Celebrating the Third Anniversary of the Founding of Free Peasants Committee of CID / CID

On the morning of Sunday August 25, 2013, members of different organizations met at the home of Rolando Pupo Carralero, President of the Committee of Free Peasants of the Independent and Democratic Cuba Party (CID), at the headquarters of this organization home to celebrate the third anniversary of its founding.

Several days earlier, it had already been decided by the members of the Committee of Farmers that celebrating this date was very important to them. Then the preparations began. Everyone was invited, with the news passing by word of mouth and with great care, so that it would not filter out to the repressive dictatorship.

With much work they managed to get everything they needed for a great celebration and finally the day arrived for everyone. From early in the morning, the dictatorship’s dogs were already circling, but the guests were smarter, they all came with muddy shoes and pants rolled up to the knee, as they had to leave the main road guarded by the henchmen, to take to the verges, ditches and rice fields and even crossing mountains, but in the end, all together as God intended.

The meeting began with the singing of the notes of our National Anthem, Rolando Pupo Carralero then spoke and said that the Free Peasants Committee is an organization which was founded on August 20, 2010, with the aim of bringing together all those peasants who one way or another do not want to remain under the yoke imposed by the Castro regime and who are willing to break the chains that binds them to a production model that has enslaved them for over 50 years.

He also listed the complaints and the needs of tobacco industry and the abuses of the farmers in the area. Also, Roberto Blanco Gil, Chairman of the CID Steering Committee Against Abuse took the opportunity to distribute 20 copies of the weekly The New Republic.

At the meeting Noralys Martin Hernández, provincial delegate to the Federation of Rural Latin AmericanWomen (FLAMUR) in Pinar del Rio, congratulated the members of the Committee of Peasants for all the work they’ve done in this time and urged them to continue fighting for a free and Democratic Cuba .

José Rolando Cáceres Soto, provincial director of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) congratulated all the farmers with a big hug and said he felt proud to know that there are peasants fighting for a Cuba of all and for the good of all. The meeting ended with cries of Down with Fidel! Down with Raul! LongLive the United Opposition!

Present at the meeting, all from CID, were Rolando Pupo Carralero, Yuliet Rivas Lugo, Yamilys Valdés Rodríguez, Yusniel Pupo Carralero, Luis A Ruiz Calderón,  Orleans Bentos González, Berta Irene González, Yordan Pupo Carralero, Islei Bentos Gonzáles, Pedro L Hernanz Rodríguez, Edisbel Forteza, Wibi Alvares Gonzalez, Domingo Hernández, Yoandris Hernández Ceballos, Andy González Hernández, Belkis Pérez Pérez, Víctor Pérez Martínez, Roberto Blanco Gil, Rogelio Loases Fuentes, Hermes Rodríguez and Vidal Barrios Pérez.

Guests from the People’s Revolutionary Party (PRC) were: José Rolando Cáceres Soto, Idalberto Abascal Quintana, Osnier Reyes Jaime, Pedro A Padrón Amor, Esteban Ajete Abascal, Luis A Hernández Arencibia, Danés Benítez, Rasbel Espinosa Caraballo, Lázaro León Alvares.

From FLAMUR  Noralys Martin Hernández, Olga Lidia Torres Iglesia, Ana Maris Mérida Serra, Irina C León Valladares.

From the Pedro Luis Boitel Party, Eliosbel Garriga Cabrera, Pedro L Sabat Valdés, Maikel A Hernández Perdigón, Aramis Hernández Perdigón, Yamirka Ledesma Santana, Yancarlos Hernández Perdigón.

From 10 de Octubre, freelance journalist José Martinez and Luis A. Hernández Marrero.

29 August 2013

Yelky Puig Released in Pinar del Rio After Eight Months in Prison / CID

In December 2012 the CID Provincial Coordinator in Pinar del Rio was sentenced to one year in prison in a trial that was a travesty. Yelky Puig was a member of the State Security who, after leaving their ranks, joined the CID and joined other former employees of the repressive apparatus of the organization.

The regime saw in Yelky Puig’s opposition activism a very dangerous precedent and decided to punish him no matter what.

Yelky Puig named Provincial Coordinator for  the Ricardo Medina National Executive Committee (CEN).

This past week Yelky was released on parole. Yelky expressed thanks for the support his family received during his time in prison and said that his faith in the CID is unwavering and that during his imprisonment he was about to mature ideas and projects.
After his conviction the CID responded with more delegations and further growth of activists in the organization.
The response exceeded expectations. So far in 2013 three successful projects have been implemented: The weekly The New Republic (LNR), the Ombudsman of the People of Cuba and the Cuba Advisor blog.

1) Ten CEN branches nationwide are given the responsibility of defending people with regards to on their most pressing problems, for which they have appointed ten regional ombudsmen. Work has been intense, consistent and successful.

2 ) Another ten delegations were made responsible for the weekly work party: The New Republic and this effort have been successful. Week after week this has been published weekly with news of interest to Cubans on the island.
LNR has been reinforced by the supplement by the Information Blockade to the Cuban People, which consists of a critical analysis of the censored news published by the regime and others.

Simultaneous to this work another 10 delegations were held responsible for increasing the number of activists in their areas of influence and creating new delegations. We could not be more pleased with the results.3) The Cuba Advisory blog is a website where information is published weekly in English addressed to Canadians who may be interested in traveling to Cuba. This was a project carefully planned and has been a success since it was made public. Before the end of this season, and according to conservative estimates, the blog must have will have caused a loss to the Castro regime of two million dollars in four months.

If the dictatorship believed the Yelky Puig’s unjust sentence would weaken the CID organization they made a serious error in judgment. The CID has been consolidated in the westernmost province of Cuba through the efforts of delegates and activists and the dedication of the Ombudsman Onelsy Díaz Becerra and National Executive Committee member and Chairman of the Free Peasants of the CID Rolando Pupo Carralero.

1 September 2013

Cow Siezed and Peasant Fined / CID

 

In the town of Playita in Jamaica Beach area in the municipality of Antilla* in the province of Holguin, the peasant Israel Cardoso Gonzalez had two cows of which one has been confiscated by the delegate of the municipality, and in addition they have fined Cardoso 500 pesos.

Israel laments that his cow gave milk for the three minor children of the family. “They said the cow was a danger because it was near the street. That’s not true I had it tied up and there are other cows are running loose here.”

The Defender of the People of Cuba, Manuel Martínez León, who attended the denunciation of the humble peasant, explained that this is a remote area that is three miles from the road, where there are reeds that the government leaves uncared for, and a dirt road where cars don’t travel frequently.

The Defender prepares action for the cow to be returned to the family. Manuel said, “We can not allow this to happen here, we are going to do whatever we have to end this arbitrariness because they take advantage here of any nonexistent breach to steal from people what is theirs.

Report #10 of the Defender of the People of Cuba (CID) of Velasco, Holguin.

*Antilla is the smallest municipality in the province of Holguin, 40 square miles in size. It’s between the Bay of Nipe and the Bay of Banes, on the El Ramon peninsula.

3 August 2013

Look! Look how the people support us! / CID

“Look! Look how the people support us! You say that the people condemn us…look how the people support us.”  This is what Zuleidys Perez Velasquez repeated on Monday, August 5th to the members of the State (In)Security when the bus that carried 14 detained opponents passed through the center of Holguin.

The opposition leaned their heads out of the windows and yelled “Down with the dictatorship, Down with the Castros, Long live human rights!” and the majority of the people on the sidewalks and streets supported with their cheers, arms and jumps.

Zuledys Perez Velazques, national president of CID (Independent and Democratic Cuba) and a group of activists from various organizations had gone to the provincial offices of State (In)Security in Agramonte street between Area and Libertad in front of the San Jose Park, to protest the abuse against Ramon Zamora Rodriguez and other members of the opposition.

When they arrived, a mob of more than 200 people waited for them with an act of protest.  Zuleidys, Danai Mediola Duquesne and Julio Cesar Ramos Curbelo, as representatives of the group, headed to the offices of Stte (In)Security to demand an explanation for the act of protest.  Major Eliseo ordered that they could not be there.

Zuleidys responded that they were not going to leave until they were given an explanation of those who the henchman said were people who had gathered on their own accord and that they (State (In)Security) were there to protect the opponents to public disturbance.

She responded that they wouldn’t move until they received an explanation and that she had video and witnesses that it had been he who had taken workers out of La Casona (a business of construction materials and an adjoining bakery) so that they would protest.

Realizing that he’d been discovered, the henchmen Eliseo made a signal to the mob to start up again.  The opponents linked arms together.  In response to this attitude, he gave orders for the arrests and the men and women were put onto the bus with punches and pushing.

When they arrived to the Center of Operations in Pedernales they were detained for three hours in the summer sun inside the metal bus.  Later they were let off one by one to be interrogated. They were put into very cold and very hot rooms until 9 at night when they began to be released.  Julio Cesar was threatened, told that they would go to his house and give him a beating.

They savagely beat Juan Zacarias Verdecia, 63 years old and nearly blind. Zacarias’s mouth is destroyed and his ribs are bruised and he was released 8 kilometers away in the neighborhood of Guirabo.  Since he can barely see, he walked for three hours to arrive back to Holguin.

Zuleidys stated that the meeting had been called for all the organizations to come to an agreement to support each other in cases of repression and in reality the agreement  was accomplished through action, it was a success that they facilitated with their abuse.

The reuinion was celebrated in the house of Ramon Zamora Rodrigues, representative of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Front for Civic Resistence. Before all the opponents arrived the dictator had  assembled an act of protest and the henchmen took several out of the house by force, among them Zamora, and terrorized the women and children.

The 43 opponents detained on Monday, August 5th, 2013 in Holguin were:

Zuleidy Lisbet Pérez Velázquez
Carmen Oropesa Ramírez
Rosa María Naranjo Nieves
Danai Mendiola Duquesne
Yolanda Pérez Días
Marisol Pupo Rodríguez
Damaris García Martínez
Berta Guerrero Segura
Magdelivia Pelegrino Guerrero
Liliana Campos Bruzón
Livia Hernández Pérez
Maidolis Leiva Portelles
Julio Cesar Ramos Curbelo
Alexander Marrero De La Rosa
Alexei Jiménez Almarales
Jorge Luis Recio Arias
Emir José Bermúdez Pérez
Julio Cesar Albares Marrero
Luis Jaime Meriño
Mauricio Martínez Días
José Luis Ricardo Soberats
Yuri Miguel Carralero Vázquez
Bernardo Cintero Gonzales
Gilberto Solí Gonzales
Ramón Zamora Rodríguez
Maylin Ricardo Góngora
Pedro Leiva Góngora
Juan Sacaría Verdecía
Rafael Leyva Leyva
José Isidoro Urbino Zaldívar
Mairin Pozo De La Torre
Yosbanis Pupo Pérez
Fidel García Roldan
Franklin Pelegrino Del Toro
Rubier Cruz Campo
Yolangel Pupo Pérez
Ricardo Rodríguez Feria
Amauri Güero Mora
Roberto Gonzales Hernández
Eladio Pupo Nieves
Arlenis Rodríguez Ávila
José Luis Mir Cruz
Amilkar Pérez Riverón

7 August 2013

CID Funds New Delegation in Marianao to Honor the Memory of Oswald Paya /CID / HemosOido

This Saturday, July 20, Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID) has opened a new office in the Municipality of Marianao to honor the memory of the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, murdered by the dictatorship along with his compatriot Harold Cepero, 22 July 2012 near the city of Bayamo.

On July 22, 2012, at about two in the afternoon, the car driven by the Spanish politician Angel Carromero was hit by a red Lada, one of the cars that had been following and harassing it. In mysterious circumstances, Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero who were in the back seat, were pulled alive from the accident and then the dictatorship announced the death of both.

On Sunday July 21, 2013, eight activists from the October 10th township CID delegation met in pantheon of the Daughters and Fathers of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Colon Cemetery shelter where his family laid Oswaldo Paya’s body before leaving for the United States. The members of the CID delegation laid flowers, carried a Cuban flag, sang the national anthem and prayed for the repose of the martyr and their comrade in the struggle.

CID supports the repeated request of the Payá family and the Christian Liberation Movement to hold an international inquiry into the events that led to the murder of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.

24 July 2013

President of the CDR lives in misery / CID

A Cuban family from Holguín, desperate because of the precarious state of their home and the lack of any response from the authorities, went to see human rights activists to ask them to help and to provide a report on her case.

 In the video of Liberal Creole Productions and the Peoples’ Defender of Independent Democratic Cuba (CID), a woman named Luisa tells a group of human rights activists that she is living with her three children, her mother, her father, and two brothers in a house which is in ruins, with holes in the walls and roofs, and canvas doors.

Luisa, who lives in the house where the President’s Office of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) for her block is located, explains that although her parents had dedicated their lives to the revolutionary project inspired by Fidel Castro, hadn’t received any assistance from the government to help them improve the miserable conditions in which they live.

Luisa asked for help from the opposition following suggestions from her own neighbours.

“I want them to help me, so they don’t come and threaten me, nor put me in prison, because I m always going to say the same thing. I haven’t told any lies, they are the ones who have lied.” says he woman and shows some documents in which, according to her, she applies for a better place to live.

Luisa explains that in that house lives her mother, who belonged to the Association of Young Rebels (predecessor to the Union of Young Communists, (UJC) and the national vanguard of the tourism sector; her brother was a veteran of the Angola war and her father a “fighter in the war against the bandits in Escambray and a socialist militant.”

“They now have absolutely nothing, only a cheque for 240 pesos”, which gets you nowhere.

For their part, the activists who came to interview her and document her living conditions told her that although they couldn’t offer her a home, nor materials to repair it, they promised to accompany her when she decides to make a claim “to the party, the government … wherever” and they promised her they would make the case public.

Source: Radio Marti

24 July 2013

Translated by GH

Sugar and Missiles: From General to General / CID

When, at the end of June, the North Korean General Kyok Sik Kim arrived with a delegation to Cuba it was assumed that something was brewing between the two dictatorships. What else could one deduce from the words of this general when he was in Havana:

“Both parties were informed of the situation in each other’s countries and have exchanged ideas to boost the friendly relations of the two armies and two peoples of the two countries.”

Two weeks after this visit, the North Korean ship Gang Chong Chong was detained in Panama on its way back from Cuba. In the boat there was a cargo of sugar and below it, the Castro regime belatedly admits, there were 240 tons of weaponry.

To date, the military equipment has been identified, on a preliminary basis and through photos, by the So far, the military equipment has been identified, a preliminary and through photos, by the weapons specialist British firm HS Jane, as Soviet land-to-air missiles and an and fire control unit for RSN-75 radar.

It is assumed that the destination is North Korea, but this is pure speculation. After 24 hours of silence the Castro dictatorship declared it was obsolete equipment from the Soviet era being sent to North Korea for repair and that it included two batteries antiaircraft nine unarmed missiles and two MIG-21. This argument raises the question of why this equipment was sent to North Korea, not Russia, for repair. Furthermore, why was it hidden?

The silence kept by North Korea is suspicious as was the fact that the North Korean ship captain tried to kill himself when he was discovered smuggling. Until the crew refused to facilitate the inspection.

It’s a little childish that Castro’s tyranny has believed that the United States was not going to realize that Cuba was moving missiles on a North Korean ship. It is clear that delayed 24 hours to say it was material for repair because they didn’t know what to do until someone came up with the excuse. As much they want to justify the international ridicule, General Raul Castro and General Sik Kim Kyok have been caught in the act.

It is a crime to transport military hardware through the Panama Canal without proper declaration and the Chong Chong cargo violates a resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations banning the import and export of such weapons as those of North Korea. Given this violation, we expect absolute silence from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which Raul Castro became president of this past January, as they have been doing with the abuses committed against the people of Cuba and democracy.The ship could have carried Soviet ground-to-air missiles fired by a person. The Castro regime has these deadly missiles that can easily destroy personal aircraft in flight. In the hands of terrorist groups, with which Cuba and Korea have such close relations, they can wreak havoc on civil aviation in the world.

This scandal should serve as a warning to those in the European Union who are maneuvering so that the Common Position is replaced by a more conciliatory policy towards the dictatorship in Cuba.

The Castro regime may have explored with North Korea the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons and in view of transfer that has just been discovered in Panama, one day we could wake up with a story that can be very serious for the United States and Latin America.

The Castro regime is a terrorist regime that supports other terrorist regimes and kidnaps hostages to negotiate; hopefully some businessmen and politicians in the United States will insist on a settlement with the tyranny, understanding that in Cuba power is controlled by a group of violent and unscrupulous individuals.

16 July 2013