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.
This communiqué appeared originally in Spanish on our sister blog on Monday 14 June 2010.
The government of Raúl Castro has released one of his approximately two hundred political prisoners, and has transferred other twelve to prisons closer to their places of residence. This is the tangible result of the dialog between the regime and the Catholic Church a month after it was announced.
If the releases were to continue at the same rate, they would take one and a half decades. This prospect is unacceptable, not only to us, but also to the great majority of the internal opposition, the Cuban diaspora and democratic nations. We can support any process that would result in the improvement of the conditions in which the political prisoners are kept, and “extra-penal licenses” [paroled release] for a few, but we will not allow these developments to replace or undermine the efforts toward the immediate and unconditional release of all of them.
This week is going to be decisive to determine the scope of Raúl Castro’s will to release more political prisoners. It is up to him to send an unequivocal sign of his intentions. Without substantial advance in the releases, and without a clear chart for their immediate future, our only choice will be to double the efforts of the #OZT I Accuse the Cuban government Campaign.
Our campaign has received more that 49,000 signatures claiming the immediate release of all political prisoners and respect for human rights in Cuba. Almost 2,000 of these signatures come from the island. Hundreds of others come from public figures that have offered their national and international reputations to back our cause. This is not the end of our efforts for the release of all Cuban political prisoners, but only the basis on which to continue fighting for it.
Next week we will announce the date and further details of the first delivery of the signatures.
- Political prisoner Egberto Escobedo continued his hunger strike, and rejected what he called “attempts at blackmail” by the regime.
- It was announced that political prisoner Dr. Darsi Ferrer will stand trial on 22 June 2010. Dr. Ferrer has been imprisoned without trial for almost a year.
- Several world renowned personalities, including Uruguay’s ex-president Jorge Batlle [note in Spanish], have joined their voices to ours demanding the release of all Cuban political prisoners, and respect for human rights in the island.
The Canadian Press reports that Manfred Nowak, the U.N.'s independent torture investigator, "is deeply disappointed by Cuba's decision to block him from visiting the country for the first time."
[...]the Cuban government informed him it was unable to accommodate his visit before the end of his term on Oct. 30.H/T Babalublog
Nowak said Wednesday that he had received a "clear invitation" from the government earlier this year and had hoped to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment in the communist country.
The U.N.-appointed human rights expert has made several fruitless attempts to visit the island since 2005.
Cuban Ambassador in Geneva Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez declined to comment, saying he was awaiting instructions on the matter from Havana.
The number is less than the 162 arrests from April although Sánchez pointed out that they have increased significantly in the past few years. The regime has adopted arrests, short detentions and harassment as methods of repression and control.
Sánchez also reported that there were 20 releases of political prisoners for time served. This brings the total number of prisoners of conscience to 180.
When asked about the recent transfer of some political prisoners, Sánchez stated that he hopes the government will keep its word, and transfer the remaining 10 prisoners who are serving their sentences in facilities far away from their places of residence.
More (in Spanish) at the link.
I have been in prison for more than ten months due to my opposition activities, and I do not regret my current situation. On the contrary, from prison I have kept up the fight for a free Cuban nation and to put an end to the ignorance forced upon the people by the regime of the Castro brothers.
In prison I have endured beatings, confinement to punishment cells, deplorable conditions, discrimination, and the assaults and threats of the military personnel; aside from the consequences of three hunger strikes that have further broken my health.
None of this is as painful as knowing the misery and lack of resources that my wife, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, endures. And now, with the added responsibility of caring for herself and our little eight year old son, as well as maintaining our home, and providing some minimum care for me while I am in prison.
There are enough TV, radio and print reports that show the courage and tenacity of Yusnaimy in her struggle for the freedom of the Cuban people. In many occasions she has suffered beatings, arrests, and her work and testimony help disseminate the truth about Cuba around the world.
Our little Daniel shows multiple psychological traumas as the results of the many acts of repudiation and other injustices exerted upon us by Security of State in his presence.
That my wife and child are forced to go to bed without eating for lack of elementary resources to their subsistence, is a reality I never thought I would have to add to the calamity of my confinement.
After more than 50 days, hunger strike leaves Cuban political prisoner critically ill
posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2010Only after his death after more than 80 days on hunger strike, did Orlando Zapata Tamayo become a widely known name. His blood is on the hands of the Castro dictatorship, but maybe his life would have been spared if more of the world had aware of his struggle, and acted on his behalf, before he succumbed Feb. 23 to his protest and the malignant neglect of his captors.
Let us make sure that Zapata's fellow prisoner Egberto Escobedo Morales gets the attention he needs and deserves as he carries out his own hunger strike -- now more than 50 days long -- demanding that the dictatorship respect his human rights and that of all Cubans.
According to Radio Marti, Escobedo is currently in very poor health in the infirmary at the Cerámica Roja prison in Camagüey. The vitamins and other nutrients he is receiving via IV are not making a difference, and fellow political prisoner Jorge Alberto Liriano Linares said Escobedo is at risk of dying if he is not transferred to a hospital.
Despite his poor condition, former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" told Radio Marti that Escobedo is maintaining his position against the dictatorship. He is refusing to wear the uniform of a common prisoner and to participate in any of the prison's efforts to "re-educate" him.
After more than 50 days on hunger strike, Escobedo still is not one of Cuba's better-known prisoners. He already had been jail for some eight years at the time of the "black spring" crackdown of 2003; he is not part of the "Group of 75."
That is why it is vital that word of his protest be proclaimed over and over again, so that Escobedo -- and his captors -- know that he is not forgotten. In doing so, we hopefully can save his life.
Source: Uncommon sense.
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.
Marc Masferrer: 3 Cuban political prisoners transferred to 'work camps'
posted on Monday, June 07, 2010An arrangement between the Castro dictatorship and the Cuban Catholic Church last week led to the transfer of three political prisoners to "work camps" in their respective home provinces
• Dr. José Luis García Paneque, 45, was moved to a camp dubbed "Plan Confianza" in Las Tunas province.
• Iván Adolfo Hernández Carrillo, 39, was transferred to a "Plan Confianza" camp in Matanzas province.
• Félix Navarro Rodríguez, 56, was moved to the San Agustín camp, also in Matanzas.
As for the other three prisoners reportedly transferred, Diosdado González Marrero, 47, and Antonio Díaz Sánchez, 48, were transferred to the Agüica maximum security prison in Matanzas; and Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique, 68, was moved to the 1580 prison in Havana.
All six prisoners have been in jail since the "black spring" of 2003.
According to an EFE news report posted on the Asociación Damas de Blanco website, the work camps have less severe security regimens, the food is better and prisoners have better communication with their families.
However, remember this: The work camps, as well as the Agüica and 1580 prisons, are still part of the Castro gulag, and these men are still prisoners of conscience. No promises have been made and when it comes to the dictatorship and the church, we should be skeptical of any promises made.
But hopefully the transfers are the precursors for a more permanent solution — their unconditional release — for these heroes and their families
Artist Geandy Pavón projected the image of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata onto Carnegie Hall during a concert by Silvio Rodriguez. The singer, a privileged member of Cuba’s ruling elite, has served its dictatorship and spread its propaganda for decades.
In Greek mythology, “nemesis” represents divine justice ─a persecutory memory. Zapata, an Afro Cuban plumber and peaceful activist, died last February of a hunger strike. His death is emblematic of the extensive human rights abuses of Cuban totalitarianism.
The artist projects the face of the victim on the façade of buildings hosting his “killers” -Cuban regime representatives- using light as an analogy of truth, reason, and justice. He has staged his performance in New York, Barcelona and Washington.
Recently, Silvio Rodríguez has been calling for “evolution” in Cuba. He should instead sing for FREEDOM.
See Cuba Archive for information on political deaths and disappearances in Cuba. And sign the petition for the release of Cuba’s political prisoners.
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).
Alejandrina García, Diosdado’s wife, told Radio Martí that the prison warden, Major Emilio Cruz summoned her to the jail to inform her that her husband had been placed in isolation because he refuses to dress in the same uniform of the common prisoners. He told her that she and her son had to plead with her husband so that he would wear the uniform
The Lady in White told Major Cruz that her husband had refused to wear the common prisoners’ uniform since 2003, and that she would not plead with him. The warden then refused to let her see her husband, and informed her than from now on, she could only see him every three months.
More in Spanish, including audio, at the link.
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
Associated Press reports:
HAVANA — The U.S. government and a top Cuban human rights activist on Wednesday urged the island's leaders to release jailed political prisoners, not just transfer them to facilities nearer to their homes.More at the link.
On Tuesday, at least six political prisoners were moved to jails closer to their homes under a deal with the Roman Catholic Church to improve prison conditions.
Dissident leaders have said the agreement worked out between the government and the church includes an understanding that some of the 26 ailing political prisoners would be freed, but church officials have said only that the government would provide better access to medical care.
"We continue to hope that prisoners of conscience will be released, rather than just relocated, as soon as possible," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters at a briefing in Washington.
In Cuba, human rights leader Elizardo Sanchez told The Associated Press the transfers "don't satisfy our hopes, nor do they satisfy the hopes of the international community, which is seeking the prisoners' unconditional release."
Sanchez, who heads the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said he hopes to hear word on more transfers soon.
Bertha Soler, the wife of prisoner Angel Moya and one of the leaders of the Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of 75 people arrested in a sweeping 2003 crackdown, hopes the prison transfers are a signal that ailing prisoners will be released.
"They started with these six men, but we hope soon to get word of the release of those who are most sick," she said.
Human rights groups say Cuba is holding some 200 prisoners of conscience, including 53 still in jail from the 2003 arrests. The six prisoners moved Tuesday were all sent to jail in 2003 on charges of treason and sentenced to terms between 20 and 25 years.
The wife of a seventh prisoner said Tuesday that her husband was part of the prison transfer, but as of Wednesday there was no confirmation he was being moved.
The agreement also calls for Cuba to provide medical treatment for ailing prisoners, though there has been no word on that starting.
Spanish newspaper El País details Coco's current condition as described to them by Licet Zamora and Clara Pérez, spokesperson and wife of the opposition activist respectively.
Although conscious, Fariñas is suffering from an acute bacterial infection that is causing extremely high fevers (104º F or 40º C). He's also suffering from generalized malaise, weakness and can barely speak. Doctors at the Intensive Care Unit where he has been for more than three months now, were forced to retrieve the catheter they were using to administer fluids and some nutrients into his body.
Both Zamora and Pérez, stated that Fariñas is steadfast on his resolution to maintain the hunger strike. Zamora also added that when asked about the recent transfer of six prisoners to penal facilities in their provinces of residence, Fariñas stated that "it was a step forward, but not what he demands" and that "if the government wants to save Fariñas's life, it has to grant parole to at least 10 or 12 political prisoners who are sick. "
Archdiocese of La HabanaPress Release
During the afternoon of today Tuesday 1 June 2010, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of La Habana, has been informed by the authorities that they have proceeded with the transfer of six (6) [political] prisoners to their provinces of origin. The transferred are:
1- FÉLIX NAVARRO RODRÍGUEZ, from Ciego de Ávila to Matanzas2- JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA PANEQUE, from Granma to Las Tunas3- IVÁN ADOLFO HERNÁNEZ CARRILLO, from Villa Clara to Matanzas4- DIOSDADO GONZÁLEZ MARRERO, from Pinar del Río to Matanzas5- ARNALDO RAMOS LAUZURIQUE, from Sancti Spíritus to Ciudad de La Habana6- ANTONIO RAMÓN DÍAZ SÁNCHEZ, from Ciego de Ávila to Ciudad de La HabanaGiven all the speculations generated around this process during the past few days, I would like to state that all reliable information on this matter will be either generated or confirmed exclusively by sources within the Archdiocese of La Habana
Orlando Márquez Hidalgo [Media Relations Director for the Archdiocese of La Habana]
La Habana , 1 de junio de 2010
We welcome this move as a positive development although our objective continues to be the immediate and unconditional release of ALL Cuban political prisoners.
Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya has been left an invalid by his more than seven years in the Castro gulag. He is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
They have broken his body, but try as they might, Sigler's captors have not quashed his spirit, they have not stamped out his will to fight the injustice and cruelty the Castro dictatorship's very existence represents.
Sigler's health condition is precarious, but his brother tells Radio Martí this week that Sigler is laying on the line what little of his health is left to protest the regime's lies.
Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya said his brother has decided to refuse any medical care, included needed medications, until he is transferred to a Havana hospital closer to his family, as the government had earlier promised. And if there is no response to his demand, Ariel is prepared to begin a hunger strike.
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