Remembering Basilio Guzmán Marrero on the one year anniversary of his passing

Basilio Guzmán Marrero April 15,1937- April 13, 2022

 

Today has special significance for Cuban exiles. One year ago today on April 13, 2022 Cuban exile, former prisoner of conscience and Plantado Basilio Guzmán Marrero passed away after a long illness. He was 84 years old.

Basilio Guzmán Marrero, who was jailed for 22 years, and tortured for most of that time in Cuban prisons, refused his whole life to cooperate with evil, and remained committed to a free Cuba. He fought against the dictatorships of Fulgencio Batista, and Fidel Castro.  

Canadian Professor Peter McKenna characterizes most Cuban exiles as being "anti-Cuba" because of their opposition to the Castro dictatorship. Professor McKenna's claim is at best Orwellian, and at worse perverse. 

The pro-Castro crowd repeats a regime narrative about their opponents that is often an exercise in projection. 

Basilio Guzmán Marrero's life is a refutation of the regime narrative. 

On July 11, 2021 despite poor health Basilio Guzman picketed the Cuban Embassy in DC.

 

Basilio was born on April 15, 1937 into a humble family in the countryside of Havana province near Campo Florido. When he was seven years old his family was evicted from their home.

He had fond childhood memories of spending time at Guanabo Beach.

Shortly after Fulgencio Batista overthrew Cuba's democracy on March 10, 1952, Basilio Guzmán joined the resistance against Batista while still a teenager, and joined the Directorio. He was part of the struggle for a free Cuba.

During these years, he also became a carpenter.

Soon after the revolutionary victory in 1959 he joined with Cubans who felt betrayed by Fidel Castro. They had fought for the restoration of democracy and the 1940 Constitution.

Instead they witnessed the Soviet model imposed in Cuba. Press censored and taken over by the new regime. Forced labor camps modeled after the gulags in the Soviet Union, political show trials and firing squads.

Basilio joined the Frente Nacional Democratico (National Democratic Front) , a resistance movement against Castro.

Basilio's movement was infiltrated, and he was identified, arrested, and in 1962 jailed. He would spend the next 22 years in a Cuban prison.

He was an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.

He was a Plantado, a group of prisoners that refused to take part in any re-education plans, or cooperate with the dictatorship in any way.

Basilio Guzman was freed and exiled in 1984, after 22 years in prison, and flown to the United States along with 25 other Cuban political prisoners with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who had petitioned for their release when he visited Cuba.

Basilio Guzman resuming his carpentry career in 1985 (Barbara E. Joe)

Pamela Doty, an Amnesty International volunteer who focused on Cuba, met Basilio when he arrived at the airport in Washington, DC in 1984 and they eventually married, and had a daughter together who grew up to be an art historian.

Over the next 33 years Basilio resumed his vocation in carpentry, and built a successful business in Northern Virginia, but he never forgot Cuba.

Basilio Guzman would take part in public protests against the Castro dictatorship, looked out for other political prisoners, and was a friend to the Center for a Free Cuba board and staff.

Basilio published an autobiography in 2020 “DESPUÉS DE LA NOCHE: Mis 22 años en el Presidio Político de Cuba” [ AFTER THE NIGHT: My 22 years in the Political Prisons of Cuba ] and gave an extensive interview about his life to Voces de Cuba in January 2022. 

Basilio was not "anti-Cuban" but he was profoundly anti-dictatorship and openly hostile to any manifestation of injustice, especially against the Cuban people. 

Frank Calzon, Sirley Ávila León, Basilio Guzmán, Raudel Bringas, & others carried out a vigil for "13 de marzo" tugboat victims.

Thankfully others in the Canadian academy challege the pro-Castro regime false narrative. Professor Yvon Grenier in his OpEd ”Since when are Cuban exiles anti-Cuba?” published in the Saltwire Network on April 15, 2022 sets the record straight.

In his April 5 opinion piece entitled “Sixty years of a misguided U.S. blockade of Cuba,” Prof. Peter McKenna characterizes many of the 1.3 million Cuban-Americans as being “anti-Cuba.” Do we ever say, by way of comparison, that members of Afghan or Guatemalan exile communities are “anti-Afghanistan” or “anti-Guatemala”? No government is its people — especially when the government is not chosen freely by its citizens.

Opposing the Castro dictatorship is thoroughly pro-Cuba. Bishop Agustín Román in a talk he gave on "The importance of the current internal dissident movement in Cuba" on December 16, 2006 argued love is the driving force to seek change in Cuba.

"If what we do for Cuba, we do not do for love, better not do it. If all of us who want the good of the nation, of the important internal dissident movement and the persevering of exile arm ourselves with these virtues, we will be effective. If we are committed to not let personalism, or the passions dilute them, we will have won. If we keep them and transmit them to all our people, we will have secured for Cuba a happy future."

Basilio would protest the new injustices occurring in Cuba after his release and exile in 1984, the massacre of 37 men, women, and children on July 13, 1994 by Castro agents for trying to leave Cuba on the 13 de Marzo tugboat, the killing of four Brothers to the Rescue members on February 24, 1996 shot down in international airspace, and the killing of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante on July 22, 2012. These are three of many examples.

On Feb 20, 2020 outside Cuban Embassy in Wash DC vigil for Orlando Zapata Tamayo & 4 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down martyrs. Basilio Guzmán Marrero held a poster of Mario De La Peña.

Today it is up to the living to continue Basilio's legacy of integrity, love of country, desire for justice and pursuit of freedom for the Cuban homeland. 

Remembering Cuban political prisoner Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros one year after his untimely death

"All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings." - Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, United Nations 1990

Yosvany Arostegui died on hunger strike on August 7, 2020

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in his 1861 book, The House of the Dead  that "the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." What does this say about the Cuban government that has barred the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Cuba's prisons for decades?

Cuban dissident Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros died last year on August 7, 2020 in Cuba while in police custody following a 40 day hunger strike. He had been jailed on false charges in the Kilo 8 prison of Camagüey. His body was quickly cremated by the dictatorship.
Yale professor and author Carlos Eire writing in Babalu Blog highlighted Yosvany's untimely passing and placed it in context:

It’s happened again. Another Cuban dissident has died in prison. Strangely, unlike previous hunger-striking political prisoners who received international attention, Yosvany Arostegui was barely noticed in social media and totally ignored by the world’s news outlets. He joins a long list of hunger-strikers who have been pushed to their deaths by the Castro regime. May his self-immolation in prison be the last, and may he rest in peace and eternal freedom.

Exiled Cuban lawyer and human rights defender Laritza Diversent over Facebook wrote:

I feel deep sadness and pain. I imagine how lonely he felt and how convinced he was that he preferred to exhaust his body until it was turned off. His death reminds me of the thousands of people who, in Cuban prisons, use their body to protest against unjust criminal proceedings. It makes me more aware of all the activists who, like Silverio Portal, are locked up as punishment for exercising their rights to free expression, criticize, protest, meet and associate.

On Friday, August 7, 2020 State Security contacted the family of prisoner Yosvany Aróstegui Armenteros to inform them that he had died during a hunger strike that he had carried out for 40 days. 

Yosvany Arostegui Armenteros

Aróstegui Armenteros had been arrested a year earlier and prosecuted for two common crimes for which he pleaded not guilty from the beginning. Before this last strike he had carried out others with the same objective: to demand his freedom.

As in the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo (February 2010), Aróstegui Armenteros was transferred to Kilo 8 prison from another prison and then transferred to the Prison ward of the Amalia Simoni Hospital in the city of Camagüey. Authorities at the Kilo 8 Prison have a torture system to subject prisoners who go on strike: they isolate them, and take away their water, the only sustenance of any striker.

In the case of Zapata and thanks to pressure from opposition groups outside the Amalia Simoni hospital, his mother was able to see him and learn from his lips about the torture and denial of water to which he had been subjected. 

Yosvany Aróstegui did not have the same luck. His brother, Yaudel Aróstegui Armenteros was not allowed to see him.

“Ten days before he died, they called my brother Yaudel Arostegui Armenteros, at the hospital to appear there, when he arrived at Amalia Simoni they told him that my brother was very ill. My brother couldn't see him. A doctor who was there told my brother that the next call they were going to make would not be good, it was because he was going to die. And so it was,” Raidel Aróstegui Armenteros, who lives in exile in the state of Washington, United States, told the Center for a Free Cuba.

According to Raidel, his brother always said he was innocent of the common crimes he was accused of. The family hired an attorney who conducted investigations into the case, but a week before the trial, the attorney mysteriously died in a traffic accident.

We Remember: Nine years ago former political prisoner and father of two died after police beating

We Remember. History matters

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died three days after beating by political police

Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) was beaten and arrested by the Castro regime's police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. 

The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. 

Juan Wilfredo Soto left behind two children and their mom. He was a member of the Opposition Central Coalition and was known as "The Student." He was a former political prisoner who had served 12 years in prison. His mother, who suffers from a bad hip, buried her son on Mother's Day. Pictures of Juan Wilfredo Soto's family members were provided by Yoani Sanchez through twitter.''

Children of Juan Wilfredo Soto mourn their dad

Nine years ago the headlines circled the world in English and in Spanish covered by Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AFP, AP, EFE that a Cuban dissident and former political prisoner, Juan Wilfredo Soto (age 46) had been beaten and arrested by Cuban regime police on Thursday, May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship and died early on Sunday May 8, 2011. The beating had been so bad that he required hospitalization. He was buried Sunday, on Mother's Day.

According to dissidents who attended and media accounts more than 80 attended Juan Wilfredo Soto's funeral despite a heavy police presence and state security operation that blocked some activists from attending. The government agents responsible for this man's extra-judicial death must be held accountable if not by national laws then by international law.  At the funeral a Cuban pastor spoke about the life of the Cuban activist and the circumstances surrounding his death. 

 

Funeral procession for Juan Wilfredo Soto on Mother's Day

Nine years have passed and justice has not been done in this case. Nevertheless we must remember, and with this exercise of memory continue to demand justice for Juan Wilfredo and his loved ones.  

Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia at dissident gathering with yellow shirt

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara designated prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International

"Any person who is physically restrained (by imprisonment or otherwise) from expressing (in any form of words or symbols) any opinion which he honestly holds and which does not advocate or condone personal violence." -  Peter Benenson, Appeal for Amnesty, 1961

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a prisoner of conscience

Including Luis Manuel there are currently seven prisoners of conscience in Cuba recognized by Amnesty International. The other current prisoners of conscience are Josiel Guía Piloto, Silverio Portal Contreras, Mitzael Díaz Paseiro, Eliecer Bandera Barrera, Edilberto Ronal Arzuaga Alcalá, and Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces. Over the past six decades there have been tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience.

 

Cuba: Amnesty International calls for release of artist and prisoner of conscience

Amnesty International, 13 March 2020

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely because of his consciously held beliefs, and should be released immediately, said Amnesty International today. A key leader in the movement opposing Decree 349, a dystopian law that stands to censor artists, he is detained and awaiting a trial that was initially expected on 11 March, but has since been delayed.

“It is absolutely shameful that the Cuban administration continues to stifle any voices that are not aligned with the official position. Luis Manuel Otero is a prisoner of conscience and we urge the Cuban government to release him immediately and unconditionally” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

According to the information Amnesty International has obtained, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara appears to be charged with “insults to symbols of the homeland” (Article 203 of the Penal Code), an offense inconsistent with international human rights law and standards, and “damage” to property (Article 339).

According to NGO Cubalex, in the past 30 months, authorities have arbitrarily detained Luis Manuel more than 20 times. Prior to his detention, he had announced on Facebook that he planned to participate in a protest convened by LGBTI activists after alleged state censorship of a movie featuring two men kissing.

It is absolutely shameful that the Cuban administration continues to stifle any voices that are not aligned with the official position. Luis Manuel Otero is a prisoner of conscience and we urge the Cuban government to release him immediately and unconditionally

- Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

In an interview with Amnesty International in 2019, Luis Manuel said: “I’m like the tip of the iceberg. We are talking about an endless number of artists in Cuba. [The authorities] come after me, because as I am supposedly the most visible of the youth, activists-artists, they send the message ‘Well, if we lock this one up, look what we can do to you lot.’”

Cuba is the only country in the Americas that prohibits Amnesty International from visiting.
The organization asks all artists, journalists and LGBTI activists to call on the Cuban authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Background information

Under Decree 349, all artists, including collectives, musicians and performers, are prohibited from operating in public or private spaces without prior approval by the Ministry of Culture. Individuals or businesses that hire artists without the authorization can be sanctioned, and artists that work without prior approval can have their materials confiscated or be substantially fined. Under the new decree, the authorities also have the power to immediately suspend a performance and to propose the cancelation of the authorization granted to carry out the artistic activity. Such decisions can only be appealed before the same Ministry of Culture (Article 10); the decree does not provide an effective remedy to appeal such a decision before an independent body, including through the courts.

The decree contains vague and overly broad restrictions on artistic expression. For example, it prohibits audiovisual materials that contain, among other things: “use of patriotic symbols that contravene current legislation” (Article 3a), “sexist, vulgar or obscene language” (Article 3d), and “any other (content) that violates the legal provisions that regulate the normal development of our society in cultural matters” (Article 3g). Furthermore, it makes it an offence to “commercialize books with content harmful to ethical and cultural values” (Article 4f).

International human rights law and standards require that any restriction to the right to freedom of expression, including through art, must be provided by law and formulated with sufficient precision to avoid overly broad or arbitrary interpretation or application, and in a manner that is accessible to the public and that clearly outlines what conduct is or is not prohibited.

As signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cuba is required to refrain from acts that would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty. Article 19 of the ICCPR specifically protects the right to freedom of expression, which includes the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds…” including “in the form of art”.

Amnesty International has previously expressed concern that Decree 349 is likely to have a general chilling effect on artists in Cuba, preventing them from carrying out their legitimate work for fear of reprisals.

Article 203 of the Penal Code, one of the provisions under which Luis Manuel appears to be charged, is inconsistent with international standards as its effect is to limit freedom of expression. Amnesty International opposes laws prohibiting disrespect of heads of state or public figures, the military or other public institutions, or flags or symbols (such as lèse majesté and desacato laws).

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/cuba-release-artist-prisoner-of-conscience/

Note of condolence of the Christian Liberation Movement for Armando Sosa Fortuny

Yesterday, this blog paid tribute to the life and struggle of Cuban political prisoner Armando Sosa Fortuny, who spent 43 years in Castro's prisons for defying the dictatorship. Today we reproduce and translate a message of condolence from former prisoner of conscience and opposition leader Eduardo Cardet.

Armando Sosa Fortuny, 1943 - 2019. 

The death of the political prisoner Armando Sosa Fortuny, an elderly man gripped by the diseases and the rigor of the political prison, at the hands of his captors fills us with pain and deep dismay. Rest in peace Armando.

We extend our deepest condolences to family and friends.

Freedom and Life!

Freedom for all political and conscientious prisoners.

Eduardo Cardet
National Coordinator, Christian Liberation Movement

Original Spanish text.

El fallecimiento del preso político Armando Sosa Fortuny, hombre de avanzada edad atenazado por las enfermedades y el rigor del presidio político, en manos de sus captores nos llena de dolor y profunda consternación. En paz descanses Armando.

Llegue a familiares y amigos nuestro más sentido pésame.

¡Libertad y Vida!

Libertad para todos los presos políticos y de conciencia.

Eduardo Cardet

Coordinador Nacional del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación

Eduardo Cardet's unjust prison sentence ended today

"Today ends the unjust and arbitrary sanction imposed by the Cuban totalitarian regime." - Eduardo Cardet

He was allowed to go home back in May 2019, but he was still restricted due to the prison sentence.  Today was the last day. The Cardet family has suffered greatly over the last two years and ten months, but the activist courageously continues to speak out. It is also important to remember how many campaigned for his release over the years. It is even more important to remember that he was beaten up, stabbed, and jailed for nearly three years for exercising his right to think and speak freely.

Eduardo Cardet's unjust prison sentence ended today.

Source: MCL
 
"Today ends the unjust and arbitrary sanction imposed by the Cuban totalitarian regime. I was the victim of a premeditated imprisonment for exercising my right to think and speak freely.

Freedom for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

Freedom and Life. "

Eduardo Cardet Concepción.
National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement


"Hoy finaliza la injusta y arbitraria condena que me impuso el régimen cubano. " - Eduardo Cardet. Coordinador Nacional MCL
 

La injusta sentencia de prisión de Eduardo Cardet terminó hoy.

Fuente: MCL

"En el día de hoy finaliza la injusta y arbitraria sanción que me impusiera el régimen totalitario cubano. Fui víctima de un encarcelamiento premeditado por ejercer mi derecho a pensar y hablar libremente.

Libertad para los presos políticos y de conciencia.

Libertad y Vida."

Eduardo Cardet Concepción.
Coordinador Nacional del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación

Aymara Nieto Muñoz: Courageous Cuban Woman and Mother of Three Faces Four Years in Prison for her Political Activism

Mother of three sentenced to four years in prison for her nonviolent political activism

Aymara Nieto Muñoz: Political prisoner and mom of three girls

The Municipal Court of Boyeros, in Havana, Cuba on April 25, 2019 confirmed a sentence of four years in prison for Aymara Nieto Muñoz. This mother of three young daughters is a member of the Ladies in White, a human rights movement that seeks freedom for all political prisoners in Cuba.

Aymara Nieto with her family back in September 2016

The first time I heard of Aymara Nieto was on September 20, 2015 when she along with three other activists risked everything to reach Pope Francis and receive his blessing. Scores of activists had been rounded up by the secret police to prevent them attending mass, but Aymara and three other activists managed to evade capture and one of them was able to reach His Holiness.

In April 2016 she was interviewed in the Sun Herald and spoke of what she was thinking on September 20, 2015 when she joined three others shouting freedom and sought the Pope's blessing. “In my heart, I was hurting,” Nieto said in an interview last week. “I was hurting watching my neighbors who didn’t have food for their children to eat. There is too much pain to see.”

Text of decision by Cuban court that reveals political nature of the trial

She was arbitrarily detained on July 12, 2016 and would not see her family in freedom again until July 12, 2017. She had been the victim of a political prosecution that punished her for speaking critically of the socialist system and passing out information.

Aymara Nieto with her mom when she returned home in July 2017

The next time Aymara was taken by the secret police she was beaten and tortured. Her crime: trying to be a poll watcher during a regime run vote on March 11, 2018. The effort to stop the poll watchers, although poll watching is permitted under current electoral law in Cuba, is an outrage.

Torturan bajo el sol,esposada y dentro de la patrulla @DamadBlanco Aymara Nieto #NoAlVotoFraude #RevolucionEsRepresion @ForoDyL

— Berta Soler (@bertasolerf) March 11, 2018

Ladies in White leader Berta Soler tweeted that Cuban State Security "tortured Lady in White Aymara Nieto [placing her] under the sun, handcuffed inside a patrol car."  Targeting independent poll watchers was also  repeated by the secret police in 2019 during the so-called constitutional referendum. 

On May 6, 2018 the secret police raided Aymara's home, beat her up and  took her. Aymara by that time had joined the Cuba Decide Campaign initiative, was active in both UNPACU and the Ladies in White. She would remain in prison and be subjected to a political show trial and a sentence of four years imposed on this courageous woman.

She is not alone.

Five members of the Ladies in White are now unjustly imprisoned.

There are currently five members of the Ladies in White in prison in Cuba. They are Marta Sánchez, Nieves Matamoros, Yolanda Santana, Xiomara Cruz Miranda and Aymara Nieto. It is also important to remember that their founding leader, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, died under suspicious circumstances on October 14, 2011.

Below is video from 2017 when Aymara went back home and was reunited with her family. Let us work together to see a second reunion. Please let others know of her plight and share the hashtag #FreeAymaraNieto.

.

Top 12 Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter tweets of 2018

"History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory." - George Santayana 

These are the top tweets for each month of 2018 arranged in chronological order. George Santayana understood the importance of remembering the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes and injustices. This was the year of the Cuba UPR and victims of the regime speaking truth to power as it sought to carry out its fraudulent change. It was the year that the steady work of completely undermining democracy in Nicaragua finally brought forth the murderous assault of the regime as it clamped down its totalitarian cage on the people of Nicaragua. The year ended with a campaign to release political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

January 2018

Today, January 29, 2018 would have been Harold's 38th birthday but he was killed with Oswaldo Payá on July 22, 2012 at the age of 32 in what appears to have been an extrajudicial killing engineered by Castro's State Security. https://t.co/55IRJUu9A3 pic.twitter.com/qwymy3UfLv

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) January 29, 2018

 February 2018

Remembering some of the victims of Cuban communism: Génesis Carmona, Venezuelan fashion model, beauty queen, and college student. Shot in the head on February 18, 2014, died a day later.https://t.co/eIK3OmD40a cc: @GenesisCarmona pic.twitter.com/x5HQI2g5vY

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) February 22, 2018

March 2018

Mother and son of 2015 machete attack victim receive death threat from Castro regime agent https://t.co/nafbtnI5XP #StandUp4HumanRights #HRC37 pic.twitter.com/bvYxxWgHDR

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) March 5, 2018

April 2018

VIII Summit of the Americas in Lima Peru: Castro regime's shock troops try to silence other voices https://t.co/JbpeuEQyoN #SummitPeru pic.twitter.com/ZD9ctMV54A

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) April 13, 2018

May 2018

#OnThisDay in 1818, Karl Heinrich Marx was born. The man who was an anti-semite, racist, advocate of terrorism, and genocide, who changed the politics of the world for the worse causing the death of over 100 million. #KarlMarx200 https://t.co/77tkR5selZ #KarlMarxWasWrong pic.twitter.com/soyd90yQqy

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) May 5, 2018

June 2018

Free Cuban prisoners of conscience Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción and Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola. 120 identified political prisoners in Cuba: spotlight on two prisoners of conscience https://t.co/0CIevn6cFA pic.twitter.com/CUHiXOzpkY

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) June 24, 2018

July 2018

A CRIME BEHIND THE BACK OF THE CHRIST OF HAVANA by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas https://t.co/Pw87WGvq3s pic.twitter.com/GhCPVJ1H36

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) July 13, 2018

August 2018

Family of jailed Cuban human rights defender denounces that he is being tortured https://t.co/2o13QPs1g9 #FreeEbert #Cuba #torture #HumanRights pic.twitter.com/xxMi9ryeTq

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) August 10, 2018

September 2018

Ortega's hooded police wielding AK-47s arrest, hold incomunicado Amaya Coppens, a human rights defender and medical student in Nicaragua. https://t.co/JsIpqshUdH #WHRDFAlert #DefendWHRDS #SOSNicaragua pic.twitter.com/r0hV0aTZUt

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) September 15, 2018

October 2018

Speaking truth to power: Cuban dissident and machete attack victim Sirley Avila Leon addresses the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. https://t.co/rtRQ0pXFTt #CubaUPR #Cuba #Justice #MeToo pic.twitter.com/7SSyTBgkTQ

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) September 28, 2018

November 2018

Not mourning the death of Fidel Castro is punishable by prison, beatings and death in Cuba. https://t.co/O5NUVyfhW4 1/15 pic.twitter.com/6CSko2sHPa

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) November 24, 2018

December 2018

Join the campaign for Christmas without political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua https://t.co/malcep4qot #LiberenLosYa
#FreeThemNow #FreedomForPoliticalPrisoners #CubaNicaraguaVenezuela #ChristmasWithoutPoliticalPrisonersInCubaVenezuelaYNicaragua pic.twitter.com/EU1swq1dhi

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) December 24, 2018

Omar Pernet Hernández: "I was tortured in Castros' jails in four processes since 1965, starting when I was turning 19."

Omar Pernet Hernández Requiescat In Pace

Omar Pernet Hernández August 15, 1945 - October 7, 2017

 Cuban dissident and former prisoner of conscience Omar Pernet Hernández passed away in Louisville, Kentucky on October 7, 2017. Beginning in 1965 at age 18 for his rebellious nature and love of freedom he was imprisoned for the first time in Cuba. Years later in an interview he would sum up his life in Cuba: "I was tortured in Castros' jails in four processes since 1965, when I was going to turn 19 years old."

Representing a delegation of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, I had the honor of accompanying Omar Pernet along with his niece, Bertha Antúnez and Aramis Perez to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2009 to give testimony there on the human rights situation in Cuba.

Bertha Antúnez, Omar Pernet Hernández and John Suarez, UN Human Rights Council

We arrived in Spain, a few days beforehand, and spent a few days preparing and gathering testimony. Omar Pernet opened the doors of his modest apartment, and gave us a place to stay. Over the course of those days we talked about what had happened to him in Cuba. During his last recent imprisonment he described how doctors engaged in malpractice against him following a car accident while he was being transferred from one prison to another that left him crippled. The video is embedded below followed by a translated excerpt of the interview.

Omar Pernet: Look, the meaning of this, is that this type of boot that you see here....I will show it to you again. This boot was fitted for me in Cuba and it began to damage my hips because one, the left, is longer than the right. Then, one hip went like this 0:30 (shows the way hip is going up). Then, here in Spain, they said I couldn't go on wearing those boots, and they asked me to cut them down, and told me to make the ones I'm wearing. These I'm wearing now are stabilizing my hips.

INT: "How is it possible, since the Cuban doctors are so excellent normally, at least that's what the Cubans say, and promote throughout the world. That they should be so wrong? And hurt you so much? How many months did you stay that way in Cuba?"

OP: Well, in 2005, on the 5th of April, I began to wear these boots until the 17-18. I stayed like that until the 3rd of March of 2008 using those boots. These I'm wearing now are different, from Spain. " Stands up, 2:06, shows. "The only thing they did was to slap a cast on. They had me on a cast from the tips of my toes up to my neck for 18 months. The doctors here [in Spain] say they don't find any logic to it. That it was intolerable, the amount of time I spent in those conditions. The cast was removed twice, and each time it was to break my leg again." 

Omar Pernet Hernández was 72 years old when he passed away, a victim of cancer. He had spent 22 years in Castro's prisons for defying the communist regime and lived in forced exile for the final nine years of his life. He had been jailed in four different instances beginning with being sent to a forced labor camp for refusing military service, then jailed for trying to first leave Cuba, then jailed again for "enemy propaganda" when he denounced prison conditions, and finally sentenced to 25 years in prison for gathering signatures for Project Varela, a petition drive to reform Cuban laws to bring it in line with international human rights standards. He served five years of that sentence and was forcibly exiled to Spain unable to ever return to Cuba.

Regis Iglesias Ramirez thanked Omar "for above all the struggle for human rights that always united us."

The Castro regime claims that "[o]ur achievements in matters of penal justice and crime prevention are well recognized" is unfortunately not true. Nevertheless the truth slips out sometimes and one such time was in the pages of The Telegraph on February 23, 2008 where the British newspaper offered a succinct description of prison conditions in Cuba: "regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds." International human rights organizations are barred from visiting the island and even the International Committee of the Red Cross has not had access to prisons in Cuba for over 40 years, but what has emerged is evidence of widespread torture.

Omar Pernet Hernández spent a life time defending human rights in Cuba both in and out of the island. He paid a high price: prison, torture, and forced exile but never backed down or looked back with regret. He gave his testimony both as victim and witness to the horrors of the Cuban prison system under the Castro brothers.

Bertha Antúnez, Omar Pernet Hernández and Aramis Perez at the UNHRC

Cost of dictatorship and indifference: Cuban political prisoner Hamell Santiago Más Hernández died on February 24, 2017

As we observe martyrs who died 21 years ago on February 24th and 7 years ago on February 23rd the Castro regime is still creating new ones such as Hamell Santiago Mas Hernández.

Hamell Santiago Más Hernández age 45 died in a Cuban prison on February 24, 2017

 Hamell Santiago Más Hernández, a political prisoner and an activist of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba (Unpacu), died on Friday, February 24, 2017 in the Combinado del Este prison located in Havana. Jose Daniel Ferrer over twitter charged that ill treatment and torture had led to Hamell's untimely death.
 
In the midst of observing the anniversaries of two grave injustices in Cuba last week ( the death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010 after years of torture, beatings and ill treatment and the February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down when the Castro brothers ordered the destruction of two civilian planes in international air space killing Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. Hamell's passing got minimum media coverage.

Meanwhile as Latin American democrats were barred from entering Cuba because of their solidarity with Cuban democrats shamefully American members of Congress remained publicly silent about  these human rights concerns and focused on engaging in commerce with the Castro regime and military that controls the national economy of Cuba. Both The Washington Post and National Review called them on this lack of solidarity with democrats and appeasement with a communist dictatorship.

But what of Hamell Santiago and his family? Another name added to the long list of victims of the Castro dictatorship that too many in the world ignore in order to pursue their business deals with his killers. Sadly this is not unique to Cuba but has also been repeated in China, Vietnam, Iran, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to the detriment of international human rights standards over the past 15 years.

Despite the claims of some apologists for the opening to the Castro regime, Amnesty International in its 2017 country report does not report advances on human rights and notes that Cuba is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that does not allow them to visit.

That should not come as a surprise. If they Castro regime can't even tolerate a human rights award ceremony in a private home then how would they tolerate human rights monitoring in their repressive island prison?

It also means that there will be more Hamell Santiagos, Orlando Zapatas, Pedro Luis Boitels, and Oswaldo Payás that is not only the price of dictatorship but also of the indifference of too many of the world's democracies.

Update on Cuban opposition MCL leader Eduardo Cardet Concepción imprisoned since November 30, 2016

Update on the plight of political prisoners Eduardo Cardet

Imprisoned opposition leader: Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción

Regis Iglesias Ramirez is a Cuban political and civil society activist and a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He is currently the spokesman of the Christian Liberation Movement. This past Sunday, January 15, 2017 he sat down and gave a brief interview on the plight of  Eduardo Cardet Concepción, the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement. The interview is in Spanish but a summary of the information provided is reproduced below in English.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción was born in Holguin, Cuba on October 25, 1968. He is a Cuban physician, politician, and national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). He joined the MCL, one of the most important opposition groups in Cuba, then headed by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in the early 2000s.  Eduardo was an active participant in various MCL initiatives aimed at achieving a nonviolent transition in Cuba to democracy. He was a manager of the Varela Project, the Heredia Project, The Peoples Path and  One Cuban, One Vote. Cardet held various responsibilities within the organization and was a member of the movement's coordinating council.  Eduardo was appointed Vice-President of the Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA) on August 23, 2013.

Following the extrajudicial killing of Oswaldo Payá  and Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012, the Christian Liberation Movement restructured its leadership and Eduardo Cardet was appointed national coordinator of the movement in November of 2014.

Due to his opposition activity Eduardo Cardet has been arbitrarily detained on several occasions. The last time he was taken prisoner by the Cuban political police was on November 30, 2016, shortly after the death of Fidel Castro. The MCL has denounced that on that occasion he was also badly beaten by Castro's state security agents. The beatings continued following his arrest in the detention center. Eduardo was taken to prison on December 7, 2016, pending a trial with a fabricated charge by the Castro regime to end his work as national coordinator of the  Christian Liberation Movement.

Eduardo Cardet is married with two children, works as a family doctor at the health center in the town of Velasco in Holguín province, where he lives. One year before his appointment as leader of the Christian Liberation Movement he was expelled from his work in retaliation for his opposition activity. However, protests over this punishment measure and popular support led to Eduardo Cardet's reinstatement to his old job.

Christian Liberation Movement: Regis Iglesias, Tony Díaz Sánchez, Eduardo Cardet