14ymedio

Cuban Exile in Miami Urges a Declaration of ‘Void’ for the Constitutional Referendum in Cuba

Rosa María Payá criticizes the referendum, saying that the “constitutional text directly violates the most basic rules of democracy.” (@RosaMariaPaya)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, February 25, 2019 — Opposition and Cuban exile organizations called on the international community today to declare the process of constitutional reform in Cuba invalid and to ignore the official results of the “fraudulent” referendum of Sunday.

Rosa María Payá, the leader of the Cuba Decides movement, told EFE that the process has been “flawed since the beginning,” and she denounced the increase in repression and intimidation of civil society during the voting held this Sunday on the island.

She said that at least “nine people are missing and a hundred detained,” and dozens of opponents were beaten during a day that also lacked “national and international observation.” continue reading

The activist considers the process in which more than 7,000,000 Cubans went to the polls this Sunday to decide on a new constitution “illegitimate” and said that it doesn’t modify the Communist political system.

Cuba Decides and other exile groups in Miami, among them the Movimiento Democracia, denounced the constitutional referendum as an “imposition” of the ex-President and leader of the governing Communist Party of Cuba (the only legal party), Raúl Castro.

In this sense, they urge the international community, including the democratic governments of the region and the European Union to follow the Organization of American States (OAS) in disavowing “whatever result” the constitutional process produces.

The Secretary-General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, said today that it “does not recognize the acts and institutions” created by the new constitution in Cuba.

Opponents and exiles say that the referendum originates from a commission formed by the Communist Party and members of the National Assembly, “none of whom were chosen in free, just and plural elections.”

During a news conference, attended by Miami Mayor, Francis Suárez, the Cuban exile groups complained that the “constitutional text is designed to guarantee the perpetuity in power” of the Cuban Communist Party.

Payá also stated that the “constitutional text directly violates the most basic rules of democracy” and threatens with the “use of arms” Cubans who “want to change the system it defines.”

The activist said that on the island there is also a sense of nervousness over the crisis of political legitimacy in Venezuela facing president Nicolas Maduros and that it contributed to the repression this Sunday.

The day was marked by “the lack of transparency and verbal and physical violence against members of civil society and the opposition by repressive forces and, in many cases, the electoral authorities,” said Cuba Decides.

In addition, Payá condemned the raids on homes, the absence of conditions for a secret vote and propaganda in favor of the official option in polling places, among other irregularities.

According to official Cuban data, of the more than 8 million voters registered, more than 7.5 million (81.5%) had already voted one hour before the polls closed on Sunday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Observers Criticize Delay in Announcement of Referendum Results

The OCDH had 170 observers, deployed in 12 of the 16 provinces of the country. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, February 25, 2019 — After election day Cuba returned to its routine this Monday and the majority of the population shows no signs of interest in the “preliminary” results of the referendum on the Constitution that will be announced starting at 3:00pm by the National Electoral Commission (CEN).

The improvements in transportation that characterized the days leading up to the referendum ended as quickly as they had arrived. The signs for Yes to the new Constitution remain, omnipresent, in stores, state offices, buses, and billboards.

“I only hope that now the propaganda on television lessens a little, because we’ve had a few days in which it’s been impossible to sit and watch a program without something coming out about the referendum,” sighs Rebeca, a Havana resident of 36 who says she didn’t vote in the process. “I preferred to go to the beach because the day was really nice.” continue reading

In Santiago de Cuba, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, denounced the police cordon around the opposition organization’s headquarters and the arrest of several of its members. The ex-political prisoner reported on social media about the violent detention of opposition figures, some of whom were left by police on the highway*, far from voting centers.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), headquartered in Madrid, has denounced the delay of the CEN in publishing the preliminary results of the process. “More than 16 hours after the closing of the polling places, the official data of participation and the results are still not known,” the organization laments in a press release.

The OCDH believes that it is “the same line of lack of transparency that has predominated in the performance of the Cuban government throughout the entire process.” The independent organization lists irregularities during the voting such as “the manipulation of the electoral register, the use of pencils” in place of pens to mark the ballots, and the absence of international observers, among others.

“It makes us even more suspicious of what the Government will have done in the darkness of the early morning,” adds the press release. “According to the data received so far, the sum of the rejections (votes for No, blank ballots, null votes, and abstentions) would surpass 30% of the electoral register, with an upward trend,” it assures.

the information is based “on acts of vote counting facilitated by electoral observers, OCDH collaborators, and reliable citizens, who in the midst of a climate of vigilance and repression were able to exercise protection of the vote,” specifies the text.

On Sunday’s events, the OCDH pointed out low voter turnout, especially in Holguín, Camagüey, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Havana, and Pinar del Río, contrary to the assertions of the CEN, which announced that 74.09% had cast their votes as of 2:00 pm.

The raid on activist centers, arrests, and lack of privacy to cast a vote also weighed down the process. “In Artemisa, it’s reported that members of polling stations visit old people in their homes and pressure them to vote for Yes,” pointed out the organization in one of its reports published the day of the vote.

The OCDH had 170 observers, deployed in 12 of the 16 provinces of the country. The observers have carried out a systematic monitoring of the different phases of the election day and their work “seeks to corroborate that the process fulfills national electoral norms (Law Number 37) and with the minimum international standards.”

Several 14ymedio reporters also participated in the ballot counting. Among the voting centers visited was that on Lombillo street, between Factor and Estancia, a 12-story building in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality. In this building of district 72 live mainly workers from the Ministry of Transport and of the Provincial Court.

The electoral register of this polling place varied throughout the day until arriving at 498, because 112 new voters were added, the majority national guests of the nearby hotel Tulipán. Of the total voters 429 (86.14%) voted, abstentions reached 13.86%. No was marked on 25 ballots (5.83%) and there were 4 blank ballots (0.93%). Yes was marked 400 times and obtained 93.24% of the valid votes but only 80.32% of the electoral register of this polling place.

“This is a community highly integrated into the Revolution and we have many Communist Party activists,” explained María de los Ángeles, a retiree who lives in the building. “Since they built this building we have been like a family and now we have come to give complete support to that Constitution because it guarantees the existence of the homeland.”

A few blocks from this place, in the Nuevo Vedado area near 26th Street, where the residents enjoy a greater purchasing power, Yes got a less inflated majority, with barely 70.14% of the electoral register.

The big houses where some of the relatives of the accused in 1989’s Cause Number 1 live. Cause Number 1 was a case in which several generals and high-ranking military officers were executed or condemned to long sentences for their supposed link with narcotrafficking, had their doors and windows closed this Sunday, as this newspaper verified.

“Here people are really unhappy with the economic situation,” commented a resident under condition of anonymity. “In this neighborhood, five years ago we had at least ten private restaurants, and now there are only three left because they have suffocated them with the taxes,” he laments.

In the two polling places for District 82 in La Timba, a low-income neighborhood near the Plaza of the Revolution, Yes obtained 71.6% of the electoral register, a similar support to the district of Nuevo Vedado, but abstentions were even greater with 19.1%.

*Translator’s note: It is a common police practice, in Cuba, to pick up dissidents and instead of taking them to a police station and formally detaining them, to simply drive them far from their homes and leave them on a deserted country road.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Apathy in the Streets and Unease in the Cuban Government

Antonio, a habanero who lives on the street, says that he has “nothing to lose. I’m going to vote No.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana / Camagüey | 23 February 2019 — Clown performances promoting a Yes vote on the referendum, long lines to buy food and a general apathy about voting on the new constitution shape the scene on Saturday in Cuba, a few hours before the polling places open, where government officials have more at stake than a new charter.

From early in the morning families have been lining up at the Coppelia ice cream parlor and people are crowding into the agricultural markets. The cinemas and theaters are running their usual programs, but the countdown for the vote this Sunday has increased police patrols in the streets, with uniformed troops and members of State Security.

In the cafeteria of the Hotel Tulipán, in Nuevo Vedado, a clown encourages the toddlers with statements about the Constitution. “Raise your hands, children, if you’re going to wake up early tomorrow,” says the blue clown, played by the actor, Noel Torriente, in a show called Children also vote for the fatherland. continue reading

In the Hotel Tulipán, the blue clown puts on a show called Children also vote for the fatherland. (14ymedio)

A man of 36 years who offers guide services to tourists on the outskirts of the Plaza de la Revolución doesn’t seem very enthusiastic and adds that the new constitution won’t do much to put “beans on my table”. He is one among many who believe that the referendum has nothing to do with their own interests.

In the Market at 17th and K, in Vedado, there are carrots and beets, but the longest line is for pork, even though the price per pound is more than a worker earns in a day. The seller screams “No photographs!” when he sees a reporter approach; his kiosk is papered with posters for a Yes vote.

The pork seller screams “No photographs!” when he sees a reporter approach. (14ymedio)

Nearby, in the doorway of the bus terminal, Miguel sells newspapers and believes that the correct thing to do is to go and vote, because he considers it “important for the country. In the assemblies everyone expresses their opinion and now you have to go and ratify,” the old man of 80 years adds.

Esperanza, a school employee, doesn’t share his opinion. “Everyone should vote No, to see the Government’s reaction.” She has already decided to reject the constitutional text but hasn’t told her colleagues and friends because she “doesn’t want to lose my job” or be marked as a “counterrevolutionary”.

Outside the Immigration and Naturalization office on calle 17 in Vedado, people barely interact to avoid any critical opinion aborting their trip abroad. The Yes propaganda is everywhere, and one joke assures that “after February 24, passports will be cheaper,” which they all pretend not to hear.

Outside Coppelia, Antonio takes in the sun. Homeless, missing a shoe and with years of living on the street, he says that he is registered to vote in Playa. “I have nothing to lose. I’m going to vote No.” He says this categorically while the passersby move away.

In Camagüey, the authorities have increased the presence of civil police, especially around the long food lines. (*14ymedio*)

Hundreds of kilometers from the capital, in the streets of Camagüey, the residents are more interested in the shortage of food than in the constitutional referendum. This Saturday, there are also a larger number of police and members of State Security, dressed in civilian clothing but identifiable by their Suzuki motorcycles, traditionally used by the political police.

“Every day more products disappear,” comments Ariel Almansa, a young entrepreneur who waits in line at DiTú on 12 Plantas del Avenida Finlay, to buy two packages of chicken, a product that has been absent in previous days. Among the merchandise that has disappeared, he enumerates “oil, eggs, deodorant and condoms.”

The shortage has increased the popular malaise, a discontent that could be reflected in the ballot boxes in a rejection of the new Constitution. “I’m going to vote No because this has become unsustainable,” another client who waits in the food line tells 14ymedio. “It’s not that I reject the Constitution; it’s that this can’t continue,” she adds.

In Camagüey, the authorities have increased the presence of civil police, especially around the long food lines. “They say they’re here to avoid fighting and that now the cooking oil has been delivered,” explains Damaris Marín outside a market in the Montecarlos area.

The reappearance of the product hasn’t passed unnoticed, and many think it’s an electoral maneuver for the referendum on Sunday. “Now a little chicken and oil appear in some shops because they want us to vote Yes tomorrow,” says a woman at the bus stop on Route 19.

In these last weeks, officials have used all the resources at their disposal to promote ratification of the constitutional text. The residents in Camagüey were surprised these last days when groups of kids, with school uniforms and during school hours, ran through the streets leaving propaganda in favor of a Yes vote under doors.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Ortega’s Paramilitaries Are More Lethal Than Those of Venezuela

Ortega’s paramilitaries in Masaya. (Carlos Herrera)

14ymedio, Wilfredo Miranda Aburta, Managua | February 18, 2019 — Giancarlo Fiorella, a Venezuelan and author of the Bellingcat investigation detailing the paramilitaries’ arsenal during the Ortega massacre, is surprised by the level of collusion between the paramilitaries and the police in their lethal operations, something which, he insists, he hasn’t seen in Venezuela.

“As a point of comparison, the level of cooperaction between paramilitaries and police is higher than in Venezuela. In Venezuela, the Chavista groups don’t have this type of arms, and it isn’t clearly seen that they collaborate closely with the police,” explained Fiorella in an interview with the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro on the TV program Esta Noche.

The analysis he carried out shows the deployment of at least seven types of weapons of war employed, and also suggests that the Police Tactics and Arms for Intervention and Rescue (TAPIR) unit was involved in the massacre. continue reading

Bellingcat is a portal dedicated to carrying out journalistic investigations from open sources. To analyze the paramilitary arsenal, Bellingcat was based on different videos of the repression, the final report of the Independent Group of International Experts (GIEI), and the investigation of Confidencial, “They fire with precision: to kill!,” a piece that won the 2018 King of Spain Iberoamerican Journalism Prize.

Fiorella is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Center of Criminology of the University of Toronto, in Canada, and previously published another revealing investigation on the execution of the rebel Venezuelan pilot Óscar Pérez at the hands of Chavista security forces.

“The groups in Venezuela have a greater proportion of civilians or of individuals that have no connection with the State, like the paramilitary groups in Nicaragua. The chief of police said that many of them were police officers who were in secret operations,” explained the journalist.

Bellingcat focuses on two of the most brutal episodes of paramiltary repression: the attack on the UNAN-Managua and the church of Divine Mercy on July 13, and the taking of Masaya on July 17 and 18.

From a detailed analysis of video and photographic proof, Bellingcat identifies a deployment of military rifles used by the paramilitaries: AK-74, Dragunov sniper rifles, PKM machine guns, and M16 rifles. They also found Remington 700 rifles, Jericho 941 pistols, and magazines of Soviet-model drum bullets with capacity of up to 75 bullets.

A few weeks ago, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published an interview with the first commissioner and police chief, Francisco Díaz, who assured that the paramilitaries were, in the majority, professional police carrying out covert operations. The rest, he said, were “volunteer police.” The statements of the relative by marriage of the presidential Ortega-Murillo couple left clear the responsibility of the institution in the worst massacre committed since after the war in Nicaragua. The casualty toll is at least 325 confirmed dead and thousands of wounded, in accordance with international human rights bodies.

In the videos analyzed by this investigation, it was found that paramilitaries used MOTOTRBO brand radio communicators (like the DP4800, XPR 7000, and Tait TP8100 series). “These radios are sold for commercial and industrial use, and there is evidence that suggests that the TAPIR unit of the National Police has used similar radios in the past, as can be seen in these videos,” affirms Bellingcat.

“One of the videos shows the close connection between the Nicaraguan Police and the paramilitaries. At minute 1:40 in the video, a man in a black uniform appears. The word Police is written in white on his back. At minute 1:50, the man turns around and begins to walk. When he does so, a patch on his right sleeve becomes briefly visible. The patch seems to be that of the TAPIR unit of the National Police,” specifies Bellingcat, in a video on the massacre of Masaya. “The patch of the man in the Police uniform in the video (left) seems to be that of the TAPIR unit of the National Police,” it sustains.

Fiorella explained that in the two pieces of evidence there is participation of uniformed agents. The attacks on Masaya and the UNAN-Managua are being referred to. After seeking open-source information, Fiorella found in YouTube videos that the TAPIR unit was using similar radios to those of the paramilitaries who massacred the UNAN students.

“In Venezuela, although there is participation of armed groups in the repression of protests, the number of dead has never reached what was seen in Nicaragua. The arms aren’t even of the same caliber. Normally, in Venezuela they only have pistols. There are cases of bigger weapons, but not like has been seen in Nicaragua,” said Fiorella.

“The Confidencial investigation offers even more evidence that the government of President Ortega is resolved to put a stop to the demonstrations by any means. The indiscriminate use of arms in the hands of paramilitary groups and of the Police meant that the type of wounds discovered by Confidencial were not only possible, but practically inevitable,” concludes Bellingcat.

According to Fiorella, the findings of his investigation squares with everything that was already known and was established by bodies like Amnesty International and the Independent Group of International Experts (GIEI), who worked with sources in Nicaragua, proving that the paramilitary groups who operated during the repression were working very closely with police squads.

“This is evidenced in the weapons used. Weapons of war, as the study has highlighted. We can say that the paramilitaries, probably, shared weapons with the police forces of the State of Nicaragua,” emphasized Fiorella.

Editors’ note: this text was published by the Nicaraguan digital outlet Confidencial, which has authorized us to reproduce it.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Intrusive Little Pioneers, Pressures and Pencils

In many of the polling places posters have also been visible supporting the official campaign for a Yes vote, with photos of Fidel and Raúl Castro or calls to preserve the Revolution. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 February 2019 — Pressures to vote Yes, lack of privacy and the refusal to let voters to use a ballpoint pen to mark their ballots, instead of the “official” pencil, are some of the irregularities that have been reported to 14ymedio during the constitutional referendum that is taking place this Sunday in Cuba.

“When I went to vote in the cubicle, the president of the polling station asked a pioneer [elementary school student] to accompany me,” an anonymous architect living in Centro Habana in the vicinity of the Malecon told this newspaper. “The girl went into the booth with me and told me that if I wanted to vote for the homeland I had to check Yes.”

After much insistence, the woman managed to remain alone on the booth and exercise her right to vote with privacy, but she reports that “evading the pressure was difficult” and that she felt that “everything was prepared to avoid a No vote.” continue reading

The current Electoral Law establishes that the authorities must ensure that “the booths have the required conditions to ensure the secrecy of the vote,” while schoolchildren, the uniformed little pioneers, must remain by the ballot box to be witnesses to the moment in which the ballot is placed through the slot.

However, more than twenty reports arrived at the newsroom of this newspaper giving accounts of cubicles without doors or curtains and people loitering around the voters as they voted. There were also reports of an “overreaching” performance by the pioneers with regards to the privacy of the voters.

Another complaint is that people are not allowed to use a ballpoint pen to exercise their vote with an indelible ink that prevents the later erasure of the ballot, a suspicion that many voters have. “I took a pen to the polling place in Trinidad where I voted, because I’m traveling outside Havana,” writes a reader of this newspaper that brought a pen to exercise the vote.

“They told me that if I voted with a pen I was going to cancel the ballot,” she said. “In any event, I marked next to the No with the pen but now I’m worried about whether my vote will be valid or not.”

Recently, the independent media El Toque published 10 tips for Cuban voters and recommended the “indelible vote” noting “that’s what the pens are for and not the pencils commonly found in Cuban polling stations.” Article 114 of the Electoral Law establishes that ballots are declared null and void where “the will of the voter cannot be determined.” It is never said that a pencil should be used and that ballpoint pens are prohibited.

In the town of Placetas, several residents also complained of pressures to go to vote, with members of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution knocking on their doors so that “nobody stays home.” The vote in Cuba is not obligatory but many fear sending a social signal if they do not go to the polls.

In many polling places posters have also been visible with the official campaign for Yes, with photos of Fidel and Raúl Castro, or calls to preserve the Revolution and socialism.

As of 9:00 am this Sunday, 2,690,419 voters had voted, 30.64% of the total registration, according to María Esther Bacallao, secretary of the National Electoral Commission.

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Polling Stations Open for Referendum on New Constitution

With voter turn out low, polling stations opened on Sunday (14ymedio).

14ymedio, Havana, 24 February 2019 — Starting at seven in the morning this Sunday, more than 25,000 polling stations opened for Cubans to vote in the referendum on the new Constitution. On a warm morning in which official nervousness can be felt in the wide police presence in the streets, more than 8 million Cubans are summoned to the polls.

The polling stations will remain open until 6:00 p.m., and special polling stations in hospitals, airports and bus stations have also been set up. Within the first minutes of the openings, there was still little attendance, as 14ymedio was able to verify in a tour of more than twenty polling places.

In Havana, the daily routine continued despite the fact that the process engages more than 1.6 million people in the city. Agricultural markets showed long lines to buy food in a city that has seen increases in the shortages of several products in recent weeks. continue reading

Throughout the country, 25,348 polling stations have been set up, according to data from the National Electoral Commission, 7.6% of them located in private homes. The process excludes people who are serving a sentence in prison and those who are on parole, such as the former prisoners of the Black Spring who still remain on the island.

Prior to this Sunday, the authorities opened 122 election stations in 130 countries, but only Cuban diplomats and professionals who are serving on official missions could participate. The large community of emigrants from the island was excluded from the process, an exclusion that generated a flood of criticism towards the Plaza of the Revolution.

The voters who are in the national territory have before them this Sunday a ballot with one box for Yes and another for No and the question “Do you ratify the new Constitution of the Republic?” The final draft of the new Constitution has 229 articles, 11 titles, two special provisions, 13 transitory and two final, and was approved last December by the National Assembly.

Children guard the ballot boxes, as in every election in Cuba (14ymedio).

The new Constitution maintains the control of the Communist Party over the most important decisions in the country and describes it as “the leading force of society.” In its preamble it consecrates communism as the goal to look forward to and in its Article 4 it says that “the citizens have the right to fight by all the means, including an armed fight, (…) against anything that tries to demolish the political order.”

Among the steps of progress of the constitutional text in comparison with the Constitution of 1976, is that it recognizes private property, accepts foreign investment as necessary, establishes the figures of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, and sets a limit of two consecutive presidential terms.

However, in the process of developing the text, the article that opened the door to same-sex marriage was eliminated and the constitution states that fundamental means of communication cannot be privately owned.

The government has deployed an intense campaign for a Yes vote, using the national media, billboards, signs on buses and campaigns in schools. In contrast, a part of the citizenry has called for the rejection of the Constitution through the slogans #yovotono (I’m Voting No) or #yonovoto (I’m Not Voting) but without being able to access the channels of mass communications.

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Scrutiny and Repudiation, Chronicle of an Election Observer

Nothing else interrupted the counting, with 400 votes for Yes, 25 for No and 4 blank ballots, a woman stood a few inches from my ear and shouted with all her might “Long live the Revolution.”

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 24 February 2019 — I chose the place at random. A polling place in my neighborhood where I could attend, as an observer, the process of counting the votes. It was about six o’clock in the evening when I went to the entrance of the building, a twelve-story concrete block located on Lombillo Street. The voting was about to end and I waited outside, talking on the phone with a friend and finalizing some details about work.

The evening was warm and a reddish sun glimmered through the windows of the entrance. The count began. They asked me if I lived there as a requirement to observe. According to the current Electoral Law, any citizen can be present at the counting anywhere in the national territory, regardless of how near or far it is from their home. So I invoked the legislation, showed my identity card, wrote down my information and they emptied the ballot box on the table.

At one point, a young man arrived with a white envelope that seemed to be carrying some ballots. I thought it was votes from people with mobility problems, old people or other voters who had not been able to come to the premises. I asked the origin of the documents and right there detonated the ill-will. A man, who was not at the counting table, started shouting at me that I had no right to inquire about that and that I had asked “the wrong question.” continue reading

I responded by saying that he was not part of the Electoral Board and that the question I had raised had to be answered by those who were a part of it. The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife. One of those who reviewed the votes couldn’t control the unceasing trembling of his hands, and “a neighbor” located at the other end of the table kept taking pictures of me. Then another man approached me, wearing a striped sweater and with a mustache.

“Come with me outside,” he told me. I flatly refused, because I knew that as long as I was in the polling place I was, at least, a little more protected. “I do not go outside with strangers,” I snapped. Then came another who “rubbed” my arms in a show of confidence but started pulling me towards the door and I told him to stop touching me. Then, they told me that I had to stay “as far away from the table as possible.” I shut up and waited while the process went on.

Nothing else interrupted the counting, with 400 votes for Yes, 25 for No and 4 blank ballots, a woman stood a few inches from my ear and shouted with all her might “Long live the Revolution.” Thus the true act of repudiation was detonated, a choreography that I know so well that I had anticipated it with certainty.

I refused to sign the act as an observer because during the entire time I was there I felt harassed, threatened and not respected in my right to witness the counting. I perceived that they wanted to make me pay dearly for having dared to attend.

I left the premises, with a score of people shouting at my back. The slogans were repeated, they cheered the process, they accused me of not loving my country and a group of children joined the hullabaloo without really knowing why they were there. A woman dressed in white, a practitioner of Santeria, was confused with a Lady in White and also received some insults.

The man who filmed, disciplined, did not stop holding the phone in front of my face, so I took advantage of “the coverage” to claim my right and reject the Constitution. The shouts continued; an egg – perhaps thrown from a balcony – fell near one of my shoes. The sun was now completely hidden. Election day ended and some of those who had repudiated me crossed the sidewalk to buy some beers in a cafe across from the building.

I had just lived an unforgettable experience as a citizen, voter and journalist.

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Cuban Authorities Threaten a Baptist Pastor for Preaching Against the New Constitution

The Baptist pastor Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas called on the faithful of his congregation to oppose the new Constitution. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2019 – The Communist Party of Cuba categorized the Baptist pastor Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas a “counterrevolutionary” for a sermon in which the pastor called on the faithful of his congregation to oppose the new Constitution that will be submitted to a referendum this February 24.

Sonia García García, an official of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, telephoned Dariel Llanes, president of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, to inform him that Hernández Armas “going forward will not be treated as a pastor but as a counterrevolutionary. ”

The complaint was shown on his Facebook profile by Hernández Armas himself, secretary general of the Baptist Convention, and confirmed to this newspaper by Llanes. This newspaper tried to communicate by telephone with the Office of Religious Affairs but García was not “available” for press inquiries. continue reading

“The official demonstrated outrage at my message last Sunday, when I spoke to the church, with over 200 brothers gathered, that it is a Christian duty to vote NO on the new Constitution,” the pastor wrote.

According to the text, the official told the president of the Baptist Convention that she “does not understand” how it is possible that Hernández Armas occupies positions of responsibility in the organization.

“I have been categorized as a counterrevolutionary since 2004, when leading the church of Yaguajay we recovered the temple and the pastoral house in a story that’s too long to tell, but in which the Government was for years an accomplice of its thieves and then stole the bordering land”, adds Hernández Armas.

According to the pastor, it’s about persecution for his religious beliefs and the friendship he has with Pastor Mario Félix Lleonart and Oscar Elías Biscet, well-known opposition leaders.

The Baptist Convention of Western Cuba was one of the evangelical churches that appealed to the Government to prevent the approval of the controversial Article 68 of the constitutional project on equality of marriage.

In the document, subscribed by the Evangelical League of Cuba, the Baptist Conventions of the West and East, as well as the Methodist Church and the Evangelical Assembly of God Church, it was affirmed that “gender ideology” has no relation whatsoever with Cuban culture “nor with the historical leaders of the Revolution.”

The Commission that drafted the constitutional reform was in charge of substantially modifying the article due to the supposed majority rejection that it received during public consultations. To generate consensus, the Commission announced that an amendment to the Family Code should be ratified by another referendum within two years.

“We are living a very delicate situation in Cuba right now. They (the Communist Party) are very angry, they have put pressure on religious communities to support this constitutional project, but if we do that, we are going against our faith,” a high representative of the Evangelical Church on the island who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals against his organization told this newspaper.

“In Cuba there are still many people with dignity who love this country and God. We will be firm in following Christ even if we are persecuted for it,” he added.

The Christian, Evangelical and Catholic Churches have openly manifested their opposition to the constitutional referendum, as have LGBT groups, opponents and human rights activists.

A recent message from the Catholic Conference of Bishops laments “the exclusion” in the constitutional text “of other forms of full realization of the human being different from those of socialism and communism.”

According to the bishops, “a Christian cannot be forced to submit to a conception of reality that does not correspond to his human conscience enlightened by faith.”

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Several Opponents Arrested Protesting Against the New Constitution in Havana

Opponents Antonio Rodiles and Ángel Moya were arrested after staging a protest this Saturday in downtown Havana. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2019 — Opponents Antonio Rodiles and Ángel Moya were arrested after staging a protest in downtown Havana against the constitutional referendum that will be held Sunday.

Moya and Rodiles walked down Galiano Street and were followed by dozens of people who recorded the protest with their cell phones, without participating in it, while others came up to them with official slogans. The activist Maikel Herrera, of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), joined the opposition and was also arrested, as confirmed to this newspaper by the organization’s leader, José Daniel Ferrer. continue reading

Ángel Moya, Antonio Rodiles, other activists and people mobilized by Galiano, Havana in protest against the dictatorship.pic.twitter.com/4j3g2HG6tD

– José Daniel Ferrer (@jdanielferrer) February 23, 2019

Ferrer was the first to transmit the video of the protest through his Twitter account, where activists are seen shouting “freedom” and “enough of the manipulation.” Moya was released shortly after, while Rodiles and Herrera remain detained. In the vicinity of the Capitol, an indeterminate group of Unpacu militants was arrested by the police when they tried to join the protest.

In conversation with 14ymedio Moya explained that his arrest lasted about two hours and that both he and Rodiles were taken to the Zanja unit. “They issued me a warning for disorderly conduct and a fine of 4,000 pesos for dirtying public ornaments,” he said. He also stated that he saw Rodiles in a dark cell before leaving the unit and that he has not yet been released.

The former political prisoner Ángel Moya and Antonio Rodiles are in favor of boycotting the constitutional referendum and not participating in a process that they have described as a “farce”. Other organizations on the island have asked Cubans to go to the polls and vote NO to send a strong message to the executive Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The Government has deployed a campaign for the YES vote through its monopoly on the media and its domination of the public spaces. Several NO activists and referendum observers have been threatened with jail if they campaign and more than 100 Unpacu members are holding a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary raids and arrests.

The Government finds itself in a delicate situation with its main ally and benefactor, Venezuela, plunged in a deep crisis. Nicolás Maduro, a key figure in the alliance with Cuba, is not recognized as president by more than fifty countries and a change in Miraflores Palace could trigger a crisis like the one of the ’90s — a time that Fidel Castro called “The Special Period in Time of Peace” — when the Island lost its privileged trade status with the Soviet Union.

This Friday the Baptist minister Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas denounced that the Communist Party had threatened to withdraw his status as pastor for preaching against the new Constitution. Hernandez had called on faithful of his congregation to vote NO in the referendum.

Cuban police on Friday arrested Roberto Veliz Torres, minister of the Assemblies of God in the town of Los Benítez, in the municipality of Palma Soriano. According to a denunciation of the faithful of his Church, Veliz had called all Christians to vote NO because, he says, the Constitution that the Government wants to impose is not compatible with the Christian faith.

The Christian, Catholic and Evangelical churches have demonstrated a strong rejection of the new Constitution, which leaves the power of the Communist Party intact and introduces small changes such as the approval of private property.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Surveys in Cuba: What Do Cubans Think?

A man exercises his right to vote in the elections to for the National Assembly of People’s Power in Havana. (File EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 23 February 2019 — CubaData has surveyed Cuban society. It has asked people about the new Constitution that will be voted on in the referendum on February 24. According to the sample, 42.4% will say Yes, 41.6% will opt for the No and 16% will not vote. It is a “technical draw,” but the No votes, plus those who will not vote, account for 57.6% of the electoral rolls, despite the fact that the No supporters have been denied access to radio, television or national written media, in the middle of a fierce campaign of intimidation, threats, beatings and arrests.

Defending a No vote is equivalent to “treason to the fatherland.” Among others, Guillermo Toledo, from Puerto Rico, director of the Cuban National Meeting, and Rosa Maria Payá, from everywhere, in charge of Cuba Decides, have been able to “sneak in” working very hard for the few slots in the social networks that Cuban State Security has not managed to close. To this is added the indefatigable work of the dissidents: there are more than 100 Cubans on hunger strike in support of No vote, led by José Daniel Ferrer, a legendary dissident who has suffered constant condemnations and beatings.

CubaData is a company associated with the Diario de Cuba, a good digital newspaper published in Madrid. It is presided over by journalist Pablo Díaz and co-directer Salvi Pascual, a university professor and great computer expert. The survey was conducted a few days before the referendum. They asked 1,000 Cubans throughout the country. The results are compatible with the simple observation of the Cuban disaster and with what happened in the Eastern European nations subjected to communism. continue reading

After all, Cubans are the same as other human beings. Sixty years of failures, unfulfilled promises and conspicuous deterioration, make a dent in the perceptions of any society. You have to be profoundly idiotic to maintain illusions in an inflexible system directed exclusively by the Communist Party, without counterweights or independent evaluations, despite the horror stories of an island subject to the whims of trying to grow coffee on rocky outcrops, immense dairy cows from the stage of Soviet gigantism, or the plan for sweet dwarf cows that each family would keep in their living room to stock up on milk when the communist world collapsed.

This is not the first time that a reliable survey has been carried out in Cuba. At the end of 2014, the engineer Joaquín Pérez-Rodríguez, head of The Campol Group, and, today also president of the Pedro Arrupe Institute, set out to find out what Cubans on the Island wanted. With with the help of several mathematicians and sociologists, he managed to carry out an unofficial evaluation which showed that 82% of people between 18 and 49 years were “not satisfied” with the economic system that exists in Cuba. The percentage of dissatisfaction fell to 71% in those over 50. He relates it, very descriptively, in his book La voz cubana (The Cuban Voice).

These differences in the preferences between “young” and “old,” or between “urban” and “rural” populations, are typical of any society. Young people believe in the future, want to succeed, travel abroad, break out, be entrepreneurs. The old are more conservative, they tend to fear changes. A government that has completed 60 years in absolute control of society has necessarily suffered tremendous waste and has no emotional connection with its contemporaries.

It doesn’t surprise me, then, what José Gabriel Barrenechea says from Cuba, that in Havana the No vote is backed by the youth. He affirms this in his article What will happen this Sunday in Cuba? Although I also share his pessimism about the final results: “I have no doubt that, in any case, there will be electoral fraud.” And then he explains how and why: “In the Municipal Commissions data will be altered by orders of the first municipal secretaries, so as not to look bad before their superior authorities […] Nobody wants to lose the ’little benefits’ attached to any important position in Cuba, supposedly socialist.”

Another writer, who prefers not to give his name for fear of reprisals, explains to me how some people who totally reject the system will vote Yes: it is the custom of the double standard typical of totalitarian societies. They are painfully accustomed to the dissonance between what they believe, what they say and what they do. The inertia generated by 60 years of one-party government also prevails. In the elections the vote is always what the Government indicates. I remember a candidate from the end of the Franco regime in Spain, in the first half of the seventies, who had a sincere and candid way of asking for a vote: “Vote for me. What more can he give you?”

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Controversy in French Guayana Over the Project to Hire Cuban Doctors

French Guayana needs at least 15 dental surgeons, three oncologists, and five pulmonologists. (OPS)

14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2019 — The project announced in the middle of February to contract Cuban doctors to address the shortage of personnel in French Guayana is facing resistance from the organizations of national professional health workers, who question the technical skills of the Cuban doctors.

Rodolphe Alexandre, President of Guayana, explained to the AFP agency that last Tuesday, February 12, he met in Paris, together with Senators George Patient and Antoine Karam, with the Cuban ambassador in France, Elio Rodríguez Perdomo, and with the Vice Minister of Health Marcia Cobas, to discuss the details.

Since 2005, Guayana has had an ordinance that permits the hiring of doctors outside the European Union. continue reading

Alexandre explained that there is a real urgency in Guayana and that the idea would be to bring “one hundred specialized (Cuban) doctors into hospitals to overcome the medical shortage. At least 15 dental surgeons, three oncologists, five pulmonologists,” said the French agency.

The President added that it would be the Cuban State that would directly receive payment for the service.

If the project manages to be finalized, he would study on a case-by-case basis the candidates who want to offer their services overseas.

This possible new agreement happened two months after the exit from Cuba of Mais Médicos, the program that supported 8,471 Cuban doctors in Brazil.

The rift with Jair Bolsonaro, who wanted to revise the agreement so the professionals would stop receiving their salaries through the Government of Havana, caused the precipitous return of the doctors from the South American country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government’s Surveys Are a State Secret

When a pollster goes to a house in Cuba, the citizen assumes that it is someone trusted by the government and is reluctant to give their opinion. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 February 2019 — As a sociological research tool, surveys have enormous utility in testing the state of opinion of the population in relation to different issues.

The credibility of a survey depends on several factors, including the selection of the sample, the veracity of the respondents and, of course, the honesty of the interviewers who are not supposed to demonstrate what answers they prefer but rather collect the data to learn the truth.

In a country like Cuba, where opinions that different from the official thinking are often penalized, it is difficult for respondents to say what they really think, especially if what they are being asked about is related to political issues. continue reading

When a pollster shows up at a house, tablet in hand, to ask a citizen whether or not they plan to approve the new Constitution in the February 24 referendum, it is likely that, before answering, they will look in all directions to check if they are being filmed. It’s not paranoia, it’s pure self-preservation.

The respondent presumes, quite rightly, that if the woman or man, young or old, has authorization to ask questions on the street, it is because she or he is a person trusted by the Government, which automatically makes him or her an informant for the political police. Can we trust the answers?

When an organization independent of the State, inside or outside of Cuba, tries to carry out a survey with this type of questions, it cannot count on the services of “the comrades of the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution].” They are obliged to ask opposition activists or independent civil society to carry out the survey.

These citizens, however elevated their sense of responsibility and above all, however high their honesty, will go to their environment, to the people they deal with. Can you trust that the answers they collect are from a representative sample of the population?

With these reservations, we should look at two recent surveys on voters’ opinions regarding the constitutional referendum on February 24.

One, carried out by the Study Group on Social Dynamics of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), found that 33.5% of Cubans intend to reject the new Constitution. This disagreement is broken down by 19.2% with the intention of supporting NO (19.2%), 9.2% who will leave the ballot blank and 5.1% who will annul* their ballot.

The other survey, also carried about by a non-government organization, Cubadata, believes that 42.4% of the voters will vote YES, 41.6% will go to the polls to mark NO and 16% will opt to abstain.

Most likely, the government has its own surveys, conducted with much more resources. Unfortunately, they are not public.

There is talk about at least two surveys conducted by the authorities. The Union of Young Communists conducted one in Havana high schools, where students are 16 or older and eligible to vote. According to testimonies collected by 14ymedio from representative students, most of the respondents expressed their outright indifference to the referendum and, at the insistence of the pollsters, said they were not decided.

The other survey was conducted by the People’s Opinion Department belonging to the Central Committee of the Party. Their results are considered a “State secret” and only the recommendations have emerged in the form of “directions” to the media.

What seems indisputable is that if the party-government had overwhelming YES results in a survey on the referendum, it would have been published a while ago. Clearly scruples would not be an impediment.

The countdown can now be expressed in hours. There are many signs that the rulers are nervous, because they are used to winning with majorities close to 100%. Today they know that they will not be able to get the support of 97.7% of the electorate that they supposedly received in the referendum of February 15, 1976.

For revolutionary triumphalism, a YES vote of 70% or less would be a humiliation. In contrast, for opponents, who barely got 1% (plus 1.3% blank and annulled ballots) 43 years ago, a 30% NO vote would be a great victory after an overwhelming campaign by the Government in favor of YES.

*Translator’s note: Annuling the ballot can be accomplished by writing something on it or crossing out everything, but not checking any of the boxes.

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Cubanos ‘Go Home’

A mural in Havana celebrating Hugo Chavez. “The best friend” it reads.

14ymedio, Joaquín Villalobos, 21 February 2019 — In July of 1968 I finished my baccalaureate in a Catholic school with a professor who was a soldier for the dictator Francisco Franco. The students had to go to receive Lyndon Johnson, president of the United States, who visited the country. It was the first time I heard “Yankee go home” screamed by some college students. The Vietnam War was at its height, the Cuban Revolution was only nine years old, the military ruled my country and almost the entire continent with American support . Those who fought against colonialism demanded non-intervention and the self-determination of the peoples.

Half a century later everything changed, right-wing dictators were finished, communist utopias collapsed, elections defeated the armed struggle and now, seeing what is happening in Venezuela and Nicaragua, the evil seems to have changed its ideological side.

As of the year 2000, governments in Latin America fell in Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil and Guatemala. They collapsed with moderate civic pressure, little international pressure, without prisoners, without exiles and with little violence; the most serious were 50 deaths in Bolivia. continue reading

In all these cases the institutions played a role in the crisis, even in Honduras the military coup was ordered by Congress, and ultimatey elections allowed the preservation of democracy. The judgment on the fairness or unfairness of these events is a broad debate, but compared to what happened in the twentieth century, objectively it seemed that, with imperfections, we were in another civic age.

The cases of Venezuela and Nicaragua have broken the rules of the game established in 2000, when the Democratic Charter was signed in Lima. Maduro and Ortega have accumulated more than 700 deaths, 800 political prisoners, thousands of exiles and engaged in the systematic use of torture. Venezuelan refugees total in the millions and Nicaraguan refugees are also on the rise. Both have brutally repressed the largest and longest-running civic protests in Latin American history and both are resisting isolation and international sanctions unprecedented on our continent.

The international community and the Venezuelans themselves have been making forecasts based on the premises established in 2000, and believe that at some point Maduro and Ortega will negotiate their exits. However, if this is correct, they should have collapsed. Why hasn’t this happened? The answer is that the obstacle is not in Venezuela or Nicaragua, but in Cuba.

Colonialism basically consists of political, military and cultural control, a puppet government and an extractive economy. The British dominated India for almost a century with the few thousand Englishmen sent to a country of some 300 million inhabitants and more than three million square kilometers.

Fidel Castro, through the instrument of Chavez, managed to conquer Venezuela. He defined the government model; aligned the country ideologically with 21st Century Socialism; reorganized, trained and defined the doctrine of the Armed Forces; assumed control of the intelligence and security services; sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers, teachers and doctors to consolidate his political dominance; established the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of America (ALBA) for the geopolitical defense of his colony; chose Maduro as the puppet successor to Chavez and established an extractive economy that allowed him to obtain some 100,000 barrels of oil a day to sustain his regime.

In the last 15 years Cuba has received more than 35 billion dollars. At present, Maduro delivers 80% of the oil destined for cooperation to Cuba and 15% to Nicaragua. Any need of the Cuban regime has priority over the humanitarian emergency suffered by Venezuelans.

In Venezuela, life is played by the revolutionary leftist religion that has Cuba as its Vatican. The transition from Cuba to democracy and the market economy is a huge change for Latin America, comparable to what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant for Europe. When the collapse of the Soviet Union was clearly inescapable, the aspiration of its aging leaders was to die in bed, as Fidel Castro did in Cuba. The political, economic, ideological and above all personal interests of thousands of Cuban leaders and bureaucrats are the main obstacle in this crisis. This explains Ortega’s and Maduro’s ferocious resistance and elevated willingness to kill and torture.

The Cuban regime has opted for Venezuela and Nicaragua to be destroyed in a futile containment strategy to avoid its own inevitable end. Cuba has been resisting a transition for twenty years while its citizens suffer from hunger and misery. There is no visible emigration like the Venezuelan one because it is an island, but the most brutal massacre of Castroism is the more than one hundred thousand Cubans devoured by sharks while trying to cross the Strait of Florida since the Castros took power.

Cuba, the country that considered itself a leader in the fight against colonialism, ended up becoming a colonizer. Its leaders are dragging the entire left off a moral cliff that could leave a long conservative hegemony. Saving the useless and irredeemable failed Cuban model now means defending killings, torture and enormous corruption.

It does not make sense to defend Maduro from a hypothetical intervention of the United States when Venezuela is a country intervened in by Cuba. Whether the “left” likes it or not, in Venezuela there is a national liberation struggle and the dilemma is not to choose between Nicolás Maduro or Donald Trump, but between dictatorship or democracy. Faced with this reality, not aligning with democracy is to align with the dictatorship.

It is impossible to predict whether or not there may be a military intervention in Venezuela. The United States will make its own calculations in the face of Maduro’s absurd resistance. The automatic reaction to reject a intervention is understandable, but beyond the desires, the main thing is to pragmatically consider what could happen if it occurs.

In Venezuela there was never a real revolution, Chavismo did not cohere over revolutionary mysticism, but rather over clientelism and monetary ambition. Venezuela can not become a Vietnam, nor can there be a civil war. Venezuelans have persistently rejected violence, from Chávez, who surrendered twice, to the opposition, which for 18 years has resisted taking up arms.

Given the extreme unpopularity of Maduro, the deep division in the Armed Forces and some decorative militias that the military does not dare to arm permanently, the most likely scenario facing an intervention would be Panama in 1989 or Serbia in 1999, but with technology 20 years more advanced. In Panama, thousands of new rifles destined for militiamen who never existed were left abandoned. In Venezuela, they have been talking for years about a rifle factory that surely never existed because someone stole the money.

In conclusion, an intervention would be forceful, quick, successful and widely celebrated by millions of Venezuelans and Latin Americans. To say this is not to support a military solution, but to foresee a political reality. Therefore, if we want to avoid intervention and resolve the crisis politically, the right thing is not to confront Trump, but to demand that Cuba takes its hands off Venezuela.

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Editor’s note: Joaquín Villalobos was a Salvadoran guerrilla and is a consultant for the resolution of international conflicts. This article has been published by the newspaper El País and we reproduce it with the authorization of the author.

February 24, the Cry of the Ballot Boxes

The defeat of Yes could be the fruit of the sum of gestures, of those who vote No, those who abstain, and those who annul or leave their ballot blank. (Susana González/DPA/México)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, February 21, 2019 — February 24, 1895 is remembered in Cuban history as the Cry of Baire and marks the moment in which the second War of Independence against Spain began. The insurrection broke out in at least 30 other places on the island, but in the village of Baire, in the east of the country, it set itself in the collective imagination and ending up marking the identity of the event.

History — or legend — says that on that day 124 years ago, an order for an uprising signed by José Martí traveled in a cigar sent to Juan Gualberto Gómez. Underneath the successive plant layers went the message that detonated the last military conflict of that century on the island.

This February 24 no order has arrived from anywhere to produce a cry. Like in Fuenteovejuna, the work of Lope de Vega, the initiative to reject the text of the new Constitution has arisen from the heart of the people. Nobody has the right to claim authorship of the peaceful uprising that might occur at the polling places. continue reading

For the first time in 60 years we Cubans will have, for around half a day this Sunday, the opportunity to shake the foundations of the dictatorship.

It’s fewer than 12 hours during which we must agree. It’s not necessary to join a party or to put oneself underneath a suspicious umbrella. It’s not even necessary to endorse with a signature. It is an ephemeral, voluntary act, which can be public if one opts for abstention, or anonymous if one chooses to vote No, but can also be a defiant and decisive act of which we can feel proud.

Before seven in the morning and after six in the evening each person can go on about their preferred slogans, whether it be demanding the freedom of political prisoners, that the government ratify the treaties on human rights, that the wholesale market be opened, that marriage equality be legalized or prohibited; that taxes be lowered and salaries raised. But, in the time that the referendum will last, the struggle to achieve each one of these different aims goes through whatever is achieved at the ballot boxes.

During those magical twelve hours anyone who wishes “to do something” should support the initiatives of staying home or of writing the two crossed strokes of an X, to demonstrate their will as a voter to not accept either the irrevocability of the system or the primacy of the only party.

If the National Electoral Commission fulfills what is established in Article 137 of the current Constitution, the new Constitution will only be considered ratified if more than half of the registry of voters votes Yes in the referendum. So the defeat of Yes could be the fruit of the sum of gestures, of those who vote No, those who abstain, and those who annul or leave their ballots blank.

What is going to happen this February 24 will not have a geographic location, it will be the Cry of the Ballot Boxes: a magnificent libertarian chorus, the acceptance of a civic challenge, bloodless, peaceful, and civilized.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Number of Unpacu Activists on Hunger Strike Rises to 111

The strikers are concentrated in three spots in Santiago de Cuba. Some are in the Antonio Maceo suburb, others in Vista Hermosa, and the rest in the principal headquarters of Altamira. (Unpacu)

14ymedio, Havana, February 20, 2019 — The leader of the opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, reported this Wednesday that 111 members of that organization are now on hunger strike. The action, begun on February 11, is aimed at “calling attention” to the repression of the government against activists promoting the No vote to the new constitution that will be submitted to referendum on February 24.

We are now 111 activists on hunger strike. #HungerStrikeVsRepression

– José Daniel Ferrer (@jdanielferrer) February 20, 2019

Since that same February 11, Unpacu’s headquarters in Santiago de Cuba has been surrounded by police, who control the passing of residents and visitors. As the Unpacu activist Jorge Cervantes explained to 14ymedio, those participating are “covert forces from State Security dressed as civilians, motorized police and patrol cars, and paddy wagons from the special forces.” He also said that the neighbors “are really upset” because the officials are blocking access to 9th Street in the Altamira neighborhood “to anyone who they suspect of being an Unpacu activist.” continue reading

The first to begin the hunger strike was Ferrer himself, a few hours after the exhaustive search of two of Unpacu’s headquarters and eight homes of that organization’s activists. The police action was condemned by the United States embassy in Havana and the Organization of American States (OAS).

The strikers are concentrated in three spots in Santiago de Cuba. Some are in the Antonio Maceo suburb, others in Vista Hermosa, and the rest in the principal headquarters of Altamira.

The number of strikers grows daily and their names and photos with a No painted on their shirts are updated via social media with the hashtag #HuelgaHambreVsRepresion (Hunger Strike Vs. Repression).

On Monday Ferrer broadcast live via Facebook from Céspedes park in the capital of Santiago province, but he was immediately violently arrested by several police officers. “Of course my voice fails me, I’ve had seven days without eating, only water,” said the opposition figure during the broadcast. Additionally, he explained on his Twitter account that he had escaped from the police blockade that they have at the headquarters “to continue with the #YoVotoNo [I’m voting no] campaign.”

According to the young leader of Unpacu, Carlos Amel Oliva, the hunger strike will conclude at midnight on February 24, hours after the closing of polling places. “So we will not be able to go vote, but we are calling on Cubans to vote No and many of our activists will go to vote No that day, and will also be there as observers.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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