Police Operation to Prevent Estado de Sats Meeting / Estado de Sats, Antonio Rodiles

On Friday, August 10, in the vicinity of the headquarters of Estado de Sats, an operation was undertaken by State Security, with the participation of the police force, to prevent the public from attending the screening of the documentary Knockout, in our space: Cinema At All Costs.

It appears that the option of a repudiation rally, which they were planning and which we gained knowledge of and denounced, was changed for this operation, in which the following people (known to us, so far) were arrested and taken to different police stations:

David Canela

Bartolo Márquez

David Ávila

Rene Ramón González

Walfrido  López

Eugenio Leal

Alejandro Zaldívar

All were released hours later with the exception of Eugenio who was still being held as this note was being prepared.

Others attending were denied access to the site.

——- From earlier notice of the film screening ——-

The film is a documentary by Darsi Ferrer. This material shows starkly the abandonment and helplessness suffered by many boxers, former Olympic champions, in today’s Cuba.

Political Police Stake Out Estado de Sats and Arrest “Movie Night” Attendees

I am [being] arrested at Infanta and Manglar [in the] Cerro [neighborhood]

According to tweets not posted here, the apparent plan to stage a “repudiation rally” at Estado de Sats was called off after Antonio Rodiles, manager of the project, delivered a complaint to the police (see third post down). So “Movie Night” went off as scheduled although people were blocked from reaching the site, and some were arrested as they left.

Luis Felipe: Blogger Eugenio Leal by text message: “I am detained at Infanta and Manglar, Cerro.”
Yoani: Among detainees of today are Walfrido Lopez and Eugenio Leal, the latter is at 4th Police Station at Infanta and Manglar
Regina: Received text message from blogger Eugenio Leal, detained by PNR [National Revolutionary Police] at Infanta and Manglar.
Tweets copied and posted at 1:00 AM Havana time, 11 August 2012

To the Street, Opera of the Street? / Rebeca Monzo

Once again the dark cloud of intolerance hangs over our culture.

This time the victim is Opera of the Street, a magnificent and innovative musical company led by Ulises Aquino, who, along with his troupe of over sixty members, has spared no effort to raise the cultural level of the nation.

I first heard of them through a television documentary. From that very moment I was captivated by their originality and the very high quality of their productions.

They were given a spacein the city of Playafor rehearsals and performances – the old Arenal cinema -that was virtually in ruins. Through the efforts and resources of the members themselves, and motivated by the enthusiasm and charisma of their director, they set about the task of offering performances free to passers-by while they carried out restoration work on the building. Pedestrians, buses and automobiles that passed through the avenue stopped to watch their innovative production. They were all in work clothes, but sang, danced and executed inventive choreographic moves that were meant to represent work. It was something that had never been seen before.

Little by little they garnered an ever greater public following, as well as attention from the national and international press. They were later given another space in the same city, this one also virtually in ruins, near the corner of Fourth and Seventh streets. This time, however, they opened a modest restaurant cafe they named El Cabildo, whose proceeds help fund their operations. Soon they began receiving invitations from European countries, which had become aware of the company and were captivated by its quality and originality. With each production they gained more success and public approval.

Eventually, the company was dealing with the expenses associated with a costly wardrobe, lights, scenery and the salaries of its members. All this came to the attention of the bureaucratic mediocrities, who became aroused and acted as though they were dealing with an an enemy, causing even greater harm to Cuban culture than to the company members themselves or to their director. The theater was raided while a performance was in progress, with total disregard for the performers and the public, who happened to be enjoying a wonderful performance.

It is completely unacceptable that such things continue to occur, as they did during the darkest days for our nation’s cultural history. It is everyone’s duty to demand that the Council for Performing Arts address this shameful situation.

In the face of a public outcry an explanation must be given for such actions, whose details, as usual, are known only through rumor. Mr. Aquino, as well as all members of Opera of the Street, are entitled to have all the facts made public and fully brought to light with all the transparency that this unfortunate situation requires.

To reward authority and cede power to mediocrity, allowing it to act with impunity, and to suffer blows such as this, would be a repetition of sad events we have experienced before. To do so would serve only to mortally wound the nation’s culture and identity.

August 10 2012

The Sugar Queen and Candies of Gold / Dora Leonor Mesa

The children’s party started at 4:00 in the afternoon. The girl’s father had twice postponed the celebration because of difficulties with the customs documentation of the package, a package of jams brought on an AIR FRANCE flight and deposited in Havana’s “José Martí” airport.

In addition to the decorator, the restaurant manager, the brightly colored cake, the clowns and the photographers, they had to wait for the sweets. Finally, amidstpiñatas and light refreshments,the candies and chocolates were distributed to the more than fifty little playmates invited to the party.

The little girl took a few swings at the two dolls—piñatas adorned with flowers and shiny paper—and they exploded, raining down a shower of color that covered the floor of the rented room. The mothers present crouched downdiscreetly,along with their little ones,and picked up candies.

It seems no one remembers that Cuba was once the world’s leading sugar producer. Its inhabitants now pay around 0.70 CUC per kilogram of refined sugar.

While there are exceptions, and a limited supply is available, domestically produced candy is generally of lesser quality yet similar in cost to that priced in American dollars. For example, a 25 gram packet of Chico Chico brand candy costs 0.95 CUC. The average monthly salary in Cuba is 18 CUC, the equivalent of 20 US dollars.

Prices for candy on sale in shops and candy stores are:

Any brand / Hard or soft / for 1 (Approx 3 grams) / Minimum $0.05 CUC

Alka brand /Hard / for 9 (29 gr.) / Min $0.30 CUC

Menthoplus brand / Hard / for 9 (30.6 gr.) / Min $0.20 CUC

Soberana brand / Hard / 600 gr. / $2.85 CUC

Dori brand / Hard / 700 gr. / $3.40 CUC

This price list demonstrates how seven pieces of candy, the amount found in a small Alka packet, can cost as much as half a kilogram of sugar (0.35 CUC).

One piece of candy is a sweet delicacy, more a treat than a necessity. In a country where food is very expensive, it is unlikely one will find cheap sweets.

Proper childhood nutrition is vital, yet a kilogram of powdered milk costs at least 5.00 CUC—an extravagant price—putting it out of reach for thousands of Cuban families. What to do? Not buy candy?

To deny boys and girls this pleasure would be cruel. Childhood passes quickly. I believe it is better to pay whatever it costs and forget about the price.

The saying goes that a father and mother must, to the extent they are able, make sure their children’s lives are happy. Acting without remorse. Spending money without “closing your eyes and gritting your teeth.”

When the “little angels” are grown, what they will remember most are their toys and sweets.

Luckily, the hard times pass.

August 7 2012

Estado de Sats Responds to Threat of “Act of Repudiation” / Estado de Sats, Antonio Rodiles

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

Cuba Removes Artists Such as Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan From the Blacklist / Yoani Sánchez


Video: “Our day is coming” performed by Willy Chirino live before a largely Cuban-American audience

From now on Celia Cruz, Bebo Valdes and Willy Chirino can be heard on the radio in Cuba. For decades more than fifty artists critical of the regime have been censored from television and radio programming. But this week several foreign media, such as the BBC, have leaked that the so-called “black list” has been set aside.

An inventory of prohibited names was never made public, nor has the list’s elimination been officially announced. The information has come to light through several workers in broadcasting, although no national listener has yet heard the cry of “Sugar!” — launched by the Queen of Son — emerge from their radio.

In addition to the already deceased Celia Cruz, many other artists have been banned for years and years. Among them are the bolero singer Olga Guillot, the saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, and pianist Bebo Valdes. Even the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias suffered this censorship as a result of his critical stance toward the government in Havana.

Now the music of all of them will once again be played on national media, after several generations of Cuban lost their art. However, the new measure still hasn’t been reflected in the music programming on the air. This writer telephoned several national and local stations; the employees consulted said they were surprised by the news and didn’t know anything about it.

The informal music market has offered the productions of these artists for years now. At private parties it has become common to hear Willy Chirino and Gloria Estafan. And their music has even snuck into some activities and events organized institutionally. New technologies have been making it possible for Cubans to acquire these prohibited voices on CDs, DVDs and flash drives. So this flexibility follows the same logic as other “Raul reforms”: that of accepting what they can’t prevent, authorizing what is already happening and is unstoppable. Radio censorship has tried to put corral us, and this new measure recognizes the impossibility of controlling musical tastes based on ideological considerations.

Nevertheless, the end of the veto doesn’t mean that these artists will start playing immediately. The broadcasters must acquire their discs, and many programming directors will wait cautiously to see if this is a decision that is not rescinded. They will also wait for a definition of which songs in the musical repertoire will continue to be banned. Among those we will surely find those that allude to the topic of freedom or of a possible political transition in Cuba. Such is the case with the popular song, “Our day is coming,” sung by Willy Chirino.

10 August 2012

Our Campaigns and the Pacts / Mario Barroso

In 2008 the Mission Board of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba convened the first Campaign of Fifty Days or Prayer for Cuba. It was an intense journey of prayer that involved believers inside and outside of the island. That same year, 2008, was also significant for another national reason: The Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, on February 28 in New York City, signed the Pact of Political and Civil Rights and the United Nations Pact of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which constituted a very laudable act.

After that important year our churches have continued praying for the nation and this year, 2012, our already celebrated Campaign of Fifty Days of Prayer for Cuba — always held between the day of the Resurrection and Pentecost — was the fifth one. But the mission of the believers is not only to pray but also to do everything they can for this world to adjust to divine will; not in vain did the wide Ignacio of Loyola say: Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you. It is in that sense that the believers themselves who pray so intensely for our nation should join a just citizen demand that asks the highest authorities of Cuba to take the necessary steps first taken in 2008, and ratify the signed pacts given that in them the spirit gathers the dignity of all human beings and the respect for their most elemental rights as creatures created in the image and likeness of God.

If the highest Cuban authorities ratify the pacts that they signed in New York in 2008 and take all the steps that implies we can thank God because many of the petitions that we have raised in our campaigns will have been granted. And it is that, a pact, although of man, once ratified, no one invalidates it or adds to it (Galatians 3:15).

Translated by mlk.

August 5 2012

President Kirchner will promote surrogacy and embryo manipulation / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

The companies that carry out these practices promote them demonstrating an alleged altruism. A gay couple, for example, comments on the web page of the American company Growing Generations: “We want to explain that he or she is a result of a combination of very generous acts: especially the pregnant mother and the egg donor, who are also allowed him or her to exist. This gesture of offering the gifts of one’s body to others, is very nice.”

Nonetheless, beyond the companies’ marketing, surrogacy itself is an abhorrent procedure of manipulation of the human being that resembles the times of the slave trade.

The process begins by “shopping” in a catalog. First, you choose the woman who will be the egg donor, and then you choose the surrogate mother. Various embryos, obtained by the fertilization of the eggs of the first woman and the sperm of one or both of the gay couple, will be inserted into the surrogate.

Then in vitro fertilization (IVF) is performed: The embryos are inserted into the surrogate mother. When the embryos fail to develop, a new cycle should be started. Either new embryos that were previously frozen are inserted, or a new in vitro fertilization should proceed. If the procedure is still unsuccessful, another surrogate mother should be found. The large number of embryos that die in this procedure can be seen.

Two different women are used so that the surrogate mother isn’t the baby’s biological mother, to avoid creating a bond. Still, many profound psychological studies are carried out to make sure the surrogate mother doesn’t get attached to the baby and want to keep it.

The IVF procedure can result in twins or triplets. When that many babies aren’t wanted, an “embryonic reduction” is performed, or rather, some of them are aborted. This is agreed upon in the signed contract.

 Translated by: Michelle Eddy

August 6 2012

Detention of Antonio Rodiles: Guilty of the Free "Estado de Sats" / Ángel Santiesteban

When the funeral cortege left the chapel in Cerro with the body of the political leader Oswaldo Payá, having barely advanced a few yards, it was stopped for some twenty minutes. Something happened at the beginning of the caravan. Several people got out of the car to find out what; we feared the worse although we hoped that nothing was happening and we wanted to give a Christian burial to our dead.

While celebrating the Mass officiated by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, outside, the authorities were planning the engagement. I looked out of the door of the church, looked down the street and I could recognize the faces of the State Security agents, but there, at the end, where the Calzada del Cerro terminates, I saw an officer talking to a large group of civilians.

I remembered that it seemed very much like the operation they had every time the Ladies in White met at their headquarters: the house of their spiritual leaders, the feisty Laura Pollán. I recorded some footage of what was happening and approached as far as the camera lens would let me. In any event, I couldn’t imagine they planned something similar in the midst of that pain, that they would disrespect the family of the deceased, the Cardinal and the entire delegation of the Catholic Church, as well as the broadcasters and the international journalists covering the event.

But despite the constant proofs of the governmental abuse, we still insist on being naive, as if this attitude would save us from contagion by the all the evil that always surrounds us.

What I do know is that the partner of Antonio Rodiles, Ailer Gonzalez, with the intention of finding out what was going on, got out of the car, and, coming to the crowd, witnessed how they preyed on Fariñas and another group of opponents. She demanded their release and the police pushed her also, and forced her with beatings onto a Chinese-made Yutong bus that they’d prepared by way of a rolling jail cell. And inside there, they continued beating her.

Antonio, impatient on seeing that his partner didn’t return, went to look for her. While he was walking he heard a State Security Agent shout to another who was nearby, “Look, there goes Aleaga, let’s grab him.”Rodiles observed that Aleaga wasn’t even taking photos, just walking on the sidewalk, and he said to the “securities” to leave him alone. They looked at him and responded, “Come on, you too, you’re going.” He refuses, meanwhile seeing that Aleaga is being put in a car handcuffed. Rodiles resists their putting him into a car, finally they lay him on the backseat and two burly agents climb on top of him to immobilize him with the weight of their bodies.

Fariñas returns slap

The lawyer Vallín is in the car with me, and deducing that something happened at the beginning, we get out, and when we’re about to go to the place the procession resumed its march and we got back in the car. In the Calzado de Cerro they’ve already armed an operation of the repressive forces, we managed to see a woman with the rank of colonel waving for the caravan to continue.

They had two Yutong buses on each direction of the street that were blocking traffic. Without distinguishing the faces I could also see that there were several people inside the buses that they were hitting. Later I learned that they were Fariñas, whom they hit at that moment, which he returned with the same energy.

Ailer was in that bus; and she said the struggle was maintained for a while, that the driver took the route toward the beaches to the east of Havana. That there was a moment when they thought the bus would turn over, it looked like a swing and gave the impression that the driver lost his way, that they would be killed and she began to plead with Fariñas to stop, because he was continuing to brawl with the agents who were trying to hit him.

Fariñas looked at her and understood her fear and appeased them to please her and calm them down. It was a humane act and one of chivalry that made the difference with the government’s henchmen, who continues their insults and provocations.

Ailer handcuffed

They take her to a place that looked like a shelter or abandoned classroom, and told her to hand over the memory card of the camera. She had already secured it, taking it out of the camera and putting it in her purse. And she refuses to surrender it, warning that they themselves are violating the laws, she has been kidnapped on a public street, and they are violating her civil rights that she knows well.

But two women and a man come and push her and throw her on the floor to demobilize her and take the bag. She yells at them one day have to answer for their abuses and repressive attitudes that tarnish the name of all their families. She warns them that she has heart problems and has arrhythmia. They show their fear. Soon they take her to the outside of the Naval military hospital and tell her to exit the car. And leave her there abandoned.

Rodiles refuses to enter the cell

When they take Rodiles to the police station, Aleaga has just arrived. The “securities” continue provoking, they want him to enter a cell but they can’t make him do it despite the shoving, they have given him a lot of punches, scrapes and torn his clothes. I’m not a criminal, Rodiles tells them, I haven’t committed any crime and I am not going in any cell.

A lieutenant colonel in the police intervenes and tells the “securities” that they will allow him to talk, look, he said, I give you my word I will not let them take you to the cell, but first you have to give me your shoelaces and belt, it is mandatory; they put in the waiting room. And what about Aleaga, asks Rodiles. The officer keeps looking at him and understands it will have to be that way or he will continue his protests. Fine, he stays with you at him and know that you will have to be so or continue their protest. Okay, it stays with you, he responds. The “securities,” against their will, accept keeping them out of the cell.

The bells in the cemetery receive us

We arrived at the cemetery worried, we didn’t understand clearly what had happened. Someone said they had arrested Rodiles, Aleaga, Ailer, Fariñas, among many other dissidents. Singing, accompanied the remains of Oswaldo Payá, from the entrance to the chapel, then to his grave. That death had changed us, the living. Taught us, once again, the lack of scruples of the Cuban government. Nevertheless, we agree that Payá received the funeral honors worthy of a President. That last space I toured hugging the great Cuban poet Rafael Alcides, who, recovering from a recent hospitalization for his diabetes, had not wanted to fail to pay his respects and say a final goodbye to the brother in the struggle.

He told me that of course all of us who are fighters like Payá are aware of the risk that faces us when we defy a totalitarian government. But we know that despite risking our lives, it’s impossible to avoid our protest.

Demanding freedom in front of the police station

We were told that Aleaga and Antonio remained in detention at the 4th Police Station in Infanta. In half an hour we were there, along with a group of young fighters, Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar and Santana (the writer), to accompany the families of those arrested who were waiting outside the station. There I found a lawyer Vallín who went inside, from time to time, to demand that at least they present the arrest warrants, which they had not yet done; he warned that they were detained there as hostages, in open violation of applicable laws.

Soon a Major of the police came to ask Vallín speak with us and to tell us to go home. By that time we were over twenty people. Vallin told us the desire of the officer after he had retired. We were laughing that the officer thought, just ask, we would retreat. At the time the Major came out again and warned us that we could not be there (we stayed right across the street from the police station). He said that in twenty minutes they would release those arrested.

So we decided to go to the facing sidewalk. The Major returned and told us we could not be there either. To facilitate the release of Antonio, we decided to retreat about fifty feet, our position was no longer right in front of the station. But those twenty minutes passed when they promised to release him; and we waited an hour. Then it occurred to someone to make “a small geographical pressure,” and we returned to the place where we were earlier, on the sidewalk right across from the station.

From there we could observe every movement. The Major returned and told us he was the Chief of the Municipality, and that it we continued there he would have to send the “forces of order” to remove us. We were already over thirty people demanding the release of our brothers. The writer Orlando Luis Pardo had come, with his girlfriend and another girl.

We told the official they we felt for him for all that he’d gone through, given that he had been patient and at all times, had turned to us with respect, but we urged him to keep his word. Reinaldo Escobar told him to put himself in our position, would he be able to abandon a comrade in these circumstances, and we didn’t even know under what condition Antonio was in, if he was beaten.

The officer tried to deny our suspicions, saying they didn’t hit him, but when we showed the wounds that had some had recently received from the repressive forces, among the other detainees Ailer, who had just joined us, the soldier chose to remain silent and, nevertheless, seemed to understand, or maybe it was our decency and sympathetic stance. Finally we told him that if he felt that he should pressure us, we were determined to accompany Antonio in the cell. They we had no objection to his doing his duty.

Then he left and never came back. After a while they released Aleaga and we applauded as he walked out in front of all their captors. But if they thought we would settle for one of two taken, they were wrong; they were left waiting to see what we would do and when they saw we would continue stationed there, they formed the idea to devise other action against us.

Half an hour later a truck of the Special Branch appeared, full of guards. Also two ambulances arrived. In one corner State Security agents in plain clothes began to meet. Ailer saw one of the ones who had beaten her and took advantage of it to tell her abusers to their faces that one day they would have to pay for such abuses. The men did not answer. They turned away and we saw them climb the stairs to shelter in the police station.

Someone phoned to say that Fariñas had been taken to his province in a police car. Soon we were approached by a “security”: a black guy six feet tall who, in order to provoke us, stationed himself very close to us. But his presumed bravery was just a show for his comrades who were watching, because Reinaldo Escobar also went to meet him, and when he passed behind him, I saw the “security’s” cowardly eyes, his six-foot body shrank, he turned to follow Reinaldo with his eyes as if he was afraid of being attacked, something Reinaldo would never do, quite the contrary, because what he did was fake a call for him to overhear, as if he were telling someone that everything was fine.

After that the provocateur also pulled out his phone and informed us we were clowns. I took mine and he heard me and I said there were no problems, that the provocation was sheer monkey business. Then the black guy quickly left, frustrated at not having received the order to beat us and take us by force, which is what he wanted.

After one o’clock in the morning, Vallín and Reinaldo spoke to the Colonel, who said he was the Head of the Station. Vallín said he had twenty-four hours to make the decision to charge the person or not, and to define the offense for which he’d be tried. The official acknowledged that was true, by law, and confirmed that ten o’clock marked the term, and then he would report back what they would do in that case, which they were now studying the decision to make. Vallín and Reinaldo made it clear that it was an agreement, and the Colonel agreed.

The elderly parents of Antonio said as long as we were there they would not leave. Then we got them to agree to let us take them home and come back and meet at ten o’clock. The couple agreed. And so we all went.

At ten o’clock the future of Antonio was decided

When I reached the police station with the attorney Vallín, already there were Antonio’s parents, his partner and some other opponents. Forced to sit in the sun on the sidewalk in front of the station, they would not let us approach, in fact no pedestrians could pass through the place. The whole street was blocked by police cars and policemen. We had to wait twenty yards from the station.

When Yoani and Reinaldo arrived, they hurried their steps to join Antonio’s parents, and police tried to stop them, but they, like experienced athletes of the opposition, managed to dodge them and sit on the wall where the elderly parents were. A police captain said they could not stay there, and Yoani and Reinaldo told them about laws and rights and the police were astonished.

All they could do was exert force, but their order was to avoid confrontation at all times. They were very close to the fateful date of celebration for the defeat of the 26th of July, and they didn’t want to tarnish it, it was bad enough with the mysterious death of Oswaldo Payá.

Immediately the Colonel came out, it was 10:10 in the morning and he should comply with the agreement. He spoke with the parents and then with Vallín, the decision was he would be released, and then we saw Antonio could out in a patrol car and greet us. The Colonel said that the prisoner would be brought to his house.

When we got to Antonio’s house he already was there and told us the abuses they committed, all the horror that his oppressors made him suffer to force him to give up; we saw his ripped clothes ragged, the bruises and scratches on his body.

We all returned to our homes knowing that Antonio, Ailer, Aleaga, Fariñas and the rest of the group were already in theirs, wanting rest, until a new warning alerts us that another injustice has been committed, and we have to once again be present for the freedom of Cuba and our brothers.

Those hours helped us to push the wall of the dictatorship that oppresses us a few inches. We know that the worst part of this difficult struggle is yet to come, that to achieve democracy we will make many sacrifices. But the good thing is that these days we confirm that, despite all the repression of the Castro regime, we worthy Cubans are ready to give ourselves for the ideals that Oswaldo Payá died for.

August 8 2012

Can You Be Happy in Cuba? / Iván García

Photo: Taken from “The sea of happiness”, published in the Venezuelan blog “Oido en la Chata” on 30 May 2011.

There are lots of things that can make a person happy. A sunset. Contemplating a full moon. Chatting with friends. Reading a good book. Watching a baseball game. Enjoying a favourite meal. Playing Monopoly with the kids. Sitting on the Malecon* with a guitar, half a litre of run and breaking down the musical offerings of Joaquín Sabina or Pablo Milanés

Some are happy when they go to the theatre on the weekend. Or to the cinema. Talking in a park with their other half. Or walking round their neighbourhood, their home town. It doesn’t take a lot to make us happy.

We have all had happy moments. Even though you might have lived all your life in a country where due to its inefficiency, it does everything possible to embitter your existence, right from waking up in the morning.

We see how material shortages cause an unhappy marriage in Havana. Today they are meant to be filling a dozen buckets with water from the tank to wash: the pump motor in the building is broken.

As if that wasn’t enough, due to one of the many repairs to the electricity grid in the area, there won’t be any power from 9am to 3pm. The bread in the state rations is more acidic than ever. There’s no way you can eat it.

Breakfast was just a coffee. Well, if you can call that substitute bulked out with peas, “coffee”. Before morning is over, “those damned Cuban circumstances” have added a dose of bile to the liver.

Later comes the other odyssey. Getting on a city bus to go to the park to amuse the kids this Sunday. Two hours at the stop. Hand-to-hand combat to get on the bus. Shouts, bad smells and the kids crying and uncomfortable.

At this moment you call for the heads of the leaders. You want to get a rubber boat to Florida. And angrily wonder why Cubans put up with such a bad government.

But the hatred, like the happiness, is also passing. You get to the Maestranza park, with an impressive view of El Morrow, and despite the sun and the lines your kids are happy again.

When it’s better a drenching downpour lets loose. On the run. The umbrella is half broken and they all arrive soaked, but happy, at a hard currency cafe. The kids look at the display case and want an ice cream snack or a chocolate Nestles.

“We don’t have enough money” says the father sharply. “Not even enough to buy a packet of M&Ms”. And he ends up feeling frustrated and unhappy again.

He wants the earth to swallow him. For his lack of money. He detests the regime’s inability to make two currencies work: one that counts but you don’t get paid in it, and the other useless, with which you can’t buy good treats for your kids.

At night-time, a more or less decent meal. The ration of chicken arrived yesterday. Rice, red beans, salad. And a delicious little custard tart. A good spread for a family that is used to only getting to eat pork on the weekends.

When the couple goes to bed, relaxed in the half-light, they ask themselves, “Are we happy in Cuba?” They discuss it and come to the conclusion they’re not. They want another way of live. And they dream.

“When can we change this old furniture that came from our grandparents? Or fix the house? Or buy a 42 inch TV. Watch foreign channels? Have a computer? Surf the internet? Be able to eat, right now, what we want and not the repugnant fish croquettes?

The couple can’t even think of having a new car. With the heat it’s better to have an air conditioner. They prefer an efficient public transport system. Streets and parks that are lit and clean. And drinkable water in the pipes 24 hours a day.

They recognize that the Castro brothers won’t bring the change they desire. The optimum would be a slate of politicians with new ideas, honest and transparent, who rotate in power and work for a civil society, tolerant and without repression. But, where are these future politicians?

Perhaps it’s asking a lot. Since their future and that of their children lies in leaving Cuba. They believe they would be happier off of the island.

The British actor Charles Chaplin once said “true happiness is the closest thing to sadness”. Perhaps this is what he was talking about.

Translator’s note:
*The stone wall along Havana’s seafront.

Translated by: Alex Cook

August 8 2012

News Conference by Rosa María Payá Acevedo Regarding Her Father’s Death / Rosa María Payá Acevedo

Today, I do not intend to give another version of what happened, we are not accusing anyone at this time.

The facts I will communicate below were read by Captain Fulgencio Medina, a criminal investigator, in a room at Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital in Bayamo, the evening of Sunday 22 July. I will not narrate how these reports have reached our hands because we do not want to expose to pressure from State Security the people who, in solidarity with our family, have sent us this information.

According to what they told us, Captain Fulgencio Medina read the statements spoken by the witnesses of the events that took the life of my father and Harold; he relayed the following to all those present in one of the rooms of the hospital. The captain said he was going to tell what happened, reading the witness statements, he said.

The witness on the bike and the witness in the tractor said there was a red Lada [a Russian make car] traveling parallel to the wrecked car. For a moment, the wrecked car got ahead of the rest, the bicycle, the tractor and the red Lada, then the pavement ended and the gravel covered terrain started. The cyclist said that all he saw was the dust when the car fell (and that seemed normal to him.) The driver of the tractor commented that it seemed as if something had happened.

The officer said another tractor was coming from the other direction but apparently the road was wide enough and the tractor was far enough away to avoid causing any reaction in Angel’s driving. There was no danger of collision between the two.

The individuals from the red Lada came to the rescue, according to the words of the witnesses on the bicycle and in the tractor. The officer said that the witnesses declared that when the individuals from the red Lada came to aid the Spanish man, he reacted by saying, “Who are you and why are you doing this to us?” First, they took the Spanish man out, and there was another man complaining inside the car (apparently, this was Harold), he had a very sore leg and was touching his own chest, as if it hurt a lot. They did not do anything with the other person because they said that they touched him and realized he was dead.

The individuals from the red Lada took the foreigners out and then they took out a cell phone that they had and said: “Send an ambulance over, there has been an accident.” At that time a blue van arrived and picked up some of the injured and drove them to the hospital.

They received a call from the girl and said they did not know who the phone belonged to because everything was a mess. First a traffic police officer responds and then the coroner speaks. Fulgencio Medina said he knew the daughter had called because the coroner that had been in the ambulance talked to her.

This ends the information we have received about what Captain Fulgencio Medina said that evening in that room where officers and other persons were present.

It seems very strange to us:

1. That a coroner was present in the ambulance.

2. That none of the official versions mention this red Lada or the people traveling in it.

3. If there was no red Lada, who would have called the ambulance? [Translators note: it is not common in Cuba to call an ambulance or have ‘ phone numbers, rather people offer rides to the medical centers.]

4. The reaction Ángel had when he was assisted, according to witnesses.

5. Who determined and how was it determined that my father was dead so early during the events.

We have received other information which narrates that the ambulance was ordered by a lieutenant colonel and that in one ambulance they took Harold to the hospital after making ??a stop at a children’s hospital. We also have information regarding the doctor who attended Harold (nicknamed “The Kid”, son of Dr. Pérez Profet) According to this information he was heard expressing disdain for Harold. He told the other doctors and nurses that these people were bringing drugs to Santiago and that they were planning to plant bombs.

I have questions regarding the care my friend received in the hospital.

We have been informed that Ángel arrived at the hospital accompanied by an officer who said he was an eyewitness to the accident, and that at that point Ángel said twice that the car had been hit from behind.

I wonder, if this officer was a witness:

1. What was he doing at the place of the events?

2. If it was he who called, why didn’t he take the injured men in his car?

3. How did he know the hospital’s phone number?

4. Was he one of the individuals from the red Lada?

I also have doubts regarding the technical condition of the car in which my father and Harold were traveling.

They did not allow our friends, the people who represented our family, to see my father’s body until after 8 pm. They told us that the corpse had a syringe placed at the top of the leg, a shirt, his jeans and shoes and that at that time they saw it, the body was still without any form of conservation treatment, or refrigeration.

Regarding the state of Harold, a physician told our friends that the boy was going to die because he had suffered brain death. This information does not match the official version regarding the cause of death of Harold Cepero. It is also very strange because witnesses claimed they saw a conscious Harold according to information we received about the words read by Captain Fulgencio Medina. Our friends did not have access to the survivors until after Ángel was sedated so they were never able to talk to him. With Aron they were barely able to communicate because they do not speak English.

Aron, Ángel and I met Friday afternoon and talked, as three young people with social concerns converse, without interventionist agendas or money involved.

My father faced the power of a state, a totalitarian state with 53 years of experience. And that state has been bringing all its force to bear against a family, my family, since many years ago. I fear deeply for the lives of my brothers, my mother and my family. I reiterate that I hold the government responsible for the physical integrity of the members of my family.

We count on the support of many within and outside Cuba, we thank you all deeply. On the other hand, we know that these events have become a matter of international affairs, we know that sometimes between governments agreements are reached and they remain silent, but while others will remain silent, we will not, neither will we stop seeking the truth even if it means we will end up alone. My father, the Christian Liberation Movement and my family have been alone before, we are not afraid of loneliness.

We know, because we seem to have been touching it in recent days, that only evil fears the truth.

Translated by Cleonte

August 1, 2012

May being brave not be so costly, and being a coward not so worthwhile* / Lilianne Ruíz

In one of those programs that State Security shows on Cuban television, I have seen one of the men I most admire for his courage in this saga for the freedom of Cuba. But State Security did not really present Antúnez, nor speak of his years as a political prisoner, of the horrors of Cuban prisons, so dark and forgotten.

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antúnez,” is a Cuban who was imprisoned from 1990 until a few years ago, solely for expressing his ideas contrary to political power.

If he had only been in prison for spreading his ideas it would be terrible injustice, but in his testimonies of Castro’s political prisons, you can relive the horror of the punishment cells, and of human beings reduced to the most unimaginable degradations to make them retract who they are, forcing them to wear the uniform of common prisoners and making them go through political re-education courses.

Someday Cuba will be on the front page of newspapers around the world because of the trials of violators of human rights we will then be able to hold, for the crimes against humanity in these 53 years.  The world’s radical left, extreme, carnivorous, predatory, wanted to ignore them, perhaps because they would be willing to do the same in their own countries. To speak of this is difficult, to imagine how far the wickedness of man goes, begins with a closed door we don’t want to go through.

Possibly because of this many influential people in the world prefer to look at the uniformed children, the waving flags, the doctors graduating from the Latin American School of Medicine, the discourse of social justice. And this apparently been very well studied by the elite of power in my country.

The world prefers to ignore the testimony of people like Valladeres, Hubert Matos, Antúnez, the 75 of the Black Spring. And meanwhile State Security fabricates these programs where they try to discredit people largely unknown to the Cuban television audience. Maybe even for Cuban and foreign journalists themselves, excepting of course the independent journalists and some disobedient foreign correspondents who decide to seek out the truth and not remain within the comfortable official discourse.

The only thing the mafia of Villa Marista (a political prison), and Section 21 (an arm of State Security), achieved with their latest monstrous documentary was to show, once again, how they monitor and persecute people who have spoken out against the regime.

In response to the lie with which stupid people try to establish people’s perception of State Security, reducing the problem to an issue of money and not authentic freedom and rebellion, I answer in my blog — so that anyone in Cuba (where I live and where I have come out of my closet) could read me — saying that in order to go out into the streets to protest and to demand freedom for the political prisoners, as the Ladies in White do, requires so incredibly much more than money.

To land yourself, as Antúnez did (and as other Cubans did whom they also try to discredit for being opponents) in a cell of the Castro regime, in solitary, without rights, you need to have an I-don’t-know-what that most Cubans don’t have. That the State Security officials who made the TV program don’t have, nor do the guards who inflict tortures on the prisoners, especially those who torture the political prisoners with cruel and degrading treatment.

Not even the maximum leaders who die of fear have it, those who are the primary culprits of these injuries against humanity, fostered by the ideology of a system and the low value of a human person within it; these are the conditions without which the current owners of Cuban could not remain in power.

In the first centuries of Christianity the greatest testimony one could give of faith in Jesus Christ was martyrdom, and Antúnez has proven to the point of martyrdom his faith in freedom: he is alive and sane thanks to the spiritual force God gave him. (Boitel Lives is his book of testimonies from his years in prison in Cuba.)

In the case of those endearing gladiators, the Ladies in White — who also showed up on the TV screen in violation of their right of privacy — the major “sin” that State Security presents was their having accepted collaboration from other Cubans in exile, who knows if perhaps it was another Lady with better rhetoric, to write a statement on the death of Oswaldo Payá.

These women, mostly from humble backgrounds but with a true intelligence, have chosen the better part of what no one in exile, nor many men in Cuba, nor this writer, have chosen, which is the courage and stamina to go to the very end, as Laura Pollán did, in their fight for Freedom for the political prisoners.

Faced with the lack of justice and citizen security in the Courts, after learning that the power in Cuba is a fierce dog that calculates his moves without any respect for the human condition or the condition of being a woman, they need a lot of courage and a lot faith.

When freedom is in danger, it must be rescued. The only ones who have sold their individual freedom, and hence their country, have been the mercenaries of the present government of the Island of Cuba, the sadistic gendarmes of MININT (State Security), who with no fear of God nor respect for men, populate the memoirs of Antúnez, the hellish conditions that Cubans and many people in the world prefer to ignore. And that, one more time, the official government site Cubadebate did not comment on, nor was it presented on television by State Security.

Translator’s note: A line from this  song by Joaquin Sabina

August 7 2012

Uniforms Against Illegality IX / Agustín Valentín López Canino

Julio has finished his story of the abduction where his more than 200 pounds became an inanimate object, consisting of an amorphous substance lacking in spatial location, without any perception of a social being, crosses to the other side where the parents of Antonio Rodiles have remained for more than 7 hours without, for a purely human reason, the uniformed ones having deigned to offer them a seat or a glass of water except the kindness of that ambulance placed on front, a symbol of free medical care waiting anticipating a fatal outcome. He reports to them the status of their child and continues his trip home.

“I have the need to be seen by a doctor,” I told him.

Commander Galves looked at me indignantly:

“Do you still have the cynicism to ask us for medical assistance?”

The next morning the doors remained welded shut. Lieutenant Cross, head of the Political Police, said it was a personal order of Castro.

Vitamin Water / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

The situation regarding the quality of the drinking water has caused Cubans to take measures to avoid being infected with diseases.

Formerly the rivers were the source of drinking water and the Almendares River served the people via ditch in the street that ran from the river past the fronts of the houses, and people only had to take a bucket and fill it with water and go back inside, and that’s where the name Zanja — ditch — Street came from.

With modernity the rivers began to be contaminated to the extent that no Havana river could be used for drinking water. The factories continue to dump waste into rivers and we continue to lose wildlife. The quality of the water lines is in a worse state every day and the water comes with sand and the smell of sewage.

Boiling water to purify it has another effect as drinking boiled water sickens the kidneys and men’s prostate gland. Putting the bottle of drinking water in the sun and then in the night has been an effective tool, but will not be effective over time.

First without water, and then with contaminated water, nobody cares, nothing happenes, many complain and others remain silent. Doubts rise, no one knows what to do, boil the water, freeze it, or simply nothing, but what can’t be done is to drink the water.

August 8 2012