Search results for: Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Mr. Presidents and Foreign Ministers participating in the Sixth Summit of the Americas, meeting in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia: I am Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, former Cuban political prisoner who, after warmly greeting you and sending you my respects on behalf of my brothers of the internal resistance, which in a peaceful but direct … Continue reading “Letter from the Front to the Attendees at the VI Summit of the Americas / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”

Site manager’s note: The information about the extensive repression leading up to the Pope’s visit is coming to us through Twitter, emails, Hablalo sin miedo (Speak without fear) and other routes, other than blog posts. Raul Garcia Jr., over at Pieces of the Island, has prepared an excellent summary of the most recent reports. Keep … Continue reading “(PARTIAL SUMMARY) Wave of arrests and threats sweep across Cuba just hours before the visit of Pope Benedict. #PopeCuba”

Julio Columbié Batista is a young peasant from Batey Grúa Nueva in the town of Violeta, Ciego de Avila. This co-chairman of the Central Opposition Coalition in that province, director and founder of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front, is one of the brave opponents devoted to the cause of … Continue reading “A Leader Anonymous But Real / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”

The Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front, as part of its campaign We Are All the Resistance: The Streets Belong to the People and from the call for a Day of Resistance every month, is calling for January 24 to be the Day of Cuban Resistance with a cacerolazo — a … Continue reading “Call for a National Pots-and-Pans Protest in Cuba for the Day of Resistance / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”

Fellow few hours ago I returned from Havana, where I was with the young opponent Junier García Ruiz at the home of Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo participating in the camp that there held in support of freedom of this sister of ours, of her husband Julio León Pérez and others arrested. This historical encampment had … Continue reading “Comment on Radio Mambí / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”

Once again, State Security uses the old tactic of trying to discredit, given its inability to come to a public debate of arguments and ideas. A debate that would have a long-awaited end, because absolutely nobody can hide the ruin they have brought to the Cuban nation. They razed it and follow by trying to … Continue reading “Who Are the Real Anti-Cubans? / Estado de Sats, Antonio G. Rodiles”

Yesterday, February 23, 2012, for a second time, Cuban TV has honored me by exposing my image — along with those of several other independent journalists and dissidents — in the national news. The previous occasion occurred months ago, during an unfortunate program televised through the famously dull Roundtable, regarding an alleged cyberwar that the … Continue reading “Declaration of Principles / Miriam Celaya”

When a country is forced to live in a history, revised and corrected according to the interests of an undemocratic regime beyond its fiftieth anniversary, events crowd and overlap each other. February 24th is primarily remembered as the beginning of the 1895 War of Independence, led by José Martí. More recently by the failed Cuban … Continue reading “When / Rafael León Rodríguez”

Wilman Villar was a human being, Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a human being. Human beings are capable of love and hate, of fear, or of fighting, to free us or to be submissive, to have a domestic dispute, to drink or not to drink. And yet, they are also be able to perform actions that … Continue reading “Lent / Lilianne Ruíz”

Since the release of latest political prisoners from the repressive crackdown known as the Black Spring of 2003, foreign correspondents in Cuba cling to a mythical number twelve, referring to those who refused exile and stayed on the island, which is a half truth. There were 52 remaining of the 75 convicted under the Gag … Continue reading “Not Twelve, Seventeen / Miguel Iturria Savón”

More than one year ago, the daily newspaper El Mundo asked me to chronicle the Ladies in White. With their street protests, the women headed by Laura Pollán, gladiolas in hand, were cornering the regime. In February 2010, after a hunger strike of 86 days, the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died. Each week, the … Continue reading “How Can the Persecutors of Laura Pollán Sleep Peacefully? / Iván García”

The punishment cell is narrow, is five feet wide by two long, cold and there is not even a blanket for cover. From the hole in the floor that serves as a toilet, a rat occasionally emerges and looks curiously at the curled up man lying there. Outside shouts are heard, metal banging, and the … Continue reading “Wilman Villar Mendoza: The Death of a Dissident / Yoani Sánchez”

If, at the moment she stepped foot on U.S. soil that June 9, 2011, someone had whispered in Reina Luisa Tamayo’s ear that barely seven months later, this January 31, 2011, she would be at the Versailles Restaurant not as a heroic mother, but as a woman in need of support and understanding; no longer … Continue reading “Reina Luisa’s Other Versailles / Ernesto Morales Licea”