Havana continues its crackdown against Cuban human rights defenders, Cubans who protested on July 11, 2021, and their families under the cover of international attention rightfully focused on Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Bad news for the Cuban dictatorship, the world is still watching and calling them out for their mistreatment of Cubans.
On February 28, 2022 Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for external affairs of the European Commission over social media urged Cuban authorities to "respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression. Transparency and respect for due process should guide trials related to the July 11 protests. We are concerned about the harsh sentences imposed."
Unfortunately, Havana has not heeded the European Union's concerns.
Father and daughter sentenced to long prison terms in Cuba for inquiring about plight of prisoners.
On March 2, 2022 the Cuban dictatorship confirmed the prison sentences against two Cuban human rights defenders. Félix Navarro Rodríguez, ( age 68 ), condemned to 9 years in prison. His daughter, the Lady in White Sayli Navarro (age 35), was condemned to eight years in prison. Both are long time human rights defenders who have reported on systematic human rights violations in Cuba. Their crime: going to the police station to inquire about the plight of detained nonviolent protesters of the July 11 protests in Cuba.
Felix Navarro is a member of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) board of directors. He has been arbitrarily jailed since July 12, 2021. He is also highlighted in this petition as a prisoner of conscience in a precarious condition due both to his age and health.
Sayli was also detained on July 12th, but was released hours later, and has been staying with her mother, who is in poor health. She has also spoken out against her father's arbitrary imprisonment.
February 24, 2022, the same day Russia launched its total invasion of Ukraine, human rights defender Keilylli de la Mora was attacked by an unknown assailant who beat her and slashed her face. In the video above she describes what happened.
Maikel Puig Bergolla, in photo with his two children, sentenced to 20 years in prison for 11J protest.
Trials of 11J protesters continue with prison sentences of six, eight, and 20 years for yelling anti-government slogans in the street while banging pots and pans. Sentencing documents cited that the accused “began traveling through the center of the street,” to the area of the central park. They state that once there, “they joined hundreds of people,” and “in blatant disrespect to the President of the Republic” yelled slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker]*” and “dickhead police”. In addition, they mention that Bergolla encouraged neighbors to join “the walk.” Maikel Puig Bergolla was sentenced to 20 years in prison, he is a father of two. Brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo were sentenced to six and eight years in prison respectively for taking part in the 11J protests.
Brothers sentenced to six and eight years in prison respectively for taking part in the 11J protests
Family members of the 11J protesters who have spoken out are also being threatened. Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner and July 11th (11J) protester condemned to 12 years in prison, Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, was arrested and taken to Villa Marista, the barracks of State Security in Havana on February 24th. She has been outspoken in defense of her imprisoned son. Yudinela has been charged with contempt "desacato" and remains detained in Villa Marista. Yudinela Castro Pérez is a cancer patient who has undergone 14 operations, and her health is fragile.
Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro
Showing solidarity or sympathy with the Ukrainians can also get you into trouble in Cuba. 14ymedio reported that "Cuban Pablo Enrique was detained on Saturday [February 26th] by State Security for leaving flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Havana, in solidarity with the country facing a Russian invasion. As confirmed to this daily, he was taken to the Seventh Police Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, where he was met by three agents. There, he received, 'many threats' and a second warning letter."
Iryna Bilyk, 3rd secretary of the Ukrainian consulate in Cuba with activist Pablo Enrique (Twitter/@Dicotomia7)
Many around the world were caught by surprise with Vladimir Putin's total invasion of Ukraine on February 24th and the atrocities committed, but if they had paid attention to the poisoning and murdering of dissidents and journalists, and the consolidation of his dictatorship or his brutal actions in Chechnya and 2014 invasion of Crimea, they would not have been surprised. The regime in Havana is cut from the same tyrannical cloth.
Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2022 country report on Cuba reveals the country in Latin America with the worst human rights score. The overview should be sobering to any optimists that the regime in Havana will reform itself.
Cuba’s one-party communist state outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and severely restricts basic civil liberties. The government continues to dominate the economy despite recent reforms that permit some private-sector activity. The regime’s undemocratic character has not changed despite a generational transition in political leadership between 2018 and 2021 that included the introduction of a new constitution.
The first three key developments of 2021 offer an even more shocking indictment of the Cuban dictatorship.
Cuba saw the largest protests in over 20 years on July 11, as protesters nationwide rallied over goods shortages, economic difficulties, and the government’s COVID-19 response. Security forces responded violently, using live ammunition, tear gas, and charging maneuvers against participants. Detainees faced torture and degrading treatment while in custody and suffered due process violations during subsequent trials.The government continued to target the dissident San Isidro Movement (MSI) and 27N artist collectives during the year. MSI member Luis Manuel Otero Alcántra was forced to a hospital in early May to end a hunger strike and was detained on July 11, while MSI cofounder Maykel Castillo Pérez was detained in mid-May. Otero and Castillo remained in custody at year’s end.In August, the government gazetted Decree Laws 35 and 42, both of which target the dissemination of information deemed false or detrimental to “public order.” The government also gazetted Resolution 105, which targets “false news,” that month.
It is important to remember, and not be caught by surprise by the Cuban government's domestic brutality, or international outlaw behavior. Western democracies commit a grave error when they confuse the regime in Havana for a friend.
Clifford D. May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for the Washington Times, in his March 1, 2022 column "Russia, Ukraine and the West’s grand delusion of freedom Liberty must be defended or surrendered -- there's no third option" writes "the rulers of Russia and China — along with the rulers of Iran and North Korea, as well as the rulers of Venezuela and Cuba — have been forming what you might call an Axis of Authoritarians. Their common goal: weakening and diminishing America." May's analysis is too narrow. Their common goal is weakening and diminishing Western Democracies.
This is why policy makers around the world need to be reminded of the nature of these regimes. This is why the bipartisan effort to rename the street in front of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington D.C., Oswaldo Payá Way, after the Cuban human rights leader murdered on July 22, 2012 by the Castro regime is of importance.
BabaluBlog, March 1, 2022
Human rights activist in Cuba viciously attacked and her face slashed by unknown assailant
March 1, 2022 by Alberto de la Cruz
Communist Cuba’s State Security has a history of using thugs to attack dissidents. Human rights activist Keilylli de la Mora is their latest victim.
Via Periodico Cubano (my translation):
CubaDecide/UNPACU activist Keilylli de la Mora attacked and her face slashed
Former Cuban political prisoner Keilylli de la Mora says she was attacked by an unknown assailant who beat her and slashed her face. while at the Malecon in Cienfuegos.
In an Instagram post, the UNPACU member explained the incident took place in the early morning hours of Thursday, February 24, while she was on her way back home accompanied by a friend.
The dissident could be seen with the left side of her face swollen and a visible slash on her cheek, which she said required stitches.
The Cuba Decide supporter says she is convinced the assailant was sent by State Security since neither her nor her friend knew the aggressor who went directly towards them and took no items from them. He just slashed her.
“For those who think that the dictatorship is not capable of anything; the dictatorship kills,” she said, placing direct blame of the Cuban regime.
Keilylli added that when she arrived at the hospital doctors refused to treat her, saying they had to wait until police arrived and opened a case.
Continue reading (in Spanish) HERE.
Translating Cuba, March 2, 2022
Interrogated and Threatened for Delivering Flowers to the Ukrainian Embassy in Cuba
Iryna Bilyk, third secretary of the Ukrainian consulate in Havana, along with activist Pablo Enrique (Twitter/@Dicotomia7)
14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2022 — Cuban Pablo Enrique was detained on Saturday by State Security for leaving flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Havana, in solidarity with the country facing a Russian invasion.
As confirmed to this daily, he was taken to the Seventh Police Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, where he was met by three agents. There, he received “many threats” and a second warning letter. “They are sick with hate,” declared Enrique, who introduces himself as a Christian and a human rights activist.
“Upon my arrival, the Sepsa Guards [Specialized Protection Services, S.A.] who provide security to diplomatic headquarters did not allow me to move,” recounted Enrique himself on his Twitter account as he neared the Ukrainian diplomatic headquarters, located on Fifth Avenue, in the Miramar neighborhood of Havana.
There, he stated that diplomat Iryna Bilyk, third secretary of the Ukrainian Consulate, had to come out and escort him, “as they did not allow me to hang (neither on the fence nor to place on the floor, nor even on a tree in front of the headquarters) a small bouquet of roses I took as a show of solidarity.” The flowers, he concluded with an image, “reached their final destination, and are now within the diplomatic headquarters.”
While the Cuban Government has aligned itself with Russia and has blamed the war on the United States and NATO, civic organizations and everyday Cubans have shown their support for Ukraine.
On Thursday, a group of activists issued a public declaration in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, which can be signed by anyone who desires, to date has received 300 signatures.
Promoted by Giselle González, Claudio Gaitán, Fernando Almeyda, Leo Fernández, Saily González and Magdiel Jorge Castro, the text breaks from the regime, condemning “an imperialist war that seeks to further destabilize a country which has the right to self-determination.”
Family members of July 11th prisoners also came out in favor of Ukraine recently. Pedro López, whose daughter-in-law’s brother, Andy García Lorenzo, was sentenced to seven years in prison in Santa Clara, declared on his social media that he’d just called the Ukrainian embassy in Cuba “to show our family’s solidarity with the people of Ukraine and to make clear that the cowardly position of the Cuban Government does not represent the sentiment of our beautiful, peace-loving people.”
In his post, he also published the phone numbers of the diplomatic headquarters and asked for freedom for García Lorenzo and the rest of the political prisoners.
In charge of Ukrainian business in Cuba, Oleksandr Kalinchuk on Friday had requested that Cubans take to the street to show their support for Ukraine. “We can change the position of the Cuban Government, we can change the joint situation,” he declared on AmericaTV.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
Translating Cuba, February 28, 2022
Mother of Cuban July 11th (11J) Prisoner Has Been Jailed in Villa Marista Prison for Two Days
Yudinela Castro (left), mother of Rowland Jesús Castillo (right), one of the July 11th (11J) protesters. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 26 February 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner and July 11th (11J) protester, Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, has spent more than 48 hours under arrest in Villa Marista, the barracks of the State Security in Havana. The woman was arrested last Thursday morning and “still has not returned home,” reported activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet.
Cruz explained that Castro’s arrest occurred at 9 am, by an agent of the political police known as Robert, and she was later transferred to Villa Marista. On Friday, the activist went there and an investigator told him that the woman was “under investigation.”
“We managed to leave her some clothes and hygiene products. He strongly emphasized that she would remain under arrest because ’she did not want to cooperate.’ Before we left, he said he’d call to let us know the next steps — when she’d be allowed a visit, and how the process was going,” said Cruz.
In January, Castro, a leukemia patient, must have spent “a week in the hospital and in pretty serious condition after fainting as a result of toxoplasmosis,” the activist clarified. Furthemore, he informed that every day, she must take “a series of medications, which they won’t allow, and she has spent two days without taking them.”
Last Friday, at noon, a habeus corpus in favor of Castro was delivered to the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Havana because “her arrest and the subsequent procedures were totally arbitrary,” warned Cruz.
“On behalf of her family and friends, I hold the State Security responsible for anything that might happen to her,” he concluded.
Activist Camila Rodríguez also stated that Yudinela Castro has custody of her “two-year-old” grandson.
Since her son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each one of the injustices committed against the young man and has not stopped demanding his release. She has also denounced, “the lies” told by the regime during the trial against her son Rowland, accused of sedition for which the prosecutor initially sought 23 years, later reduced to 12.
On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials to interrogate her but she has always said that “whatever it takes,” nothing will stop her from fighting to achieve her son’s freedom.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
Translating Cuba, February 22, 2022
Prison Sentences in Cuba for Protesting During the Pandemic and Yelling Epithets Against Diaz-Canel
The Martín Perdomo brothers are two of those convicted. (Facebook)
By 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022 — Slowly, and missing their own deadlines, Cuban tribunals have meted out new sentences which provoke indignation among the family members of the July 11th protesters, not only for the number of years in jail, but also for the motivations invoked by the judges.
Maikel Puig Bergolla’s 20-year prison sentence last week for “instigating a crime” plus “two charges of attempted murder” for his participation on July 11th (11J) in Güines, Mayabeque province, is one of the most severe by a Cuban tribunal in recent months. In contrast, the sentence made public last Friday against brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, is likely one of the most surprising in terms of the motivations invoked by the judges.
The tribunal also stated that Puig Bergolla should “repair material damage caused to the Ministry of the Interior in the sum of thirty-seven pesos and twenty-one cents.” Initially the prosecutor sought 25 years in a trial that began on January 12th.
The sentence mentioned that the accused, who “was enjoying the benefits of conditional freedom,” joined others in the Asbel neighborhood or las Yaguas in the municipality of Güines and “began traveling through the center of the street,” to the area of the central park. They state that once there, “they joined hundreds of people,” and “in blatant disrespect to the President of the Republic” yelled slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker]*” and “dickhead police”. In addition, they mention that Bergolla encouraged neighbors to join “the walk.”
Another sentence made public last Friday was that of Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque. Signed on February 8th by judges Sergio Rodríguez Garcés, Omar Castro Castro and Roberto Viltres González, sentenced the brothers to six and eight years in prison, respectively, for the crimes of “assault”, “contempt” and “public disorder”.
Although both sentences were reduced from what prosecutors were seeking –Nadir, from 8 to 6 years and Jorge from 10 to 8 years — family members were indignant. For Betty Guerra Perdomo, the defendants’ cousin, the sentence against them was “an aberration” which “cannot be celebrated nor appreciated.”
“This sentence is the culmination of a theatrical work, completely absurd, disrespectful, and humiliating,” she declared to this newspaper. “Everything that has happened with my cousins’ case from the beginning is an aberration until this moment, I do not want to say it is final because I cling to the hope that with strength and a fight we can change it.”
Guerra recounts that the trial, which took place in Quivicán on January 25th, and specifies that last week the brothers were separated and placed in different prisons. “I continue to believe that each day they’ve spent there is a year of life violently robbed and, as a result, the fight will be for complete freedom,” she said.
In the section on “proven facts” in the sentencing document, which 14ymedio accessed, it states the accused, on J11, “decided to mock” the measures dictated by the Ministry of Public Health for the COVID-19 pandemic, “which at the time was causing thousands of infections and deaths per day,” and that, “aware of the ills their behavior would cause,” joined “a group of people” on 54th Street in San José de las Lajas.
The protest, the document continues, “reached other individuals when the accused called for them to join the throngs, who while carrying pots, metal objects and motorcycle horns created loud noises, which alerted nearby neighbors and even those far away — very outward behavior unprecedented in the country.”
The behaviors referred to in the sentencing document and described as “total disrespect,” were chanting “with euphoria,” “harsh and vulgar” words such as “dickhead police” and “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker,” along with “Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life],” in addition to “making gross demands of those commissioned to protect the place,” and snatching a Cuban flag for a moment from an agent who was participating in a government counter-demonstration.
At one point, the document indicates that the protest achieved “an elevated scale,” as “stones were lobbed against establishments,” though it clarifies, “without the implicated Martín Perdomo brothers partaking in these episodes.”
Even so, the brothers were convicted, with the aggravating circumstance that the events occurred “in the precise moment of the COVID pandemic crisis.”
As to the defense’s version, the document indicates that the defense attorney, Reynier Brito López, “only considered the thesis that the charges faced by their clients did not constitute crimes and he sought absolution for both of them.”
For their mother, Marta Perdomo, her sons’ sentences have been unjust, with the added pain of having to go from one jail to another to visit them, “Nadir is in Melena del Sur and Jorgito in Quivicán,” she says. “They separated my sons saying one big lie that Nadir had requested to be separated from his brother. I will complain to the chief of prisons to request that they be together once again because the financial situation is very difficult and it is not easy to pay for cars to go to two different destinations.”
Furthermore, she stated that she will appeal the conviction and although she is aware that it will be “practically in vain,” she will go through all the necessary procedures, including delivering “letters to Díaz-Canel for the torture they imposed on Nadir.”
“I will continue to request their release while blood runs through my veins, it was unjust,” concluded Perdomo. “They are playing with ours, but I have to continue fighting for my sons.”
*Translator’s note: This has become a preferred epithet against the Cuban president, likely because his name and ‘singao’ roughly rhyme.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
Freedom in the World 2022, February 24, 2022
Overview
Cuba’s one-party communist state outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and severely restricts basic civil liberties. The government continues to dominate the economy despite recent reforms that permit some private-sector activity. The regime’s undemocratic character has not changed despite a generational transition in political leadership between 2018 and 2021 that included the introduction of a new constitution.
Key Developments in 2021
Cuba saw the largest protests in over 20 years on July 11, as protesters nationwide rallied over goods shortages, economic difficulties, and the government’s COVID-19 response. Security forces responded violently, using live ammunition, tear gas, and charging maneuvers against participants. Detainees faced torture and degrading treatment while in custody and suffered due process violations during subsequent trials.
The government continued to target the dissident San Isidro Movement (MSI) and 27N artist collectives during the year. MSI member Luis Manuel Otero Alcántra was forced to a hospital in early May to end a hunger strike and was detained on July 11, while MSI cofounder Maykel Castillo Pérez was detained in mid-May. Otero and Castillo remained in custody at year’s end.
In August, the government gazetted Decree Laws 35 and 42, both of which target the dissemination of information deemed false or detrimental to “public order.” The government also gazetted Resolution 105, which targets “false news,” that month.
Havana retired the convertible peso (CUC) in January, ending the country’s dual currency system. The Cuban peso (CUP), the surviving domestic currency, lost value against the US dollar on the black market as the year progressed.
https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2022
The Washington Times, March 1, 2022
Russia, Ukraine and the West’s grand delusion of freedom
Liberty must be defended or surrendered -- there's no third option
By Clifford D. May - - Tuesday, March 1, 2022
OPINION:
Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging a war of imperial conquest. That’s despicable but, from a historical perspective, hardly novel. Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Tamerlane and Attila the Hun are among those who did not think: “Maybe I should give peace a chance!” Mr. Putin, I submit, sees the world similarly.
Why do elites in America and Europe find this reality elusive? Because they cling to the grand delusion that there is an “international community,” and that it believes “No one wins wars!” and that everyone seeks “diplomatic solutions” to “address legitimate grievances” while rejecting armed conflicts in pursuit of territory, resources, and power.
A memorable example: In 2014, Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine for the first time. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry exclaimed: “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext!”
I imagine Mr. Putin was amused, though perhaps not as much as when he heard Mr. Kerry last week express concerns about the “massive emissions consequences” that might result from the current Russian war on Ukrainians. As White House climate envoy, Mr. Kerry reached out to the neo-czar: “I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”
What Mr. Putin believes he needs to do is rather different, and an odd coalition is attempting to ensure his success. On the left, Rep. Ilhan Omar opposes sanctions that could “devastate the Russian economy.” The Democratic Socialists of America has called for the U.S. “to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict.” Code Pink is demanding that “not a single bullet or gun be sent to Ukraine!”
More than a few voices on the right echo these views. I am at a loss to understand how anyone wearing a Make-America-Great-Again cap can be indifferent when it comes to Mr. Putin whose goal is to make America irrelevant — an impotent, hapless, has-been superpower.
Take J.D. Vance, author “Hillbilly Elegy” (a marvelous book!) and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. Last week, he made an argument that is emotionally compelling and geo-strategically incoherent. “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” he said. “I’m sick of Joe Biden focusing on the border of a country I don’t care about while he lets the border of his own country become a total war zone.”
Which is the same as saying: “The current administration’s policies at home are a disaster and I want a foreign policy to match!”
A more thoughtful faction on the right argues that we should let Mr. Putin have his way in Ukraine — and in Europe more broadly, and in the Middle East and Latin America, too — so we can “pivot to Asia” and concentrate on the threat China’s rulers pose.
Among the problems with that: The rulers of Russia and China — along with the rulers of Iran and North Korea, as well as the rulers of Venezuela and Cuba — have been forming what you might call an Axis of Authoritarians. Their common goal: weakening and diminishing America.
You can be sure they chuckled when former President Barack Obama, in 2015, warned Mr. Putin that if he intervened militarily in Syria, he would end up “stuck in a quagmire.” Instead, Mr. Putin propped up Syria’s dynastic dictator (at a cost of more than 500,000 Syrian lives), expanded his Mediterranean naval facility in Tartus, and restored Russia as a major force in the Middle East.
They were reassured when America and its allies gazed with bovine passivity as Chinese Communists, violating their clear commitments, stripped the people of Hong Kong of their freedoms, all the while building militarized islands in the South China Sea.
They were even more encouraged by America’s chaotic and humiliating capitulation to the Taliban — and, by implication, to its ally, al Qaeda — in Afghanistan last year.
They’re now expecting American diplomats in Vienna to surrender to the much shrewder negotiators from Tehran.
If Mr. Putin succeeds in swallowing Ukraine, he will become more powerful, which will make him more valuable to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose goal is to conquer Taiwan and become hegemon of Asia — a stepping stone toward displacing America as global leader.
Similarly, Mr. Putin will want to move on to become the dominant European power. He is apt to think: “Since the U.S. is prioritizing the threat from Beijing, wouldn’t this be a convenient time to strike a blow against a NATO member?”
Long-term, the West needs to learn hard lessons and change failed policies. Short-term, we need to do whatever we can to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who, when offered a chance to flee, tweeted: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
As rapidly as possible, we should provide Ukrainians with Stingers, Javelins, TOW missiles — whatever they need to defend themselves. And we should do everything we can to bring Russia’s economy to a grinding halt until such time as Mr. Putin’s troops go home.
Final point: There is inspiration to be found in the streets of Kyiv and the frozen fields of Donbas where a brave nation fights against all odds for independence, sovereignty and the right to choose its leaders.
We can stand up to totalitarianism and defend freedom as we did in World War II and the Cold War. Or we can leave to our children a world in which evil empires expand and imperial conquerors enjoy what George Orwell called “the intoxication of power … the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.” There is no third option.
• Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for the Washington Times.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/1/russia-ukraine-and-the-wests-grand-delusion-of-fre/