Sebastián Martínez, Spanish Journalist in Cuban Prison / Angel Santiesteban

Sebastián Martínez

The Cuban government doesn’t censor, persecute and punish its nationals enough, though they live in the diaspora, but that it also is expanding to foreigners its need to teach a lesson to anyone who dares to break the “untainted” — and only authorized — image that it exports of the deteriorating “Revolution” which, if it ever was, has now lost its way.

For eleven months the Cuban authorities have held the Spanish citizen Sebastián Martínez Ferraté, who authorized one of the Spanish journalist who reports for TV5 in that country to do an expose, professionally done of course, on child prostitution in Cuba, which is clandestinely carried on in a great number of homes on the island.

It’s worth mentioning that there are no images in the report of pedophilia, nor anything morbid, much less the corruption of minors; the documentary only uncovers public opinion about the food chain of prostitution on the Island, particularly in Havana, where young girls are sold to the highest bidder. The saddest part, not just for the Government, but for all Cubans, is that the supply chain operates with the complicity of teachers who, for 10 CUC, allow the girls to leave school during class hours and cover up their absences to avoid the notification of their parents, who rely on them for the “rigor and protection” of Cuban education.

Time passed and, through a Cuban “friend” who lives in Spain, they deceived Sebastian and brought him to Cuba believing that he would be airing some reports on hospitality. The day his plane landed at the airport in Havana, was the last day of the World Cup in South Africa, and Cuban Security took care to note, once again, a penalty without a player in, and so the most universal sports was celebrated.

As soon as he stepped foot in the airport terminal, they were waiting for him and without offering him any explanation he was arrested and taken to an unknown place, which reminds me of the complaints of the Cuban Government itself against the United States with regards to the prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base without any criminal proceedings.

Eleven months have passed and his family has not been authorized to visit him nor to receive news of his legal status nor even a report on his health. His wife, Dr. María Ángeles Sola, is–consistent with her name, Sola, meaning alone–on her own with their five-year-old daughter, having taken every possible measure at the Spanish Foreign Office in Madrid, but in the first six months the only response she’s gotten from the Cuban authorities was to deny her any contact with the Ambassador in Havana; they will not even tell her the reasons for keeping him in prison.

Maria says, as she recently declared on a Spanish radio station, that the Government has ignored Sebastian’s situation. And that the declarations of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Trinidad Jimenez, have only served to placate the media and the press and to justify her Government.

Cuban authorities have allowed Maria to contract for the services of an attorney to represent Sebastian, and paying several thousand euros, she’s come to the conclusion that it’s useless, a waste of time, and that they’ve stolen her money.

After great insistence by the Spanish mass media, the wife managed to get the Consul in Havana to visit him in prison, without receiving any concrete response to his kidnapping, given that to date no legal charges have been filed against Sebastian. Maria strongly denies the statements of the Spanish Foreign Office, and charges that the Government and the Spanish Socialist Party is complicit with the Cuban dictatorship.

The question we all have is why doesn’t the Spanish Foreign Office defend Sebastian’s rights as an ordinary citizen. When will the Spanish Government assume a critical posture, without complications of any kind, with the totalitarian policies of Cuba, and turn its back to later justify what it did not witness. The truth is that both the Spanish Socialist Party and the Spanish Government have abandoned Sebastian, even as they affirm that he’s receiving consular assistance.

His wife Maria Sola and a mutual friend, Manual Fernandez, have appealed to me to use this space to help in spreading this outrage against international rights, and of course I have urgently complied. Knowing that the regime specializes in constructing false crimes and simulating trials where, before they’ve heard a single word from either party, they’ve already passed sentence.

I would hope that within this grain of sand that I am launching at international opinion–like that of Jose Marti for whom the whole glory of the world fit into a single grain of sand–can fit all the righteousness of good human beings, and that we can join our voices in demanding the Rights that belong to a defenseless man who suffers unjust imprisonment for doing his job as a journalist.

I want this kernel of corn that launched international opinion, like that of José Martí, the whole glory of the world fit into a kernel of corn, now it fits all the righteousness of the good human beings, and we demand our voices joining the Rights that corresponds to a helpless man who suffers unjust jail for doing his duty as a journalist.

Hopefully we will achieve our aims.

May 20 2011

Cubanacán and Our Lady / Miriam Celaya

Our Lady of Charity, Patron Saint of Cuba. Photo from the Internet

During this past week, Mr. Carlos Valhuerdi, an independent journalist at the Cubanacán Press website, has been telling me about some recent developments beginning on the night of May 7th through the 8th in the city of Santa Clara, after the death of John Wilfredo Soto, resulting from a brutal beating at the hands of four uniformed police officers and which, with unusual haste, was denied by government authorities in a press release issued on Monday the 9th.

On May 12th, Granma published an additional whole page article (page 3) titled: “Cuba Scorns Lies” with some eyewitness accounts – among them one of an inexplicably smiling sister of the recently deceased Soto — as “evidence” of the falseness of the beating. There are always people lacking in scruples ready to surrender to fear, whether they are relatives of the victims of repression or not.

What Granma has not reported is the death, on the night of May 11th, of one of the policemen involved in the beating, as a result of a gunshot to the head by his own hand on the same Sunday afternoon, the 8th. According to testimony not published by Granma and revealed to me by phone by my colleague Valhuerdi, the policeman’s name was Alexei Herrero, and he shot himself in the bathroom of his home, located on the outskirts of Santa Clara known as Callejón de San Antonio, on Camajuaní Road, after having returned from the second meeting he had been summoned to by investigators into the death of Soto. The wake for Alexei — an individual with propensity for violence, according to testimonies — was held under heavy police presence at the Santa Clara Funeral Home (formerly Camacho Funeral Home), an action that extended to the deceased’s own home.

Tension has prevailed in the capital city of Villa Clara, with a steady eye on the opposition, threats, and even retaliation. Héctor Bermúdez, a member of the group led by William (Coco) Fariñas, was stoned after making public statements about the police operation that broke out in the provincial hospital Arnaldo Milián and the pressure that was put on doctors when Juan Wilfredo Soto was admitted, which he witnessed personally. Bermúdez suffered a head wound, as he headed back home, that required stitches.

On Friday the 13th Santa Clara was still not peaceful. Valhuerdi again told me about an incident that day at Parque Vidal, in the heart of the city. This time, a group of citizens — not organized members of an opposition group — orchestrated a spontaneous repudiation rally against Amado Gómez Rodríguez, , a flower seller around said park and one of the witnesses presented by the newspaper Granma, who had stated that Soto did not receive a beating as the “enemies of the revolution were describing”. The group in question was accusing Amado of being “a snitch” and other epithets along those lines at the top of their voices, until uniformed policeman peacefully broke up the angry Santaclareños without hitting, fining, or arresting anyone. Lesson learned, or wisdom of the moment, the truth is that this is not the best time to do something like this in Cubanacán.

In closing, this Sunday the 15th, Our Lady of Charity came to Santa Clara, following the pilgrimage route through Cuba to mark the 400th anniversary of her appearance, to be held in 2012. It is said that the Cuban Holy Patron’s reception in Santa Clara was exceptionally outstanding, with a massive congregation of believers and nonbelievers who attended under the force of her symbolic significance in the popular fancy: it is, so to speak, the Cuban Holy Virgin of Freedom since her presence in the fields of the Independence peasant fighters. Cubans, after half a century of broken illusions, are seeking a faith that will unite and sustain them.

Despite the grief that loss of life due to violence incited from power signifies, it is appropriate that the authorities have received, loud and clear, an unequivocal signal: sooner or later, people get fed up with their oppressors. Legitimization of violence, as unwritten guidelines of the VI Congress, could backfire against the dictatorship one of these days. Let’s not forget that clever saying: For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Translated by Norma Whiting
May 16 2011

Will Cubans Be Able to Holiday Abroad? / Iván García

Photo: Terminal 2F, Charles de Gualle airport, Paris.

In tune with the new airs of delayed economic reforms that General Raul Castro aims to promote, under one of the measures made ​​public on Monday 9th May, Cubans on the island can take holidays abroad.

On the street it has been the story of the year. It displaced the Brazilian soap opera, the gossip about the neighbour’s infidelities, even the constant criticism of government mismanagement.

But it’s not that easy. It’s not like we can take money from the bank and go to shoot some photos in Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid or on the Champs Elysees in Paris. Many prefer the Big Apple, Miami Beach or Los Angeles. But Cubans governed by the Castro brothers are unable to travel as tourists to the United States due to the embargo in place since 1962.

Initial reactions in Havana were of acceptance. In a butcher’s in La Vibora a discussion formed on the subject. “I can never go travelling. Where would I get the money? I do not even know Varadero. But it’s okay for those who can to travel”, said Alfonso, an old retiree.

There are also doubts and suspicions. “Who can travel? Would destination countries grant visas? Could everyone leave, including dissidents?”, asks Maritza, a lawyer.

There are a lot of things to talk about. We would have to see, for example, if the blogger Yoani Sánchez was allowed to leave Cuba. A week ago, for the fifteenth time, she was denied permission to leave, on this occasion to go to Spain and Denmark.

I do not believe prominent opponents such as Elizardo Sanchez, Martha Beatriz Roque, Oscar Elias Biscet and Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, among others, can travel without restrictions or controls to conferences and symposia.

Hardly anyone in Cuba with savings can afford the pleasure of spending two weeks in Cancún or Marbella. It is true that more than 72 thousand Cubans, from 2008 to date, have been guests in hard currency hotels across the island. Which are not cheap. For a family of four, the three-day stay could cost more than $1,200. Seven years of a worker’s salary.

And to cross the Atlantic is another matter. In low season, a one way ticket, at minimum, costs 400 euros to Spain or Italy. If you add up the costs of accommodation and food, you will see that they must carry in their saddlebags between 4,000 and 5,000 euros to see Barcelona play with their magic touch at Nou Camp or visit Venice with its canals, gondolas and palaces.

I presume that only an elite could go travelling. They know of whom I speak. High-level managers, trusted ministers or ‘olive green’ businessmen. It is rumored that plans are under consideration for affordable tourist packages among nations belonging to the ALBA, the group of partners consisting of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

To ordinary Cubans, these destinations are the same. “Hey, socio, the problem is getting the chance to hop on a plane and take a breather. It’s all the same if it’s Quito, La Paz or Caracas. If it’s all true, I will save money. Who would have said it, an ‘asere‘ (marginal) going on holidays”, says a mulatto while waiting for the bus.

Now, the worry will be shifted to the immigration authorities of the countries where the Cubans decide to spend a vacation. It is already known that to emigrate has become one of the favorite passions of the Cubans.

In Paris, Rome or Madrid they will be using a magnifying glass to ensure that all tourists from Cuba take the return flight. The ability to travel could facilitate defections to the USA. Because of the Cuban Adjustment Act, in force since 1966 in the United States, all Cubans who set foot on U.S. soil are automatically granted residency.

The sightseeing tours could become a new incentive for legal entry to the northern neighbour. Countless are the Cuban families that are divided for 50 years. The process of emigrating to the United States, from the parentage of the third generation are complicated and lengthy. José Ortiz is one of them. He spent 12 years wishing to leave.

He has tried everything. From jumping into the sea in a rickety boat and marrying a foreigner, to paying under the table for an Ecuadorian visa to allow him to jump to Miami. Without success. Maybe now the government of Raul Castro will put it in his hand. “It would be a long way and cost lots of money. But a safe way, without the danger of becoming a snack for the sharks”, says Ortiz.

We must wait to see if the new regulations do not become a way to abandon the country. If currently across the pond there are relatives to pay up to 10 thousand dollars to bring over relatives in an illegal and dangerous manner, it is conceivable that they will take advantage of this opportunity to get their family members away from the unpredictable Castro regime.

The new measures are likely to have restrictions. The regime will ensure that the dissidents continue to shout from home and not abroad.

10 May 2011

MINCULT OR MINCUT VERSUS PEDRO PABLO OLIVA / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

LET US NOT FORGET OLIVA IN HIS HOUR OF HORROR

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

I don’t know the Pinar del Rio painter Pedro Pablo Oliva. i don’t know anyone among the stateless dust of a people dispersed as are Cubans (maybe we don’t even go that far, and we are just an illusion of identity). But since 1987 I retain a small original signed by him, called “Traveler,” which surely cost a pittance in national currency because, at that time, unfortunately, the only thing circulating on the Island was the useless Cuban peso (not a few were imprisoned ahead of their time and for treasuring dollars in a half-smuggled box).

I like the unknown work of this unknown compatriot. I remember his “Fidel Grandpas,” sleeping like most of his nightmarish little characters with bizarre colors (although they give the illusion of being realistic). I know he had his run-ins for exposing Fidel Castro on his canvases, but I think that after the usual ministerial censure, one or another of his little Comandantes-en-Jefe in miniature did make it to the galleries (and they even used it on the cover of a magazine as official as UNION!).

Now winds of death come not only for the poor Cuban dissidents, but also for our intellectual enrichment. There will be no puppet with head left before the Apocalypse or Apoptosis of the Maximum Leader. Thus, after 13 years of creative work, Pedro Pablo Oliva’s Workshop in the city of Pinar del Rio has been closed by the state (miraculously they haven’t confiscated or worse: like the political police searched of an editor of the magazine COEXISTENCE, directed by his fellow from Pinar del Rio Dagoberto Valdés).

They accused this ex-deputy of the People’s Power face to face at a government meeting. They called him every name in the book, starting with “traitor” to the Revolution and, of course, to his so often daubed Fidel. They expelled him from everything. Abel Prieto, the outgoing Minister of Culture, called him and suddenly didn’t have the courage to berate him, so of course he, Prieto, got offended and hysterical and threateningly hung up. The art students in his province (and in the country) are prohibited from coming anywhere near him. As they seem to stink do they want to put the stink on him it seems. Who knows if they’ll have the police interrogating him at the earliest opportunity, if the international community doesn’t respond immediately, showing solidarity with the fate of this universal artist who publicly believes in a multiparty system and sees no political sin in being a pen pal, for example, to Yoani Sanchez.

I look at his “Traveller” from 1987. It’s been too long since then.On the cardboard a motley baby with pins is balanced on an axle with uneven wheels. Imbalanced. A skein as free as any labyrinth that is nothing more than a few brushstrokes without a map. What a sad image and what a painful destination for a career where conciliation came first, along with the aesthetic genius of Pedro Pablo Oliva. Cuba is cannibalizing the best Cubans. The future belongs by right to the carcass of this foolish nation.

The bearable spaces on the island promise to be zero. Like during that excited idiot with perestroika, the political police today with personnel to spare cauterize, one by one, our critical or even nonconforming personalities. Exile, illness, trapped by some common crime. I recommend silence to them. To survive, please. We will need them so much tomorrow in the midst of the new mafia. But, for now, if you read me with a shred of heart, don’t let the Revolution kill the soul of the painter Pedro Pablo Oliva. They tell me he cried alone like a child after hanging the closed sign on his workshop, where we are strictly prohibited to dream. He wept with the innocence of one of his own grotesquely charming doodles.

I’m sorry, unknown brother. Resist now. Your irrational share of the truth has touched you. You are as exposed as I am. Your success as an artist was running simultaneously with the many repressions that now by chance have hit you (your National Plastic Arts Prize of 2006 coincided with hundreds of prisoners of conscience all around). Still, I am with you. Dust off your little work of 1987, so Pinar del Rio. It’s just the damned circumstance of hate everywhere.

May 20 2011

It Is Never Too Late / Rebeca Monzo

Just a few days ago we celebrated Farmers’ Day. Its highest leader, among other things, expressed that he couldn’t continue extracting and transporting fresh milk, nor offering it to the people with such precarious hygiene.

In May 2010 I put up a post called “Hygiene Is Health”, where I inserted this photo taken from the daily Rebel Youth, because it called my attention tremendously by showing so primitive a form of distribution of fresh milk — even after a high standard of hygiene in the distribution and sales of this product had reached our country in the 1950s.

It is true that it is never too late and that to rectify is of wise men but if a simple citizen can perceive it, the ruling class has the obligation to be the first to note it, isolate it, and correct it. We cannot continue being so late in perceiving things that jump out at the sight of whomever, above all if puts the health of the populace in play.

And to think — how they fill their mouths criticizing Lady Republic, who died while she was still so young. The same which, with her defects — but also with her countless virtues — placed our country among the first of Latin America.

My respects to that lady who today would arrive at her 109th birthday. It is never too late.

Translated by: JT

May 20 2011

Improper Conduct / Miguel Iturria Savón

There are those who believe that history is written only by those in power, by means of textbooks, testimonials, biographies, means of communication and other supports of dominance that certify the version of the victors. Cuban history of the 20th Century confirms the rule, but in conflict with the story of the main characters who jump the fences of the socio-political angle.

In this parallel history is written the documentary “Improper Conduct“, from the Collection of Cuban Cinema Dador, conceived in the middle of the 1980s for the French channel Antena 2 by Margaret Memegoz and Barbet Schroedr under the direction of Nestor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez Leal, with script by Michel Dumoulin, montage by Michel Pion Mon and Alain Tortevoix, Dominique Merlin behind the cameras and Nicole Flipo as producer.

“Improper Conduct“, based on interviews of exiled Cubans in the cities of Europe and America, offers another view of the country at odds with the official history, recreated through testimonials, images of parades and statements of Fidel Castro about events unleashed by the group who seized power on the island and imposed a reign of terror. The work preserves freshness and a sense of the present, even though it is narrating facts from 1959 to 1980.

The title reuses the expression used by officials to justify the massive dragnets of the 1960s and 70s against hippies, homosexuals, and “those unadaptable to the revolutionary process”, victims of accusations and public ridicule in the neighborhoods, student and labor centers, who were sent to the Military Production Support Units (UMAP), tropical versions of the extermination camps created by the Nazis during the Second World War (1939-1945).

Having become a classic of our cinematography, “Improper Conduct” is a deluxe documentary for its photographic excellence, the montage of images, the panning of faces, the interaction between questions and responses, the self-assurance of the interviewees and unpedantic authenticity of their testimonials; in contrast with that expressed by F. Castro, who masks his intolerance and repression with reasons of state.

Predominant are the testimonies of artists, writers, and ex-functionaries submerged in the atmosphere of an era from the personal story of each. Personalities parade across the screen like Carlos Franqui, founder of Rebel Radio and ex-director of the magazine Revolution, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, creator of the weekly cultural Revolutionary Mondays, the poet Heberto Padilla, the narrator Reinaldo Arenas Fuentes, the theatric René Ariza, the ex-political prisoner Armando Valladares, and intellectuals such as Lorenzo Monreal, Jorge Lazo, José Mario, Rafael De Palet, Héctor Aldao, Mireya Robles, Juan Abreu, Elaine del Castillo, Susan Sontag, Ana María Simo and Martha Frayle, among others who probed that as of yet unexhausted fragment of national horror.

“Improper Conduct” evokes the “Night of the Three Ps” (taken from putas (whores), proxenetas (pimps), and “pájaros” (Johns)), collective humiliations and political and moral trials unleashed against relatives in places like the University of Havana and other teaching centers of the country, blacklists and assemblies of insults that took thousands of innocents to prison. Details about interrogations, absurd suspicions, the claims of hippies, homosexuals, whores, vagrants, and Jehovah’s Witnesses; the places of urban imprisonment; the buses with the blacked-out windows headed to the fields of Camagüey, with fences of electrified spikes, days working in the fields, mistreatment, hunger, and suicides.

Almost nothing escapes the sights of those who carry out this hell on earth. One shows drawings of the barracks, the punishment cells, and the wires. Another evokes the camp’s slogan: “Work makes you men” (Lenin), similar to “Work will set you free” (Hitler), posted at the entrance to Auschwitz.

The film reveals the vicious circle of persecution and persecuted and investigates why there was so much paranoia, especially the preoccupation of Raúl Castro and Ramiro Valdés concerning the gay problem; it recalls Raul’s trip to Bulgaria and Ramiro’s interview with the mayor of Shanghai (China), who told him how they killed them with poles in a traditional feast and threw them in the river as a lesson.

From the images and testimonies of “Improper Conduct” a new prostitution returns with the State as the pimp, tourism at the service of power, the granularity of control at the neighborhood level and the massive exodus from Mariel to Florida (22 April through 16 September 1980), a true plebiscite against governmental despotism.

To see this audiovisual fragment once more about a Cuba buried by repression, censorship and collective laziness, it is incumbent to ask ourselves “what were we doing when those things were going on?” or “What are we doing now with these horror stories? The why is indispensable to recover our memory, cleanse our wounds, and redesign the new nation.

(Translator’s note: This documentary, presented in 12 parts, can be seen on YouTube. It should not be missed.)

Translated by: JT

May 17 2011

One More Number in the Statistics / Claudia Cadelo

Breakfast: 1 C. coffee with milk, 1 tsp sugar, 1 fruit, 1 bread, 1 tsp. butter or mayonnaise. Lunch: 3 large spoons rice; 1/2 C. vegetables; 1/2 C. squash, beets, or carrots; meat, chicken, fish, egg or liver; salad, eat freely; 4 tsps. jam. Dinner same as lunch. Snacks: 1 C milk or yogurt, 1 tsp sugar, fruit.

E. is 38 and pregnant. She feels like one more number in the statistics. The other day she called me when she was leaving the polyclinic to say she was coming over. They couldn’t do any more. Half the tests couldn’t be done because they didn’t have the reagents, even though they sent the prescription paper back smeared with someone else’s blood. She’d been up since five in the morning and at ten still hadn’t had breakfast, and to top it off the doctor asked her, “Honey, why did you wait so long to give birth? Now I have to do an electrocardiogram.”

 

The first thing she said when she saw me was, “I thought the state of education was bad, but now that I’ve come up against the public health system…” E. is like me, very small, but much skinnier. Before her pregnancy she weighed 89 pounds and now, at two months, she weighs 113 and her hemoglobin count is 12.5. Still, the nutritionist thinks she is underweight and has recommended “moving into a maternal home.” She gave her a copy of a diet to follow to the letter. When she showed it to me I started to laugh, but to her there was nothing funny about it.

She has to get up at seven in the morning to have breakfast and this first meal of the day includes a tablespoon of mayonnaise, whose nutritive properties are unknown to me. Throughout the day she must must meet the standard of six large spoons of rice and two ladles of beans (half at lunch and half at dinner, every day until the baby comes). Meat is not defined by quantity and she must eat a half cup of guava jam every day.

I wonder if the diet is to nurture her or to fatten her up. Probably the doctor isn’t authorized to recommend eating certain products like meat or much fish, but at least they should have the decency not to put pregnant women on diets designed to fatten turkeys to make foie gras. In response to the psychologist’s long awaited, “How do you feel?” E. answered, “Fine, but I’d feel better if I didn’t have to come to this polyclinic any more.”

21 May 2011

Correctives / Yoani Sánchez

Image taken from the website of the painter Pedro Pablo Oliva

We are experiencing another turn of the screw of intolerance. Just when individual daring is gaining ground here and there, the times of admonishment come along. The first signs appeared with the TV serial called “Cuba’s Reasons,” whose script seems to have been written in Stalin’s Russia rather than on this 21st Century Caribbean island. Then came the “rapid repudiation rallies,” increased police operations, monitoring cellphones in real time, detentions and searches. All this while the official press continues to say that “the improvement of the economic model” is well underway and that the Cuban Communist Party’s Sixth Congress “has been a resounding success.” We, meanwhile, face the shock of the correctives; no boldness is left without its everlasting punishment.

Among the lashes applied by Daddy State this time, is the closure of the cultural center run by the painter Pedro Pablo Oliva, located in the city of Pinar del Rio. Urgently called before the local authorities, this artist, winner of the National Arts Award, fell under a barrage of criticisms and reprimands. He was questioned about having declared in an interview that he was in favor of a multiparty system, and about having sent a most cordial letter to this writer to publish in her blog. He was also accused of opening the doors of his house to counterrevolutionaries, and even hobnobbing with diplomats from other countries. He was stripped of his position in the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power and a few hours later a farewell poster appeared in the door of his workshop.

The artists from the Writers and Artists Union of Cuba (UNEAC) have chosen, so far, to remain silent and look the other way. Like the little figures with empty eye sockets and forebodings that take Oliva months to paint on his canvases. I maintain that now is the time to support him, to say, “Relax, your brush will be more free without these ideological ties, without these partisan formalities.” It is also a good occasion for those of us sanctioned by insult, censorship and surveillance to do something. If we haven’t converged in our opinions and proposals for the future, at least we can articulate the pain, drawing closer because the blow received by one is felt by all.

It Will Not Be the Editorials / Mario Barroso

The pastor speaking his final words at the funeral. The lady next to the coffin is Madelin, Wilfredo's niece.

Despite how much the government may try to terrorize me with those outlandish editorials, I will continue to raise my voice for Juan Wilfredo. I will not be known as the pastor or the Levite who quietly walked by a man who was beaten and thrown on the floor. My goal is to be the Samaritan who took care of him. And although I can no longer heal his wounds, his words still resonate within me. On that morning of Thursday, May 5th God made it so that our paths cross in time and space for the last time so that, in the words of Soto himself, I would find out about the severe beating which they had carried out on him with their batons.

 

It is inadmissible that, in their attempt to dust off this death from their shoulders, the Cuban government has referenced the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the prisons of Abu Ghraib, and the Guantanamo Naval Base, in addition to thousands of other problems. The fact that crimes are being committed throughout the world does not mean that they are justified in Cuba. The difference is that the death which I came in close contact with was that of my friend Juan Wilfredo. He considered me to be his pastor and he had no reason why to lie to me. And, aside from that, more than his words, his expressions of pain were what really spoke to me, as they also did to thirty other referential witnesses who, just like me, are willing to give declarations, without mentioning those who are not willing to do so because they feel a fear which I will not judge them on.

What is most alarming about the situation is that the case of THE STUDENT is not an isolated case. Every week their are reports about beatings and mob attacks. I recall one case in specific where I was denouncing the violent acts being carried out against Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo in the Rio Verde neighborhood of Havana which were occurring at the same time that the 6th Communist Party Congress was taking place. In fact, the report established by the Congress even provides an initiative for carrying out such mob attacks in their second to last paragraph. The only difference in this situation is that Sara Martha did not die from the beatings, at least not from the instant wounds, but no one can tell what the other traumas they inflicted upon her will cause through slower repercussions. If she would have died, the government would have also tried to dust off their responsibility and would have evoked another death by natural causes. And, of course, this is because there is nothing more natural than to die after a beating.

I am not in favor of anyone coming an bombing Havana, but I am also not in favor of anyone beating a man with impunity, as occurred with Juan Wilfredo after they burst his pancreas. In respect to the dispute between Cuba and the United States, I have always been a believer that the problems we Cubans face must be solved by Cubans. And this is one of those problems where, by product of the work and grace of Providence, and not of an international campaign which seeks to fabricate some sort of excuse, I find myself involved. I would only like to point out that the words which I am saying were not spoken after the death of Juan Wilfredo, but instead on that very morning when the beating took place, as can be proven on the internet by anyone who wishes to check my Twitter account: @maritovoz.

I was not the only religious minister to have had a close relationship with Wilfredo. And I’m not talking only about Cuban pastors. THE STUDENT already made up a part of the normal urban landscape of the Vidal Park in Santa Clara. Various distinguished international evangelical ministers who had visited the city also met with him and established a cordial relationship with him. I will not mention their names, for I do not have the permission to do so, but from afar, I am well aware of their state of emotion towards the subject. From abroad, and also from very near, I am receiving various displays of worry and credibility because of my words. I do not feel like I am alone.

I feel that the Cuban government, which is always unwilling to to open its doors to international investigations, could turn to some sort of specialized and neutral commission which would corroborate in this very lamentable situation. But neither the threatening editorials or the condemnations of half the world will strike fear in me, and neither will their attempts to try and prove the innocence of a desperate government. As the popular saying goes, “Tell me what you brag about and I’ll show you what you lack”. With that said, this village priest will continue repeating with all the power vested on me by justice and truth, that the blood of Wilfredo, like that of any other person whose life was snatched from this world by force, cries out for God from down here in this land.

Translated by Raul G.

18 May 2011

I Will Go / Mario Barosso

by Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez

The final goodbye by Guillermo Farinas
The burial of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia began on foot from the funeral home to Camacho Street where the Santa Clara cemetery is located, and there his remains were laid to rest. The sun was strong and the heat was intense but those men and women- relatives, friends, or partners in struggle- decided to be witnesses for the rest of the city of the pain they felt for the loss. While they walked slowly and silently, I was watching from behind the funerary march, asking myself “Who will go forth and bring words of support, of hope, words which heal and can only come from Jesus in his most ample condition which can save these suffering people who are in their majority mistreated, imprisoned, beaten, discriminated, vilified, and even betrayed on innumerable occasions?” A faint chill ran through my body. I usually feel this when I see that God has placed me in a situation from which I try to escape. God wishes that instead of burying them as this society does, that we wake them the bread of life and that we love and accompany them amid all their demands that all their shattered rights be respected. I also discovered something that unites me with them, and that is that I also feel like I am part of the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet at the same time I am also a citizen of this land, of this Cuba which is just as much mine as it is theirs, and the rights they are fighting for are my rights as well.

I was greatly moved by the final trajectory when the men carried the coffin on their shoulders, led by the Cuban flag- that symbol which represents all the inhabitants of this land. The rest of the attendees lifted floral offerings to the sky. Throughout the entire march through the city many people were standing at their doors to watch. Others stopped on the sidewalk, and this happened all the way to the cemetery. There was no fervor and no remorse on the faces of those who saw the funerary march pass by them. All the faces were of respect, for their silence implied it. I want to believe that those faces are the real Cuban people who are respectful before the pain of others, incapable of judging their brothers just because they have different ideas, incapable of beating others just because they think politically different, and incapable of hurting, injuring, or mistreating their compatriots.

The final words at the cemetery were spoken by the Sajarov Award recipient, Guillermo Farinas. The pain was evident in his face and in his words: “We cannot do anything at this point to legally accuse those who are the culprits of this death”. I understood at that moment that these people are also denied this right to justice. Those who are responsible refused to carry out a fair and transparent trial, yet the dissidents displayed a great amount of determination upon not remaining silent before the death and all the injustice. This made them examples of dignity and human value in my eyes. One of Farinas’ final words resonated in my heart and I became one with them: “God bless Cuba”. I said, “Amen!” because that is my desire as well, that the God of justice bless our nation.

The Student, as Soto was nicknamed, is no longer among us. However, his body has not been buried, it is a seed that has been planted in arable land that will grow. He is an example for all courageous Cubans. I hope that the events which caused his death are brought to light completely. There are other men and women who continue risking their lives to all sorts of dangers in their attempt to achieve freedom for Cuba. Jesus also died for them, and God also wants to achieve salvation for them. Who will go reach them? Who will heal their innumerable wounds? Who will wet their thirsty lips with the water of eternal life? I know that it is a difficult and dangerous calling, and I know it is a goal which many would like to avoid, but God wants to hear a positive response to this calling: I will go.

Translated by Raul G.

17 May 2011

God Despises Lies (Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia) / Mario Barosso

The crime committed against Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia has taken an even more treacherous turn as the assassin, upon trying to dust off another death, has used methods so low like releasing a testimony from his sister Rosa who has suffered from psychiatric disorders since her adolescence. She (Rosa) is a person that is greatly susceptible to being manipulated as has occurred in this burdensome case. Her scarce faculties even prevented her from assisting her own brother’s burial, and she only visited the funeral for a few moments because of her severe nervous imbalance. The government also exercised obvious pressures on Madelin Soto, Juan Wilfredo’s niece, and on her husband Yasmil, using the fact that they economically depend on the State. Madelin is a civil worker for FAR and her husband is a law student and both of these positions are easy targets for pressures, which in this case were successful. But in the case of these two, they did attend both the funeral and the burial. They heard my clear words when I had the opportunity to direct my speech to all those who were present as minister for the service. I publicly stated my testimony about my last interaction with Wilfredo when, after 11 am on Thursday May 5th he informed me about the severe beating he had been subjected to on that same morning. That moment became etched in history after I sent out a Tweet narrating just how dismayed I felt.

To me, what proved his statements to me was his terrible death during the morning hours of that Sunday. Although I spoke clearly at the funeral, neither Madelin or Yasmil even tried to correct me on my “errors”. On the contrary, I greeted all the present relatives with the utmost respect, and they all thanked me for the words, including Madelin. These same relatives had even agreed on having Guillermo Farinas speaking the final words at the cemetery. He also passionately denounced the situation and no one argued against him, the same way that no one forced us to leave the cemetery as they made Rosa say in regards to Wilfredo’s son. But what happened after to Madelin and Yasmil? I can’t assure it, but I strongly believe that we find ourselves before an overly vile and quarrelsome government, and I can’t blame the relatives, although I am strongly disappointed by their highly contradictory behavior.

Small oblesik erected by the family of Ramon (Alo) Casas Carrazana in the spot of his death in the Carreno zone of Rosalia
Small obelisk erected by the family of Ramon (Alo) Casas Carrazana at the spot of his death in the Carreno zone in Rosalia

The cowardly pressures were not exerted only on Rosa, Madelin, and Yasmil. They have certainly also tried to abuse the pain of his two children and his mother. Precisely the day prior to publicizing their macabre report, State Security called me pretending to be from a radio station called Evangelical Radio from Madrid, under the direction of a supposed Raul Gomez Echemendia. From the moment I answered I noticed the fraud and took the opportunity to tell them everything I felt and I was able to confirm their extreme worry and their greed towards the family, as they attempted to deceit me to try and get me to help them with the detestable report they were fabricating. Similarly, without any qualms they also repeatedly visited Anisley Soto Soria, Wilfredo’s daughter. Various representatives of the Communist Party, who know her through her work as a nurse, were visiting her numerous times since Wednesday the 11th in an attempt to pressure her to assist a certain event, which was supposedly a tribute for National Nurse Day which was to take place on Thursday the 12th. Of course, she did not attend. On top of ending the life of her father, they wanted to pull out some words out of her or at least get a video of her receiving some sort of diploma to try and show her in harmony with the assassin seeing as that, like everything else in Cuba, something like a simple tribute to nursing can be manipulated and used as a display of “loyalty” towards the regime.

The rest of the testimonies shown on the report were the same ones as always. People who are servile to the government and who lend themselves to play the game of the dictatorship, acting as accomplices while hiding deaths. Ex-officials from the MININT who are now retired and dedicate themselves to sell flowers are in truth personnel of confidence (PC) for the system which are placed in strategic points like Santa Clara’s Parque Vidal. Activities that are now legal, like the sale of flowers, constitute a perfect facade which keeps watch over the plazas and streets for those who think themselves owners.

But the defamatory Granma report released on Thursday the 12th further commits an even more horrendous crime, as if this felony has no limits. After citing the mentioned testimonies, they have the audacity to evoke the “guarantees of the Revolution for more than 5 decades” as a source of further proof. It would have been better for them to simply stick to trying to justify the death of Juan Wilfredo Soto, even if no one believed them, as opposed to opening that immense casserole which is full of many other deaths.

Ramon Alo Casas-Carrazana

Thinking about it off the top of my head, while still horrified about the death of my friend THE STUDENT, I can quickly draw up some other examples and not of names like the popularly known cases of Pedro Luis Boitel or Orlando Zapata Tamayo, but instead some very local examples: three deaths which still await a serious investigation which would point out the true causes of those already mysterious deaths. If you don’t believe me, you can ask any Taguayabon native:

Ramon (Alo) Casas Carranza, assassinated by a bullet on December 1st 1962, although the case constituted CAUSE No. 12 of 1962 for HOMICIDE by the then Judge of Placetas. Evidently, the real culprit, who took advantage of the anarchic atmosphere, was covered up. At the time, anyone could kill someone else if they were suspected of being “counter-revolutionaries”. According to rumors, it seems to have been a passionate crime hidden behind the euphoria of the moment upon “confusing” Alo with a bandit. If the suspicions of the communities’ memories are after all true, we will find ourselves before a case where it is not only the regime which uses individuals to commit their crimes, but our history is also full of individuals who hide behind the regime to carry out their assassinations. “I’ll cover you, you cover me. I’ll serve you, you serve me”.

Marcos Pareja Gonzalez, a Jehovahs Witness imprisoned under the religious persecution which was unleashed towards this group, was one of the many who let himself die in prison from a disease, without the adequate medical attention which without a doubt caused his death. His was a name out of a multitude of many others that serve as proof of the crimes committed against this religious group, and to this day they have not returned them the list of Registrar Associations as the law states, even when the Cuban state has changed their politics to something more religiously tolerant and not because they are courteous but because they are fully aware of the criminal practices unleashed towards this group, and they know that one day this may reverse itself on them.

Jesus J. Marquez Lemes supposedly committed suicide on August 5th of 2006 while he was detained after trying to unsuccessfully (and illegally) leaving the country after various prior attempts. However, his death was never too clear. There are also some versions which say that he died as consequence of a severe beating which the penitentiary authorities quickly tried to erase. All of us who knew Jesuito know that he never let his will bend and he also did not have suicidal tendencies, and what he really wanted was to live. No one in Taguayabon believed that he died of suicide, and apparently there were also pressures exerted on the family so that they cease any further investigations.

But perhaps the death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia will not only serve to unmask his individual decease, but it will also continue the persecution process of a regime that has eliminated thousands. The difference resides that in this case God allowed me to cross paths with the beaten Juan Wilfredo, thus moving me to the point where I sent out the Tweet. And the fact is that God despises lies, including the ones used by those who auto-dominate Cuba but ignore the fact that besides my being a Christian, the nearly 30 other witnesses willing to testify about the final words told to us by THE STUDENT, along with myself, are also Cuba.

Epitaph of Jesuito in the cemetery of Camajuani where he is buried

Epitaph of Jesuito in the cemetery of Camajuani where he is buried.

By Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso

Translated by Raul G.

16 May 2011

Telling You What I Saw / Regina Coyula

The 15-M today in Logroño, photo from El Pais.

Last night I had a chance to see a phenomenon that started quietly and has spread to almost every corner of Spain. 15-M is the name of the movement, which also emerged from social networks, and which reflects the dissatisfaction of citizens with the management of government, political parties, all of this a few days before regional elections.

I am telling you what I saw. In a city so quiet and obviously prosperous as Logroño seems to be (I’m not posing as an expert, my impression is skin deep), a large number of people, camped in a central square. Some spoke to those gathered and depending on their skills as an orator, and of the content beyond mere words, one was more applauded than another. The many signs, mostly improvised, gave me the measure of the plurality of the protestors; signs were painted against the Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), against the People’s Party (PP), and against the king himself.

But in all that protesting what most caught my attention was the absence of the police, the absence of angry people; it was just a group of citizens peacefully exercising their right to protest the management of the politicians.

May 19 2011