Repression at Estado de SATS (Video)

This video was taken in the street outside the home of Antonio Rodiles, which is also the headquarters of Estado de SATS, where a Conference on Human Rights was being held in honor or World Human Rights Day.

The man in the blue shirt with glasses is Antonio Rodiles, director of Estado de SATS. The woman appearing next to him in a black dress early in the video, and sitting on the street later in the video, is Ailer Gonzalez, Antonio’s wife and also one of the active coordinators of Estado de SATS. The older woman in the long green dress holding a cane is Antonio’s mother.

The children (in and out of school uniform) were taken out of school to spend the day “repudiating” the Estado de Sats Human Rights Conference (a government spokesperson claimed they were having a “sports day” on this residential street and that Antonio was abusing the children when he was arrested).

Either Planet / Cuban Law Association, Rodrigo Chavez

Lic. Rodrigo Chávez

For my eldest son, Roylier Javier Chávez Dubrocq.

Countless conversations will never happen given the pigheaded, volatile and dim-witted habit our government has for maintaining a monopolistic grip and control on the flow of information, or should I say, disinformation.  Essentially, the State not only keeps us in the dark about our legitimate rights, but is sole proprietor of our intimacy and our ability to move or even think.

My son is back where the four condemned Cuban “anti-terrorists and Heroes of the Cuban Republic,” as they are better known back here, are imprisoned. Thing is: on this planet, all Cuba is like a prison and subjected to the whimsy of just a few.  By whimsy I mean the sort of fanciful cravings and doings of the few that are concealed from view but completely inhibit the people’s access — let alone execution — to even the most basic of rights.

From that other planet — where all rights are seen, heard and spoken — we are routinely exposed to movies and TV shows where legal recourse and due process are recognized.  On that other planet, all information is publicly shared among  nations.  Routine comparison to what has been called a revolution here really ends up sounding like a complete misnomer.

Big difference: My son is now poignantly aware of what I told him years ago and he can effectively measure the difference between what he studied here but experiences as his true life over there.

For this reason, whenever we speak his words are upbeat but always underscore that the Cuba yearned for should be one where democracy, freedom and ample human rights are given.

We’ll get there one day, son.  Surely we will.

Translated by: JCD

9 December 2013

Karl Poort’s Photos of Havana in the Depths of “The Special Period”

6

In 1994, when he visited Havana, Karel Poort from the Netherlands took these photos that he has shared with Cuba Material.They are photos of Old Havana and Central Havana before dollarization. All the buildings and establishments in them were later restored and reconstructed to house hard currency trade. Before this time, three decades of socialist experiments had turned them into the ruins shown to us in the photographs of Karel Poort.

1

2

3

4

5

From the blog Cuba Material

More Than 300 Opponents Arested on International Human Rights Day

detenciones-dia-derechos-humanos-AFPHAVANA, Dec. 11, 2013 , Let’s Talk Press / www.cubanet.org.- Repressive forces of Raul Castro’s military regime arrested several correspondents from the Hablemos (We Speak) Press Information Center  who were trying to take pictures of the repression against activists and opponents gathered on Tuesday, 10 December to conduct activities for the International Day of Human Rights.

Among the correspondents detained, now released, are Magaly Norvis Otero , Tamara Rodriguez, William Cacer, Ignacio González, Jorge Alberto Liriano and Roberto de Jesús Guerra, arrested in different areas of the capital.

The arrests, which lasted between five and seven hours, were carried out by officials of the Department of State Security (DSE ), the political police, the Directorate General of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR ) and the General Directorate of Counter Intelligence, all from the Ministry of the Interior.

Rodriguez, Cacer and Gonzalez were arrested near Coppelia Ice Cream, located on 23rd Street and L in El Vedado. At this site, Berta Soler, spokeswoman for the Ladies in White Movement, had called for her group to stage “a demonstration to the world that the military regime of President General Raúl Castro does not respect human rights.”

Otero and Guerra were arrested at noon Tuesday in Infanta Street at the corner of Santa Marta, Central Havana, coming out of the headquarters of Hablemos Press, which remained besieged by agents of the political police from the early hours of the morning.

The correspondent reported that Jorge Alberto Liriano was arrested in the town Santiago de las Vegas, Rancho Boyeros municipality, Havana, on traveling to the center of the capital, and he affirmed that he was beaten by the security agent known as Gaston.

The correspondents detainees were transferred to the 4th Unit of the National Police in the Cerro municipality in Havana, and others to the Detention Center known as Vivac, also in the capital. State Security Agents and the People’s Revolutionary Police (PNR) violently prevented correspondents Raúl Ramírez Puig and Odalys Pérez Valdes from Guines, Mayabeque Province, from leaving their homes to travel to Havana, Puig reported in a phone conversation.

Meanwhile correspondents in Sancti Spiritu, Guantánamo and Holguín reported harassment and repression suffered this day when the world celebrated the International Day of Human Rights.

A correspondent at Estado de Sats

Pablo Morales, Hablemos Press correspondent in Havana, said Tuesday night that by managed to enter the house that is the site of the Estado de Sats Project, located at No. 4606 1st Avenue between Calles 46 and 60, in Miramar  Playa Municipality where activists and organizers performed different activities for the 65th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as they were repudiated from outside the housing by about 400 supporters of the Castro regime.

Morales said that, on Tuesday morning, “a dozen activists were violently arrested by the political police while trying to enter Estado de Sats,” which remained under siege by police officers, State Security and Rapid Response Brigades (BRR).

We still do not have an exact figure of how many people were detained Tuesday. It is estimated to be over 300.

The repressors also cut phone service to dissidents to block communications.

Soler and some 80 Ladies in White in Havana were arrested and beaten, along with dozens of activists and opponents who tried to gather at Coppelia Ice Cream.

“Cultural activities”

The authorities of the regime organized youth activities in the same places that the opposition had gathered, for the purpose of repudiating them.

In addition to repression in Havana, dozens of activists, opponents and dissidents were arrested and beaten in Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos  Camaguey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba provinces, according to reports from independent journalists.

In the town of Velasco, Holguin province, BRR members stormed the home of Damaris Garcia  located at 2501 No. 29th Street between Calle 23 and 32, Manuel Fajardo neighborhood, where 31 opponents had gathered.

“They have been hitting us, throwing stones, sticks, paint and even beating the children who are here with us,” said Garcia and the activist Rafael Friman.

However, a report published Tuesday by the official Communist Party newspaper Granma said that “There has never been a single case of murder, torture or extrajudicial execution  has never been a death squad or an Operation Condor” on the island.

Cubanet, 12 December 2013

The Human Rights Party in Cuba / Angel Santiesteban

The great specialty of Cuban journalists is to inflate balloons, darken with dust clouds the reality of what happens in the archipelago, and, in passing, to lick the feet of the dictators.

The most outstanding in this work are those who write for the Granma newspaper, who were chosen for it precisely: manipulable beings who practice a profession that they denigrate, disrespect, and who some day will come to form part of the anthology of the unremarkable.

Oscar Sanchez Serra, in the publication last Friday on the 6th of this month, in the official press of the Communist Party, talking about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has once again demonstrated, by the cynicism with which he refers to the Magna Carta — our Constitution — calling it “dreams and illusions,” how disgusting it is to him to mention it.

For the Castro government, it has been a stumbling block for the more than half century that they have exercised its flagrant violation, like all dictators, of course. No economic achievement (there are none), nor social, justifies the least deprivation of Universal Rights, whether they comply with them all or violate them.

The hack believes that hiding in the historic calamities that happened in the world might justify those in our own country, and so, in that spectrum of examples that he mentions, like the Second World War until the more recent ones in Iraq and Libya, and world prostitution among other examples, he entertains the readers and makes them forget those that they violate before our eyes and remain silent about, like the beatings and arrests of the Ladies in White and the abuses against the opposition, in spite of recognizing that “Our little country is not paradise.”The reporter never mentions, I suppose out of respect for ridicule, that Cuba recently became part of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council; he does not even hint at national problems, hiding behind the manipulative machinery that the system exercises in the methods of revealing, in the best style of Nazi propaganda in the time of Hitler, and wears himself out citing what happens in the hemisphere, something like asking why ask for human rights for Cubans if the same thing happens in other parts of the world.  And with cynicism he jokes about the United Nations’ Magna Carta.

Really more than a journalist he lets himself be seen as an agent of State Security in the most humiliating service to the dictatorship.  It was like a prelude to what happens in the days preceding the commemoration of December 10th, International Day of Human Rights.

The arrests of the brave and peaceful Ladies in White once more occur for dozens of days before.  Recently, on her arrival at the airport from Europe, the leader Berta Soler was abused, harassed and abducted to be taken in an official car which left through one of the side doors, and so to avoid her being received by her daughter and her husband Angel Moya (who on parole after being sanctioned in the Black Spring, forming part of those 75 opponents of the totalitarian regime, that remain standing as flags against the regime).

The abuses, outrages and detentions of the Ladies in White, are only the gasoline that fuels their silent protests, while they walk with gladioli in their hands.

How much shame that journalist must feel who endorses the governmental abuses! Because it is not worth mentioning, comparing it with those semi-literate men and women who operate as henchmen, and are the instruments of punishment against the opposition, one supposes that it is not the case, that there exists a difference, at least you would want that; now we speak of supposed journalists, professionals who should love their profession, at least they should above all, and not in exchange for largesse, by miserable others, and accept pandering to a system that grows increasingly impossible to sustain.

Again the Human Rights party in Cuba will be held with the pain of the opponents who expose their bodies to be beaten and confined in punishment cells, and unfortunately, also, to be attacked under the complicit silence of the corroded people, thanks to the terror imposed by the State, of those who live within and outside of the country, almost in their totality, because of institutional fear that assures and occupies itself with punishing all who confront it.

Those within fear losing their work, their children’s education; those outside fear reprisals against family members that they left behind, and then that they would be refused the opportunity to come visit them.

While that silence happens, women and men, legitimate children of this people, weary of famine, face each other in their streets demanding democracy.  The Ladies in White endure the beatings and vexations.

The space Estado de Sats will try to fulfill the program in a plural meeting in Havana in order to discuss the destiny of the future Cuba where all Cubans participate.

The members of the UNPACU will end up confined, some with open cases and sent to prison, others returning home with fractures.

That is the daily reality of the opposition on the island.  Except that, in that same instant that the beatings and arrests occur, others see a film, open a beer, and watch their children eat ice cream, satisfied, they think that now they achieved their rights and now done their duty by Jose Marti!

Angel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton prison settlement.  December 2013.

Translated by mlk.

10 December 2013

Festival of Classic Latin American Cinema / Rebeca Monzo

It’s common knowledge that  our country is celebrating a so-called Festival of New Latin American Film although nothing about it seems new.  On my end, I was not able to see any screenings in person because I am caring for my husband who is recovering from recent surgery and is home-bound.

Obstacles notwithstanding, movies were brought to my home for viewing*. I felt somewhat out-of-sorts because I had no say on the days or exact showtimes, let alone movie choice.  Unwittingly, I got two flicks: “Strange Factors” and “Unwanted Visitors.“

The first movie was the worst: Very crude and unoriginal. I had the first one projected on the landing of the staircase which leads to my apartment. The other was surprising but predictable because from my balcony I could see the actors’ wardrobe and wheels: Plaid shirts and a Suzuki motorbike**.

Both movies had police state settings although the second movie was filmed in our living room.  Clean and respectful language was obvious, especially in the latter of the two films.  Both films shared a common goal: To communicate that I should not try to exercise the right of free assembly and association, particularly on December 10-11, International Human Rights Day, rights granted to us under the UN Charter to which our country is a signer.

From these surprising displays of power, one thing we’d like to make clear to everyone: We are human beings who love and cherish freedom. As such, we will continue to exercise our rights yet remain respectful and consistent spectators, never forgetting this old cinema with its grotesque, crude and outdated films.  This we’ll do until the moment the big screen spells The End.

Translator’s notes:
*Rebeca is being sarcastic in this article; the two “films” were in fact two visits — from her ’neighbors’ and the police — warning her not to participate in activities on December 10, Human Rights Day. (See link to a similar post by Regina Coyula.)
** That is the “uniform” and “vehicle” of the police in plain clothes.

Translated by: JCD

9 December 2013

The Real Monuments / Fernando Damaso

Photo: Rebeca

There are those who think that, given the ongoing deterioration to the healthcare, education and athletic systems, the main monuments to Cuban socialism are the plazas of the revolution, built mostly in provincial capitals and in some municipalities.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The main monuments to Cuban socialism are the countless failed projects and plans scattered throughout the country.

Remember there was the Havana greenbelt, which was going to solve the capital’s agricultural needs and even produce coffee for export. There was the Harvest of Ten Million, which would have placed us at the forefront of world sugar production. There was the Havana Metro, whose offices, subway lines and stations would have alleviated the problem of public transport. There was Nuclear Electro Cienfuegos, which would have addressed the electrical power shortage.

There was a textile plant in Santiago de Cuba, which would have produced all the fabric necessary to clothe every Cuban. The towel factory, which would have manufactured ten million towels annually, one for every Cuban at the time. The plan for growing micro-jet bananas, which were supposedly adaptable to climate variations anywhere in the country. The candy and soft drink factories in every province, which were supposed to meet the needs of children. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

One crazy idea after another, none of which were based on economic reality. We have spent too many years applying fanciful economic policies based on volunteerism, presenting imaginary ideas as though they were attainable realities, with the goal of keeping hope eternally alive for a people mired in poverty. It would be best if, in this time of economic “updating,” we did not add any new “monuments.” The ones we already have are more than enough to guarantee that no one forgets what socialism in Cuba represented.

11 December 2013

Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Tomás A.

11 December 2013

The Worst Tribute / Rebeca Monzo

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

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

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

11 December 2013