Cuban artist and prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez a.k.a. Osorbo turns 39 in prison for his music.

Maykel Castillo Pérez a.k.a. Osorbo

Cuban artist and musician Maykel Castillo Pérez turned 39 years old today in a Cuban prison. He was born on August 20, 1983. 

Cuban prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez “Osorbo” was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Castro regime on June 24, 2022. He was already arbitrarily detained for over a year at the time. 

Amnesty International offered the following background information on this prisoner of conscience on August 19, 2021.  

"Maykel Castillo Pérez,known by his stage name Maykel Osorbo, is a Cuban musician and human rights activist. He is one of the authors of “Patria y Vida”, a song critical of the Cuban government that has been adopted as a protest anthem. On 4 April 2021, Maykel was walking in Havana when police officers questioned him and attempted to arrest him but desisted in the face of complaints from other passersby who considered the action unjust."

Eight days later on April 12, 2021 Maykel was the victim of a physical assault engineered by the secret police. Maykel was assaulted in Havana by strangers as state security agents filmed the assault. Maykel Castillo denounced the incident on a live broadcast through Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara's social media where Maykel stated, "I'm a tough black," he said. "Not even a thousand beatings are going to make me cross my arms and close my mouth," he warned. He underscored the danger facing him, and the possible escalation of violence by the dictatorship, and his commitment to nonviolence. “If you break a bone, it stays broken. If I die for that, the fault will be yours, because you are a murderer, " he said, addressing the government. 

"On 18 May [2021], security agents arrived at his home and arrested him. He is being held at the Pinar del Río Provincial Prison under charges of 'assault', 'resistance', 'evasion of prisoners and detainees' and 'public disorder.'"

Maykel Castillo in the midst of a protest in San Isidro on April 4, 2021

This is not his first time he was jailed for a matter of conscience. On September 21, 2018 Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, "El Osorbo" protested against Decree 349/2018 during a show in Cuba. Three days after the concert, he was detained by the Cuban secret police, and kept jailed. 

On March 20, 2019 Maykel was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, and learned of his sentence on April 22, 2019. He was released on October 23, 2019. Decree 349 is a law that further restricts artistic freedoms in Cuba.

Freedom for Patria y Vida's Luis Manuel and Maykel: Jailed Cuban Artists face 7 and 10 years in prison for criticizing dictatorship. Trials start tomorrow.

Freedom  /ˈfrēdəm/ noun: The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. Similar: liberty, liberation,independence, self-government, self-determination,  democracy, individualism, emancipation

Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara go on trial this week.

Freedom is a criminal offense in Cuba. The new penal code in Cuba explicitly punishes the right to speak, or think as one wants if it is critical of the government. The dictatorship in Cuba is a despotic government.

Thousands of Cubans were jailed during and after the nonviolent protests that demanded change in the streets of Cuba between July 11 - 13, 2021. Some protesters were shot by paramilitaries, and the police. Some of the protesters were killed by regime agents. Hundreds have been subjected to political show trials, and sentenced to prison sentences of up to 30 years.

The trials continue.

Two artists, Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, are set to stand trial starting on May 30, 2022.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a visual artist. He was last arrested, and detained on July 11, 2021 before he could join in the 11J protests mentioned above.

Maykel Castillo Pérez is a rap singer who is also known by his artistic name “Osorbo,”  and he has been in pre-trial detention for over a year. He was taken by the political police on May 18, 2021.

On May 17, 2022 Luis Manuel delivered a message from prison. "In an audio recording from his prison cell at Guanajay on May 17, Otero Alcántara said: 'I dream that no Cuban will be the enemy of any other Cuban. Today for these dreams I am ready to sacrifice the artist’s flesh, my artist’s flesh, and my freedom-loving spirit,'" reported PEN International. The full audio message with English subtitles is available below.

The dictatorship's prosecutor has requested that Luis Manuel be sentenced to seven and Maykel Castillo to ten years in prison" on a range of charges related to their participation in a peaceful demonstration and an artistic performance, and their criticism of President Miguel Díaz-Canel", reports Amnesty International.

People of good will are not remaining passive before this injustice. In Miami, Florida friends of Luis Manuel and Maykel plan to gather at 6:00pm at Our Lady of Charity (La Ermita de la Caridad) in a human chain to march to the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in a demonstration of solidarity.

The idea that art must have a political function, and subject to political considerations because "politics is everything" is a Communist concept. Unlike Marxist-Leninists, and other totalitarians I do believe art can be detached from or independent of politics. 

I also believe in freedom, in all its aspects including the arts, and have my entire life, and this encompasses criticizing all governments. This does not mean that I agree or disagree with the critique, but recognize the importance of the freedom to do so.

If you share this principle, then join the friends of Luis Manuel, and Maykel that will be marching from the Ermita to the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora on Monday, May 30, 2022 at 6:00pm.

For Freedom.

Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life)

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.

On This Day: Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born 54 years ago today and martyred 11 years ago

"Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]" - Orlando Zapata Tamayo, letter smuggled out April of 2004*

Orlando Zapata Tamayo May 15, 1967 - February 23, 2010

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born on May 15, 1967 in Santiago de Cuba and died following a prolonged hunger strike on February 23, 2010 in Havana, Cuba under suspicious circumstances.  Amnesty International recognized the pro-democracy activist and human rights defender as a prisoner of conscience.

Orlando Zapata was a human rights defender unjustly imprisoned in the Spring of 2003 and tortured by Cuban prison officials and state security agents over the next six years and ten months. He died on February 23, 2010 following a prolonged hunger strike, aggravated by prison guards refusing him water in an effort to break his spirit. He is a victim of Cuban communism.

Christian Liberation Movement leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was extrajudicially executed two and a half years later on July 22, 2012 together with Harold Cepero Escalante, the movement's youth leader, issued a statement the same day that Orlando died and appeared in a photograph holding up a photocopy of the martyred human rights defender's name and image. 

"Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died this afternoon, February 23, 2010, after suffering many indignities, racist slights, beatings and abuse by prison guards and State Security. Zapata was killed slowly over many days and many months in every prison in which he was confined. Zapata was imprisoned for denouncing human rights violations and for daring to speak openly of the Varela Project in Havana's Central Park. He was not a terrorist, or conspirator, or used violence. Initially he was sentenced to three years in prison, but after successive provocations and maneuvers staged by his executioners, he was sentenced to more than thirty years in prison." 

 

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas with photocopy image of Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born in Santiago, Cuba on May 15, 1967. He was by vocation a brick layer and also a human rights activist, a member of the Movimiento Alternativa Republicana, Alternative Republican Movement, and of the Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica, National Civic Resistance Committee. Orlando gathered signatures for the Varela Project, a citizen initiative to amend the Cuban constitution using legal means with the aim of bringing Cuba in line with international human rights standards.

Amnesty International had documented how Orlando had been arrested several times in the past. For example he was temporarily detained on 3 July 2002 and 28 October 2002. In November of 2002 after taking part in a workshop on human rights in the central Havana park, José Martí, he and eight other government opponents were arrested and later released. He was also arrested on December 6, 2002 along with fellow prisoners of conscience Oscar Elías Biscet and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo.   

Dr. Biscet just released from prison a month earlier had sought to form a grassroots project for the promotion of human rights called "Friends of Human Rights." State security prevented them from entering the home of Raúl Arencibia Fajardo, Oscar Biscet, Orlando Zapata Tamayo,Virgilio Marante Güelmes and 12 others held a sit-in in the street in protest and chanted "long live human rights" and "freedom for political prisoners." They were then arrested and taken to the Tenth Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, Décima Unidad de La Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR).

Orlando Zapata Tamayo together with other activists

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was released three months later on March 8, 2003, but Oscar Elias Biscet, Virgilio Marante Güelmes, and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo remained imprisoned. On the morning of March 20, 2003 whilst taking part in a fast at the Fundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier, Jesús Yánez Pelletier Foundation, in Havana, to demand the release of Oscar Biscet and the other political prisoners. Orlando was taken to the Villa Marista State Security Headquarters.

He was moved around several prisons, including Quivicán Prison, Guanajay Prison, and Combinado del Este Prison in Havana. Where according to Amnesty International on October 20, 2003 Orlando was dragged along the floor of Combinado del Este Prison by prison officials after requesting medical attention, leaving his back full of lacerations. Orlando managed to smuggle a letter out following a brutal beating it was published in April of 2004:

"My dear brothers in the internal opposition in Cuba. I have many things to say to you, but I did not want to do it with paper and ink, because I hope to go to you one day when our country is free without the Castro dictatorship. Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]."*

On May 18, 2004 Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Virgilio Marante Güelmes, and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo were each sentenced to three years in prison for contempt for authority, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in a one-day trial. Orlando Zapata Tamayo would continue his rebelliousness and his non-violent resistance posture while in prison and suffer numerous beatings and new charges of disobedience and disrespect leading to decades added to his prison sentence in eight additional trials. 

Protests for Orlando Zapata Tamayo continue
Eleven years have passed but the martyred Cuban human rights defender is not forgotten. From the beginning the regime sought to put down and silence protests and acts of remembrance for him, but failed. 

In March of 2010 at the second Geneva Summit for Human Rights former prisoner of conscience Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo testified to what had happened to Orlando Zapata. In Norway, regime agents became violent and created international controversy after a Cuban diplomat bit a young Norwegian-Cuban woman for trying to record her mom engaged in a protest remembering Orlando Zapata Tamayo in front of the Cuban Embassy in Oslo in May of 2010.

On September 30, 2010 the Canadian punk rock band I.H.A.D. released a song linking what happened to Orlando Zapata Tamayo to the indifference of Canadian tourists visiting Cuba asking the question: Where were you the day Orlando Zapata died? On May 10, 2012 the Free Cuba Foundation published a video accompanying the song, after receiving the band's permission, with images and song lyrics.

On February 23, 2016 at the 8th edition of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy Rosa María Payá gave the last presentation in which she remembered and honored the memory of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on the sixth anniversary of his passing.  

Today we remember the day this courageous activist was born in Cuba 54 years ago, and look forward to the day that his sacrifice is remembered in Cuba's history books. 

 

*Source: "Queridos hermanos míos de la oposición interna de Cuba", escribió Zapata en su misiva, "tengo muchas cosas que decirles, pero no he querido hacerlo por papel y tinta, pues espero ir a ustedes un día cuando nuestra patria sea libre y sin dictadura castrista. Vivan los derechos humanos, con mi sangre les escribí, para que la guarden como parte del salvajismo de que somos víctima el presidio político Pedro Luis Boitel". - "Golpiza y celda tapiada para Orlando Zapata"  La Habana, 22 de abril 2004 (María López, Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org  

Black Cuban Spring prisoner speaks out about COVID-19, the economic crisis, and the failure of the elites in Cuba to address the present challenge

Honoring a courageous man.

From the 2011 campaign for his release

Earlier today this blog published a reflection on the nationwide crackdown on Cuban dissidents that took place on March 18, 2003, and the execution of three young black men by firing squad on April 12, 2003 for hijacking a ferry to flee Cuba (no one was harmed during the incident that took place on April 2, 2003). This became known as Cuba's Black Spring.

75 of these Cuban dissidents were recognized as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, spent years in prison, and the last were released eight years later in 2011. One of the last freed was Librado Linares, because he refused to go into exile.

This evening saw a video by Librado. This courageous man is speaking out about COVID-19, the economic crisis, and the failure of the elites in Cuba. 

Below is the video ( in Spanish) of him speaking on these issues:

Eleven years ago on February 23, 2010 prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on hunger strike in Cuba

"Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]" - Orlando Zapata Tamayo, letter smuggled out April of 2004*

Orlando Zapata Tamayo 1967 - 2010

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a human rights defender who was unjustly imprisoned in the Spring of 2003 and was tortured by Cuban prison officials and state security agents over the next six years and ten months. He died on February 23, 2010 following a prolonged hunger strike, aggravated by prison guards refusing him water in an effort to break his spirit. He is a victim of Cuban communism.

Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was killed under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012, issued a statement the same day that Orlando died and appeared in a photograph holding up a photocopy of the martyred human rights defender name and image. 

"Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died this afternoon, February 23, 2010, after suffering many indignities, racist slights, beatings and abuse by prison guards and State Security. Zapata was killed slowly over many days and many months in every prison in which he was confined. Zapata was imprisoned for denouncing human rights violations and for daring to speak openly of the Varela Project in Havana's Central Park. He was not a terrorist, or conspirator, or used violence. Initially he was sentenced to three years in prison, but after successive provocations and maneuvers staged by his executioners, he was sentenced to more than thirty years in prison." 

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas with photocopy image of Orlando Zapata Tamayo

  

Remembering Orlando Zapata

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born in Santiago, Cuba on May 15, 1967. He was by vocation a brick layer and also a human rights activist, a member of the Movimiento Alternativa Republicana, Alternative Republican Movement, and of the Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica, National Civic Resistance Committee. Orlando gathered signatures for the Varela Project, a citizen initiative to amend the Cuban constitution using legal means with the aim of bringing Cuba in line with international human rights standards.

 

Amnesty International had documented how Orlando had been arrested several times in the past. For example he was temporarily detained on 3 July 2002 and 28 October 2002. In November of 2002 after taking part in a workshop on human rights in the central Havana park, José Martí, he and eight other government opponents were arrested and later released. He was also arrested on December 6, 2002 along with fellow prisoners of conscience Oscar Elías Biscet and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo.  

 
Dr. Biscet just released from prison a month earlier had sought to form a grassroots project for the promotion of human rights called "Friends of Human Rights." State security prevented them from entering the home of Raúl Arencibia Fajardo, Oscar Biscet, Orlando Zapata Tamayo,Virgilio Marante Güelmes and 12 others held a sit-in in the street in protest and chanted "long live human rights" and "freedom for political prisoners." They were then arrested and taken to the Tenth Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, Décima Unidad de La Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR)

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was released three months later on March 8, 2003, but Oscar Elias Biscet, Virgilio Marante Güelmes, and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo remained imprisoned. On the morning of March 20, 2003 whilst taking part in a fast at the Fundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier, Jesús Yánez Pelletier Foundation, in Havana, to demand the release of Oscar Biscet and the other political prisoners. Orlando was taken to the Villa Marista State Security Headquarters.

He was moved around several prisons, including Quivicán Prison, Guanajay Prison, and Combinado del Este Prison in Havana. Where according to Amnesty International on October 20, 2003 Orlando was dragged along the floor of Combinado del Este Prison by prison officials after requesting medical attention, leaving his back full of lacerations. Orlando managed to smuggle a letter out following a brutal beating it was published in April of 2004:

"My dear brothers in the internal opposition in Cuba. I have many things to say to you, but I did not want to do it with paper and ink, because I hope to go to you one day when our country is free without the Castro dictatorship. Long live human rights, with my blood I wrote to you so that this be saved as evidence of the savagery we are subjected to that are victims of the Pedro Luis Boitel political prisoners [movement]."*

On May 18, 2004 Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Virgilio Marante Güelmes, and Raúl Arencibia Fajardo were each sentenced to three years in prison for contempt for authority, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in a one-day trial. Orlando Zapata Tamayo would continue his rebelliousness and his non-violent resistance posture while in prison and suffer numerous beatings and new charges of disobedience and disrespect leading to decades added to his prison sentence in eight additional trials.

Protests for Orlando Zapata Tamayo continue
Eleven years have passed but the martyred Cuban human rights defender has not been forgotten. From the beginning the regime sought to put down and silence protests and acts of remembrance for him, but failed. In March of 2010 at the second Geneva Summit for Human Rights former prisoner of conscience Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo testified to what had happened to Orlando Zapata. In Norway, regime agents became violent and created international controversy after a Cuban diplomat bit a young Norwegian-Cuban woman for trying to record her mom engaged in a protest remembering Orlando Zapata Tamayo in front of the Cuban Embassy in Oslo in May of 2010.

 

On September 30, 2010 the Canadian punk rock band I.H.A.D. released a song linking what happened to Orlando Zapata Tamayo to the indifference of Canadian tourists visiting Cuba asking the question: Where were you the day Orlando Zapata died? On May 10, 2012 the Free Cuba Foundation published a video accompanying the song, after receiving the band's permission, with images and song lyrics.

Rosa María Payá Acevedo remembers Orlando Zapata Tamayo in 2016.

 

On February 23, 2016 at the 8th edition of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy Rosa María Payá gave the last presentation in which she remembered and honored the memory of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on the sixth anniversary of his passing. 

On 2/19/2018 twenty activists remember Orlando Zapata Tamayo

 

Four days prior to marking eight years to the day that Orlando Zapata died, activists inside Cuba took to protest in the streets with banners remembering the courageous and martyred human rights activist.
The Castro regime did all it could to eliminate the memory of this humble and good man. The dictatorship failed.

Special Mass for Orlando Zapata Tamayo at Our Lady of Charity on February 23, 2020

Later this month let us once again honor and remember the brick layer and human rights defender by writing about him, organizing vigils and protests, and continuing his work for human rights in Cuba.

*Source: "Queridos hermanos míos de la oposición interna de Cuba", escribió Zapata en su misiva, "tengo muchas cosas que decirles, pero no he querido hacerlo por papel y tinta, pues espero ir a ustedes un día cuando nuestra patria sea libre y sin dictadura castrista. Vivan los derechos humanos, con mi sangre les escribí, para que la guarden como parte del salvajismo de que somos víctima el presidio político Pedro Luis Boitel". - "Golpiza y celda tapiada para Orlando Zapata"  La Habana, 22 de abril 2004 (María López, Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org  

Cuban prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras lost vision in one eye after two strokes, and brutal beating now losing vision in other eye

“Don’t believe anything they tell you. I stand firm in the sense that either they set me free or I’ll be carried out of here dead.” - Silverio Portal Contreras, October 13, 2020

Lucinda González and prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras

 

Madrid based NGO Prisoners Defenders earlier this month reported that there were 139 political prisoners in Cuba, and that there are 11,000 Cubans, not affiliated with opposition groups, jailed on the Orwellian charge of “pre-crime.” 

An urgent case of a Cuban prisoner of conscience currently unfolding is that of Silverio Portal Contreras.

Amnesty International on August 26, 2019 recognized “Silverio Portal Contreras, former activist with the Ladies in White, [who] is serving a 4-year sentence for “contempt” and “public disorder” a prisoner of conscience. According to a court document, Silverio was arrested on the 20 June 2016 in Old Havana after shouting “Down Fidel Castro, down Raúl...” The document states that the behavior of the accused is particularly offensive because it took place in a touristic area.” … “According to Silverio’s wife, Lucinda González, before his arrest he had campaigned against collapsing dilapidated buildings in Havana.”

He suffered from epilepsy and hypertension before prison, conditions that worsened after he suffered two strokes, lost vision in one eye after a brutal beating. He is quickly losing vision in the other eye after being diagnosed with diabetes. 

Silverio spoke with his family on October 13, 2020 after more than three months of being denied phone calls at the 1580 Prison in San Miguel del Patron, Havana. 

Throughout their conversation, Lucinda says Silverio had a prison guard standing next to him. He told her: “Don’t believe anything they tell you. I stand firm in the sense that either they set me free or I’ll be carried out of here dead.”

Please take a moment to help save the life of prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras

#FreeSilverio

Prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras

On the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington this blog commemorated the date by highlighted the speeches of Martin Luther King III and his daughter at the Lincoln Memorial on that day, and the brutality visited on several black Cubans by the Castro regime in recent weeks. One of the cases focused on was that of Silverio Portal Contreras.

Yesterday, over Twitter Lucinda González wife of prisoner of conscience Silverio Portal Contreras asked for help from everyone starting today, Monday at 10:00 am, to show their solidarity with them, in the audio message embedded in the tweet below.

Lucinda González esposa del preso político Silverio Portal Contreras pide ayuda a todos para mañana lunes a las 10:00 am se solidaricen con ellos, escucha el audio y ayuda a este digno cubano #FreeSilverio #PatriaYLibertad #PresosDeCastro pic.twitter.com/nlMlV1hZsW

— Iliana Hernandez (@ilianahcuba) August 31, 2020

Silverio Portal Contreras,a former activist with the Ladies in White, is serving a 4-year sentence for "contempt" and "public disorder." According to a court document, he was arrested on the June 20, 2016 in Old Havana after shouting “Down Fidel Castro, down Raúl...” The document states that "the behavior of the accused is particularly offensive because it took place in a touristic area." The document further describes the accused as having “bad social and moral behavior” and mentions that he fails to participate in pro-government activities. 

According to Silverio’s wife, before his arrest he had campaigned against the collapse of dilapidated buildings in Havana. Silverio was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International on August 26, 2019. He was beaten by prison officials in mid-May 2020 and lost sight in one eye.

Lucinda Gonzalez Gomez, wife of the activist, has put out a desperate plea for help after receiving a call from her husband on June 10, 2020. “Silverio called me and put an official on the phone to explain the situation,” said Gonzalez Gomez to CubaNet. The official told her that “he was taken to the ophthalmologist and because of temporary loss of blood flow, he was losing sight in both eyes.”

We fear for Silverio's life today imprisoned for thinking and speaking freely.

Please use one of the images of Silverio below on your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

Escoge una foto de Silverio Portal Contreras y el lunes 31/08 a las 10:00 am ponla como foto de perfil, etiqueta a @DiazCanelB y exige su libertad #FreeSilverio #PatriaYLibertad #PresosDeCastro Silverio está enfermo en prisión y es un buen hombre, solo quiere la libertad de #Cuba pic.twitter.com/2Mu6zS4a6L

— Iliana Hernandez (@ilianahcuba) August 31, 2020

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/

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

US State Department protests restrictions on Cuban prisoner of conscience Eduardo Cardet

"I regret that the EU does not require Cuba to stop being a totalitarian regime." - Eduardo Cardet, over twitter on September 19, 2016. The National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement was released on parole on May 4, 2019 but remains subject to restrictions on his freedom.

Eduardo Cardet, May 2019

Protesting Restrictions on Cuban Political Prisoner Dr. Eduardo Cardet

Press Statement

Morgan Ortagus, Department Spokesperson

May 27, 2019

Washington, DC

The United States condemns the conditions placed on the movement and activities of Cuban human rights activist and political prisoner Dr. Eduardo Cardet. Cuban regime authorities not only unjustly sentenced Dr. Cardet to three years in prison after accusing him of criticizing former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, but now impose restrictions on his release. These restrictions seek to stymie Dr. Cardet’s courageous efforts to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for the Cuban people.

The Cuban regime may have released activist Eduardo Cardet after three years of unjust imprisonment, but regime-imposed restrictions mean he’s still not free. The U.S. applauds Cardet’s courageous efforts to promote fundamental freedoms for the people of #Cuba. #JailedForWhat pic.twitter.com/hV445VNmia

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 28, 2019

According to multiple international NGOs, Cardet is one of more than 100 political prisoners the Cuban regime currently and unjustly incarcerates. We denounce the Cuban regime’s deplorable prison conditions and continued abuses against Dr. Cardet and other political prisoners. And we call on the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners, immediately and without conditions.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. The Cuban regime’s continued arbitrary detention of Cuban activists and independent thinkers shines a light on its own cowardice.

Source: https://www.state.gov/protesting-restrictions-on-cuban-political-prisoner-dr-eduardo-cardet/

Cuban prisoner of conscience released on parole after 2 years 5 months and 4 days unjustly imprisoned

Cardet paroled on conditional liberty.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción paroled after 2 years 5 months and 4 days jailed.

Christian Liberation Movement spokesperson Regis Iglesias released a transcript of the first statement made by Eduardo Cardet Concepción upon his parole on Saturday, May 4, 2019 that is translated here to English:

"Right now I am at home under the terms of what is called conditional liberty, early release. Supposedly my unjust and arbitrary conviction should end on September 30 of this year.

"We are here, by whatever means. Although it is in these ambiguous and unjust terms, it fills us with joy to be here at home, with family, with friends, with brothers. "

"In the first place, I would like to thank so many people of good will who have always been aware of [this case], who have given us all possible support ... I do not want to mention people specifically because there have been many people and, most importantly, I think that It was the recognition of the just cause that we have always followed.

"For a matter of principle, I have been in prison for around two and a half years, but here we are, and we're on our feet, full of life, full of desires and hoping for the best for everyone, especially for our people who are in such a difficult situation right now."

Eduardo Cardet Concepción spent two years five months and four days arbitrarily detained in Cuba by the Castro regime. On Saturday, May 4, 2019 he was paroled under "conditional liberty."  He had been provided a furlough to visit his family for the second time. The first furlough had been in early April 2019.

In a later interview with 14ymedio Dr. Cardet declared: "What I received is what they call anticipated freedom or conditional liberty." ... "It is a half-hearted freedom, it's not a favor of course, but rather a way for them to ease the tensions they have."

There has been a non-stop international campaign for the release of Dr. Cardet since November 30, 2016.  Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience on January 31, 2017 and followed his case. Amnesty International chapters around the world campaigned for his release.

United Nations Watch campaigned for the release of Eduardo Cardet filing a successful petition in July of 2018 that was upheld by the working group months later. 

In November 2018 the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a quasi-judicial panel of five experts, found that Cuba arrested Dr. Cardet without a legal basis. The UN panel called on Cuba to immediately release Dr. Cardet and grant him reparations.

On March 26, 2019 human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gutierrez outlined Eduardo Cardet's case and plight at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in Geneva, Switzerland.

In addition, the Spanish Senate, members of the U.S. Congress, international human rights gatherings, civil society and the Christian Liberation Movement had all called for his immediate release.


This international mobilization on his behalf is important but it is also important to remember and provide context to what was done to Dr. Cardet.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción is a medical doctor, a husband, and a father of two small children. He is widely respected in his community. He is a person of impeccable moral character. Despite all of this, he was beaten up and arrested in front of his wife and children on November 30, 2016.  In March of 2017 he was subjected to a political show trial and sentenced to three years in prison. Dr. Cardet was beaten up again in prison, was stabbed with a sharp object repeatedly, and denied family visits because they were campaigning for his release. 

What led to this mistreatment? 

Following Fidel Castro's November 25, 2016 death, Dr. Cardet explained to a foreign journalist that "Castro was a very controversial man, very much hated and rejected by our people." On November 30, 2016 when he returned home to Cuba he was beaten up in front of his wife and children by Cuban state security and jailed. Amnesty International has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience.

Eduardo Cardet is the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement. [His predecessor, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, met with a suspicious death along with  Harold Cepero Escalante on July 22, 2012.]  

Amnesty International observes that as long as Dr. Cardet has been released under conditional liberty and is subject to certain conditions, he remains a prisoner of conscience. 

The campaign for his full freedom continues.