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.
Click here for more
Nine days have passed since it was announced to The Ladies in White that a transfer to hospitals of The 26 gravely ill political prisoners was imminent.
One hundred days since Guillermo Fariñas initiated a hunger strike for the liberation of The 26.
Eleven days have gone by since authorities at the penal camp in a remote region of Villa Clara, told Silvia Aguado, the wife of political prisoner Antonio Villarreal that they would transfer her husband to a mental health facility to receive the treatment he needs.
Eight days have elapsed since Silvia Aguado saw her husband wasting away under a tree at the same penal camp.
One day since the Ladies in White denounced that despite all promises to the Church, the regime has not taken any real steps to improve the conditions of any political prisoners.
One hundred and one days since Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in a hunger strike demanding the release of The 26.
Ninety-six days since we launched #OZT I Accuse the Cuban government and signatures in support of the release of all Cuban political prisoners started to pour from all over the world, including Cuba.
We are counting every second that passes while the regime refuses to accept the demands of thousands around the world, and in Cuba, to release all Cuban political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.
We hold the regime responsible for the further deterioration in the health of any political prisoner caused by the terrible and inhumane conditions in which they are kept, and the torture and abuse by the regime’s henchmen.
We will not stop demanding the release of all Cuban political prisoners until this is achieved.
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.
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.
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.
Marc Masferrer clarifies: Cuban political prisoner transferred under regime-church accord
posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010Marc 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.
Cuban lay Catholic leader questions the disposition of the government to negotiate
posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010Valdés, who is a very well known Cuban lay Catholic leader and who was part of the Pontifical Commission for Peace and Justice, expressed caution about the conversations as long as there are no tangible results because, he said, it could all be a escape valve desperately sought by the government to alleviate the [internal social] pressure using the prestige and credibility of the Church.
Según Valdés en cuanto a la llamada mediación de la Iglesia en esas conversaciones cabría preguntarse cuál es la contraparte que se sienta en el otro lado de la mesa.
According to Valdés, it is necessary to ask who is the counterpart to the Church in these negotiations: “The Church must ensure the dignity of the people, but the [country’s] political orientation is a matter for the lay. […] is not its function, that’s why now, when people speak so fashionably of mediation, I ask myself who is on the other side because he who is the middle to mediate, needs at least two counterparts or two groups of counterparts. […] it brings me great joy I congratulate myself, and congratulate myself with the Church for the recognition of its role as a mediator. Yet still, one must ask himself who is at the other end of the table.”
News with Spanish, including audio, here.
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
According to the AP-APAL, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez told the agency from Guanajay Prison that Sureydis Echarte Galván, niece the political prisoner, has been fired from her job for reasons not related to her job performance.
Galván, sponsored by the Asociación de Periodistas-Asociación de la Prensa de Almería (AP-APAL) through an initiative of Reporters Without Borders, is serving a 26 year long sentence. The AP-APAL also adds that “the are numerous voices and organizations asking for his liberation on humanitarian basis since he is sick and disabled.”
Marc Masferrer: Cuban political prisoner Antonio Villarreal transferred to sanatorium
posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010Marc 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.
McClatchy News: Castro's meeting with Catholic church greeted with hope, skepticism
posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010Juan 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.'"
“Nemesis” goes to Washington: Art Protest in Memory of Cuba’s Orlando Zapata Tamayo
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010Last Thursday May 20th, on the anniversary of Cuba’s independence from Spain, Pavón took his act to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. The stately building, located at 2630 16th street, N.W., houses Cuba’s diplomatic mission to the United States, officially represented by the Swiss Embassy. See short video at
The artist first unveiled his art-protest last March 19th in New York city on the façade of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. On April 8th, he projected it onto the Cuban Consulate in Barcelona.
Orlando Zapata died on February 23rd 2010 after an 85-day hunger strike in protest of appalling prison conditions. Incarcerated since 2003 for nonviolent opposition activities, the Afro-Cuban plumber demanded conditions comparable to those Fidel Castro had during his 18-month confinement under the Batista dictatorship for leading a 1953 armed attack against a military barracks. Mr. Zapata is the 12th political prisoner known to have died of a hunger strike during the course of the Castro regime.
Geandy Pavón is one of the motors behind an internet letter campaign for the release of Cuba’s political prisoners that has attracted worldwide support, including from many international celebrities. Born in Cuba in 1974, he lives in New Jersey since his 1996 exile from Cuba. His father was a political prisoner there for 18 years. Pavón graduated from Cuba’s National School of Fine Arts in Havana and exhibited in numerous venues in Cuba. He was part of the independent group “La Campana,” formed in 1998 to produce dissident art critical of the censorship and lack of freedom permeating Cuban society. Since his exile, he has held many solo and group exhibitions in New York City, Miami, Mexico, and other locations. His artistic talent and production have been recognized in the media and art publications and he has lectured at galleries and universities. His work can be found in private and public collections throughout Mexico, Cuba, and the U.S. (See www.geandypavon.com.)
See link for letter campaign on behalf of Cuba’s political prisoners on this blog.
For a summary of deaths of Cuban political prisoners from hunger strike, see
Cuba Archive
Contact:
Geandy Pavon
geandy.pavon@gmail.com
Uncommon Sense: Hunger-striking political prisoner is bleeding to death
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010
Escobedo has been in prison since 1995 serving a 20 year long sentence for "enemy propaganda" and "spionage", charges that were very common to be leveled against opponents of the Cuban dictatorship in the 1990s.
He initiated a hunger strike protesting the recent so-called elections in Cuba, and demanding more humane prison conditions.
More at the link.
