Repression increases in Cuba amidst negotiations between the regime and the Church
posted on Friday, June 04, 2010Thirty seven dissidents were arrested in Havana between Thursday and Friday as part of a raid from the Cuban political police to avoid the celebration of two important meetings, declared opposition leader Héctor Palacios.
On Thursday, the police tried to prevent the meeting of the Committee for the Transition and arrested 14 people; while on Friday there was a similar raid against the meeting for the annual assembly of the Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba (ULRC) [Liberal Unity of the Cuban Republic] that was to take place in the house of
opposition member Héctor Palacios. 23 dissidents were arrested.
Those arrested on Friday, the political police has taken them to different police stations throughout Havana, according to the Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional [Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation]. The whereabouts of some of the arrested is unknown.
The meeting of the ULRC took place with the attendance of 18 dissidents who managed to enter Palacios’ house before dawn.
Gisela Delgado, member of the Ladies in White, denounced the arrests of several dissidents in Holguín and Guantánamo, who were prevented from traveling to the capitol of the country.
The spokesperson for Guillermo Fariñas, Lisset Zamora, is still under arrest, along with other colleagues from the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, confirmed Palacios to DIARIO DE CUBA (Cuba Daily).
'Fariñas cannot wait five weeks'
Héctor Palacios, president of Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba told Diario de Cuba that Guillermo Fariñas, in hunger and thirst strike since 101 days, “cannot wait five weeks, because he will not be able to sustain it.”
“At the rate the negotiation between the Catholic Church and the government is going, I believe that Fariñas will die. We must raise our voices so that that doesn’t happen,” said Palacios.
Also, he confirmed that opposition member Félix Bonne, who attended the meetings on Thursday and Friday, reiterated his disposition to go on a hunger strike if Fariñas dies.
Unidad Liberal analized the situation of Fariñas’ health, the subject of political prisoners and the solidarity with the Ladies in White and Ladies in Support [of the Ladies in White]. About the latter the say that “solidarity cannot be limited” and encourage them to continue their peaceful walks.
This new repressive act comes in the middle of an uncertain negotiation between the regime and the Catholic Church to “improve” the conditions of the political prisoners.
(Source: Diario de Cuba).
From my position as Western [region of Cuba] Coordinator and member of the national executive board of Partido Cuba Independiente y Democrática [Independent and Democratic Cuba Party] (CID), I call on all Cuban women who identify themselves with the cause of the liberation of all political prisoners, to support the marches and other acts organized by the Ladies in White.
These women have valiantly come together since March of 2003 to the demand from the highest authorities of the Cuban government the immediate and unconditional release of all their relatives (sentenced to 20 years and more in rigged summary trials). To this end, they have exhausted numerous resources: letters to all established legislative institutions, to the highest government authorities including ex president Fidel Castro, the highest authorities of the Catholic Church in Cuba, to the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio, to Their Holiness popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, several heads of state that have visited the island. They have collected signatures, participated uninterruptedly in the Eucharistic Mystery at Santa Rita Catholic Church in Havana’s neighborhood of Miramar. They have conducted weekly Sunday marches on important thoroughfares of the city, with which the Cuban people has identify, carrying a gladiolus as their only weapon that has been given in many cases to the people who have spontaneously requested it. In return, they have received “acts of repudiation” and beatings by paramilitary mobs directed and organized by Security of State.
Today the government, the political police, and the Cardinal Archbishop of La Habana, His Most Reverend Excellency Monsignor ++Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, have requested the retreat of the support group to the Ladies in White, looking to weaken the marches and demands for the release of all prisoners of conscience. We reject this action, and support these Cuban women who defend their legitimate right of freedom for their love ones, as in her time it was understood and exercised by the mother of Fidel and Raúl Castro, back then dressed in all black.
Cuban woman, tomorrow can be too late. Our example lies in the premeditated and avoidable death of Prisoner of Conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Join in this demand for the freedom of all political prisoners which is also for Cuba.
Katia Sonia Martín Vélez
CID Coordinator for the West
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.
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
Regime to the Ladies in White: "Negotiation depends on expulsion of Support Ladies"
posted on Monday, May 17, 2010
Independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira spoke with Laura Pollán, on of the leaders of the group, and she shared details of the recent interviews between the Ladies in White, members of the Archdiocese of La Habana and Security of State agents:
“A group representing the Ladies in White had a meeting at the [see of the] Archdiocese of La Habana on May 16th. They told us that the Support Ladies participation [in the marches] is hindering the negotiations between the Church and the government. We told both Security of State and the archdiocese that if they want they can tell the Support Ladies that they can’t come. However, Laura Pollán will never tell any woman not to come […] The Ladies in White are very grateful to the Support Ladies for all their support throughout these seven years. This is our position, and we have let it be known to Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Colonel Ernesto Samper of Security of State.”
Yesterday, Sunday [May 16th], 24 members of the Ladies in White marched on Quinta Avenida [5th Avenue] in Miramar between 30 and 22 streets.
En Banes, en cambio, las fuerzas de la Seguridad del Estado y las turbas parapoliciales conocidas como Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida impidieron a Reyna Luisa Tamayo y otros familiares y amigos del fallecido Orlando Zapata, asistir a la iglesia y visitar su tumba en el cementerio durante su natalicio, el 15 de mayo.
The Ladies in Support to the Ladies in White were verbally warned against marching (according to Radio Martí, in this Spanish language piece) with the latter on Saturday, but then ultimately allowed to march on Sunday as reported by Yoani Sánchez via Twitter. The Ladies in White also stated that they hope some prisoners will be freed during or after the Vatican’s foreign minister’s visit to Cuba next month.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s mother, Lady in White Reina Luisa Tamayo, joined Twitter on Saturday, and already has gathered more than 440 followers.
The platform “Cuba Democracia Ya!” organized in Madrid (Spain) an act of solidarity with the Ladies in White and for the liberation of all Cuban political prisoners in the island.. It was scheduled to coincide with Mother’s Day celebrations in most countries of the Western Hemisphere, including Cuba.
Misceláneas de Cuba reported (in Spanish) that there is a growing sense of alarm among the doctors who care for opposition activist Guillermo Fariñas as his health continues to deteriorate. Guillermo is on his 75th day (today) of a hunger strike he initiated on February 24th, 2010.
The demonstration will begin at 4:00 pm on Sunday April 25th, 2010 at 59th Street and Bergenline Avenue in West New York, NJ. It will march on Bergenline Avenue to the monument to José Martí on 42nd Street, Union City, NJ. A communiqué by the organizers will be read in front of the monument, and they will attempt to establish communication via mobile phone with the Ladies in White in Cuba, and with Guillermo Fariñas.
Because the world is finally awakening to the abuses committed against the Cuban people by the the Castro brothers’ regime, we appreciate the attendance of all freedom lovers that would like to march with us regardless of national origin. All in attendance should wear all white if at all possible.
We will have the honor to have with us one of the founding members of the Ladies in White: Dolia Leal and her husband, Nelson Aguiar ex-political prisoner arrested during Cuba’s Black Spring.
Ladies in White Support Group organizers:
Siomara Sánchez, Ana Cueto-Acosta, Georgia Romero, Fina Farrés, Mirta Cairo.
