Sunday March 10th is the 60th Anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day: Show your solidarity

In Solidarity with a Free Tibet. Protests around the world, including Washington, DC on Sunday.

Free Tibet!

Brave Tibetans have spent six decades resisting the occupation of Communist China over their homeland.  While at the same time showing their solidarity with other captive peoples, including Cubans and for that I will be eternally grateful and in solidarity with their freedom struggle.
60 years ago on March 10, 1959 a rebellion began in Tibet against the Chinese communist occupation of their homeland. Tens of thousands were slaughtered and that day is now recognized as Tibetan National Uprising Day. Students for a Free Tibet are organizing protests around the world, including Washington, DC on Sunday.

Why: In solidarity with our Tibetan brothers and sisters! 
What: 60th Anniversary of March 10 Tibetan Uprising Day 
When: Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM 
Where: EDT 3505 International Pl NW, Washington, DC 20008-3025

 

Venezuelans gather in Washington, DC today in an activity for the Liberty of Venezuela

Independent Venezuelan-American Citizens invite the Venezuelan community to join this activity for the Liberty of Venezuela on March 7, 2019. They will be meeting at 9:00 am at 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-419 in Washington DC. They are calling for stronger sanctions against the Maduro regime. Venezuela is in the midst of a profound crisis and needs the help of the free world.

Activity for Liberty of Venezuela, 
March 7th, Meeting time: 9:00 am 
Meeting point: 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-419. Washington DC. 
-Stronger sanctions against the Maduro regime will be requested.

Shouldn't Maduro be photographed with a Colombian passport?

#CastroHandsOffVenezuela vs #CubaHandsOffVenezuela

Why I prefer to use #CastroHandsOffVenezuela over #CubaHandsOffVenezuela.

Down with Cuban Imperialism or Down with Castroite Imperialism

Yesterday I received an apologetic tweet over the use of the hashtag #CubaHandsOffVenezuela from ANDAMIR that said " #CubaHandsOffVenezuela John this message is not for you who have been on our side early on, [it]is for the criminal elite of the Castro Mafia. Longest tyranny in [Latin America].

Back on January 26, 2019 this blog published a post titled Down with Cuban Imperialism in Latin America. Therefore I do not have an issue with #CubaHandsOffVenezuela but upon further reflection thought that #CastroHandsOffVenezuela was a more accurate description of what is going on. Cubans have not been able to exercise their sovereignty in over sixty years and their country has been held hostage by the Castro family and still is today.

#CastroHandsOffVenezuela

This is why today I say #CastroHandsOffVenezuela and #CastroHandsOffCuba. Castroite imperialism has been destroying Venezuela for over 20 years, Nicaragua for over 40 years, and Cuba for over 60 years. The Castro regime has also mutilated and destroyed Cuba.  2019 marks 25 years since the July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre where 37 men, women, and children were slaughtered by agents of the Castro regime for trying to leave Cuba.

Castroism, a regime that spreads death, turned Cuba into a grave yard.

Therefore let us declare: "Down with Castroite Imperialism in Latin America!", "Castro Hands Off Venezuela!", "Castro Hands Off Nicaragua!" and "Castro Hands Off Cuba!"

UN Human Rights Council covers up famine in Venezuela & places Che Guevara's image on display

Moral rot at the UN Human Rights Council

Mass murderer's image on display at the UN Human Rights Council

On  the eve of the start of observing the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this blog highlighted some of the shortcomings of the United Nations and called on UN officials to engage in a serious and "profound reflection" on their actions to ensure that they do not continue undermining their own mission.  Sadly, this advise was not heeded.

Ideas have consequences and those ideas are sometimes represented by iconic images. This is the case with the image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the philosophy of political action that he advocated and that others seek to emulate.  

SHAME: Giant portrait of the mass murderer Che Guevara now on display at the United Nations in Geneva, home of its ironically-named Human Rights Council. pic.twitter.com/M01fCPMpRs

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 28, 2019

It is disappointing and an outrage that the United Nations Human Rights Council would display the image of Che Guevara. The legacy of Che Guevara is a rejection of international human rights standards.

Consider that Guevara's claim to fame was the role he played along with Fidel and Raul Castro in installing a totalitarian communist regime in Cuba and attempting to spread this model using violent means in Africa and Latin America. Guevara was executed  summarily on October 9, 1967 in La Higuera, Bolivia after he and his band of guerrillas were captured trying to overthrow the government there and install a Castro style regime. His is a legacy of blood and terror that should be lamented not celebrated.

Despite this record, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided on June 18, 2013 to add “The Life and Works of Che Guevara” to the World Registrar. UNESCO is providing funds to preserve Che Guevara’s papers.

There are consequences to having Guevara as an exemplar. The UN Human Rights Council's longest-serving official Jean Ziegler is a Che Guevara admirer. Ziegler was appointed to the UNHRC in 2000 at the request of the Castro regime. He also created and won the "Qaddafi Human Rights Prize."

Jean Ziegler, Castro apologist, Guevara admirer, and UN official

This kind of moral bankruptcy extends beyond the symbolic to impacting the lives of millions.

UN experts continue to whitewash and cover up the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Venezuela.  On February 28, 2019 UN Watch's Hillel Neuer exposed the right to food expert's cover up of the famine in Venezuela.

VIDEO: Today when I asked @UN_HRC "right to food" expert @HilalElver (chosen by the Castro regime) why she ignores the plight of millions of hungry #Venezuela families, she said "there are two sides of this conflict..."@KenRoth, will you condemn this ex-@HRW board member?

1/2 pic.twitter.com/gGOZdmcl6F

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 28, 2019

In  the 1930s in Ukraine "journalist" Walter Duranty helped to cover up the deaths of millions in a famine manufactured by Josef Stalin's regime. Today so-called UN Human Rights experts are helping to cover up a famine in Venezuela.

Note to UNESCO and to the UN Human Rights Council:  Che Guevara is still dead. The sooner his ideas join him on the ash heap of history the better for humanity. Perhaps the United Nations should honor and celebrate the life and writings of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas instead.

This would be one step in the direction of the moral regeneration of this international organization.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas born 67 years ago on February 29, 1952

Observing the 67th anniversary of the birth of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas

February 29, 1952 - July 22, 2012

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas would be sixty seven years old on February 29th but according to friends and family, the Cuban human rights defender would joke that he had a birthday once every four years due to it being a leap day. 2012 was a leap year and Oswaldo celebrated his last birthday on February 29, 2012. This husband, and father of three was the victim on July 22, 2012, along with Harold Cepero Escalante, of an extra-judicial killing carried out by Cuban State Security that ended both their lives.

Payá pictured with his immediate family.

Oswaldo Payá was the founding leader of the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), and Harold Cepero its youth leader. Five and a half years later the current MCL leader, Eduardo Cardet, is a prisoner of conscience who has been repeatedly and brutally attacked while unjustly imprisoned. MCL was founded thirty years ago in 1988.


Last year the story of what happened to Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, to make the truth known, and seek justice was told through the eyes of his daughter Rosa María Payá, and is part of a documentary series called The Witness Project, produced by Smock Media and executive produced by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Rosa María now heads the CubaDecide initiative which seeks a binding plebiscite in Cuba.

Below is a 2002 documentary short by the National Democratic Institute titled "Dissident: Oswaldo Payá and the Varela Project."