Cuban spring 'unavoidable' amid repression
by Laima Andrikiene
Who is responsible for the death of the Cuban political prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza on January 19? Why, on February 3, was blogger Yoani Sanchez refused permission to travel abroad by Cuban authorities for the 19th time since May 2008? Why were opposition group Damas de Blanco – Sakharov prize laureates – not allowed to travel to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to collect that prestigious award for the freedom of thought?
There are so many questions and almost no answers from the Cuban regime. The situation of harassment and repression endangers the lives of Cuban people who defend human rights and civil liberties. We are aware that the regime is directly responsible for the death of four political prisoners – Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura Pollan Toledo and Wilman Villar Mendoza – as well as thousands of arbitrary arrests and hundreds of beatings, assaults, and acts of repudiation.
The death of 31-year-old dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza on January 19 after a 50 day hunger strike highlights the continuing repression in Cuba. Villar Mendoza was detained in November 2011 after participating in a peaceful demonstration in Contramaestre calling for greater political freedom and respect for human rights. He was charged with 'contempt' and sentenced to four years in prison in a hearing that lasted less than an hour. He was not given the opportunity to speak in his defence, nor represented by a defence lawyer.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a human rights monitoring group that the government does not recognise, classified Villar Mendoza as a political prisoner in December 2011. The Cuban regime denies holding political prisoners and said in a statement that Mr Villar "was not a dissident nor was he on a hunger strike". The authorities did not even bother to tell Wilman Villar's wife about the death of her husband, and she was informed by some human rights defenders.
Almost two years ago, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in similar circumstances, also on hunger strike, with the same demands. Activist Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died last year after receiving a brutal beating from the political police at Leoncio Vidal Park, in the city of Santa Clara, Villa Clara province. Less than three months ago, Laura Pollan Toledo, leader of the Damas de Blanco, died under mysterious circumstances that have still not been clarified. Numerous reports issued from within the island over the past three months have reported an increase in the regime's violence against opposition – including cases of activists who have suffered fractured skulls after machete blows, and members of the Damas de Blanco who have been pricked with needles containing unknown substances while participating in marches on the streets of Havana.
The regime in Havana and its prisons have a system devised to eliminate those political and common detainees who protest against the injustice and inhumanity of their captors by denying them water and medical care, and confining them in freezing cells. Catherine Ashton, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, deplored the tragic death of Mr Villar and urged Cuba to continue working to make progress on respect of human rights and freedom of expression. "It's the second death in similar conditions in a very short time and it poses doubts concerning Cuban's judicial system and penitentiary," Ashton said.
According to human rights organisations, there is no way to know how many government opponents remain in jail, as independent investigators cannot visit prisons. In 2010, Raul Castro freed 52 prisoners who had been arrested during a 2003 crackdown, but human rights defenders from the island say that those releases have not changed the attitude by the regime towards dissidents and repression continues. Last year the regime decided to release 2,900 inmates, but following human rights defenders information, the dissidents were not released.
Political prisoners must be released immediately. The persecution of people for their legitimate demands for freedom of speech, thought and assembly is unjust. The lack of fundamental rights contradicts the principles of humanity and is a clear infringement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Cuba is a signatory.
One could get an impression that Cuban regime is making free-market reforms which aim at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by boosting private enterprise. But the reality is much darker. So-called free-market reforms will not change much in relations between the state and citizens: the regime will still control 99 per cent of the economy. Moreover, those reforms will not provide Cuban citizens with their fundamental rights, such as freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It is not a surprise that most Cubans desire economic opportunities and private property ownership, but at the same time they closely tie these economic changes to political changes in the form of free elections, free expression, access to information and the right to dissent.
It is clear that the reality in Cuba is far from the state propaganda of 'reforms' and 'changes'. The regime deserves strong condemnation for these crimes and persecutions of people. The international community should take the necessary steps to prevent the further escalation of the extrajudicial executions by the Castro regime. Any repressive and undemocratic regime is similar to a dead man walking. The Arab spring surprised the world in 2011 throwing away one dictator after another. Spring is unavoidable and inescapable, in Cuba also.
Dr Laima Andrikiene is an MEP in the European People's Party and a member of the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights
Below is the truth. Cuba's truths. Over the last few days, the media and representatives of certain governments traditionally committed to anti-Cuba subversion have unleashed a new campaign of accusations, unscrupulously taking advantage of a lamentable event: the death of an ordinary prisoner, which possibly only in the case of Cuba, is converted into news of international repercussion.
The method utilized is the same one as always: fruitlessly attempting, through repetition, to demonize Cuba, in this case through the deliberate manipulation of an incident which is absolutely exceptional in this country. This so-called political prisoner was serving a four-year sentence after a fair legal process during which he was at liberty and a trial in accordance with the law.
This man died from multi-organ failure due to an acute respiratory infection, despite having received appropriate medical attention, including specialised medication and treatment in the intensive care room of Santiago de Cuba's principal hospital. Why did Spanish authorities and certain members of the European Union hasten to condemn Cuba without any investigation into the incident? Why do they always utilize pre-fabricated lies in the context of Cuba? Why, in addition to lying, do they censor the truth? Why is the voice and truth about Cuba openly denied the smallest space in the international media?
They are acting both cynically and hypocritically. How would they describe the recent manifestations of police brutality in Spain and a large part of 'educated and civilized' Europe against the indignados movement? Why is there no concern over the dramatic situation of overcrowding in Spanish jails with a high immigrant population – in excess of 35 per cent of total prisoners in the country – according to the most recent report by the ACAIP prison union, dated April 3, 2010?
Who has made any effort to investigate the death in July of 2011 in the Spanish penitentiary of Teruel, of Tohuami Hamdaoui, an ordinary prisoner of Moroccan origin after a hunger strike of several months? Who has reflected the fact that he has insisted he is innocent?
The United States government, the principal instigator of any effort to discredit Cuba in order to justify its policy of hostility, subversion and the economic, political and media blockade of Cuba, could not be missing from this campaign. The hypocrisy of spokespersons for the United States, a country with a poor human rights record at home and abroad, is staggering. The UN Human Rights Council has acknowledged frequent serious violations in this country of women's rights, in the treatment of persons, racial and ethnic discrimination, inhuman conditions in prisons, neglect of inmates, a differentiated racial standard and frequent judicial errors in imposing capital punishment, and the execution of minors and the mentally ill. This is compounded by abuses of the migratory detention system, deaths along the militarised southern border, atrocious acts against human dignity and the killing of innocent civilians by US army troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, not to mention arbitrary detentions and acts of torture perpetrated in the illegally occupied Guantánamo Naval Base.
It is barely known that three people died in the United States last November 2011 during a mass hunger strike of prisoners in California. According to testimonies from prisoners in adjoining cells, prison guards offered no assistance whatsoever and ignored their cries for help, as opposed to the abusive practice of force feeding hunger strikers.
A few weeks previously, African American Troy Davis was executed despite a large body of evidence demonstrating legal errors in his case. The White House and the Department of State did nothing about this case.
A total of 90 prisoners have been executed since January 2010 to date in the United States, while a further 3,220 remain on death row. The government frequently brutally represses those who dare to expose injustices within the system.
This new attack on Cuba is clearly politically motivated and has nothing to do with legitimate concerns for the lives of Cuban men and women. It is fuelled by the complicity of the financial-media corporations. It is irrationally accusing the Cuban government without having made any investigation into the facts. Condemnation and judgment are made a priori.
It is apparent from the immediate and crude response of authorities and the apparatus in the service of media aggression against Cuba that they did not even take the trouble to confirm the information. The truth is unimportant if the intention is to fabricate and sell a false image of alleged flagrant and systematic violations of civil liberties in Cuba which could one day justify an intervention in order to "protect defenceless Cuban civilians."
The attempt to impose a distorted image of Cuba meant to indicate a notable deterioration in human rights, to construct an allegedly victimised opposition dying in prison, where health services are denied, is evident. The humanist vocation of Cuban doctors and health personnel, who spare no effort or the country's scant resources – to a large extent the result of the criminal 50-year blockade imposed on the Cuban people – to save lives and improve the health standards of their own people and in many other nations is well known.
Cuba is respected and admired by many peoples and governments who recognise its social undertakings at home and abroad. Deeds speak louder than words. Anti-Cuban campaigns will not inflict any damage on the Cuban Revolution or the people, who will continue improving their socialism.
The truth of Cuba is that of a country in which human beings are most valued: a life expectancy rate at birth of 77.9 years; free health coverage for the entire population; an infant mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births, a figure exceeding that of the United States and the lowest on the continent along with Canada; a literate population with full and free access to all levels of education; 96 per cent participation in the 2008 general elections; and a democratic process of discussion of the new economic and social guidelines prior to the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.
The truth of Cuba is that of a country, which has taken its universities and schools to penitentiaries holding inmates who had fair and impartial trials, who receive the same wages for work undertaken, and enjoy high levels of medical attention without any distinction in terms of ethnicity, gender, creed or social origin. It will be demonstrated yet again that lies, however, much they are repeated, do not necessarily become truths, because, as José Martí stated, "A just principle, from the depths of a cave, can do more than an army."
Costakis Karseras - London, UK
No need to read farther than line two " anti-cuban subversion". Cubans around the world, dissidents in Cuba, Human rights fighetrs and all those of us who want a different country are not "anti-cuban". We are pro-Cuba, we are anti-oppression and slavery, we are anti-fascists - the regime established in Cuba by FC. We are anti-Castro, anti-more lies. In the end, we are revolutionaries who want change; something that has not happenned in Cuba in 50 years.
Finally, we want the future now. And please, do not link Cuba to the Castro's misgovernment/fascist dictatorship anymore. Cuba is more than a family named Castro. Cuba is more than a party or a group in power. Cuba belongs to all of us, cubans with different political ideas, different religion and different whatever.
angel valdes - West Palm Beach, USA
Angel Valdes - West Palm Beach, USA. "No need to read farther than line two" anti-cuban subversion". Why? Life expectancy rate of 77.9 years; free health coverage for all its citizens; infant mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births, the lowest on the continent along with Canada; a literate population with full and free access to all levels of education. It is a fact that many Cubans are alive today because they were born in Cuba and not in many other Latin American countries or even other advanced countries, which require their citizens to pay for medical treatment and medicine.
Many people are impressed with these tremendous achievements of the Cuban people since the revolution and it is more remarkable that these social benefits were accomplished despite the USA embargo.
Costakis Karseras - London, UK
