Category: Estado de Sats / State of Sats

Over a year ago, in September 2011, Cuban State Security flamboyantly installed 2 cameras overlooking Antonio Rodiles’ house, the site of Estado de Sats.

From Estado de Sats on Facebook.

This morning we heard through a friend that on Thursday the workers of the Labiofam company were notified that they would participate, today, in an act of repudiation* in front of the Estado de Sats headquarters.

A few minutes ago we returned from the Fifth Station of the PNR (National Revolutionary Police), located at 7th Avenue and 62nd in Miramar, where we delivered to the Station Chief, badge number 0037, the following document and warned of the possible consequences of undertaking these acts and provocations.

Havana, August 10, 2012
Chief of the 5th unit of the PNR of Miramar
Street 7th. A and 62, Playa Municipality

Through this communication the undersigned, Antonio E. Gonzalez Rodiles, a resident of 1st Avenue. No. 4606, between 46 and 60, Miramar, Playa, I appear before you under the provisions of the Constitution in Article 63, “Every citizen has the right to lodge complaints and petitions to the authorities and to receive appropriate attention in accordance with the law,” to put before you what I relate below:

1. That in this day August 10, 2012, I learned of the intention to undertake what has euphemistically been called an “act of repudiation” in front of my home.
2. That this action appears to be motivated by the undersigned being one of the promoters of a Citizen Demand urging the Cuban government to ratify the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural.
3. That these documents were signed by the Cuban government for the people of Cuba on February 28, 2008, in New York City.
4. That this citizen request was made in conformance with the legal framework that the country offers, without violation of any of the rights that the nation recognizes for all.
5. That for over a year we have been conducting various cultural activities, lectures, artist showcases, film discussions, panels, etc., without, to date, there having been any alteration, even minimal, of the public order, which is why we believe that to undertake this alteration today, is closely tied to the UN Covenants which we already referenced.
6. That, under section 286.1 of the current penal code, “He who, without legitimate reason, exercises violence toward another or threats to compel that at the moment the person to do what they do not want to do, whether just or unjust, or to tolerate another person to do the same, or to prevent him from doing what the law does not prohibited, is punishable by deprivation of liberty of six months to two years or a fine of two hundred to five hundred shares.

“He who by other means, prevents another person from doing what the law does not prohibit or from exercising their rights, is punishable by imprisonment of three months to one year or a fine of one hundred to three hundred shares.”

I thought it appropriate to bring to your attention the violation of the provisions of the Act so that you can fulfill your duty to maintain order and respect for citizens’ rights within the jurisdiction of your competence.

Yours sincerely,

Antonio González-Rodiles

*Translator’s note: An “act of repudiation” is a government-organized mob which surrounds a place or person or people, screaming insults and threats, and in some cases launching physical attacks. The government media claims these are “spontaneous uprisings” of “enraged citizens” against “counter-revolutionaries”, but the participants (including school children) are frequently bussed to the site, and the same “neighbors'” faces have been photographed participating in these attacks in widely dispersed neighborhoods. Examples can be seen on video here and here.

10 August 2012

The recent editorial by the newspaper Granma clearly defines the mediocrity and poverty of thought of a system that now howls desperately at its approaching end. The text is an apology to the cynicism of the elite and those who serve it, who try to discredit and silence the independent voices that spring from Cuban society, and so conceal their total debacle.

It is outrageous to see that the same government and the same criminal characters who instituted the firing squads and the long sentences in subhuman conditions as a way to maintain the terror, who ordered the repudiation rallies and beatings, attaching the people’s name as the author of these abominable acts, try to present themselves before Cuba and the world as paradigms of honesty and virtue.

The country lies in ruins and they don’t care, they display not the slightest dignity. They want to stay until the last moment, at any price, even provoking civil violence, seeing their allies as mere objects for their use. Fidel Castro did it at the Moncada Barracks attack when he supposedly lost  his way in Santiago de Cuba, a city he knew very well, while other assailants fought and were killed. Raúl Castro did the same thing at the battle of Marcos Sánchez, in that now distant 1958, when cowardly and shamefully he fled, leaving behind all his troops.

These two characters keep the country in ruins. A constantly rising number of Cubans are literally crushed to death in the collapses of their disastrous homes, while Castro descendants assume the right to continue to plunder the nation of its funds, without rendering an account to anyone.

They and their sidekicks claim that we Cubans destroy each other like mad dogs, trying to sell ever more dearly the disaster they have provoked in our nation, they are insatiable, they are beings who profess an utter contempt for humanity, tolerance, humility, for our land.

Those who launched a rabid mob to beat people on the morning of July 24 during the funeral of opposition leader Oswaldo Payá, are the same ones who will give the order to shoot into a defenseless crowd, the same who prefer to drown thousands and thousands in a bottomless sea, rather than accept their ignorance and decay.

Hopefully the peons who form a part of and who cooperate with this nefarious machinery will begin to understand, for the good of all, that there is no action without consequence and that the winds are beginning to blow in favor of the truth.

1 August 2012