Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas

The Cuban government has cracked down hard on dissidents who dared to go out on December 10th, the day when the world celebrated Human Rights Day, according to sources from the island who have posted on the social networks.

In Baracoa, Jorge Feria Jardinez and Roneidis Leyva Salas, activists with the Eastern Democratic Alliance (ADO) and the John Paul the 2nd Movement, were arrested while distributing leaflets about this issue, said Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, ADO Coordinator, in his Twitter account (@ Lobainacuba).

On the same social network, Lobaina reported arrests, beatings, and acts of repudiation in locations around Buenaventura, with the detention of Nelson Avila Almaguer, Ramón Aguilera, Jorge Carmenate, and Nirma Peña, all four with ADO. He added that activists were stationed in front of the town’s police station demanding the release of their brothers in the cause. In the same province, but in the village of Velazco in the municipality of Gibara, paramilitary mobs in coordination with State Security and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) attacked the house of activist Damaris García, fired tear gas, and beat and arrested peaceful activists.

Among those arrested with Damaris were Marta Alina Rodríguez Pérez, Walfrido Pérez García and Gelasio Pupo Verdecia, all from the same opposition alliance.

In the capital arrests occurred when activists, artists, and other members of the independent civil society tried to reach the headquarters of the Estado de Sats Project, led by Antonio Rodiles. According to the twitter account of Ailer María (@ ailermaria), his wife and arts coordinator of the project, they had learned of more than a dozen arrests that occurred starting on December 9th when participants in the 1st International Conference on Human Rights tried to approach the site. The venue was harassed by an act of repudiation, a military siege, and a “revolutionary act” by the well-known orchestra “Arnaldo y su talisman,” according to reports arriving from Havana. Other groups suffered persecution, harassment, and abuse at their homes.

Bertah Soler, leader of the Ladies in White and 2005 Sakharov Prize winner, was arrested along with her husband, Angel Moya Acosta, when she had summoned her members and the entire civil society to march and gather on the corner of 23rd and L, across from the Coppelia ice cream parlor. Those who made it were violently arrested and transported to remote places; Soler was taken to the village of Tarara.

On the morning of December 10th, President Raul Castro attended the funeral of South African president Nelson Mandela. He was greeted with an unanticipated “handshake” by U.S. President Barack Obama, who said in his speech: “There are leaders who support Mandela and do not tolerate dissent,” a clear allusion to the Cuban dictator and to the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, also present at the gathering.

Translated by Tomás A.

11 December 2013

The Worst Tribute / Rebeca Monzo

While President Raul Castro pays homage to the late Nelson Mandela with a speech on unity, tolerance and reconciliation, acts of repression throughout the width and breadth of Cuba speak otherwise.

Antonio Rodiles’ house, headquarters of SATS, has been literally under siege since the night of December 9, Human Rights Day, by State Security, which is preventing access to it. As though that were not enough, today they mobilized neighbors and Young Pioneers from neighboring schools to liven things up with shouts, music and political slogans. They have surrounded the property with the goal of intimidating and sowing confusion so that, in the midst of this confusion, they can arrest anyone trying to approach the building.

While many have not been able get there, others have found various ways to circumvent the cordon and attend a function celebrating a day much feared by Cuban authorities. But undoubtedly the most shameful thing about all of this is their having used schoolchildren for political ends, probably without the knowledge of their respective parents, an action with should warrant the attention of UNICEF. I believe that today’s actions have been possibly the worst tribute paid to Human Rights Day or to the late African leader.

11 December 2013

Photos and Video of Human Rights Day Repression Against the Ladies in White and Estado de SATS

Schoolchildren being used in an act of repudiation against Estado de SATS. Photo: Lia Villares
Schoolchildren being used in an act of repudiation against Estado de SATS. Photo: Lia Villares

Police in front of Estado de SATS. Photo: Lia Villares
Police in front of Estado de SATS. Photo: Lia Villares

Estado de Sats, before the violence. Photo: Lia Villares
Estado de Sats, before the violence. Photo: Lia Villares

The following video shows the violent arrests of Ladies in White and the scene in front of Estado de SATS, with a short interview of Antonio Rodiles inside the conference.

11 December 2013

How the Castro Regime Redefines the World and Language

"Yohandry" is a creation of the regime: "I confirm to the gentlemen in Miami: Antonio Rodiles was arrested for abusing children who were playing on a sports day."
“Yohandry” is a creation of the regime: “I confirm to the gentlemen in Miami: Antonio Rodiles was arrested for abusing children who were playing on a sports day.”

That is: One or more Cuban schools suddenly decided they would hold a “sports day” on a residential street in front of one particular house where there happened to be a conference on human rights underway. Apparently one of the children’s “sports” is make posters denouncing the conference and its participants.

Editor’s note: Translating Cuba does not normally translate (and interpret) the voices of the regime — they can do that for themselves. However, given the events around World Human Rights Day, it seems appropriate to give our readers this real time detail regarding how the regime spins the violent arrest of a peaceful man (helpfully retweeted by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo).

Antonio Rodiles Arrested With Extreme Violence / Estado de SATS

Plainclothes State Security before the violence. Photo from Lia Villares
Plainclothes State Security before the violence. Photo from Lia Villares

From www.cubanet.org.- Agents of the State Security (the political police) just kidnapped Antonio Rodiles, leader of the independent social-cultural group Estado de SATS, using extreme violence, according to what could be learned from the activist and journalist Camilo Ernesto Olivera. Rodiles stepped a few yards off his property to ask some schoolchildren to stop painting signs on the street against the attendees of the Human Rights Conference being held at house beginning yesterday.

There was an altercation with the police and State Security rapidly stepped in. As Rodiles was being detained his wife and his mother, Ailer Gonzalez and Gladys Fernandez respectively, protested and were surrounded by the government demonstrators, children and adults.

Then began a typical act of repudiation (insults and expletives) like those held in the early 80s against those leaving the country. At the time of this writing the two women remain under siege.

On the closing day of the First International Conference on Human Rights being held in Rodiles’ home, the house remained surrounded and the use of children as political mediators, with songs, music and government banners, continued. Camilo Ernesto Olivera underscored how unfortunate it is that the State gets involved in this situation to block the Conference.

The Washington Post carried an editorial in support of the Rodiles: Antonio Rodiles boldly confronts the Castro regime

11 December 2013

New Interactive Map Shows Human Rights Abuse in Cuba

Miami, Florida, December, www.cubanet.org-The organization People in Need, based in The Czech Republic has launched the project EYE ON CUBA, a new interactive map which documents and geographically pinpoints the abuse of Human Rights in Cuba.

Through an intuitive interface the site shows the number of abuses committed in each of the Island’s provinces. Zooming-in geographically by using the zoom in (+zoom) or the zoom out (-zoom) buttons, the map is able to show in detail each particular case of abuse.

The search for information is simplified by the filters located to the right of the map which include categories such as Province, civil and political Rights, economic and social Rights and the victim’s gender and the authors of such crimes. The categories group multiple filters which can be added to one’s search criteria. The site also has a series of graphics which lists statistics and trends for the data entered, making the analysis much easier to comprehend.

From a technical point of view, the map is based on Google Maps’ application programming interface (API.) The information on the website’s data base is combined in real time with Google Maps geographical information in order to created a hybrid web application (mashup) which combines the usefulness of both functions.

The cases of abuse shown in the website are based on the exact documentation recorded for each existing case made by actual activists who work day in and day out on behalf of the protection and defense of Human Rights in the country.

Cuba is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a member of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, but in spite of that, the government violates  human rights and they refuse to acknowledge their defense as a legitimate activity, denigrating local Human Rights groups, harassing, beating and detaining in order to punish activists who try to document these abuses.

The project has as a principal objective helping Cubans exercise and demand their rights through the local initiatives which encompass all the Cuban provinces. On top of offering direct ground assistance, the protect helps bring awareness to the international community and bring international attention about the most flagrant cases of abuse.

The map does not reflect all the Human Rights cases of abuse committed in Cuba, but it does give a personal focus about each case and it does help stir public emotion with the victims’ stories.

Cubanet, December 9, 2013

Translated by: Adriana Correa

In Cuba We Would Have Needed a Nelson Mandela / Ivan Garcia

The greatness of Nelson Mandela clearly shows the deficiencies of the world’s current political class.

If the Fab Four from Liverpool revolutionized music, and the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin one morning in 1928, which definitely slowed the deadly pandemics, Madiba leaves as a legacy a master class of how to do politics in difficult times.

The current statesmen should take note. Given the hesitations and weaknesses of Obama (who does not want, does not know how, or is unable to deal with a hostile Congress and is overwhelmed by the worldwide spying of his special services around the globe), the gross mismanagement of Mariano Rajoy in Spain, or a dyed-in-the-wool autocrat like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who continues to slaughter his own people, every self-respecting statesman should learn from the political strategies of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela was not perfect. He was labeled a communist and disruptive, and until 2008 the FBI had him on their list of “terrorists.” But he knew how to maneuver in the turbulent waters of a nation where state racism prevailed, in the intrigues of his party, the African National Congress, and to achieve the miracle of national unity in South Africa.

The colossal undertaking began in jail. From a cell in Robben Prison, where for 27 years he was behind bars, until 1994 when Madiba became president, he understood that in conditions of political fragility, his mission was to make sure that everyone saw themselves represented in the first democratic government of their country.

He was a president for all South Africans. Not just for his supporters. He could have taken revenge. He had the majority. He controlled all the levers of power that would have allowed him to polarize society and adopt strategies of retaliation on behalf of justice for his people, where a majority of 27 million blacks were excluded and oppressed for decades by a regime that represented 3 million whites. He did not. He overcame hatred. He learned to forgive.

In his five years in office, Mandela sat chair of his magnificent policy. His ethics, honesty, and transparency were his hallmark. He was a partner of one and all, without ever compromising his political perspective. A man of diplomacy and respect for others.

His great friend in the Americas, Fidel Castro, retired from power, could also learn some lessons in transparency from Mandela’s conduct.

No one can doubt the sincere friendship that joined Castro with Madiba. Months after leaving prison, in July 1991, he visited Cuba. The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, where Cuban and Angolan troops destroyed several South African columns, was the final blow to the hateful apartheid regime.

But the two statesmen are nothing alike in their methods of achieving national harmony. If Fidel Castro had been like Nelson Mandela, he long ago would have been sitting at the table to negotiate with his political opponents.

First he would have visited with the dissidents. Then with the White House. If Mandela had been Castro, the embargo would be ancient history. That ability of Mandela’s — to adapt to changing times and live with democratic rules — is something the former Cuban president does not have.

The first Castro still thinks like a fossil of the Cold War. The current dissidents should also take note of the attitude and strategies of Mandela.

If Madiba had been leader of the opposition on the island, he would have done more than send messages to the outside world denouncing violations of human rights. After analyzing the internal situation, he would have opted for a bigger and better job of social and political campaigning in neighborhoods and communities.

What could a guy like Mandela not have accomplished, if upon talking to ordinary people he had noticed that 8 out of 10 Cubans are tired of the old government and disgusted with the economic mismanagement of the Castros?

In Cuba we would have needed a Nelson Mandela. His precepts should be written in Gothic letters. And the devalued Criollo politicians, or those who aspire to be, should read them once a week. As if it were a Bible.

Iván García

Video: On June 27, 2008, Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça Machel attended the celebration of the 90th birthday of the man who changed history in South Africa. Fifty thousand people gathered in Hyde Park in London. At the outset, actor Will Smith spoke this phrase by Peter Gabriel: “If the world could have a father, the man who we would choose would be Nelson Mandela.” A highlight was the presence of Amy Winehouse (1983-2011). She sang “Free Nelson Mandela,” by Jerry Dammers, released on March 5, 1984, by the English group The Specials A.K.A., and which circled the world seeking the release of political prisoner 46664. It is one of the most famous songs dedicated to him. The others are: Ordinary Love (U-2), Mandela (Hugh Masekela), Nelson Mandela (Youssou N’Dour), Public Enemy (Prophets of Rage), Mandela (Carlos Santana) ; Freedom Now (Tracey Chapman) and Asimbonanga, by Johnny Clegg, written in English and Zulu. In this video you can see Mandela dancing and waving to the author and to the public in 1999, when he was 81 years old. — Tania Quintero

9 December 2013

Testimonies And Evidence Puts The Hitmen In The Dock Of The Accused / Angel Santiesteban

Viewing the videos of the assassins of the regime, especially against the Ladies in White, their constant abuse, cynical laughter and death threats after forceful beatings, we can assure ourselves that they are ruthless beings who do not deserve to be born of a woman. It is so obvious that their feelings belong to mercenaries, who would work with the regime in power to get perks and extra benefits from them.

Testimonies of Jews who survived the concentration camps tell us that other Jews collaborated with the soldiers, although they knew that those whose clothes they collected would be taken to the gas chambers, but they did it to survive, they stayed there or went to join the ranks of those sentenced.

Those who collaborate with the Cuban dictatorship, like all minions, lack feelings and ideology. Unequivocally, these officers of the dictatorship, will be thugs under the command of the Mafia, or the highest bidder to buy their criminal services. They have signed on so that they can avoid their criminal actions and from now on, and save lives

If we’re still alive by then, with our testimonies, we can put them in the dock of the accused and they will pay once and for all for their abuses and crimes. Patience, there is increasingly less time for the Arab seated on the door of his cabin waiting to see the corpse of his enemy pass by.

We don’t want too much, we will be satisfied at the trial with their fake shame and repentance, another strategy to elude justice, and apply international law for their crimes.

When that hope is met, there will be the announcement of a Cuba that reorganizes individual rights.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton Prison Settlement. November 2013

Translated by: Shane J. Cassidy

9 December 2013

One Day More, One Day Less / Yoani Sanchez

yoatree11298559784_8187f16d02_z
The tree of rights, hard to grow, easy to cut down #DDHHCuba

“Repetition is the mother of learning,” an old professor of Military Preparation in my high school used to say. He wasn’t, however, referring to the repetition of a phrase in order to learn it, or of a particular mathematical operation to memorize it. In fact, he was referring to punishment, the correction which, according to him, should be insistent to generate respect. So he overwhelmed us with shouts, unnecessary reports and even insults of “slackers” when we didn’t know how to handle a rifle or crawl through the grass. But instead of cementing in us the knowledge he imparted, we all feared and detested him.

This same logic of applying repression over and over again is used by the State Security apparatus every December 10th. On World Human Rights Day we live through 24-hours of clubs and threats. Every year it’s the same thing and a little more, because like all correctives it seeks to paralyze its victims. Arrests, besieged homes and threats delivered ahead of time to the members of the different civic movements are all part of this “ritual of terror.” They’ve also added cutting off cellphone service — with the complicity of the Cubacel company — and sending apocryphal messages to sow confusion among activists.

But the repeated penance isn’t working. The numbers of those who engage in some demonstration for Human Rights are increasing, not declining. The old pedagogy of beatings no longer serves as an example, but rather fans the reasons to speak out. On the other hand, there are people who don’t belong to any critical organization or to any dissident group who are witnessing and taking note of these repressive waves. Witnesses of the moment when some Ladies in White are forced into cars or when an independent journalist’s camera is taken from her. After seeing something like this, you can no longer say you didn’t know, you will no longer be the same.

The repetition of repression only stirs up nonconformity, it doesn’t dampen it. Insistent beatings don’t teach us… because the lesson of meekness is not one we want to learn.

10 December 2013

Antonio Rodiles’ House Besieged at Dawn / Augusto Cesar San Martin, Camilo Ernesto Olivera

policias1HAVANA, Cuba  December 10, 2013, Augusto César San Martín / www.cubanet.org.- The home of Antonio Rodiles, leader of the independent group Estado de Sats, which from today through tomorrow is celebrating the First International Conference on Human Rights, was besieged by the police and plainclothes agents as the sun rose this morning. Third Street, from the Copacabana Hotel, is closed.

Around nine o’clock in the morning, this reporter was able to see a strong force deployed with the purposed of blocking political opponents, both from within the island as well as those who have managed to come from abroad, from participating in the day.

The director of Estado de Sats and the For Another Cuba campaign has said that this is the first attempt to organize an event of this kind, in which the topic of ratification of the UN covenants on human rights, signed by the Cuban government, will be addressed.

This reporter, in a taxi, tried in vain to reach the house, located in the Miramar neighborhood. The car was diverted. From 3rd and 42nd Streets the police are directing traffic. There are agents on the corners, with civilian staff. State Security cars and minibuses are located at the intersections.

The front of Rodiles’ house is deserted because 1st Street is closed. Cars coming from the Copacabana Hotel are diverted.

The Social/Labor Circle adjacent to Rodiles’ house has speakers playing the music of regime supporter Silvio Rodriguez very loudly.  The audio can be heard from 3rd Street.

The few participants who were able to reach the house days earlier have not been able to leave to avoid being arrested. Among them is the troubadour Boris Larramendi, from the Cuban group Habana Abierta (Open Havana), based in Spain.

Larramendi traveled specifically for the meeting and will close the event tomorrow, December 11.

The event from within

HAVANA, Cuba, December 10, 2013, Camilo Ernesto Olivera / www.cubanet.org.- Ultimately, and contrary to expectations, there was no direct police action against the organizer, Antonio Rodiles, who yesterday was accused of a traffic violation that he, in fact, had not committed. The initial session of the First International Conference on Human Rights was held without incident.

The turnout from the public has not been as expected, only twenty participants have managed to arrive, almost none from outside the country. But the foreign media and embassies accredited on the island, such as Spanish Television, have been able to report on the event.

The first panel, led by researcher Walfrido Lopez, was on human rights and the new media. Lopez presented a video on media from abroad which follow Cuba with interviews with directors and newspaper editors

Coming up is a panel on human rights in Latin America, and the another on institutional violence against women in Cuba.

There will also be an exhibition of posters of the event and for tomorrow a concert with Boris Larramendi troubadour, who came from Madrid.

As interference, the government, through State Security and its mass organizations, has mounted a kind of Street Plan in front of Rodiles’ house. They have staged a party with music and snacks for neighborhood children, who did not attend classes today, to justify closing the street to traffic.

Also, the social / labor circle known as La Copa (The Cup), located on 1st and 42nd Streets is being used as the command post by the political police.

Since early morning they have been playing the songs of troubadours who support the government, Silvio Rodriguez and the duo Buena Fe.

The operation recalls the era of General Abrantes, the Interior Minister in charge of acts of repudiation against citizens trying to leave the country. The siege techniques are the same except that no one is throwing eggs.

10 December 2013

Malmierca or Death: We Will Overcome! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

A Cuban Minister announces that Castroism will reign in perpetuity.

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment. Photo: Ministério da Saúde via Flickr.

When the Cuban government acts with complete impunity and without transparency, it could be useful to know what destiny our leaders have in store for us millions of Cubans. Well, now at least we have one political certainty…

On November 22 Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, declared that, on the island, there would never be elections involving parties other than the Cuban Communists. That is to say, the Castroist regime has quite serious plans to hold onto power beyond the deaths of the Castro brothers, who are already in their eighties.

As Malmierca made this announcement in Rio de Janeiro, at a seminar intended to encourage Brazilian investment in Cuba, he clarified the fact that even though the Cuban system is the polar opposite of Western democracy, such ideological differences would not stand in the way of commercial links between the island and the free world.

The name of the game is to put a form of state capitalism in place: There will be economic reforms, but they will hold the basic rights of the Cuban people for ransom—people who have gone decades without fairly electing their representatives, and who cannot form allegiances or opinions without persecution.

It’s odd that the minister feels no remorse in announcing this death sentence for Cuba’s peaceful pro-democracy movement. It’s a disheartening message for the social democrats, the Christian democrats, the republicans, the liberals, the ecologists, the anarchists, the socialists, and many other denominations of Cuban dissidence.

If the legal route to a multiparty system is closed, what should Castro’s opponents do now? Conform and stay silent? Leave Cuba? Perhaps some kind of armed resistance? In all options, Castroism—which began with violence and longs to conclude with violence—comes out the winner.

Let’s hope that Malmierca is stripped of his high office as soon as he steps foot in Havana again. Let’s also hope that his despotism was just the poisoned apple of his own imagination. There are some policies so horrendous that it’s almost better not to know about them in advance.

From Sampsonia Way Magazine

10 December 2013

The Henchman Camilo Is Leading the Repression Against Human Rights Day

The State Security henchman known as "Agent Camilo"
The State Security henchman known as “Agent Camilo”

State Security showed up at home of Antonio Rodiles, leader of Estado de SATS, and tried to arrest him to avoid the celebration of the events for Human Rights Day.

[Tuesday] the First International Event For the UN Covenants will begin, organized by Estado de SATS, an event that forms a part of the of the For Another Cuba Campaign, and includes panels, audiovisuals, an exposition titles “Art and Human Rights,” performances and a closing concert.

The agents tried to handcuff him and take him to the police station, supposedly for violating traffic laws. The event participants confronted the uniformed offices to block the arrest.

Rodiles had gone to pick up a collaborator. On the way there he saw Agent Camilo, known for the cruelty of his methods against the opposition, who ordered the police to arrest him.

The police left the dissident’s house, apparently to get an arrest warrant.

From Diario de Cuba, 9 December 2013