Human Rights Foundation condemns sham court proceedings against Venezuelan prisoner of conscience

Venezuela: HRF Condemns Sham Appellate Proceedings; Requests Release of Prisoner of Conscience

Leopoldo just arrived at the Palace of Justice for court of appeals rigged judgment

NEW YORK (August 18, 2016) — Today marks two and a half years since Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López was arbitrarily arrested in Caracas while leading a peaceful demonstration to the Ministry of Interior, Justice, and Peace. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) reiterates its February 2014 designation of López as a prisoner of conscience and calls on Venezuela’s authoritarian regime to release him immediately. This morning, López was formally notified of a Venezuelan appellate court's decision to uphold the 14-year sentence he was given in September 2015.

“Today, a kangaroo court of appeals sanctioned Nicolás Maduro’s desire to have Leopoldo López spend the next 12 years of his life in a military prison. Exactly the kind of decision one would expect from the brutal militaristic regime that has brought Venezuela into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” said Garry Kasparov, chairman of HRF. “López’s imprisonment and the repressive tactics used by the police, armed forces, and paramilitary groups against the opposition make it clear that the Maduro regime has lost any remaining democratic legitimacy. The free world must continue to bear witness,” added Kasparov.

During the appeal process, judges Evelin Dayana Mendoza, Jimai Montiel Calles, and Nelson Moncada Gómez of the Court of Appeals of Caracas ignored last year's confession by the now-exiled lead prosecutor, Franklin Nieves, who said he had been pressured to falsely charge López. The court also violated López's right to a defense attorney of his choosing by rejecting two Spanish lawyers serving on López’s international defense team, including former Spanish Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. López’s trial and appellate proceedings have been riddled with due process violations. The trial and appeal process consisted of over 70 hearings that took place behind closed doors, in violation of the right to a public trial. Out of over 700 hours of trial proceedings, López’s legal team had just three hours to argue in his defense. In an ostensible display of bias, trial judge Barreiros allowed 108 witnesses and 30 exhibits presented by the prosecution, while allowing only two of the 60 witnesses proposed by the defense, and declaring the bulk of the evidence exonerating López inadmissible.

Throughout the criminal proceedings, high-ranking government officials have made almost daily public statements asserting López’s culpability, in violation of the right to presumption of innocence. In fact, official television channels and the two main leaders of the regime, Nicolás Maduro y Diosdado Cabello, refer to López as “The Monster of Ramo Verde.” Ramo Verde is the name of the military prison in Los Teques, Venezuela, where over the past two and a half years López has been subjected to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in direct violation of international standards on the protection of the human dignity of persons deprived of liberty.

This morning, López appeared before the appellate court to hear a decision that had previously been announced on August 12. A picture posted today on his Facebook account (usually managed by his wife Lilian Tintori) shows a bearded and heavily guarded López entering the appellate courtroom. In addition to the appalling conditions of captivity and excessive isolation, López has spent at least a third of his time in prison in solitary confinement, having been denied the right to receive visitors, including, at times, his wife and children, as well as his lawyers. López, his wife, and his mother have been subjected to violent, invasive searches, and the confidentiality of their communications has been violated.

“Terms like ‘kangaroo court’ or ‘sham trial’ do not begin to describe what has happened to López since his arrest in 2014. After the lead prosecutor confessed to having falsely charged López, the conviction would have been vacated immediately if Venezuela were a democratic nation,” said Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of HRF. “López is part of a group of prominent prodemocracy activists under dictatorial regimes worldwide who have been sentenced to dozens of years in prison for advocating basic human rights. In 2009, the Chinese dictatorship jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after he wrote a democracy manifesto, while in 2012 Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime convicted the leader of the democratic opposition, Vladimir Kozlov, of ‘inciting social hatred.’ Kozlov, whose case is very similar to that of López, was also convicted for ‘creating and managing an organized criminal group,’ which is the label the regime gave to Kozlov’s political party, in a move very similar to the one Venezuela pursued against López’s party, Voluntad Popular,” said El-Hage.

López’s unjust arrest and incarceration have been condemned by multiple institutions worldwide, including Amnesty International, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the European Parliament. HRF was the first organization to declare López a political prisoner and a prisoner of conscience, after determining that the opposition leader had been persecuted, arrested, and imprisoned exclusively for having exercised his right to freedom of expression.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

Text taken from press release on HRF page. 

Cuba: Change for the preservation of the dictatorial status quo

More things change the more they remain the same

Reforms seek to preserve central planning. Eusebio Leal loses autonomy to military 

The Associated Press broke the "news" on August 16, 2016 that the Castro regime would sacrifice the well being of Cubans in order to hang on to power. The communist dictatorship remains committed to maintaining a centrally planned economy, it also will not permit property or wealth concentration, and will "gradually" advance internet service: 

"Cuba's ruling Communist Party released a new set of economic guidelines Tuesday that emphasize the slow-moving and limited nature of the country's reforms amid a sharp national economic downturn. The guidelines "recognize the objective existence of market relationships," but they also restate Cuba's commitment to a centrally planned economy. The 274 rules say concentration of property and wealth will not be permitted and promise to advance internet service only "gradually, according to our economic possibilities," in one of the world's least-connected nations. They update a document that laid out President Raúl Castro's vision of economic reform at the Cuban Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress in 2011."

This should not surprise anyone. Five years ago when the so-called reforms were initially announced I made the following conclusion that remains true today.

"If there is one lesson over the past 52 years it is that political considerations have priority over economic considerations in order to preserve the regime. When it is convenient to decentralize in order to survive the regime will do that as it did in the early 1990s and as it appears to be doing today. At the same time when things improve and regime survival depends on the re-centralization of economic control at the expense of economic growth as was the case in the late 1990s and through the 2000s they will do that as well, but the important consideration is that the Cuban people are tired of this regime and want change."

 Since 1959 the Castro regime has carried out numerous changes in the service of two goals: entrenching the communist dictatorship in power and perpetuating its rule. Now the regime continues to consolidate economic control in the military. The latest victim in this trend is Eusebio Leal Spengler and his Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH) that according to The Miami Herald "rescued at least one third of the buildings in the historic heart of the Cuban capital and won lavish international praise" in the 1990s during the special period. Leal had autonomy but that has been upsurped by the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a holding company controlled by the Cuban military.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez speaking on the floor of the United States Senate gave a more detailed analysis of GAESA on October 17, 2015:  "Raul Castro named his son-in-law, General Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez Callejas, as head of GAESA, which stands for Grupo de Administracion Empresarial, S.A or translated Business Administrative Group.  GAESA is the holding company of Cuba’s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Cuba’s military.  It is the dominant driving force of the island’s economy.  Established in the 1990s by Raul Castro, it controls tourism companies, ranging from the very profitable Gaviota S.A., which runs Cuba’s hotels, restaurants, car rentals and nightclubs, to TRD Caribe S.A., which runs the island’s retail stores.  GAESA controls virtually all economic transactions in Cuba."

In short the Castro family and the military control and run the economy in Cuba.  They are now consolidating economic control directly to perpetuate themselves in power with the help of the Obama administration. Meanwhile the human rights situation is worsening, religious repression is exploding along with violence against activists,

Religious repression worsens in Cuba

More churches are being destroyed in Cuba and pastors harassed and beaten in 2016

 
 On August 16, 2016 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that the pace of church demolitions in Cuba was increasing. According to CSW in their latest report on freedom of belief or religion there were 1,606 separate violations between January and July 2016.  This worsening situation compound the explosive growth of repression last year. In 2015 there was a tenfold increase in religious repression compared to 2014 with 2,300 separate violations recorded in 2015 compared to 220 in 2014.

Rev Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso arrested and taken away March 20, 2016

 Carey Lodge, a journalist for Christian Today reported on March 21, 2016 that a day earlier:

"Rev Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso's home and church were surrounded by police and state security agents early in the morning on March 20, he told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) ahead of his arrest.  The pastor was then arrested and taken away by officials, while his wife, Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez, was placed under house arrest. She and the couple's two young daughters have been locked inside their home, in Taguayabon, Villa Clara Province, and their phone connection has been cut.

Before being cut off, Marcheco Suarez was able to speak to CSW over the phone. Though the family and church have not been allowed to speak to Barroso directly, she said she'd been told that her husband had been taken to the city of Santa Clara, and was being refused food or drink.

She added that the pastor had already been ill over the weekend, after a stranger pricked him with a pin while he was on public transport last week."

 The March 20th arrest just hours before the start of President Obama's official visit to Cuba speaks volumes of the nature of the so-called normalized relations between the Obama administration and the Castro regime as does the exponential increase in religious repression since the December 17, 2014 announcement that relations would be normalized.

Rev Mario Felix with wife Yoaxis and two kids

Three days before President Obama arrived in Cuba, a Chilean former Minister of Culture and former Ambassador to Mexico Roberto Ampuero tweeted in Spanish the following: "Paradox: After decades backing Right wing dictatorships in Latin America, now the United States could end up backing a Left wing dictatorship." 

Below is video of the March 20, 2016 arrest of the Cuban pastor.

Google slammed at Cuban National Gathering in Puerto Rico

 Cuban democrats reach consensus and denounce Google's complicity with the Castro regime.

II Cuban National Gathering in Puerto Rico

The second Cuban National Gathering in Puerto Rico gathered Cubans together from inside and outside of Cuba representing over 70 organizations to discuss the future of Cuba and how to better coordinate their efforts towards a democratic Cuba.


On April 8, 2016 this blog reported "Google goes along with Internet censorship in Cuba in order to have a presence there" and over the past weekend in Puerto Rico at this gathering of Cubans from the island and the diaspora a declaration was made public and the following was agreed to on item 4:

 Denounced the indifference of the company Google in violation of its code of corporate conduct and demanded that it establish a correct policy to provide wireless internet service with no censorship and without dependence on the regime in benefit of the Cuban people.

Hopefully this will send a message to Google and other internet companies wanting to collaborate with the dictatorship in Cuba as many did (and do) in communist China that they will also face public scrutiny and criticism.

Jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López sends a message to his supporters

"We repudiate the ratification of the unjust sentence against Leopoldo López, in democracy there are no political prisoners. Opportunity lost for reconciliation of Venezuela." -  Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, August 12, 2016 over twitter 

Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López Mendoza in prison

Leopoldo López Mendoza was arbitrarily detained on February 18, 2014 in Caracas, Venezuela. Over a year and a half later on September 10, 2015 he was subjected to a show trial and sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison.  On August 12, 2016 the prison sentence was upheld in a Venezuelan court. There is no longer an independent judiciary in Venezuela and this decision is entirely political. Two days later on August 14, 2016 Leopoldo López, from prison, tweeted a message of defiance and solidarity to the people of Venezuela.

Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López Mendoza on day of his arrest

 The message pieced together and translated reads as follows:

"Still jailed for being committed body and soul to achieve the best Venezuela, something that only in a dictatorship could be considered a crime. I have always known that my freedom is tied to the freedom of our people and it won't be a court of this dictatorship that will grant it.

I presented myself before unfair justice to expose a dictatorship in front of the people of Venezuela and the world. And we have achieved more than that.

Our worst enemies are not Maduro or his corrupt elite. They are hopelessness, sadness and pessimism, and the dictatorship knows it. But the dictatorship is wrong if it thinks it can break our fighting spirit, as it is in thinking it can make Venezuelans bow down before it.

Venezuelans do not grieve or be frustrated! I swear I am not. We must convert all our indignation into action and mobilization. At this moment, the solidarity that I ask of you is with the country we love: lets go out with all our strength on September 1st. All dressed in white and in peace we will demonstrate that we are millions and we will go out to conquer our right to recall the government in 2016.

Do not get tired I never will. The change is near and it is unstoppable. Strength, Strength and Faith, Venezuela!"