It is time to change

Rosa María Payá

"My country, Cuba, is in a deteriorated and in an unstable situation. My people have suffered the lack of human rights for many decades already. My family have been directly affected and attacked; I think is time to stop. It is time to change and an every time growing group of Cubans works for make true that change".

Rosa María Payá in Geneva

Freedom House Condemns Prison Sentence of Cuban Dissident Santiesteban

Freedom House condemns the decision to sentence award-winning Cuban writer and dissident Angel Santiesteban on December 8 to five years in prison for assault and trespassing, and calls on Cuba to allow for a fair and just appeals process. This sentence followed a politically motivated trial where there was a lack of compelling evidence.

The trial began four years ago, and while most of the charges were dropped and witnesses asserted Santiesteban’s innocence in their testimonies, the trial concluded with a verdict against Santiesteban.

Cuba's Ladies in White

Cholera spreads in Cuba

Three people have died of cholera and another 50 have been diagnosed with the illness in an outbreak caused by contaminated well water, the Cuban government said on Tuesday.

However, independent media reporting about of 15 died of the disease.

It blamed recent heavy rains and high temperatures for the water problems, which forced the closure of some wells and the chlorination of the water system in the hardest hit areas.

The Public Health Ministry said in a statement that the township of Mazanillo in the southeast province of Granma had suffered the most cholera cases, which have occurred in the last few weeks.

It said the three people who died ranged in age from 66 to 95 and suffered from other, chronic health problems.

Laura Pollán on to the wall of the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa

This art intervention it is part of a series of portraits by Cuban artist Geandy Pavón. This time the face of Cuban dissident Laura Pollán was projected on to the wall of the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. Laura Pollán was the leader of a dissident group call Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) which holds pacific protest marches with the wives and spouses of political prisoners in Cuba to demand their release. The Ladies in White are routinely and violently repressed by the Cuban government. Pollan died of cardiorespiratory arrest on October 14, 2011, at the age of 63. She had been hospitalized since October 7. According to the Cuban government, she had suffered from dengue fever.

May 20th – Global Cuba Solidarity Day 2011

Global Cuba Solidarity Day is a time for the world to express its support to the Cuban people. As the people of Cuba continue to endure human rights abuses and restrictions on individual freedomsit is important for the international community to show that we are aware of these serious issues and support the Cuban people in their struggle for freedom.

On May 20, please join us as we raise our voices and show that we are concerned about the recent death of Juan Wilfredo Soto, fatally beaten by Cuban police, as well as the constant harassment of bloggers and independent journalists, the hunger strikes of independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas, the repression against the Ladies in White and the frequent violations of basic human rights at the hands of the Cuban regime.

Get involved!

There are a number of ways you can show your support for the Cuban people:

1. Follow the Global Cuba Solidarity Movement on Twitter (@solidaridadcuba).

2. Join the discussion and “Like” our Facebook page (Movimiento Mundial de Solidaridad con Cuba) at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Movimiento-Mundial-de-Solidaridad-con-Cuba/12814187849?ref=mf.

3. Visit http://www.solidaridadcuba.org/media/mensajes/ and leave your messages of support. Remember to say what country you are from.

4. Plan an event (film screening, discussion meeting, vigil) and add details on the event map www.solidaridadcuba.org/en/events . If you cannot add details yourself, please email relevant information to info@solidaridadcuba.org so they may be included.

5. Text to +1 (520) 477-CUBA or call to leave your message of solidarity.

6. Share pictures, testimonials or other information relating to Global Cuba Solidarity Day activities by emailing us at info@solidaridadcuba.org

Thank you for your support!

Joy and Expectation

On Saturday February 12th, two prisoners of conscience, Héctor Maseda and Angel Moya, were released from Cuban jails after 8 years of imprisonment. They are bothmembers of the ‘Group of 75’ that were imprisoned after theCubangovernment’s2003 crackdown against opposition known as ‘Primavera Negra’. However, seven other political prisoners from this group still remain in jail, some of them seriously ill.

The Global Cuba Solidarity Movement shares the happiness felt by these Cuban families who are now rejoicing in the long-awaited return of their loved ones.

These men belong to the ‘Group of 75’ independent journalists, trade unionists and opposition members who were arrested in 2003 by the Cuban regime. They were tried without due process, and sentenced to long prison terms, despite being unquestionably innocent. They have already suffered almost 8 years of unjust imprisonment, mistreatment and abuse, even though they have never committed any crime.

In Cuba, citizens are sometimes imprisonedfor just disagreeing with the regime or expressing their views publicly. For these reasons, the Global Cuba Solidarity Movement joins the international community in demanding the release of the political prisoners who are unjustly still in jail, and calls for more individuals and organizations to support this cause and request the release of the prisoners.

The Global Cuba Solidarity Movement is comprised of organizations and individuals around the world who support freedom for Cubans through a democratic transition. The Movement is aimed at increasing the international consciousness and support for the growing Cubanpro-democracy movement. Through these efforts, Cubans on the island who are fighting for their freedom know that they matter to the world and their cause is believed in. This will help them move forward.

Don’t be indifferent. Your voice counts.

For more information about the Global Cuba Solidarity Movement, please visit: www.solidaridadcuba.org or write to info@solidaridadcuba.org

Cuban writers protest suspension of payments for awards

A letter signed in April this year by the Minister of Economy of Cuba, Marino Murillo, reported that payments to the literary awards have been suspended.

The minister's letter has drawn complaints from several members of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). The reactions via emails circulating on the Internet.

In one of the emails circulating, writer Arístides Vega Chapú says: "It is no secret we can not sustain our intellectual work only with the low wages paid ... the prize money helped us to alleviate the situation."

For its part, the poet Luis Manuel Pérez Boitel asked: "Why do not the finance minister is more concerned about the amount of money spent on gas each day the country's leaders?".

In Cuba, many writers use literary prize money to relieve their economic plight, and to solve problems as basic as painting your home or fix some appliances.

Source: Cuba Inglesa

Franklin Brito on the facade of the Venezuelan Consulate

An Art-Performance by Cuban born artist Geandy Pavón, it consist in a digital projection of Franklin Brito on the facade of the Venezuelan Consulate in New York city. Brito was a venezuelan farmer and engineer who die in a hunger strike asking for the lands that were taken arbitrarily from him by the government of Hugo Chavez. He is become a symbol of the struggle for freedom in Venezuela.



Source: Geandy Pavón

15th Cuban journalist freed, exiled to Spain

Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a Cuban journalist imprisoned since March 2003, was freed and flown to Madrid today, bringing to 15 the number of editors and reporters released following July talks between the government of President Raúl Castro and the Catholic Church.

Arroyo and his family arrived in Madrid this afternoon, and were taken to a hotel in the city’s Vallecas neighborhood, according to news reports.

“I am very excited at this new stage in my life, trying to enjoy every little moment,” Arroyo told CPJ in a telephone interview. Echoing comments made by other newly freed Cuban journalists, Arroyo said he had not wanted to leave Cuba . “But after considering my family’s well-being and the severe, negative impact that prison conditions had on my health, I decided to accept the offer to come to Spain ”.

A journalist for the news agency Unión de Periodistas y Escritores de Cuba Independientes, Arroyo was imprisoned during the massive March 2003 government crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism known as the Black Spring.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists

Raúl Castro travels to the past

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Slowly, without haste, Raúl Castro has begun a journey to the past. He wants to return to March 13, 1968. The voyage, he believes, may take several years. It will be his economic reform and his timid way to fix the mess he inherited. On that day, his brother Fidel, in a collectivist fit that was not recommended by almost anyone – especially not by Vice President Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, an old communist who displayed some vestiges of prudence – confiscated and nationalized almost 60,000 small businesses that still remained in private hands after the big and medium businesses had been swallowed up in the first two years of dictatorship.

That impoverishing blunder was described by Fidel as “a revolutionary offensive.”
With a Stalinist snap of the fingers, the Comandante abolished small restaurants, family enterprises, shops that repaired all kinds of objects, tailors and seamstresses, barbers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and the rest of the artisans and specialized technicians who managed to alleviate the horrors of the public sector of the economy, already badly affected by bureaucratic bumbling, shortages and inflation. In a few months, the communist purgatory became a true hell: almost nothing could be fixed or replaced. The country's material decadence accelerated to the point where it is today: a country in ruins that seems to have been bombed by some pitiless enemy.


Why did Fidel commit such a stupidity? Besides the political power, which is always in his calculations, and his pathological need to control everything, he did it for moral reasons. “We do not want men to follow the selfish instinct of individuality, the life of the wolf, the life of the beast,” he said. To Fidel, the entrepreneurial Cuban who wished to break through and struggle to improve his and his family's quality of life was a scoundrel without a sense of solidarity, a fellow who had to be reeducated and transformed into “the New Man,” or someone who had to be wiped out because he didn't fit into the wonderful society of disinterested and angelical revolutionaries that he was creating.


It was an era of frustrations and radicalism. In October 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara died in Bolivia and, with him, the mumbo-jumbo of “foquismo” [or focalized guerrilla war.] The event provoked in Cuba an official declaration of mourning that included the permanent shutdown of all cabarets and entertainment halls. To enjoy oneself was not fitting for revolutionaries. In January 1968, Fidel disposed of several critics of Marxism who had emerged in the Communist Party, whom he called “the microfaction” before imprisoning them. In March, he launched the abovementioned “revolutionary offensive” against small entrepreneurs. In August, he supported the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. He had been unleashed. It was “the Year of the Heroic Guerrilla.” Prozac had not yet been invented.


Today, almost everyone in Cuba, Raúl included, recognizes that Fidel's ultracommunist spasms exponentially increased the economic disaster that that poor country has experienced. But many revolutionaries, Raúl included, have been unable to rid themselves of their moral censure of the entrepreneurial spirit. Although they know that it is necessary to restore private property so everything may work, they see that transformation not as something positive but as an embarrassing, unpleasant concession. They continue to be convinced that Guevarism is, theoretically, a superior form of conduct, though in practice it is inapplicable and useless because of the accursed human nature.

That is why Raúl Castro's reform will fail. Because he bogs down the changes with all kinds of cautions, limitations and punishments. He does not believe in freedom. He does not concede changes convinced of what he does and repentant for what he did. He acquiesces reluctantly, as if gagging, forced to do so by the catastrophe he and his brother have provoked. He is trying to knit a thin cloth of capitalist entrepreneurship only to save his communist, one-party dictatorship. He thinks that, if he succeeds, he will be able to organize the transmission of authority without losing one gram of political power. He does not understand that the apparatus they eliminated at one stroke had developed spontaneously in the course of centuries, as a consequence of the free market and trial and error. That climate cannot be recreated by decree with measures of social engineering. That's not the way to travel to the past.

Two Cuban reporters freed, arrive in Madrid

Formerly imprisoned Cuban journalists Fabio Prieto Llorente and Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta arrived in Spain today, bringing to 13 the number of imprisoned reporters who were freed this year as part of an agreement between the Cuban Catholic Church and the government of President Raúl Castro.

Herrera Acosta, a Guantánamo-based correspondent for the news agency Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental, arrived in Madrid around noon with his family, according to international press reports. In a telephone interview with CPJ, the journalist said he was happy to reunite with his family, but he expressed concern about his colleagues who are still imprisoned. “I still consider myself in jail because many of my colleagues remain in Cuban prisons,” Herrera Acosta said.

Prieto Llorente, a freelance reporter in the western island of Isla de la Juventud in Cuba , landed in Madrid around 3 p.m. with his family, news reports said. “I am extremely grateful to all international organizations, including CPJ, which supported me and my family during my harsh time in captivity,” Prieto Llorente told CPJ.

Both Herrera Acosta and Prieto Llorente were jailed during the massive March 2003 government crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism known as the Black Spring. Seven journalists arrested during the 2003 crackdown remain in prison, as does one other journalist who was detained later, CPJ research shows.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Amnesty International Calls on Cuban Authorities to End the Harassment of Reina Luisa Tamayo

August 17, 2010. The Cuban authorities must act to end the harassment of the mother of a prisoner of conscience who died following a hunger strike to push for the release of other prisoners, Amnesty International said today.

Reina Luisa Tamayo, whose son Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in February this year, told Amnesty International she has been repeatedly harassed by authorities and government supporters during the regular marches in memory of her son that she carries out in the town of Banes.

"Reina Luisa Tamayo is simply paying tribute to her son who died in tragic circumstances, and that must be respected by the authorities," said Kerrie Howard, Amnesty International's Americas deputy director.

Every Sunday Tamayo, who is usually accompanied by relatives and friends, walks from her home to the church of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, to attend mass and then they march to the cemetery, where Orlando is buried.

On Sunday August 15, government supporters arrived early in the morning and surrounded her house, Tamayo told Amnesty International, preventing her and her relatives and friends from marching and attending mass at the church.
Ahead of the march, Cuban security forces also allegedly detained in their homes some of the women due to attend for up to 48 hours, without any explanation for the measure.

Tamayo told Amnesty International that six loudspeakers were installed near her house and were used to shout slogans against her and the Ladies in White, an organization of female relatives of prisoners of conscience campaigning for their release.

On August 8, Tamayo was confronted by government supporters, who blocked her path and, according to her account, beat relatives and friends of the family. She said a police patrol was parked nearby watching the events, but failed to intervene.

Amnesty International has also expressed its concern at a series of recent detentions by the police of independent journalists and dissidents. "At a time when the Cuban government has begun to release prisoners of conscience, the campaign of harassment against Reina Luisa Tamayo and the arbitrary detention of journalists and dissident figures shows that the authorities are yet to make significant progress on human rights," said Howard.

Writer Luis Felipe Rojas Rozabal was detained by the police at 7 a.m. on August 16, at his home in the town of San Germán, province of Holguín.

Rozabal's family is unaware of the reasons of his arrest, but they have said they suspect this might be related to his criticism of the government. He has been arbitrarily detained on several previous occasions in similar circumstances.
Several members of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, a network of political dissident organizations, have also been detained.

Background

Orlando was one of dozens of prisoners of conscience adopted by Amnesty International in Cuba at the time. The majority were among the 75 people arrested as part of the massive March 2003 crackdown by authorities against political activists.
Currently there are at least 30 prisoners of conscience in Cuba's jails. Amnesty International calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Amnesty International USA

How to help a Blogguer in Cuba?

We all know the difficulties faced by the island's bloggers to post on their blogs, but also that the vast majority of the residents here do not have free access to the Internet and blogs often are referred to and read from hand to hand CDs or flashes with the same information.

That is, to send blank CDs so that we can disclose our blogs and they reach a greater number of Cubans interested in reading them.

Coming from Cuba, do not forget that the minimum in Computer we need to bloggers, mouse, keyboards, flash, which you can think can help us.



Fotos desde Cuba

Amnesty International calls for action to protect Reina Luisa Tamayo

URGENT ACTION

MOTHER HARASSED FOR MARCHING FOR DEAD SON

The mother of a Cuban prisoner of conscience who died after hunger striking has been repeatedly harassed and intimidated in an attempt to stop her from organizing marches to commemorate her son's death. The next march is planned for 15 August.

Reina Luisa Tamayo is the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience who died on 22 February 2010, having spent several weeks on hunger strike whilst in prison. Since her son’s death, Reina Luisa Tamayo has organized weekly marches on Sundays in the town of Barnes, Holguin Province, Cuba, to honour her son's memory.

Relatives and friends accompany Reina Luisa Tamayo on these weekly marches from her home to attend mass at the Nuestra Señora de la Caridad Church, in Barnes and from there to the cemetery where Orlando Zapata Tamayo is buried. Last Sunday, 8 August, the group reported that as soon as they tried to leave Reina Luisa Tamayo’s house to start their march, they were confronted a few metres away from the house by hundreds of government supporters who blocked their way and beat some of the participants. They were pushed back to the house and followed into the house’s garden. The participants tried twice more to leave the house and resume the march but they were again violently confronted by the government supporters, who stayed outside the house until late in the afternoon. According to Reina Luisa Tamayo, during all this time a police patrol was close to her house watching as the events unfolded and failing to intervene.

The group have reported how prior to 8 August, they have also been confronted by government supporters and state security officials who have gathered around Reina Luisa Tamayo's house and prevented them from marching, sometimes preventing them from reaching the church, the cemetery, or both. They have also reported how state security officials and police officers have set up check points on the routes to Reina Luisa Tamayo’s house on the day prior to the march to prevent people from reaching the house and joining the march.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Spanish or your own language:
Calling on the authorities to ensure an immediate halt to the harassment and intimidation of Reina Luisa Tamayo by government supporters, and that of her relatives and friends and any other citizens who seek to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association;
Calling on the authorities to permit Reina Luisa Tamayo and others to march peacefully as is their right on Sundays.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 22 SEPTEMBER 2010 TO:

Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz Presidente
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +53 7 8333085 (via Foreign Ministry); +1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)

Salutation: Su Excelencia/Your Excellency

Interior Minister
General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +53 7 8333085 (via Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
+1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)

Salutation: Su Excelencia/Your Excellency

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

MOTHER HARASSED FOR MARCHING FOR DEAD SON
Additional Information

Reina Luisa Tamayo is one of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), a group of women relatives and friends of prisoners detained during a major crackdown on government critics in March 2003. In 2003, over several days, the Cuban authorities arrested 75 men and women for their peaceful expression of critical opinions of the government. They were subjected to summary trials and were sentenced to long prison terms of up to 28 years. Amnesty International declared the 75 convicted dissidents to be prisoners of conscience, 32 of them remain in prison.

Damas de Blanco organizes peaceful weekly marches in Havana where they distribute flowers and call for the release of their relatives and friends. In March 2010 Damas de Blanco organized a daily march for a week to mark the seventh anniversary of the arrest of their relatives. On 17 of March 2010, their march was forcibly broken up by Cuban police, who briefly detained several women. Some of the women claimed that they were beaten by the police.

UA: 174/10 Index: AMR 25/012/2010 Issue Date: 11 August 2010

Source: Amnesty International

Tenth freed Cuban reporter lands in Madrid

Cuban journalist Alfredo Pulido López was released from jail and landed today in Madrid, bringing to 10 the number of imprisoned reporters freed and sent to Spain as part of an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government.

Pulido López, who was sentenced in March 2003 to 14 years in prison, arrived with his family around 2 p.m. local time, the journalist said. On arrival, he was driven to a hotel in Mostoles , south of Madrid , according to Cuban journalist Alejandro González Raga.

A director for the independent news agency El Mayor in the province of Camagüey , Pulido López was arrested on charges of acting against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state. Those charges, included in Article 91 of the Cuban penal code, are still in force.

Copyright: Committee to Protect Journalists

Ku Klux Klan lurks in Cuba

Ramón A. Muñoz González

The Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) of Marianao, Havana, prepare a wave of violence against members of the Afro Cuban Independent Foundation (FACI). This Monday (July 12) the chairmen of the CDR, together with the CEO of Popular Power, searched house to house the support of several members of the organization to serve on the Rapid Response Brigades (BRR), which repress the population.

According to a neighbor who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, the president of the CDR said he did not defend "those blacks counterrevolutionaries." She warned him not to sign a commitment to integrate the BRR would lose their jobs and could be prosecuted for the "Law of danger."

FACI activists fear for their safety, since some of them have been physically assaulted in the past.

"I have been beaten four times and apparently are preparing to repeat it. And Esteban Lazo (Cuban government official and black) said at the end of the ALBA summit in Cuba were to fight racism!", said Sonia Alfonso Garro, organizer of the FACI.

Furthermore, Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere "Macandal", president of that organization to combat racism, remains guarded by a patrol of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), in their place of residence. On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 13, was arrested and taken to the unity of the PNR, but later released.

"We are constantly monitored by officers in a police car and we are hoping that this Ku Klux Klan Cuban ruling against us, we ask only for peaceful black civil and human rights. This seems the crime of the century in Cuba: being black and raising his voice", he said Garro Alfonso.

Jailed Cuban journalists to be flown to Spain

Statements issued by the Catholic Church in Cuba , which has been negotiating for the release of the prisoners, have identified 20 political detainees who are to be released imminently. The statement identified the following 10 journalists as among those to be released: Normando Hernández González, Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, Omar Ruíz Hernández, Mijail Bárzaga Lugo, Ricardo González Alfonso, Alfredo Pulido López, José Ubaldo Izquierdo, Léster Luis González Pentón, Pablo Pacheco Avila, and José Luis García Paneque.

Details of the planned releases have been fragmentary. The Cuban government and the official Cuban press have not disclosed any information on the releases or their timing.

News reports indicated that not all of the 20 detainees would be on tonight’s flight. The Spanish Foreign Ministry, which has also been in talks with Cuba over the release of the detainees, said that a group of seven political prisoners will be flown to Spain with their families late tonight, arriving in Madrid between 1 and 2 p.m. local time, The Associated Press reported.

Over all, the church said in statement last week, the government of Raúl Castro has agreed to release a total of 52 political prisoners, with subsequent releases coming over a three- to four-month period.

Copyright: Committee to Protect Journalists

EU insists on release of all dissidents

Representatives of the European Union (EU) said they were pleased with the Cuban government’s decision to release 52 political prisoners, but reiterated their demand that all imprisoned dissidents be released, reported the media in Brussels.

The measure taken by the island’s authorities could contribute to the end of the Common Position, the European policy governing bilateral relations since 1996.

Copyright: IPS

Three journalists among first dissidents to be released in Cuba

José Luis García Paneque, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, and Lester Luis González Pentón, independent Cuban journalists imprisoned during the 2003 crackdown against the political opposition and the press, are among the five dissidents to be released soon and sent to Spain as part of an agreement between the government of President Raúl Castro and the Catholic Church, international press reports said today.

In a statement on Wednesday, Cuba ’s Roman Catholic Church said Castro had agreed to promptly release five political prisoners, who will leave for Spain with their families.

The church’s statement said that 47 other dissidents will be freed over a three- to four-month period.

Copyright: Committee to Protect Journalists