Remembering Liu Xiaobo: Jailed Chinese Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate died on this day in 2017

The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition. - Simon Wiesenthal 

 

Tragically, Chinese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and human rights defender Liu Xiaobo died eight years ago on July 13, 2017 at the First Hospital of China Medical University, in Shenyang, China after being unjustly imprisoned from December 8, 2008 until his untimely death nearly 10 years later. 

It is likely that he died of a cancer made terminal by politically motivated neglect. July 13 marks seven years since his passing. After eight years in "unofficial detention" his widow Liu Xia was finally allowed to leave China on July 10, 2018.

Liu Xiaobo was one of the authors of Charter 08 and signed it along with more than three hundred Chinese citizens. The Charter is a manifesto that was released on December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It calls for more freedom of expression, human rights, more democratic elections, the privatization of state enterprises and economic liberalization and would collect over 10,000 signatures.

Charter 08 is reminiscent of the Varela Project that was initially signed by 11,020 Cubans in May of 2002 calling on the Cuban government to respect international human rights norms and engage in the same kind of reforms. Both were inspired by Vaclav Havel and Charter 77. Lamentably, the author of the Varela Project, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founding leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and a youth leader of the same movement, Harold Cepero Escalante were both extrajudicially executed twelve years ago on July 22, 2012 in a crash engineered by the Cuban dictatorship's agents.

The demand for justice remains unfulfilled in all these cases, but we must not despair.

We bear witness embracing truth and memory in defiance of the attempt to whitewash and forget. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained the importance of doing this in his 1986 Nobel Lecture on why it is important to remember:

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." ... "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."

In 2017, I was present at a candlelight vigil in Washington, DC on July 17th organized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation to pay my respects for Liu Xiaobo and demonstrate my solidarity with Chinese human rights defenders.

 

 

 

 

Kabuki theater now underway in Cuba in 2021 is using the same messaging as 2018, and equally as false.

"Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect..." - Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Gentleman (1710).

Raul Castro (age 89) said today (April 16, 2021) he is resigning as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, "ending an era of formal leadership by he and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution," reported the Associated Press. Three years earlier, Raul Castro handed over the office of the presidency to his hand picked successor Miguel Díaz-Canel on April 19, 2018. The dictatorship used this to give the impression that there was a transition underway to a post-Castro era in Cuba back then and many in the press bought the lie.

On April 18, 2018, Ed Augustin writing from Havana for The Guardian began his article, "When Cuba’s president stands down this week, it will mark the first time in nearly six decades that the island will be led by somebody whose last name is not Castro." Five years later and the same claims are now being made again by the experts and journalists, but Cubans in the island know better.

The Castro regime is repeating the same messaging now that is again being echoed by the free press. General Raul Castro remained head of the communist party, the maximum authority, controlled the military, and headed the commission that drafted the new constitution in 2018. Now he is formally ceding the position of the head of the Communist Party, according to press accounts and analysts, to someone not named Castro, but the Castro dynasty remains in control.

Remember when Raul Castro supposedly turned power over to Miguel Díaz-Canel on 4/19/18

This is not a transition but a succession to a new generation of the Castro dynasty led by Alejandro Castro. However, while he lives, Raul Castro will continue to have a veto over what happens in the archipelago. People outside Cuba may not know it, but Cubans on the island already do. Cuban independent journalist Camila Acosta, and member of the 27N intellectual movement explained to Deutsche Welle on April 16, 2021 that "for a long time, it has been the son of Raúl Castro, Alejandro Castro Espín, who moves the strings of the country. Raúl would only officially retire, although he should remain aware of everything perhaps as an authority figure as part of that 'historical elite' of the Revolution."

Raúl Castro Ruz, and his son Alejandro Castro Espín

Raul Castro's son, Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin (age 55), who negotiated the normalization of relations with the Obama Administration is an intelligence officer who also organized the 2014 Vladimir Putin visit to Cuba, regularly visits Russia for high level meetings, and is a hardliner who in 2009 wrote The Price of Power, a harshly critical appraisal of the United States that describes U.S. leaders as “those who seek to subjugate humanity to satisfy their interests and hegemonic goals.” He was also the go to person during the Trump Administration.

Alejandro Castro (shaking hands with President) negotiated normalizing relations with U.S.

According to The Miami Herald in the August 26, 2020 article "Former Trump campaign manager traveled to Cuba to meet ‘Castro’s son,’ Senate report says" in early January 2017, "when the Cuban government was looking for insights into President-elect Donald Trump, his former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, traveled to the island to meet with 'Castro’s son,' according to a U.S. Senate report" and the newspaper identified this "son" as Alejandro Castro.

When Raul Castro dies or becomes incapacitated Alejandro Castro will be the new patriarch of the Castro clan that will seek to hang on to power in Cuba. 

How the press and academia has responded to this recycled propaganda campaign illuminates an important reflection by the Spanish philosopher George Santayana:

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Memory, and retentiveness are defenses against political propaganda and the Orwellian rewriting of history. The Czech writer Milan Kundera in his 1999 novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting observed that "the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." For too long the Castro regime has relied on others forgetting, it is time that more of us remember.

#UPDATE Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old Communist Party official and the country's current first vice president, is due to be confirmed as the successor to Raul Castro, whose departure will end his family's six-decade grip on power https://t.co/vWBboeOR8l

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 18, 2018

The Castro family's six-decade grip on power did not end in 2018, and the Kabuki theater underway at the Cuban Communist Party Conference now in 2021 will not change the Castro dynasty's grip on power in Cuba. To change that will necessitate the international community calling out the Castro dictatorship's crimes, recognizing and engaging in meaningful solidarity with Cuba's nonviolent dissidents, and achieving an international consensus on sanctioning this outlaw regime.  

For the U.S. policy makers it means recognizing that since 1974 five American Presidents have tried to normalize relations with unilateral concessions towards Havana only to suffer foreign policy reversals. The alternative to this realistic historical assessment is to continue a relationship with Cuba that can best be summed up as "Groundhog Day."

Remembering Cuba's martyrs from July: Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Harold Cepero Escalante and the "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." - Elie Wiesel

Although July is the first full month of summer for Cubans it is overshadowed by crimes that darken what should be a sunny and joyous time.

Two awful days will be observed this month:

First, 26 years ago on July 13, 1994 Cuban government agents killed 37 Cubans trying to flee Cuba aboard the "13 de marzo" tugboat. 

Second, eight years ago on July 22, 2012 Cuban agents rammed a car Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were traveling in Cuba.

Both bodies appeared later. There is evidence that Oswaldo and Harold were extra-judicially executed.

What plans do you have to honor the memory of these Cubans killed during July under suspicious circumstances that have never been cleared up?

Brothers to the Rescue shoot down 24 years later: Memory, calling for Justice, and taking action

24 years ago today a terrible crime was committed that still cries out for justice.

February 24, 2020 marks 24 years since two civilian planes were shot down over international airspace on the orders of the Castro brothers in Cuba. At Florida International University, students, members of the university community, and the families of the four men killed (Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales) will begin to gather at the main fountain at 3:15pm to hold a silent vigil from 3:21pm to 3:27pm the time that the two planes were destroyed. This will be followed at 7:00pm with a Mass at St Agatha Church located across the street from Florida International University.

Audio recordings of the pilots that carried out the extrajudicial killings on February 24, 1996 are damning.


The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released an authoritative report on the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down on September 29, 1999 and the complete report is available online. Below is the summary.

REPORT Nº 86/99
CASE 11.589
ARMANDO ALEJANDRE JR., CARLOS COSTA,
MARIO DE LA PEÑA, AND PABLO MORALES
CUBA
September 29, 1999

          I.          SUMMARY

          1.          On 25 February 1996, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) received several complaints brought against the Republic of Cuba (hereinafter “the State,” “the Cuban State,” or “Cuba”) according to which a MiG-29 military aircraft belonging to the Cuban Air Force (FAC) downed two unarmed civilian light airplanes belonging to the organization “Brothers to the Rescue.”^[1] According to a report issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the incidents occurred on 24 February 1996 at 3:21 p.m. and 3:27 p.m., respectively, in international airspace. The air-to-air missiles fired by the MiG-29 destroyed the civilian light aircraft, immediately killing Armando Alejandre Jr. (45 years old), Carlos Alberto Costa (29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (24), and Pablo Morales (29). The complaint concludes with the Commission being requested to begin proceedings in accordance with Articles 32 et seq. of its Regulations and to declare Cuba responsible for failing to comply with its international obligations contained in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (hereinafter “the Declaration” or “the American Declaration”) for violating the right to life and the right to a fair trial as set forth in Articles I and XVIII of said international instrument.

          2.          After receiving several complaints regarding the same incident and persons, the Commission combined them, as provided for in Article 40(2) of its Regulations, as file Nº 11.589.^[2] Thus, the petitioners in the case at hand are the direct relatives of the victims (Marlene Alejandre, Marlene Victoria Alejandre, Mirta Costa, Osvaldo Costa, Miriam de la Peña, Mario de la Peña, and Eva Barbas), Dr. Haydeé Marín (Institute of Human and Labor Rights at Florida International University), Dr. Claudio Benedí (Cuban Patriotic Council), and Mr. José J. Basulto (Brothers to the Rescue).

          3.          Since the start of proceedings in this case on 7 March 1996, the Cuban State has not replied to the Commission’s repeated requests for information regarding the admissibility and merits of the matter. Therefore, based on an exhaustive analysis of the legal and factual grounds and in accordance with Article 42 of its Regulations,^[3] the Commission believes that the complaint meets the formal requirements for admissibility as set forth in the Regulations and concludes that the Cuban State is responsible for violating the rights enshrined in the American Declaration as reported by the petitioners in their complaint of 25 February 1996.^[4]. Based on the analysis and conclusions of this report, the Commission recommends that the Cuban State conduct an exhaustive investigation into the incidents in question, prosecute and punish the individuals responsible for the different violations described herein, and make adequate and timely amends to the victims’ direct relatives, including the payment of fair compensatory indemnification. [ Full Report]

Jose Basulto, who was in the third plane that made it back, has gone on the record as to what he believed happened that day, and continues to demand both truth and justice.

Thanksgiving Masses for the lives of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante.

Remembering and giving thanks for the lives of Oswaldo and Harold.

In Alajuela, Costa Rica; Havana, Cuba; Hialeah, FL; Miami, FL; Madrid, Spain; and Paris, France there will be Masses given to give thanks for the lives of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante marking the day six years ago that their lives were cruelly taken by agents of the Castro regime. The families of Oswaldo and Harold have chosen to celebrate their lives and their example for all of us. At the same time the call for an international investigation into their deaths continues.

In Miami, Florida the Mass will be held at La Ermita de la Caridad (Our Lady of Charity) located on 3609 South Miami Ave, Miami, FL 33133 on July 22, 2018 at 6:00pm.

 In Alajuela, Costa Rica, in La Ermita de El Roble, July 21, 2019 at 11:30am.

 

In Hialeah, FL Saint Benedict Parish, 701 W 77th St, Hialeah 33014 July 22nd at 5:30pm.

In Madrid, Spain the Mass will be held at Parroquia San Fermin de los Navarros (Parish of San Fermin de los Navarros) located on Paseo de Eduardo Dato 10, Madrid  Metro Ruben Dario on July 22, 2018 at 8:00pm.

 In París, France in Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Le Marais, July 22, 2019 at 6:00pm. 

In celebrating, and remembering the lives of  Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante let us revisit some of their powerful ideas.

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: 'You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together.' This is the liberation which we are proclaiming."

-  Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Strasbourg France, December 17, 2002

"Expelling us is not the solution neither for them or for us, it would be better to ask yourself why are there young people who are filled with concern and worry for the welfare of the country. It would be good that they explain to the students and to the people what the Varela Project is, what does it ask, and so give everyone the right to think and choose." 

-  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002

"How close you and "Solidarity" have been to us in these years. Receive our fraternal greetings. I write on behalf of the Christian "Liberation" Movement. We are a Christian and patriotic movement that by peaceful means are working for freedom and democracy in our nation. ... I hope this gets to you and that the Poles might know of our struggle inspired by the Gospel. I cannot conclude without expressing our gratitude to you, the Movement "Solidarity" and all the Polish people that knew how to open the path of freedom for subject peoples. As Catholics we feel that we are in communion with you and that overcomes the difficulties of communication." 

- Oswaldo Payá, October 1, 1990   

"Today we are kicked out of the university for this. Tomorrow it could be one of you for just being different, for permitting yourself to think."

-  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002

 "A few days ago, bombs exploded in two hotels in Havana. Neither the perpetrators nor the objectives of these terrorist acts have identified themselves. But in any case, such acts are reprehensible. We reject them and they should not serve to confuse Cubans. When defending their human rights, proclaiming the truth and proposing a peaceful transition to democracy, many of our fellow countrymen have endured threats, discrimination, acts of harassment, arbitrary incarcerations, beatings and cruel treatment by repressive agents, and political and judicial authorities. However, neither we nor any of our brothers have renounced a peaceful transition through civic means." 

- Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, July 22, 1997

"They are wanting to perpetuate something that it is not even known if it is fair, and in this manner they are denying the progress of a society that wants something new, something that really guarantees a dignified place for every Cuban. They are pressuring people or preventing them from expressing their true feelings, they are cultivating fear in the nation." 

-  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002

 "Furthermore, those who in the prisons receive serious mistreatment have not voiced words of hatred against their abusers, because for us the peaceful approach is not a tactic but something that arises out of a spirit of reconciliation and liberation which has prompted us to begin our struggle. No one can justify terroristic violence and attacks on defenseless human beings with any kind of reasoning, and much less by pretending to defend freedom and justice. Anyone who hides cynically to make attempts against human life violates the dignity of the human being and conspires against freedom and justice. The end does not justify the means. Lies and terror lead to death and fear. Truth and love produce freedom and life." 

- Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, July 22, 1997  

"Under the pretext of defending freedom they are attacking it. Martí would say it like this: "The knife that is stabbed in the name of freedom is plunged into the chest of freedom". They should think if at the bottom of this attitude there is a real respect for freedom, because to say freedom, to be free, is not to snatch the freedom of others. I therefore ask that before they expel us ask themselves how long can they keep silent the mourning and the reality of Cuba, and remind them that the damage they can do to us is damage that they do to themselves. And more: it is a direct threat to every Cuban."

-  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002

"The 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." 

- Oswaldo Paya, December 17, 2002

"Those who steal the rights of others steal from themselves. Those who remove and crush freedom are the true slaves." 

-  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002 

China's communist regime defends June 1989 massacre calling it an "incident" but free Chinese seek to set the record straight

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." - Elie Wiesel explained in his 1986 Nobel Lecture

At least 10,000 killed during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

 Chinese Communist Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on June 2, 2019 at a regional forum defended the Tiananmen Square massacre claiming "[t]hat incident was a political turbulence and the central government took measures to stop the turbulence, which is a correct policy," and an official newspaper, The Global Times, doubled down claiming that the mass killings and crackdown were "[a]s a vaccination for the Chinese society, the Tiananmen incident will greatly increase China's immunity against any major political turmoil in the future." The message is clear the Communist Chinese regime in China is willing to kill large numbers of Chinese to remain in power.

A 2017 declassified British diplomatic cable revealed that "at least 10,000 people were killed in the Chinese army's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989."

We must also remember the courage of the late Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo who saved the lives of many young Chinese in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 obtaining safe passage for them and persuaded these students to leave before the massacre unfolded.  This courageous and nonviolent human rights defender was jailed in 2008 and died on July 13, 2017.

We must remember and honor Liu Xiaobo

The Cuban government was one of the very few that publicly supported the June 4th crackdown on Chinese protesters in 1989. The Cuban foreign minister commended Chinese authorities for“defeating the counter revolutionary acts.”

This pattern would continue for the next 30 years.  In the year when the 20th anniversary of  Tiananmen was observed, China underwent its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on February 9, 2009. During this session the Cuban Ambassador, Mr. Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, after a short, ideologically biased and rambling run through of Chinese history then recommended that the Chinese regime repress human rights defenders in China with greater toughness.

Other countries, either for ideological or economic interests, have given China a pass on human rights. This is already having terrible consequences and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The second largest economy in the world, now modernizing its military, and projecting itself onto the international scene defends the mass murder of its own people as government policy.  Let that sink in for a moment.

The Goddess of Democracy looks out over Tiananmen Square.

Tonight in Washington, DC attended a candlelight vigil organized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation where I listened to Chinese dissident Dr. Yang Jianli and he reminded us of the other China. The China of the students who erected the Goddess of Democracy and risked and lost all for freedom.

"Tonight, we gather once again to remember our fallen brothers and sisters in Tiananmen Square and celebrate their courage that showed the world that the Chinese people desire freedom and justice above all earthly goods.  We are here to reaffirm that, no matter how many days or decades have gone by, there will never come a time when we forget their sacrifices."

Below are Dr. Jianli's full remarks followed by videos of what happened 30 years ago in China. Please remember and share with others. See you tomorrow at 1:30pm at the rally on Capitol Hill.

Justice for the Forgotten: Remembering Oswaldo, Harold and 37 tugboat massacre victims

“In Cuba there are missing and it is known who has disappeared them, the latter are heroes for the government….There are more than 20 murdered children waiting to be claimed and mothers and grandmothers who were not allowed to look for them when they were killed off the coast of Havana” – Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, El Nuevo Herald, March 18, 2005*

24 years ago on July 13, 1994 in the early morning hours, a few miles off the coast of Havana several families risked all to get to freedom on board the "13 de Marzo" tugboat and paid the ultimate price. Castro's state security agents had learned of their plans, rather than preempt and stop the journey before it started, the repressive apparatus opted to make an example of them in an act of state terror that will never be forgotten by those touched by this crime. 37 men, women and children were killed.

Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas denounced the crime, demanding justice and years after he continued to hold the Castro regime accountable. He also called on Cubans to exercise their freedoms. This desire for freedom was intolerable for the dictatorship.

Six years ago on July 22, 2012 in Eastern Cuba two human rights and pro-democracy leaders who had organized a petition drive 16 years ago that shook the dictatorship to its very core were murdered in a successful effort by Cuban state security to silence and stop those who could not be intimidated by threats of prison, violence or even death. Cuba remains a totalitarian, communist dictatorship where human rights have and continue to be systematically violated, and dissent is not tolerated.

Truth and memory in defiance of the attempt to whitewash and forget. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained in his 1986 Nobel Lecture why it is important to remember:  "To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." ... "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."

It is our duty to continue the call for justice for the 37 victims of the "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre and for Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante. On Friday, July 13th at 12 noon wherever you are hold a copy of the image at the top of the page and hold a 13 minute moment of silence, take a picture at the end of your demonstration and post it on social media.

The dictatorship killed the dreamers, but the dream lives on.

"You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher."

Peter Gabriel, Biko

Memory, Justice and Cuba's July 13, 1994 "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." - Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Lecture

 
These are dangerous times for freedom, justice and memory. Institutions are under assault because they have resisted regime narratives and pursued scholarship. Today on the 23rd anniversary of the "13 de marzo" tugboat sinking the most complete report prepared by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996 on this crime committed by the Castro regime on July 13, 1994 is  apparently missing after having been online for 20 years.

In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994 thirty seven men, women, and children were killed by Cuban regime agents who attacked them seven miles off the Cuban coast as these refugees sought to travel to freedom on board of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat. Eleven of these Cubans were children ranging in age from Helen Martínez Enríquez, just five months old to Mayulis Méndez Tacaronte age seventeen.

The 1994 massacre ended in the murder of 37 Cubans. It was a premeditated and well thought out  atrocity committed by the Castro regime. In service to justice and memory reproduced below are the names of the 37 victims. Later today at 12 noon wherever you are join in a 13 minute moment of silence.

July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" Tugboat Massacre Victims

Hellen Martínez Enriquez. Age: 5 Months
Xicdy Rodríguez Fernández. Age: 2
Angel René Abreu Ruíz. Age: 3
José Carlos Niclas Anaya. Age: 3
Giselle Borges Alvarez. Age: 4
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte. Age: 5
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García. Age: 10
Yousell Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte. Age: 11
Yasser Perodín Almanza. Age: 11
Eliécer Suárez Plasencia. Age: 12
Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte. Age: 17
Miladys Sanabria Leal. Age: 19
Joel García Suárez. Age: 20
Odalys Muñoz García. Age: 21
Yalta Mila Anaya Carrasco. Age: 22
Luliana Enríquez Carrazana. Age: 22
Jorge Gregorio Balmaseda Castillo. Age: 24
Lissett María Alvarez Guerra. Age: 24
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro. Age: 25
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez. Age: 27
Leonardo Notario Góngora. Age: 28
Jorge Arquímedes Levrígido Flores. Age: 28
Pilar Almanza Romero. Age: 31
Rigoberto Feu González. Age: 31
Omar Rodríguez Suárez. Age: 33
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel. Age: 34
Julia Caridad Ruíz Blanco. Age: 35
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega. Age: 35
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel. Age: 38
Martha Mirella Carrasco Sanabria. Age: 45
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez. Age: 45
Rosa María Alcalde Puig. Age: 47
Estrella Suárez Esquivel. Age: 48
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero Alamo. Age: 48
Amado González Raices. Age: 50
Fidencio Ramel Prieto Hernández. Age: 51
Manuel Cayol. Age: 56 

Armenian Genocide: 100 Years of Remembrance

 "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."- Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

 One hundred years ago today, the rounding up of Christians for the slaughter that became known as the Armenian Genocide began. An estimated one and a half million were killed between 1915 and 1923. In Hollywood, California over 130,00 marched in remembrance of the 100th anniversary of this crime. Today in the Middle East, mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing are underway again.

A century ago the world remained silent before this slaughter of Christians. The failure of the international community to condemn this crime encouraged others to repeat the crime on a greater scale afterwards.  On August 22, 1939, Adolf Hitler in a speech to his Wehrmacht commanders at his Obersalzberg home cited the events in Armenia to rationalize committing a new genocide that targeted the Jewish people:

"I have given the order – and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism – that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain designated [geographical] lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"

One hundred years later the world is talking about the extermination of the Armenians, but the Turkish government remains in denial. Below is an award-winning documentary made for German public TV called, "Aghet" concerning the Armenian genocide.

Month of Remembrance for Harold and Oswaldo

Oswaldo and Harold:

Today marks one month from the two year mark of the day that the lives of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante were brought to an end. The Christian Liberation Movement over Facebook announced that today June 22, 2014 ( a month before the 2 years of the deaths that have not been cleared up of Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá) begins the MONTH OF REMEMBRANCE FOR HAROLD AND OSWALDO. Each day they will recall a piece of information in order  to continue insisting that their deaths be investigated. We will be reproducing them below.

The first item of information that they present is that nearly two years after the families of the two men requested their autopsies:

1. They (Cuban officials) still have not handed over the autopsies to the families.

2. On July 22, a call comes into Bayamo Hospital "I am Lieutenant Colonel of the MININT and I need you to send an ambulance." The nurse replies, "I'm Queen Elizabeth, you know that there are no ambulances and the wounded are brought in the first vehicle that you find." "I repeat that I am Lieutenant Colonel and that you send an ambulance." WHAT WAS A LIEUTENANT COLONEL OF THE MININT. AT THAT TIME, DOING IN THAT ROAD MOMENTS AFTER THE EVENTS?

3. On Saturday July 21, Angel Carromero goes to a currency exchange agency. The clerk asks for your trip and Angel replies that he would visit Varadero. July 22 at 4:15 am the regime Twitterer, Yohandry Fontana tweets "oswaldo goes to varadero" 

4. Aron Modig remembers with great photographic clarity and precision all the details of their stay in Cuba, from the days before and after the tragedy, but absolutely does not remember anything about what happened that day July 22, he doesn't even remember having sent the first message that said that another vehicle had forced them off the road.

5 . July 22 at 5pm, in a telephone call, Felix Rivero Cordoví from Bayamo: "Oswaldo Payá has died in a collision with a police car" http://www.goear.com/listen/560035e/felix-rivero-cordovi-alfredo-viso

6. A doctor, surnamed Perez, when nurses expressed interest in the state of health of Harold Cepero, said: "What is all the fuss, if he is a delinquent who was bringing bombs".

7. In a report read to several friends of the MCL in the hospital of Bayamo, the captain of the forensic police Fulgencio Medina, mentioned the involvement in what happened of another vehicle that was driving in parallel, a red Lada. Angel Carromero first confirmed that a white Lada (of the police), then a red lada followed them, and then a larger blue vehicle (Harold told him it had the license plate of state security) which was the one that hit them. 

8. Cuban experts consulted by the first lawyer who Angel Carromero had told him that forensic evidence presented by the regime was inconsistent. For example, the difference in the description of the displacements between the rear wheels was implausible. 

9. A few years prior to his death, a neighbor alerted Oswaldo that someone had loosened the screws to the wheel of his VW. Without this notice, he could have taken a trip and his whole family could have died. And what would have been the theory of Pablo Iglesias that the deaths in this unconsummated attack was an accident or else the regime would have also killed the other witnesses? (as he has said to justify the Cuban tyranny in the deaths of Harold and Oswaldo )

10 -. Bayamo Hospital, July 22, 2012, in the afternoon. Ángel Carromero is on a stretcher and Aron Modig is brought beside him.
Angel: Aron, did they hit us from behind?
Aron: Yes
Angel: Do you think they'll kill us?
Aron: Probably

11. Poem from Cuba http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/07/01/poema-leido-por-damaso-fernandez-miembro-del-mcl-en-el-segundo-aniversario-de-la-muerte-de-oswaldo-paya-y-harold-cepero/

12. María Fuster, vice president of European popular youth, who was in contact with Aron Modig on the day of July 22 in a tweet described the events as a tragic attack and mentioned that the two dissidents were MURDERED. She later deleted the tweets.

13. A senior official in the Spanish Foreign Ministry commented privately that Oswaldo was alive when he was taken out of the vehicle. 

14 .  An inconsistent sequence. In the photos of the vehicle that the Cuban regime presented are seen details of damage and position that demonstrate they were staged. http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2013/12/15/una-secuencia-incoherente/

15. Video “Remembering Harold” http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/01/22/recordando-harold-cepero/

16. They killed them when they were on the path. THE PEOPLES PATH http://www.elcaminodelpueblo.org/

17. Music "Todos Cubanos" (All Cubans)  Lyrics by Oswaldo Payá http://youtu.be/iwtLHmOlXUk

18. Dictatorships are neither right or left, they are merely dictatorships. - Oswaldo Payá Strasbourg, December 10, 2002 http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2012/12/10-years-ago-today-oswaldo-paya.html 

19. Signatures requesting an investigation http://www.change.org/es/peticiones/comunidad-internacional-aclaren-las-circunstancias-de-la-muerte-de-oswaldo-paya-y-de-harold-cepero

20. All Cubans, all brothers and now freedom. http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/proyecto-de-ley-de-reencuentro-nacional/

21. MCL members in Cuba request investigation into the deaths of Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/07/10/miembros-de-mcl-en-cuba-piden-investigacion-sobre-muertes-de-harold-cepero-y-oswaldo-paya/

22. “Oswaldo Payá” Prize II granted to Venezuelan Table of Democratic Unity (MUD)  http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/07/12/ii-premio-oswaldo-paya-otorgado-a-la-mud-venezolana/

23. Harold. The sense of charity and love http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/02/07/harold-cepero-escalante-el-sentido-de-la-caridad-y-el-amor-por-janisset-rivero-directorio-democratico-cubano/comment-page-1/

24. Witness statements that contradict the version of regime (and who were contacted by Spanish) disappeared from where they were stored.
25. Oswaldo Payá, May 2000 http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2014/07/oswaldo-paya-sardinas-and-his.html

26. “They have told me that they will kill me before this regime ends, but I will not flee." - Oswaldo Payá.

27. Poem from Cuba . By Omar Lores MCL http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/2014/07/16/poema-en-memoria-de-oswaldo-paya-por-omar-lores-coordinador-del-mcl-en-holguin/

28. "To those who persecute us we say: I do not hate you, but I do not fear you." - Oswaldo Payá

29. "Cubans do not know how to,  we can not,  and do not want to live without freedom." - Oswaldo Payá 

30. "For the sake of your family, you must accept what Elizardo Sánchez says, that it was an accident." It was the call made to Carlos Payá on July 25,  2014 by the director of the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights ( Observatorio Cubano para los Derechos Humanos )

On June 17, 2014 in Geneva Switzerland the spokesman of the Christian Liberation Movement in Europe, Regis Iglesias accompanied Ángel Francisco Carromero Barrios the Spaniard, driving the car on the day Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero were killed and addressed a forum at the United Nations hosted by UN Watch and the Cuban Democratic Directorate in which they called for an international investigation into the two deaths. You can watch it below along with the hysterical reaction by the Cuban diplomat in the question and answer session that followed.

In the audience the U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper reaffirmed the position of the U.S. government:

“We reiterate our call for an independent international investigation into the death of Oswaldo Payá.”
"We have a simple question: What is Cuba afraid of?"

Following outbursts by Cuban and Venezuelan delegates during the event the U.S. Ambassador sent out the following Tweet: "Cuba [is] trying to stifle dissent at the UN, just as it does at home."

As the two year mark of the suspicious deaths of Oswaldo and Harold approach they are remembered as is the call for an international investigation no matter how much the dictatorship in Cuba wishes that were not the case.