UPDATE: This is being reposted to include six more names added by Masferrer to his initial post. The update was based on a Diario de Cuba article.
Marc Masferrer reports that:

Radio Martí informs that Security of State agents have threatened Reina Luisa Tamayo Dánger, the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, at her home in Banes, Holguín province, Cuba. Reina told Radio Martí that on Friday, a Security of State agent who identified himself as Major Roilán came to her house in Banes, threatened her, and told her that she had to end her weekly Sunday pilgrimages to the town’s Catholic church.

She rejected the threats and made the Cuban government responsible for anything that could happen to her and her family.

Reina also told Radio Martí that they are trying to isolate her, just as she had told us on Wednesday.

More in Spanish with audio at the link.

Marc Masferrer, that magnificent Cuban-American blogger who has kept a very close eye on the situation of all Cuban political prisoners, clarifies his previous post that we reproduced:

After some earlier confusion on my part, it does appear Antonio Villarreal Acosta is the first Cuban political prisoner to be transferred to a medical facility, under an arrangement worked out between the Castro dictatorship and Catholic Church officials, according to the Spanish newspaper La Razon.

Villarreal, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003 and serving a 20-year sentence, was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, his nerves reportedly shot by the abuses he has suffered while in jail. Although at least one dissident questioned whether the move only shifted the location of where the dictatorship tortures Villarreal, according to the newspaper report.

As best as I can, I will try to keep track of which prisoners are transferred to hospitals or to jails closer to their homes as a gauge of the true significance of the new order between church and state in Cuba.

Reina Luisa Tamayo Dánger’s husband, José Marino Ortiz, denounced on a phone interview to Miami-based journalist Nelson Rubio the constant harassment his family suffers. Asked about his opinion on the negotiations between the regime and the Catholic Church, José Marino, stated that “the Cuban government never sympathized with the Catholic Church. It expelled 600 priests, and those left behind had to follow the governmental line.” He stated that it is “all a game”, and asked the Catholic Church to demand the final release of all political prisoners, not just The 26 [gravely ill prisoners], “by one stroke of the pen” from the government.

Marino praised the fact that Ladies in White can now march without being harassed in Havana, and wondered why Reina Luisa; however, cannot.

Further details of what happened this weekend, were offered in a phone interview by Reina Luisa herself to #OZT I accuse the Cuban government. Reina told us that on this past Sunday, that marked “the three month anniversary of the murder” of her son by the regime; she went to church, and after Mass she waited to be at least 10 to 15 meters from the temple to say “Zapata vive. Tres meses.” [Zapata lives. Three months]. They, Reina her family and another opposition activist, were immediately surrounded and harassed by government mobs all the way to her home.

They “blocked the only access point to her home, and that is why only one other opposition activist was able to get through.” They went out, and saw that “the mob had assembled at a place called La Güira” on the road to the actual town [Banes]. However, she and her companions went the other way toward the cemetery to visit Orlando’s tomb without incident.

A few hours later, an opposition activist who lives next to the family, went out to buy some food from the town. He was attacked by female members of the government mob who beat him with umbrellas, and called him, in an effort to humiliate him, “[Reina Luisa’s] slave.”

Shortly after that, the mobs retreated and some opposition leaders were able to reach the house. Last night they were able to celebrate an evening of remembrance honoring martyrs Pedro Luis Boitel, on the 38th anniversary of his death [after a 53 day long hunger strike in prison]; and Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Reina Luisa’s son, who died after an 85 day long hunger strike on 23 Februry 2010.

Cuban independent journalist, Carlos Serpa Maceira, reports to #OZT I Accuse the Cuban government that yesterday representatives of about a dozen opposition organizations congregated at Havana’s Parque Central [Central Park] to culminate a day of remembrance in honor of Pedro Luis Boitel and dedicated to Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Representatives of Partido Pro-Derechos Humanos [Pro-Human Rights Party], Moviemiento Andréi Sajárov [Andrei Sakharov Movement], Movimiento Pro-Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks [Rosa Parks Pro-Civil Rights Movement], Liga Cívica Martiana [José Martí Civic League], Presidio Político Pedro Luis Boitel and others. The opposition activists unfurled signs related to the commemoration, chanted slogans again the government and in honor of Boitel and Zapata.

Governmental paramilitary brigades of rapid response surrounded the opposition activists, assaulted them (Serpa was almost strangled, and another activist has a sprained arm) and dragged them to the police station on the corners of Zulueta and Dragones in Havana, which is about 150 meters from the park. They were subjected to threats and abuses at the police station, and were finally released from the holding cells late in the evening. However, independent journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias is still being held at the station, and the authorities are threatening to “deport” him back to his province, Camagüey.

Serpa Maceira further denounces that police impounded his identification, phone and camera during the arrest. When they returned his belongings, all pictures from the action at Parque Central had been erased. The police has retained his identification card thus confining him to his residence in a country where failure to produce your identification papers, which are constantly checked by police, can be grounds for indefinite arrest and confinement.

Cuban independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas clarified that he will continue his already three month long hunger strike if the government of Raul Castro does not free “all” the political prisoners because his protest “is not just to achieve transfers” of prisoners to other penitentiaries [closer to their homes] but to “achieve the liberation of all of them.”

Representatives of the Catholic Church informed Fariñas last week that the Cuban government had agreed to transfer some of the political prisoners to jails closer to their homes, and to send some of those sick to hospitals, without it meaning a definitive release.

“If the government says that they will not release the 26 [sick prisoners] then I will continue [the hunger strike] because I didn’t [start]this protest for transfers but to demand the liberation of the political prisoners who are sick”, the 48 year old dissident told Europapress.

Source [in Spanish]: Europapress

Marc Masferrer reports at Uncommon Sense:

Cuban political prisoner Antonio Antonio Villarreal Acosta has been transferred to a sanitarium, according to a report posted at Diario de Cuba.

The move coincides as the Castro dictatorship prepares to move some political prisoners under an arrangement made with Catholic Church officials. However, Villarreal's transfer is apparently not part of that deal, as he was moved just hours after a meeting between the dictator Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

Villarreal, who has been imprisoned since the 'black spring' crackdown of 2003, reportedly suffers from psychological and other health problems.

Read more about him, here.

Juan Tamayo with The Miami Herald Reports:

"Raul Castro's talks with the Catholic church on political prisoners have sparked hopes, skepticism and assertions he's taking a risk by recognizing the church as a mediator in Cuban affairs.

The meetings with Cardinal Jaime Ortega are the first time in memory the communist government has negotiated with a national and independent organization like the Cuban church, in an island where authorities at least try to control virtually all activity.

They also represent Castro's most important political shift since he succeeded his ailing brother Fidel two years ago, a change that has given added weight to a church tightly limited throughout most of the last five decades.

While the local church has long decried the country's many problems, ‘what is new is the government's readiness to publicly recognize the Cuban catholic church as a middleman for resolving key issues,’ Havana dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe wrote in a column Monday.

Fidel Castro freed 3,600 political prisoners after 1978 negotiations with exiles, and about 300 dissidents and common criminals after Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba. He also released a few to visitors like The Rev. Jesse Jackson and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Now his brother's meetings with Ortega have raised hopes for an improvement in Cuba's human rights record, as well as complaints the cardinal is being manipulated by Raul Castro to give a propaganda boost to what may be meager changes on the political prisoners.

Castro has promised to move some political prisoners in poor health to hospitals, move other jailed dissidents to institutions closer to their homes and eventually released some of Cuba's estimated 190 prisoners of conscience.

Some analysts are cautioning, however, that Castro is taking a risk that his talks with Ortega may embolden dissidents, average Cubans and even government officials critical of his slow pace in adopting desperately needed economic reforms.

‘The government is tacitly recognizing with this gesture that it will definitively accept the risks of thinking differently,'' said Julio Hernandez, a Miami supporter of dissident Oswaldo Pay's Christian Liberation Movement.

‘This means the church has won a big space of trust,’ added Hernandez. ‘The opposition and the dissidence now must be sensitive to that and adopt a path for peaceful proposals.’

‘When the authorities recognize any sort of independent source of power, they are admitting a weakness,’ said a Havana author who asked to remain anonymous to avoid possible retaliations for his comment.

Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute think tank in suburban Washington, noted that Havana in the past has gone over the heads of the local church officials and negotiated directly with the Vatican on issues such as permissions to open new seminaries.

The Castro-Ortega talks, he added, ‘mark the government accepting the church as a part of civil society ... I don't particularly see any risk (for Castro) in it, but it is opening up a new space for political discussions on topics that were not open before.’

Retired CIA Cuba expert Brian Latell noted that the church-state talks come at a time when Castro faces a crushing economic crisis as well as a wave of international condemnations of his human rights record.

They include the Feb. 22 death of jailed dissident Orlando Zapata after a lengthy hunger strike and a crackdown on the Ladies in White protesters earlier this year.

‘This represents a reflection of how much pressure they (the government) are feeling for the human rights, and pressures from a whole array of domestic problems,’ Latell said. ‘They're hoping the cardinal can help to alleviate some of those pressures.’

But he added that he did not foresee any risk to Raul Castro because Ortega was unlikely to push too hard during the conversations with Castro. ‘I don't see him turning the screws hard on Raul.’

Espinosa Chepe, one of the 75 dissidents jailed in the 2003 roundup known as the Black Spring but freed for health reasons, said Castro's readiness to ease conditions for political prisoners could help improve Cuba's relations with Washington and the European Union.

‘It's clear that President (Barack) Obama favors better relations with Cuba ... but he has been blocked by the lack of reciprocity,’ he wrote. If some political prisoners are freed, ‘that could make it easier for the administration to take additional steps.’

In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said, ‘We've seen the optimist prognosis (for the political prisoners) and are looking forward to seeing what concrete steps the Cuban government will take. We have urged the Cuban government before to release its prisoners of conscience.’

The Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, which favors easing U.S. sanctions on Cuba, issued a statement saying that the Castro-Ortega talks were ‘a real lesson for U.S. policy makers. Talking to the Cubans, not using sanctions ... is the most effective way to achieve progress.’

Oscar Peua, director of the Miami-based Cuban Commission for Human Rights, complained in a blog post that Raul Castro had ‘jumped over the heads of the dissidence’ in order to negotiate with Ortega.

‘But since the key issue is the release of all political prisoners, we do not hold back in being grateful’ Peua added, even though it does not ‘resolve the sad reality of misery and lack of freedom that Cubans suffer for more than half a century.'"

Press release of the “#OZT: I Accuse the Cuban Government” campaign regarding the mediation of the Catholic Church in the release of Cuban political prisoners.

The mediation of the Church

The recent dialogue between the high hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the Cuban government regarding the release of the political prisoners is a promising event. We are in favor of negotiations to achieve this goal which is the fundamental reason of being of our campaign.

We also celebrate the strengthening of the mediating capacity of the Church, as long as it does not assume the role of the parties it intends to mediate for. The negotiation is not between the Church and the government, but between the government and the pro-democracy sector of the Cuban population, which has been systematically repressed by the regime.

The willingness of the government to dialogue with the Church comes out of a specific context, which is impossible to conceal. This dialogue has arrived after the supreme sacrifice of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the hunger and thirst strike of Guillermo Fariñas, the marches of the Ladies in White and the Ladies in Support, the effective unity among the opposition, the exile, the Cuban civil society and the international community who joined for a fair demand the release of political prisoners and the respect of human rights in Cuba. Any release that presupposes the fracture of that unity on those factors goes against the interest of those who remain in prison.

Our commitment is with the 26 political prisoners for whom Guillermno Fariñas is carrying his hunger strike as well as with the victims of the Black Spring. But not only with them. Our goal is to not go back to the situation of Cuba in March 2003. The “#OZT: I Accuse the Cuban Government” campaign will last as long as there are political prisoners in Cuba and its citizens are denied the exercise of human rights.

Here are some images and video of the different marches that happened for Cuba's freedom yesterday:

Milano, Italy:

On 20 May 1902, Cuba began a new life as an independent nation. From that date on, Cubans started to build the Republic for which Céspedes, Agramonte, Maceo, Gómez, Martí and other leaders in the fight for Cuban independence from Spain, had fought. This was system based on the rule of law, the equality of all citizens before it, checks and balances of power, the protection of individual rights and freedoms, and government through freely elected representatives.

Despite a colonial regime that for centuries kept Cubans away from any sort of self-government, despite some pervasive, and contrarian to the republican spirit social institutions like slavery, despite the authoritarian system of command and obedience fostered within the Liberation Army; Cubans progressed for half a century pursuing and partially achieving that republican ideal. This adventurous social experiment was suspended on 10 March 1952, with Fulgencio Batista’s coup d’état, and finally died abruptly seven years later, victim of what was then hailed as a providential rescue of the Republic, but ended up being its complete opposite: personal despotic rule, inequality before the law, and the systematic violation of all human rights that has lasted more than five decades.

Why do we march?

The Cuban “revolution” has been, throughout all these decades, an excellent propaganda campaign designed to hide Castrism’s unpresentable reality and the people’s growing rejection, shared today by a clear majority, of the system. To reveal this reality and to support those who are trying to change it, is one of our campaign’s most important tasks.

We invite you to march with us on this 20 May 2010 to celebrate the founding ideals of the Cuban Republic, and also the gallant courage of those who defend them in the island. That is why we are going to march for the political prisoners, for the late Orlando Zapata, for Guillermo Fariñas, the Ladies in White, the Support Ladies, the oppositionists, the Cuban independent journalists and bloggers. We will try to have them marching side by side with us.

It will probably be an entertaining virtual march, but not a frivolous or useless one. We Cubans need to learn how to express our desire for change, and to make it public in an encompassing and coordinated fashion. This is a rehearsal and a show of support for those who will be marching in many cities around the world commemorating this date.
How to take part

The march will take place all day on 20 May 2010. You must be a Twitter registered user to participate, and use the #20mayo hashtag for your tweets. The more you do it, the better. All who use the hashtag will “parade” using their own avatar and showing their last tweet. Again, it is an all day event and the starting point is here:

Virtual March #20mayo for the Republic of Cuba

http://isparade.jp/127355

Several media echo reports by Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Spanish EFE, that Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas will reconsider his hunger strike if negotiations between the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Cuba and the Cuban regime result in the liberation of most or all political prisoners.

The report states that two high-ranking members of the Catholic hierarchy told Fariñas in person, this past Tuesday, that they were fighting to get all gravely ill political prisoners freed. Fariñas initiated his hunger strike, 86 days ago, to obtain the liberation of 26 political prisoners who are gravely ill, and in memoriam of Orlando Zapata Tamayo who died after an 85-day long hunger strike for the same reasons on February 23rd, 2010. The bishops told Fariñas that the final list of those freed could be greater than 26.

“They came to tell me that there would be a high-level meeting [between Church and regime], and that they would come back with a concrete proposal, that I should not despair.”

The meeting took part yesterday, as informed by the official newspaper Granma. Cardinal Ortega, and the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Dionisio García met Raul Castro, and they discussed “matters of mutual interest.”

“The matter is that we are in agreement, both the monsignors, myself, and according to [the bishops] the [Cuban] authorities as well, on that the 26 [prisoners] must come out” remarked Fariñas.

“The problem will be how and when they are liberated” added the activist.

Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, also an opposition leader, said the Catholic Church “is on the other side” [that of the government].

“To me, it is not clear what role is the Church playing” although she stated that hopefully this mediation leads to “a road of solutions.”

“I think that right now, instead of helping, it [the Church] is interfering by speaking the same language as the government” she added.

Another long-time opposition leader, Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, president of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN, in Spanish) also expressed his doubts about the meeting.

“I reiterate our trust in the Church, and our distrust of the government’s decisions”

“The current situation in Cuba, especially in matters of civil, political, economic and cultural rights, requires urgent solutions” stated the president of CCDHRN and added that he lives in “permanent skepticism” when it comes to dealing with the totalitarian regime.

CNN's David Ariosto reports on the many times denounced and well documented situation of Cubans whom the regime considers "illegal immigrants" within the very own borders of the nation.  Since the mid-nineties the Cuban government has practiced a systematic yet selective and discriminatory policy of internal exile by barring citizens of the provinces from being in the Cuban capital, La Habana, unless they are there in official functions.

What the article does not mention is that this policy is applied especially to opposition activists as shown recently in the cases of independent journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, and before with some members of the Ladies in White, and the most recent martyr of Cuba's peaceful struggle for freedom, Orlando Zapata Tamayo.  It is also, applied unevenly, as the article shows, on the basis of race. Those Cubans of darker complexion are much more likely to be stopped by a police officer (who almost nine times out of ten is himself an "oriental" or  a person from Oriente, the Eastern provinces) and summarily deported to their places of origin.

Article 13.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that every individual "has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state."

Yoani Sanchez reports in Spanish via Twitter that yesterday around 1:00 pm opposition activists deployed "Zapata Vive" signs, and shouted "Libertad" ["Freedom!"] on the steps of the [former] National Capitol [El Capitolio].  The building, which used to house the Cuban Congress during the republican era, is a tourist attraction, and Yoani reports that several tourists joined the protesters shouting "¡Libertad!".  It was a very brief act, but the news of it are still circulating around Havana.

By Yoani Sánchez
Award-Winning Cuban Blogger

We will reduce them to obedience to the law. Julio, lawyer

Spanish news agency EFE reports (in Spanish) that European Christian Democrat Union vice president, Arnold Vaatz has sent a message to the participants in the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Madrid, Spain; urging them to show solidarity with Cuban dissidents who are in danger of dying.

The former East German dissident and human rights activist, called on European politicians to speak “with one voice” on Cuba. He added that Cuban opposition activists deserve encouragement and solidarity, not discouragement with appeasement policies [towards the Cuban dictatorship].

He remarked that there are reasons for serious concern about the life of several sick opposition activists and political prisoners, especially Guillermo Fariñas, Ariel Sigler Amaya and Normando Hernández González.

The Christian Democrat Union is part of the political coalition currently in power in Germany, and it is the political party of Chancellor Angela Merkel who is attending the summit.

Press release from the Cuban Canadian Foundation.

International demonstration in support for The Ladies in White and the international demand for the freedom of the Cuban Political prisioners.

Dear Friends

As an answer to the international call in support of Laides in White, our organization asks for friend of Cuba's freedom and all exiled Cuban who live with dignity in Canada, to protest in front of the General Cuban Consulate in Toronto at 5353 Dundas St West, Square Kipling, this Saturday 22th of May from 12 to 2 pm.

Thank you in advance for your participation or support.

Please send us a confirmation message [to ccf@cubancanadianfoundation.com] and spread the word. We hope to see you there, now that Cuba’s Freedom is closer.

Ismael Sambra

Reelected President CCF

A non-affiliated group of Cuban exiles and non-Cuban friends has called for a worldwide march for Cuban freedom. Below we reproduce their press release:

WORLD MARCH FOR CUBAN FREEDOM

Miami, FL (May 7 2010) - Miami is one of over 18 cities out of 12 countries around the world that will march to demand freedom and respect for human rights in Cuba, on May 22, 2010 (Saturday). A group of friends of social networks and other local organizations have joined this world march. “The aim of this march is to internationally denounce the state terrorism imposed by the Cuban regime against the Cuban people for over 50 years,” said Miguel Pascual, coordinator of the march in Miami. These demonstrations will take place during May 20 through 22 to memorialize the 108th anniversary of Cuban independence from Spain and the first time the Cuban flag waved freely in the then new Republic of Cuba.

Date: May 22nd, 2010


Time: 12:00 pm (the march will start at 12:30 pm)


Place: SW 8th St 13th Avenue (across from the monument to Playa Girón heroes) and up to the Friendship Torch in Brickell.

The (non-politically affiliated) Group of friends of Facebook social networking “MIAMI: WORLD MARCH FOR CUBAN FREEDOM” is hereby calling everyone to join the WORLD MARCH FOR CUBAN FREEDOM, to commemorate the 108th anniversary of Cuban Independence on May 20, 1902, on the eve of the third month of the assassination of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, killed in the Cuban jails on February 23, 2010. The purpose of the march is to condemn the Cuban regime and DEMAND FROM THE STREETS OF THE WORLD the total freedom of our people and respect for human rights in Cuba.

Cities confirmed to participate in the march include Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Florence, Lisbon, Madrid, Mallorca, Miami, Milan, Orlando, Oslo, Paris, Quito, Santiago de Chile, Santiago de Compostela, Tampa, Washington.

Click here for the contact information of the march coordinators in those cities.

This march will be joined by dissenting members in different places of Cuba, and eventually other participants that cannot be physically present will do so through web information networks and radio station Actualidad 1020 AM with Nelson Rubio, that will be broadcasting from the different cities of the world that have joined this World March. It will also be disseminated at http://www.actualidadmiami.com/.

For this reason, we are calling a press conference on May 18th, at 11.00 AM at HAVANAFAMA Theatrical Company, located at 752 SW 10 Ave. Miami, FL 33130-3112.

For more information on this march, contact c21mpascual@hotmail.com, or call (786) 229-0378.

By Laritza Diversent*

In Cuba, there are several forms of expression. The most peculiar one if when you want to criticize the political system. There are several steps you need to follow. First, you need to look around the place where you are. Second, know with whom you are trying to have a dialogue. And third, you need to converse quietly, using signs and codewords.

To many, this may seem like an exaggeration. Some even ask if it is simply fear, or if it is really forbidden to criticize the socialist system. The truth is that many Cubans are afraid to speak up; others protect themselves with aliases and those who speak openly, are taking a risk.

The current criminal statues protect State’s leaders, officials and institutions against negative expressions and opinion from the citizenry. In other words, in Cuba, criticism can be a crime.

The Penal Code includes several criminal provisions that protect people’s honor in general: defamation, libel and slander, and insult. However, the provision of “disrespect” offers exclusive protection to the authorities, in addition to those covered by the previously mentioned crimes.

The criminal provision applies a penalty of a fine or prison from 3 months up to 1 year to whomever “threatens, smears, libels, insults, reviles, or through any other mean defiles or offends, verbally or in writing, the dignity or decorum of an authority, public official, or its agents or assistants, in the course of performing their duties or on occasion or because of their duties.”

Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s initial sentence was for committing this crime. A prisoner of conscience, who died in prison after 86 days on hunger strike, he was sentenced to three years in prison because this crime is considered aggravated when is committed against the president, the members of the Council of State and Minister and the National Assembly. It is a common crime strongly tied to politics.

That means that mocking Fidel Castro or calling the president of the National Assembly a cynic could be interpreted by police as a crime of disrespect.

Don’t they say that in Cuba there is democracy? Then why can public figures not be criticized by the citizens?

But that’s not all. There are Supreme Court rulings stating that inspectors from the departments of Architecture and Urban Planning, Public Health and the night-shift security officers working for the Ministry of the Interior are also protected by this criminal provision of disrespect. What’s more, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) are also privileged with the protection of this norm, since they are considered authority’s assistants.

Whoever thinks that if they criticize the government without making a reference to a specific official they can avoid the potential judicial sentence is wrong. The criminal legislation also includes sentences for those who publicly defame, denigrates or despise the institutions of the Republic, the political, masses or social organizations in the country, or the heroes and martyrs of the homeland.

I know it sounds like a joke, but it is not. It is legally prohibited to criticize the historical leaders, the government, the parliament the CDR’s, the Cuban Workers Union and every single organization created by the communists.

Coded-talk will continue to be a form of conversation in Cuba, as long as we have crime definitions that attack freedom of expression. We will continue to have those whispers stuck in our throats, choking us and preventing the people from raising its voice against those who repress them.

*This article by independent jurist and journalist Laritza Diversent first appeared in Spanish at http://www.desdelahabana.net/?p=2709.  It was translated by Mailyn Salabarria, and revised by #OZT I Accuse the Cuban government Campaign.

Mark Masferrrer at Uncommon Sense reports that "Cuban independent journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias late Friday was released from jail after three weeks in custody.

The experience of surviving time in a Cuban prison has not scared Martínez into silence or submission.

Martínez told Radio Martí that as he was drive home Friday evening, a State Security official warned him to keep a low profile, to abandon the journalism and other activities that had gotten him arrested April 23 while covering an event commemorating the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Otherwise, the official said, he would find himself back in prison.

Martínez responded by telling the official he might as well take him back to jail because by no means would he give up his work or the struggle for human rights and freedom in Cuba.

Martínez is the second journalist to be released from jail after a recent series of arrests targeting journalists, bloggers and others committed to reporting on the realities of Cuba today. Last weekend, it was Dania Virgen García, who was set free after a couple of weeks in jail, even after a "court" had sentenced her to 20 months in prison on a bogus charge."