Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Andy Garcia narrates new documentary featuring stories of Cuba's former political prisoners

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Celebrating Life in Union, a new documentary narrated by Andy Garcia, will premiere at the 2012 New York City International Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas, August 14 at 6: 00p.m. The film unveils the tragedy and brotherhood of a group of former political prisoners from the Cuban Revolution, who fought for, and then were betrayed by their leader, Fidel Castro.

Celebrating Life in Union is a story of human resilience, community, and brotherhood. It follows a group of former Cuban political prisoners through their memory of imprisonment and their half century fight against the aging Castro regime. Having developed a strong community for themselves that now crosses three generations, they struggle with the realization that their own mortality may come before they can return to their homeland.
Andy Garcia narrates new documentary featuring stories of Cuba's former political prisoners:

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

BBC News - Top Cuba dissident Oswaldo Paya 'killed in car crash'

I find it odd that Cuba's dissidents are dying from natural causes and accidents! Looks more like they are being systematically killed, one by one! They are all in danger!
Prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya has died in a car crash, according to fellow activists.

Mr Paya, 60, was travelling near the city of Bayamo, in the eastern province of Granma, when the accident happened, they said.
He is known as the founder of the Varela Project - a campaign to gather signatures in support of a referendum on laws guaranteeing civil rights.
He was seen as a key spokesman for Cuba's small opposition.
A Catholic church official in Bayamo told AFP that a local hospital had told him and other activists that Mr Paya was dead, and had shown them identification.BBC News - Top Cuba dissident Oswaldo Paya 'killed in car crash':

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida-Mariela Castro in San Francisco

Gay Cuban Americans in Miami are furious that Fidel Castro's niece is meeting this week and next with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists in San Francisco and New York City.
"For Mariela Castro, or anybody else under the Castro dictatorship, to say they are representing the rights of anyone is an insult to the hundreds of thousands who have either been killed, jailed or assassinated by their own hands, or the nearly 100,000 people who’ve jumped into the ocean looking for freedom who haven’t made it here," said Herb Sosa, executive director ofUnity Coalition, Miami-Dade County's leading Hispanic gay rights group.
Audio de las declaraciones del bloggero Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo sobre la visita de Mariela Castro. http://realaudio.rferl.org/CU/manual/2012/05/24/4b977d6e-e41c-41de-b8ef-2c1e9f92e6f8.mp3 

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2012/05/cuban-american-gay-activists-in-miami-protest-mariela-castros-visit-to-san-francisco-new-york.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy


Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida:

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Venezuelan General Wilmer Moreno killed - Daily News - EL UNIVERSAL

Late on Thursday, Venezuelan Army General Wilmer Antonio Moreno was killed in Anzoategui state, northeast Venezuela. 

Unofficial sources said that some people approached the military official, asked who he was and when he answered he was shot. 

The news was posted on social networks. Sources claimed that Moreno was shot 10 times, but other reports clarified that he was shot seven times. 

Moreno was a close collaborator of the current Venezuelan government. He played a role in the attempted coup of 2002, which sought to overthrow then President Carlos Andrés Pérez. 
Venezuelan General Wilmer Moreno killed - Daily News - EL UNIVERSAL:

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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Cuban political prisoner forcibly exiled to Spain commits suicide | Babalú Blog

Cuban political prisoner forcibly exiled to Spain commits suicide | Babalú Blog: "Sad news has reached us from Spain. Albert Santiago Du Bouchet, a Cuban political prisoner forcibly exiled to Spain through arrangements made by the Cuban Catholic in collusion with the Castro dictatorship, committed suicide yesterday. He leaves behind his wife and a son."

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State Department calls on Castro dictatorship to release dissidents | Babalú Blog

State Department calls on Castro dictatorship to release dissidents | Babalú Blog: "The U.S. State Department has called on the Castro dictatorship to release the dissidents arrested during their latest wave of repression sparked by the papal visit to the island last week."

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43 dissidents still imprisoned in Cuba from papal visit crackdown | Babalú Blog

The count of dissidents and human rights activists still imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship during their papal visit crackdown has risen to 43. Apparently emboldened by the lack of concern on part of the Vatican and the pope, the Cuban regime has ratcheted up the repression in an obvious show of force and resolve to demonstrate it will not tolerate and will violently punish any dissent or opposition.
43 dissidents still imprisoned in Cuba from papal visit crackdown | Babalú Blog:

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Should Alan Gross be one of Time magazine’s Top 100 in 2012? | Babalú Blog

Alan Gross, the American aid worker being held hostage in Cuba by the Castro dictatorship for more than two years now is one of Timemagazine's candidates for their Top 100 individuals in 2012. Readers are being asked to vote for the candidates, and you can register your Yes or No vote right HERE.
Should Alan Gross be one of Time magazine’s Top 100 in 2012? | Babalú Blog:

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Cuba: Imprisoned Lady in White Sonia Garro will be charged and processed | Babalú Blog

http://www.cubanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Sonia-Garro.gif
Cuban independent journalist Laritza Diversent is reporting that Sonia Garro Alfonso, a member of the peaceful human rights group theLadies in White and arrested on March 18th by Cuban State Security


Cuba: Imprisoned Lady in White Sonia Garro will be charged and processed | Babalú Blog:

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Friday, March 30, 2012

The Brave Cuban Who Yelled "Down With Communism", Has been Identified!!

The brave Cuban who yelled "Down With Communism", during the Popes mass in Santiago de Cuba and was dragged out and beaten, before being arrested by the repressive machine of dictator Raul Castro has been Identified!!

His name is Andres Carrion Alvarez, 38 years old. He is an Occupational Therapist. Carrion remains detained in Santiago de Cuba.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012

We are not going to heal you because you are a Black Counter-Revolutionary

Bertha Antunez Pertet, talks about racism in Cuba at the hands of the communist. She recalls how in 93 when her brother dissident Jose Luis Garcia Perez (Antunez) was in prison for political reasons, he endured additional mistreatment and humiliation due to the color of his skin and she recalls a horrible incident, that seems like something right out of 19th century Spanish colonialism, where her brother's jailers incited some dogs to attack him and they destroyed parts of his body, but he was refused medical care and was told......____"We are not going to heal you, because you are a black counter-revolutionary". 


Nowadays,  Antunez is out of prison, but lives in Cuba and in his own way he is a free man. He is an outspoken critic of the Castro Regime and twitters and blogs for freedom. He calls his blogs "Ni me Callo ni me Voy", which means, I will not be Silent and I will not Leave.


Racism is and has been evident from the early days of the communist revolution and even before the bearded men came down from the hills of Sierra Maestra in 1959. The communists want the world to believe that they are for equality, but the reality is very different and in a crowd the black man with be the first to be asked for his identity papers and racial slurs during arrests of dissidents or none dissident is common practice and if they are unlucky enough to end up in prison-they always get the worse treatment.






Interviewed March 2011
Bertha Antúnez Pernet was born in 1959 to a family of limited means. She began to become politically aware in 1990 when her brother, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (“Antúnez”), was unjustly charged with “enemy propaganda” for saying in a public square that Cuba should experience the same political changes that were taking place in Eastern Europe. He was incarcerated and then charged with additional political offenses during his confinement, which extended his sentence until 2007.
Antúnez Pernet became increasingly aware of the gravity of the human rights situation in Cuba through visiting her brother in prison and learning about the conditions to which he and other prisoners of conscience were subjected.
In 1997, Antúnez Pernet and other family members of political prisoners founded an organization called the National Movement of Civic Resistance Pedro Luis Boitel to fight ill-treatment in prison. By 1999, the movement had collected over 5,000 signatures for a general amnesty of political prisoners in Cuba. It has also carried out protests in front of various prisons throughout the island. 

Source:

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

What Happened to Cuba's Mystery Protester? | Fox News Latino



What happened to the man in the dark T-shirt and baseball cap?
That is what Cuban dissidents are wondering after an unknown man who shouted anti-government slogans before Pope Benedict XVI's Mass in the eastern city of Santiago was dragged away by security. 
An independent Cuban group that monitors the detention of dissidents "has not been able to identify by name the young man who pronounced slogans in favor of freedom and against communism," said Elizardo Sánchez, who heads the organization and is a de facto spokesman for the dissidents. In his statement Tuesday, Sánchez called on the government to identify him.
The Cuban government did not respond to requests for comment.
Just before Monday's Mass was to begin in Santiago's main square, the man wearing a dark T-shirt and cap yelled "Down with the Revolution! Down with the dictatorship!" near journalists covering the ceremony.
Security agents quickly hustled him away. Video of the incident showed him being hit by an apparent first aid worker wearing a white T-shirt with a large red cross, before they were separated.
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was imprisoned from March 2003 to November 2004 in a crackdown on dissent, said the consequences for disrupting a public act are serious.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/03/27/what-happened-to-cubas-mystery-protester/#ixzz1qMyHo9dL


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Yoani Sanchez Havana's Newest Spain's "El Pais" Press Correspondent in Cuba

According to Penultimos Dias, since the Castro regime refuses to accredit correspondents from Spain's largest daily, El Paisthe newspaper has hired a local journalist already based in Havana.

Her name is Yoani Sanchez.

Kudos to El Pais

Perhaps this will serve as a lesson for all those "journalists" that have jeopardized their integrity to satisfy their dictatorial hosts. 



Sources:

Penultimos Dias

Capitol Hill Cubans
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Friday, March 23, 2012

A Brave Man Takes on Cuba's Brutal Regime. Will the Pope Help?

Oscar Biscet
“Police are in my house; bring summons for Oscar,” Tweeted Elsa Morejon at 11:50 Thursday morning from Havana. “Oscar” is her husband, Oscar Elias Biscet, the courageous physician who has spent 12 of his 50 years on earth in Fidel Castro’s prisons for expressing the opinion that Cubans should be free to speak their minds, to associate with whom they please, and to vote in fair elections.
On Wednesday, he voiced those opinions again in anop-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “My country continues to be run by a brutal regime that oppresses the people, systematically violating our basic freedoms,” he wrote. “Cuba is a police state…. They beat and harass anyone seeking peaceful political change.”
Thus, a knock on the door, and the summons to appear at the police station Friday at 9 a.m.
Biscet responded as any brave person responds in the Internet age. He is not cowed. Within minutes, Biscet and his wife ensure that a photo of the police who came to his door and a copy of the hand-written summons are circulating around the world. Continue reading here........
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Monday, March 19, 2012

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: Nine years later: Another Cuban Black Spring?

The ninth anniversary of the Cuban Black Spring providentially fell on a Sunday just 8 days before Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in Cuba on March 26. Today, approximately 70 members of the Ladies in White were arrested by the Castro regime and taken away. A majority of the 70 women were detained while trying to attend Mass.

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: Nine years later: Another Cuban Black Spring?:

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

"Heriberto Pérez Vázquez (Martin Rosel), Fallen Martyr, but Never Forgotten"


On January 9, 1959 in front the Columbia Military Camp (Liberty City), with a white dove perched on his shoulder: Fidel Castro said .......
___ "I want to tell the people and mothers of Cuba, that I will solve all problems without spilling a drop of blood. I tell mothers, that you will never have to mourn." However, the reality has been very different and there have been and are many mothers who weep for their children, because of the Castro brothers and their accomplices."


Thousands of men and women who have fought and are fighting for a Cuba where all citizens can live a life of dignity and freedom. We should always remember the martyrs who gave it all for for the freedom of our country. To one of those forgotten martyrs, is today's tribute.


Heriberto  Pérez Vázquez, known in the underground as Martin Rosel, was born into a poor family of more than ten children, on August 24, 1918. He abandoned his studies after the eighth grade to work and help his family, yet his lack of formal education did not stop him from acquiring knowledge and a clear vision for the future of his homeland. Heriberto fought first against the Batista dictatorship and later took up the fight against the dictatorship of Fidel Castro.


The labor leader, who gave everything for the cause of the working class and later gave his life for Cuba, always maintained a humble demeanor, but firm in his convictions. He dedicated the best years of his life to the improvement of the poor class and was by nature the leader of the Jarahueca miners.


His contempt for communism was so great that he starts to make enemies, but nothing stops his fight to improve the conditions of the working class that they may live to see the fruits of their hard work.


In late 1958 during a meeting with his friend Dr. Felix Egues Castilla near Yaguajay, Heriberto said to him ... ___ "I think, as the Liberator (Simon Bolivar), we have plowed the sea. Over in my camp, the color is red ". Like all great men, Heriberto had the clarity of mind to see the truth that many did not dare see.


When the Revolution triumphed, Heriberto came down from the mountains with the rank of First Lieutenant, but had made an enmity of Commander Felix Torres. Heriberto wanted to stop the peasants from drinking polluted water from nearby rivers that was brought to the shacks. With hard work and he was able to help provide wells of clean water to hundreds of houses, but his enthusiasm for the revolution, no longer existed and thus began his clandestine work against the dictatorship.


His loyalty as a friend, urges him to join the 
November 30 Revolutionary Movement and continues his tireless work for the future of his homeland. He later took up arms with a group of brave men, but the date does not coincide with an invasion that would come from Central America.

The Bay of Pigs surprises him, because the information doesn't arrive on time and after the failure was that invasion, he goes off on his own with a very small group to the Escambray Mountain and makes contact with Bravo Ramirez, but there is no union and he brakes rank and makes camp separately. He finds no unity there and travels to Havana.
His friend Felix Egues like his family remember that Heriberto was very trusting and careless  with his personal safety. He attends a suspicious meeting where he is betrayed, and never returns.


Heriberto was arrested in Havana. His sibblings tried by every means to find out where he was taken to and finally found him in the G-2 in Santa Clara. They managed to arrange a visit and get a date set for one of his sisters and his wife to visit. Meanwhile, the family hears from him, because his wife was given his clothes to wash and Heriberto manages to write notes in the fabric of his pants pockets, his wife did the same. One of the things that he asked his wife was ..... "Take care of my little girl.", he was refering to his youngest daughter, only 2 years old, as if sensing that would not be there to take care of her with his wife.


As often happens during revolutions, the fury of killing the opposition took over Cuba and the long-awaited visit unfortunately did not materialize. Two days before the date of the visit, one of his relatives shows up at the site where he was kept prisoner and was told he he was dead. Like many others, Heriberto was denied the privilege of a fair trial and on the morning of July 19, 1962 at the age of 45 years in the small town of Iguará in the province of Las Villas, the idealistic man who swore to give his life for his country, laid down his life by firing squad. His death certificate lies and says she died of internal bleeding.


As if trying to kill him twice, the communists did not give his body to his family to receive a Christian burial. The remains of Heriberto Perez Vazquez lie in an unknown tomb, apparently with three other men, also executed. His mother never knew the tragic fate of her-the family hid the truth to spare her the pain. His 4 children, 15, 12, 11 and 2 years were left virtually destitute. His widow suffered a lot-she could not accept what had been done to her husband. A sister of her late husband helped her financially. The older children helped their mother as best they could. The oldest helped a neighbor plant vegetables, the second shined shoes. In the end one by his children left Cuba.


Sonia, his eldest daughter remembers that .....


___ "It was too sad for all of us, yet it's strange, I miss having my father with me, my mother I miss a lot, but I had much more time with her, and I remember how my father was with me. When I was only 9 years old, and I got sick it was he who looked after me all night." Her younger sister who does not remember him, and whom he affectionately called cCuqui, recalls, "I was left with the desire to know what it feels like to have a father."If tragic and inhumane was his murder, also tragic and inhumane was to deny his family the last goodbye. Failing to close that chapter of his life, creates doubts and conflicts that are not easy to resolve. His daughter Sonia stayed with that doubt, if maybe he was alive in a concentration camp, as in some isolated cases. 



She recalls a strange anecdote .......

___ "At 14 or 15 years of age, a cousin requested a photo of my father, because another cousin of hers who had visited a concentration camp in 
Camagüey, told her that during a visit, when all prisoners lined up,that though he could not talk to them, there was a man that looked like my father, and he stepped forward and whispered to him, tell Juan I'm here (Juan was my father's brother) he wanted the picture to make sure it was him the next time he visited the camp, but unfortunately, it was not to be and he was not sent back to the concentration camp. You could never imagine how many years I spent suffering in silence unable to tell anyone what my cousin told me, because that was dangerous, while hoping that my dad was there and would come out someday. After many years I mentioned it to my mom, but I don't know if she believed me or not, but the fact is, I have lived with that question all my life."

The lies and manipulations of communist systems, leave always doubts. It's as if they get pleasure out of punishing the families of prisoners and dissidents.


It's very Important to note that, the insurrections of the Escambray Mountains have been the strongest that the the Castro dictatorship has had to deal with, and the guerrilla fighters there were known for their boldness and courage. They faced the communists' army without hesitation. In its quest to disappear them, the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, after annihilating all freedom fighters, moved all the farmers in the area to other parts of the island and most recently, led by Raul Castro, they are trying to change the name to the Escambray, in the futile attempt to erase parts of the history of Cuba they do not want anyone to know-something that can not be achieved, for the dead seek justice and will receive it someday.


Partial list of those excecuted by the Castro dictatorship which includes the name of Heriberto.


The name of Heriberto Perez Vazquez is reflected in the historical memory, along with all the forgotten martyrs of Cuba. Your country watches you proud!





Sources:
Dr. Felix Castilla Egues

20 De Mayo Newspaper
Sonia, eldest daughter of Heriberto Perez Vazquez 

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Cuban inmates complain of poor conditions, food in video smuggled from Havana prison - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com

Cuban Ten videos smuggled out of Cuba’s biggest and reputedly worst prison, in an unusually daring operation by a dissident, show grotesquely dirty toilets, grimy walls, leaking sewage and food described as worse than “animal feed.”
“Show this video to the international community, how this miserable dictatorship commits cruelties against humanity,” says the videos’ main narrator, an India citizen serving a 30-year sentence in Havana’s high security Combinado del Este prison.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/14/2694164_havana-prison-inmates-complain.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy

inmates complain of poor conditions, food in video smuggled from Havana prison - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Vetting: Obama Embraces Radicalism-Breithart TV

Breaking footage shows a young Barack Obama leading a protest at Harvard Law School on behalf of Prof. Derrick Bell, a radical academic tied to Jeremiah Wright. 


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Cuban Prisoner on Hunger Strike Wilman Villar Mendoza Died today

Wilman Villar Mendoza, a prisoner in a Cuban jail, died today after a hunger strike. Oficial cause of death was stated as "Multi Organ Failure" caused by a "Generalized Sepsis". Infomation was twitted by Cuban government paid twitters.
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Alex Jones - Rachel Garmon: Doctor Calls Police, CPS on Me For Refusing to Vaccinate My Son 1_3!

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Dr. Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream Speech"

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: A picture is worth a thousand words...

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter: A picture is worth a thousand words...: Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera arrested together with Donaida Pérez Paseiro for trying to keep a doctor's appointment. Yris Tamara Pérez Aguil...
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