council of State, and during that same semester the construction of the school was approved. To my surprise, people from all around started coming to me, telling me their problems and asking me to represent them. In an immediate meeting of the Assembly, I was accused by its president of being a leader, for having requested containers to protect and transport the products of the farmers of the district, and for having demanded that the authorities fulfill their commitment to buy producers’ tomatoes, fruits, and vegetables, which because of delays in payment, were rotting in the fields, harming the peasants economically, while people in every city were plunged into famine. He said that my conduct would have to be analyzed at the provincial seat of the Communist Party of Cuba, and I was driven there immediately in one of their cars.

Although the regime began campaigns against me, the people’s confidence in me grew. The school was built and was inaugurated during the 2007-2008 school year. The provincial leaders never forgave me for its construction. They questioned the way in which I related to the people, my concern for resolving the lack of payment to the farmers, housing for critical cases, plunged into the cruelest destitution, the lack of seriousness in commitments to persons living in the countryside. During the 2010-2011 school year, after having been in operation for three years, the school was closed by a government decision, made without considering the characteristics of the area for which it had been built: impassable roads, the distance to the nearest school, the economic condition of the local parents. Nevertheless, the school was closed, supposedly by a law that originated in the highest reaches of power.

I lost no time. I made complaints according to the established procedure, but without results. I sought support in the mass organizations and political organizations (all governmental organizations). I went to the Council of State twelve times in nine months, because the parents affected had decided not to send their children to the school they had been assigned while awaiting the response to my actions, and had been victims of threats and repression on the part of the Ministry of Education as well as other entities like Care of Minors, the Prosecution, the National Revolutionary Police, the Communist Party of Cuba, and People’s Power. They were threatened with having their children taken away and housed in a school for disabled children if they refused to take them to their assigned schools. They threatened to take these parents’ children prisoner, waging psychological warfare against them, prohibiting them to meet with me.

The last time that I went to the Council of State, when I was not able to meet with Raúl Castro or someone designated by him, I stopped in one of the avenues by the entry of the building, hoping that some minister would take interest and pay attention to me. Not much time had passed before a citizen appeared, claiming to be the Chief of Security for the area of the Council of State. When I had explained to him what I was doing, he told me that I would have to accompany him, and he brought me before the head of Assistance to the Population, and I was expelled and threatened that if I returned I would be accused of crimes against state security.

Disappointed, sobbing, I went to the editorship of the newspaper Granma, asking them to publish that, as a delegate representing the people, I wanted an interview with Raúl Castro or Ricardo Alarcón. They told me that they couldn’t publish this. Threats on the part of the provincial and municipal leaders were not far behind, urging me to renounce my position as a delegate, upon seeing the firmness with which I defended my principles and position with the support of the area. They made moves to impose another person who was not supported by the people. They eliminated the district which I officially represented. They threatened me with an investigation by the prosecutor.

Certain that I had not committed any crime, I gave it no more thought and went to Holguín in order to search for some independent journalists whom I didn’t know personally but whom I had heard about. I wanted to denounce the regime for its human rights abuses. On September 8, 2012, I decried this situation on Radio Martí. I faced down the monster of dictatorship, which is interested only in power and privileges, all by myself. I don’t know a lot about politics, but the totalitarian dictatorship of the Castros is one of the world’s most corrupt and criminal. I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect government, but I am certain that by involving all people, from house to house, we can build a government with democracy and constitutional liberties and rights. I participated as an activist in opposition groups like UNPACU, and I supported the hunger strikes of Luis E. Losada (23 days, accompanying his family) and Ángel Yunier (El Crítico) in Granma. I decided independently to organize people who thought like me, so that we could protect ourselves from the regime and at the same time defend the rights of the people and convince those who doubted that we could indeed change the dictatorship into a state ruled by law.

For everything that I have described above, I have been the victim of several attempts on my life, attempts to physically eliminate me, and other acts of vandalism against my land, my animals, and my property, all organized by the regime and its political police as part of its intent to eliminate me. The young Yudisleidy López Rodríguez alerted me to the fact that the political police had offered highly dangerous common criminals rewards for murdering me. She was killed on September 26, 2014 for publicly decrying an attack on me in which my bed was set on fire during the early morning. Her murder was covered up as a crime of passion.

On May 24, 2015, I was attacked in my home by Osmani Carrión, sent by State Security to kill me. He attacked me with a machete, severing my left hand and mutilating my right arm and both knees. He didn’t cut off my head thanks to the presence of a child at the scene of the events and thanks to God who protected my life so that I could be here today and offer my testimony. I am in the United States with a medical visa in order to receive treatment for the most recent attack I have suffered, but I will return to Cuba as soon as I recover.

I thank all the wonderful people who have given me this opportunity.

August 23: Remember the victims of totalitarianism in Europe

We remember and pray for the departed marking the day 75 years ago when Nazis and Communists signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Below we have reproduced an announcement sent from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Black Ribbon Day 

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in cooperation with The Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the Joint Baltic American National Committee invite you to attend a special remembrance and wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, August 23rd (10:00 AM) commemorating Black Ribbon Day 2014.

Black Ribbon Day Commemoration
Date: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: Victims of Communism Memorial (intersection of New Jersey Ave. NW and Massachusetts Ave. NW)

Join us as we commemorate the victims of totalitarianism in Europe with a special remembrance and wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, August 23rd at 10:00 AM. This August 23rd marks the 75th anniversary of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which divided Europe and helped start the Second World War. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact stands as a reminder that although totalitarianism takes various forms, it only ever leads to death and destruction.

On May 22, 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 4435, which designated August 23rd as Black Ribbon Day. Congressman John Shimkus of Illinois, co-chairman of the House Baltic Caucus, sponsored the legislation. The legislation now moves on to the Senate. If the Senate passes a matching Resolution, the United States will join countries around the world in marking August 23rd as Black Ribbon Day and commemorating the millions of victims of Nazi and Communist regimes in Europe.

VOC, in cooperation with the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the Joint Baltic American National Committee, will distribute copies of Lest We Forget: Memory of Totalitarianism in Europe to every member of Congress. Lest We Forget is a publication of the European Platform of Memory and Conscience supported by the European Commission.

Please join us at this commemorative ceremony, where ambassadors and representatives of various ethnic communities will remember all the victims of European totalitarianism.

Please register for this event here.

If you are interested in laying a wreath at this event, please contact Travis.LaCouter@VictimsofCommunism.org.

Original source: http://us3.campaign-archive2.com/?u=91e76c85ef3ce77d7a53b176f&id=fdad8cc905&e=973b842cbc