Cuba: opposition activists arrested when trying to deliver signatures for the release of all political prisoners
posted on Friday, July 23, 2010Elizardo Sánchez Santa-Cruz, spokesperson for the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, informed that the arrests occurred around 10:00 am, when the activists were to deliver the signatures to the Cuban National Assembly. Their location and condition are still unknown. The political police prevented other activists from leaving their homes.
As we announced a few days ago, our campaign has begun the delivery of the more than 52,000 signatures in support of our Declaration for the Freedom of All Cuban Political Prisoners, and the respect of human rights in the island.
As we post this update, a group of activists belonging to the Cuba Democracia Ya! Group in Madrid, Spain, is at the Cuban Embassy in Spain trying to deliver the documents to the regime's representatives. Please follow up with us and our Spanish language blog for updates, including video.
We are still accepting signatures since this is not the end of the campaign. This effort will not end until all Cuban political prisoners are unconditionally free.
Arrests began in the [Cuban] capital at noon on Tuesday when a group of 30 people, convened at the city’s seawall (el Malecón) by Liga Cívica Martiana (Josè Martí Civic League) and other dissident movements, performed a public protest.
Opposition activists denounced the detentions and called them “arbitrary.” Many of them reported to this agency about their situations and the conditions of their arrests from inside police stations via telephone.
Among those arrested are Julián Guerra Deriet, Oscar Sierra Hernández, Flores Borroto, Niurka Caridad Ortega, Ernesto Rodríguez López, Carmelo Rodríguez Rodríguez, Raúl Parada Ramírez, Humberto Martínez Almeida, Hermógenes Inocencio Guerrero, Julio César Jorrín, Juana María Oquendo Gómez, Joel Lázaro Carbonel Aguilar, María Nélida López Báez, Manuel Morejón Soler, Luis Roberto Arcia Rodríguez and María Elena Mir Marrero in La Habana; Hugo Prieto Quevedo, Yosvanis Alonso Brito, Denis Díaz González and Nilo Justino Padrón in Pinar del Río and Rogelio Tabio López in Guantánamo.
Jorge Corrales Ceballo, independent journalist in Guantánamo and Luis Felipe Rojas, poet and journalist in Holguín, were placed under house arrest, and kept under tight surveillance by agents of the political police. In Santiago de Cuba, there were arrests, but the names [of those arrested] could not be confirmed.
Some of those arrested were released at night, after being issued warnings.
The tugboat 13 de Marzo was sunk a few miles off La Habana’s seawall (Malecón) by two other vessels under government orders on 13 July 1994. Forty-one persons died in the, among them 11 children who [were trying to escape Cuba].
HAVANA, Cuba — Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas on Thursday ended his 135-day hunger strike after the communist government announced it would free 52 political prisoners, an opposition leader told AFP.
"Fariñas has from this moment stopped the hunger strike," Gisela Delgado told AFP, after visiting him in hospital in the central city of Santa Clara.
The organization was established this past 27 June 2010. Its president is José Luis Ortiz Tamayo, brother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
“The [party’s] main objective is to fight for the release of political prisoners, the freedom of Cuba, to support the dissidence, and to unite [the] efforts to achieve the democratization of the country, as the main objective of the late Orlando Zapata Tamayo” stated independent journalist Caridad Caballero Batista in the Directorio’s note.
The foundation of the organization was preceded by a “strong repression.”
On 26 June, several opposition activists, including Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger, mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, were the victims of a savage “beating at the hands of [members of] the regime’s repressive forces.” The clash occurred at the entrance of Reina Luisa’s house, and several women were hurt, according to Directorio Democrático.
Reporters Sans Frontières, the international NGO that defends the freedom of journalists and of expression, had this to say about Dr. Darsi Ferrer's release:
“We are obviously relieved by Ferrer’s release even if he was finally given a jail sentence to match the time he already had spent behind bars,” Reporters Without Borders said. “No one is fooled about the real reason for his detention as this is a country in which the authorities tolerate no public expression of dissenting views. His release was not in any way an act of clemency or, even less so, a sign of an improvement in respect for basis rights and freedoms.”
Cuba still has approximately 200 prisoners of conscience, who include 24 journalists. One of them is the Reporters Without Borders correspondent Ricardo González Alfonso, who has been held since the “Black Spring” crackdown of March 2003.
Dissidents continue to be the target of harassment, repression and hate campaigns by the authorities and their supporters. Hablemos Press, a small independent news agency, reported that two more journalists, José Manuel Caraballo Bravo and Raúl Arias Márquez of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña (APLA), were arrested on 21 June.
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the community of Latin American countries to intercede on behalf of Cuba’s imprisoned journalists and dissidents, some of whom have fallen seriously ill since their arrest
Dr Darsi Ferrer: "I do not accept any sentence from this tribunal"
posted on Wednesday, June 23, 2010To the opposition activist “it was clear that it was not for common crimes that they wanted to [send me to prison] but simply as a punishment for my political ideals, for having a different political opinion from that which the government forces [on the Cuban people].”
He remarked that the trial was nothing more than “a farce”, and pointed out the injustice of which he has been a victim since the beginning: “I do not accept any sentence from this tribunal because I have not committed any common crime, and I would not agree with any kind of sentence in light of this farce orchestrated by Security of State.”
Several opposition activists and foreign diplomats stood in front of the building where the trial was held [as a show of support]. “It was incredibly emotional”—said Ferrer—“I am not ashamed to confess that when I heard the shouts of ‘Liberty!’ I was in the holding cell, waiting to be taken to trial, and tears came to my eyes for the solidarity and fraternity of my brothers in the struggle.”
For the opposition activist it was “something indescribable, they were very courageous, despite that there were many policemen to instill fear. It happened for a long time, and it could be heard many blocks around. They did it valiantly and openly.” “The opposition has shown is valor, despite the difficult circumstances in which it works.”
Ferrer lauded “the support of Cubans [outside of Cuba]” that “is always a breath of fresh air that gives us strength, another reason to continue our fight and not feel alone while struggling with the calamities one faces imprisoned in inhumane conditions.”
He described the conditions to which he was subjected in jail: “Food is terrible, basically inedible and does not meet basic nutritional requirements. I [have been suffering] eleven months of psychological trauma because of the constant mistreatment, [and for being] in a situation unfavorable to [normal] mental health. I conducted three hunger strikes that have caused me anemia.”
Ferrer dismissed all those things as inconsequential, without much significance because it is harder for him to be outside knowing that he has left “many brothers in jail, under the boot of the military and behind bars, [and] that it is more painful than any illness anyone can [suffer] in prison.”
Regarding the dialog between the Catholic Church and the regime, Ferrer said not to have much information due to the lack of access to it in jail. However, he knew of the role of “mediator” that the Church has assumed in the past few weeks “in light of the grave and dramatic situation of the regime, with its long fifty years of abuses, injustices and disaster as a system.”
He remarked that he was “no one to question the position of the Church” and that he “would like to believe the releases are due to its intervention, but I do not have the certainty that things are happening for said efforts.”
“The Cuban people need Solutions for its dramatic situation, and may all be welcome, coming from anywhere they may come.” The most important thing, is that “the rights of Cubans are respected and that there are reforms to alleviate the economic situation.” He also asked for a change in the penal system, to which end he “would invite the Church to negotiate so it is allowed to visit the country’s prisons —overcrowded, where a cruel and inhumane treatment is exerted—and they can celebrate religious services.”
“Scarcity and the failure of the Castroite model is what are pushing the people to defend their rights more actively so that Solutions to our reality are found.” The releases “are due to the International pressure, the courage of the opposition, the unavoidable necessities of the Cuban people who have no chance of a dignified life, and all this failure [that is] unsustainable.” The doctor believes that any reaction from the government happens because of “the pressure of an increasingly cornered people, and the courage of the opposition to achieve freedom for our country.”
Yoani Sánchez and Katia Sonia Martin, activist with CID [Cuba Independiente y Democrática or Independent and Democratic Cuba] reported on Twitter [in Spanish] that paramilitary hordes prevented them from reaching the tribunal where the trial was being held. The police also arrested activist Hugo Damian Prieto Blanco and took him to an unknown location.
We will continue to monitor the situation, and share information as it becomes available to us. Please keep checking back with us on this post throughout the day.
Via telephone we spoke with Miguel Amado Reyes Fonseca, president of the Commission for Assistance to Political Prisoners & their Families (CAPPF) and Lázaro Prieto Álvarez Director for the Center for Human Rights and Democracy Brigade 2506.
This morning CAPPF and CDHD human rights activists: Miguel Amado Fonseca, Merardo Maldonado Romero, Jorge Arufe Carbonell were detained by State Security Agents while en route to the 10 of October Tribunal to serve as observers in the trial of prisoner of conscience, Dr. Darsi Ferrer.
The activists were threatened and told that if they continued towards the Tribunal they would be arrested and taken to the PNR (National Revolutionary Police) Station.
In the areas adjacent to the Tribunal, there was a large presence of State Security Agents dressed in plain clothes, and Patrol Vehicle No. 341, that customarily patrols the area.
All those who tried to reach the Tribunal were intercepted by these Agents. It is stated that many human rights activists were able to enter the Tribunal despite these acts of harassment.
Almost four months have passed since the beginning of the ongoing hunger strike by opposition activist Guillermo Fariñas protesting the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and demanding the release of 26 gravelly ill political prisoners.
A few weeks have gone by since the beginning of the negotiations between the Catholic Church, and the higher echelons of the regime —negotiations that have excluded and ignored the members of the opposition and civil society, and whose only tangible results until now have been a revocable “extra-penal license” [parole] for political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya, and the transfer of 12 others to penitentiaries closer to their places of residence.
Almost four months have passed since we launched the #OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign that now has more than 49,000 signatures —from more than one hundred countries—in support of the immediate and unconditional release of all Cuban prisoners of conscience, including prestigious personalities from the arts, sciences, and politics who represent a wide ideological spectrum. Nevertheless, the Cuban regime —that has had a hold on absolute power for more than half a century— has not taken any significant steps toward the release of the political prisoners, and insists on violating the rights of the entire Cuban people.
None of these results justifies a pause in our campaign. On the contrary, our campaign begins today a second offensive to double the support received in the form of signatures demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Cuban political prisoners. We will put this support to work by bringing it before democratic governments, international organizations and the Cuban regime diplomatic representations around the world.
We call on all of the signatories of our Declaration, and to those who intend to do so, to participate in demonstrations at Cuban embassies and consulates worldwide. These demonstrations will mark the first delivery of signatures this coming 23 July 2010, on the fifth month of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
We extend the invitation to political parties and organizations from every nation, as well those in Cuba and the Cuban exile, without exclusion. The lack of freedoms and individual rights affects people from every single political current equally.
#OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign renews its promise to continue pressuring the regime in Cuba until it frees all political prisoners, and guarantees all freedoms and rights as spelled in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The marginalization of the opposition movements and civil independent organizations that the Castro dictatorship imposes cannot be shared by any prestigious institution. To share in that marginalization as it has happened in Cuba in the past few days, means turning the back on those who need it most.
This is not about politicizing the work of the Church. The relationship between the Holy Seed and independent countries cannot be developed ignoring the relationship between the countries and their respective societies. In the hands of the current regime, the Cuban government is a machine that represses all its citizens, not only its political prisoners. Improving relationships with the Cuban government is not a politically neutral gesture.
We remind the Church, as an institution of the civil Cuban society and as a sovereign country, that any serious negotiation in Cuba about political prisoners must include in its agenda the respect of human rights. The absence of these rights has been the main cause of these incarcerations. Cubans are not looking for a relaxation of the tyranny, but for their inalienable rights, as well as the control of their individual and collective destiny, denied by the Castro dictatorship for more than half a century.
The Miami Herald: More Cuban political prisoners put their lives on the line
posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010
At least five Cuban political prisoners are refusing food in a spontaneous trend triggered by the February death of a dissident.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
Egberto Angel Escobedo completed his 17th year in a Cuban prison last Friday, and his 56th day of a hunger strike.
He's at a penitentiary called ``Red Ceramic'' [Cerámica Roja, a former ceramics factory] in Camagüey, where the military keeps him in isolation to prevent other inmates from spreading word of his failing health.
Escobedo is one of at least five cases of political prisoners -- down from seven -- who are refusing food, in what experts say is an extraordinary surge of inmates at different Cuban lockups fighting over different causes. Protesting everything from medical care to prison uniforms, they are using an age-old technique that over the years has met with mixed results.
``I don't recall at least in the last decade seeing so many people in jail on a hunger strike,'' said former political prisoner Ricardo Bofill, who served two stints totaling 15 years. ``There is a political context that contributes to all this. They perceive that this is the moment to pressure the government, that there is momentum.''
Some protesters, like prisoner Diosdado González, quickly have their demands met. His wife's sympathy hunger strike lasted just a day. A dozen other prisoners over the decades, such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo four months ago, died.
Experts say the current strikes, likely fueled by Zapata's death, were uncoordinated, spontaneous and far from unprecedented.
From the fight for independence against the Spanish to the battle against the dictators who came before the Castros, Cuban activists have refused food in a quest to have a spotlight shone on their causes.
In the late 1960s, entire prisons would go on collective hunger strikes to protest conditions. Before 1959, intense media coverage turned hunger strikers into overnight national cause célèbres, said former prisoner José Albertini, who wrote the 2007 Spanish-language book, Cuba and Castroism: Hunger Strikes in Political Prisons.
Albertini's great-grandmother died in the late 1800s while imprisoned for struggling for Cuba's independence. She refused to eat or to feed two of her children, and all three died.
``The hunger striker is political and largely does this for press attention to their cause,'' Albertini said. ``In the 1960s and '70s, they did it out of dignity, because they knew nobody would listen.''
And while journalists are shut out of Cuba's prisons, the proliferation of cellphones and the Internet have helped spread information about hunger strikes that in the past the Cuban government could have kept secret.
``The international community around the world should be up to date on the political prisoners and Cuban citizens who oppose'' the Castro regime, Escobedo said in a message distributed by the Democratic Directorate human rights organization. ``I will continue carrying out Orlando Zapata Tamayo's call to resistance, which cannot be extinguished.''
More at this link.
OUR OPINION: Another round of harassment of dissidents
Once again Cuba's 51-year-old regime gives with one hand and takes away with another - even as the European Union is poised to discuss the potential for strengthening economic ties with the communist island.
After the Cuban dictatorship, under international pressure, seemed to be considering moving 26 sick political prisoners to hospitals a couple of weeks ago, officials cracked down again. Last week, they detained 37 dissidents for several hours to prevent them from attending meetings to discuss Cuba's political and economic crisis.
Despite the harassment, dozens of dissidents managed to attend the meetings and voted in solidarity with the Ladies in White, the Cuban women who peacefully march in Havana to call attention to their loved ones' imprisonment. They also discussed the international attention that the February death of hunger-striking dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo sparked.
Prisoners are ailing
Leaders of Cuba's Catholic Church have been in talks with Raúl Castro in an effort to help the 26 ailing prisoners, among 75 who were swept up in 2003 in another crackdown in which the regime accused the dissidents of being U.S. ``mercenaries.'' Back then, there appeared to be another opening on the horizon, too, as Fidel Castro put on his ``charm'' offensive in an effort to sway Republicans in farm-belt states to press the Bush administration to drop the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Which raises the perennial question: Do the Castros really want trade and diplomatic relations to improve with the United States and the European Union?
It sure doesn't seem like it.
Even as the regime has moved a few dissidents to prisons closer to their homes, it has continued to harass, detain or arrest others. Meantime, another dissident, Guillermo Fariñas, has caught the world's attention with a hunger strike.
Cuba undercuts progress
Spain, under Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's socialist government, has been pressing the European Union to embrace the Cuban regime without using human rights as a condition for more-favorable trade agreements. But with the recent harassment of -- and regime-backed mob violence directed at -- the Ladies in White, the detention of dissidents and Cuba's snail's-pace response to treating the ailing political prisoners, that's unlikely.
The EU's ``common position,'' established 14 years ago by Spain's then-Prime Minister José María Aznar, sought more direct contact with dissidents to nudge Cuba toward democracy. That is seen as a ``unilateral'' strategy by the Zapatero government, which has proposed more talks with Cuba in a ``bilateral'' stance.
Problem is, Cuba's government has shown through its actions that it does not give any consideration to human rights, even when it claims to be in agreement with the United Nations' universal declaration on human rights. That's why it's welcome that the U.S. State Department is poised to release $15 million to international human-rights groups working in Cuba.
The EU, urged by Spain two years ago, lifted sanctions it imposed after Cuba's 2003 crackdown. Now it's Cuba's turn to act, but so far its actions speak loudly of the same old intransigence.
Some of The 26 may be permanently disabled if not released immediately
posted on Saturday, May 29, 2010UPDATE: 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:
Cuban human rights activist/lawyer/journalist Juan Carlos González Leiva warned this week that as many as 10 Cuban political prisoners may be permanently incapacitated by their poor health if they are not soon released from the Cuban gulag.
In an interview with Radio Martí [in Spanish], González, himself a former political prisoner, highlighted the cases of four of those prisoners:
•Ariel Sigler Amaya, who has been left paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
•Antonio Villareal Acosta, who suffers from psychiatric disorders caused by his confinement.
•Normando Hernández González, who suffers from severe intestinal problems.
•Pedro Argüelles Morán, who is practically blind.
Despite the anticipation of possible prisoner transfers under an arrangement reached between the Castro dictatorship and the Catholic Church, González said he has yet to detect "a change in the spirit of the government."
UPDATED, May 28, 2010 — A report at Diario De Cuba includes the names of additional prisoners who are considered critically ill. They are:
•Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, who suffers various cardiac, respiratory, intestinal and other ailments.
•Dr. José Luís García Paneque, who suffers from spinal, kidney and respiratory ailments.
•Librado Linares García, who is partially blind and suffers from digestive and respiratory problems.
•Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, who suffers from kidney, circulatory, prostate and intestinal ailments.
•Próspero Gainza Agüero, who is nearly blind and suffers from intestinal and kidney problems.
•Fabio Prieto Llorente, who is hypertensive and suffers from allergies and digestive and respiratory problems.
We call on the international community to join their voices to ours demanding the immediate unconditional release of these, and all Cuban political prisoners.
Last Thursday, penal authorities at the facility where Villarreal is currently being held told his wife that he would be transferred soon, apparently in terms that made it sound imminent. This information was then relayed to members of the Ladies in White, and other opposition activists.
The family of Villarreal lives in a remote village in the central province of Villa Clara, and communication with them is sporadic and difficult. They can only be reached by phone at a communal telephone in the village, and only yesterday was it possible for Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz to contact Silvia Aguado, Villarreal’s wife. She told him that despite what the penal authorities told her last Thursday, she found him on Sunday at the same minimum-security facility or labor camp where he was on 20 May.
We will continue to monitor as closely as possible, and inform on developments in the situation of political prisoners in Cuba. More importantly, we continue to demand the liberation of all Cuban political prisoners.
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 artist Geandy Pavón brought his project of artistic protest, Némesis, named after the Ancient Greek goddess of divine justice, to Washington D.C. on 20 May 2010, Cuban Independence Day. He projected the image of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on the façade of the Cuban Section of Interests in the United States capital.
The first Némesis event was the one on 19 March 2010 in New York City when OZT's image was projected on the façade of the Cuban diplomatic representation to the UN.
The 20 May performance was dedicated to Guillermo Fariñas and all Cuban peaceful opposition activists.
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.
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.
