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HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA , ISSUE 22 - NOVEMBER 2020, PART II - 4000 - COPIES
Crackdown in Cuba against San Isidro Movement and independent activists
Political police use the Covid-19 to limit the movement of activists.
Members of the San Isidro Movement detained by the political police.MICHEL MATOS
Cuba's political police unleashed a wave of repression this Saturday against members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), independent activists and other young people who tried to demonstrate peacefully, following the campaign of state media discredit against MSI and the planting in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture.
"We have just been arrested a block from the house of Maykel Castillo (Osorbo), as you know she is on hunger strike, she is convalescing, she feels bad. We stayed and talked to him for a while. When we were leaving for a State Security and Police device," said Michel Matos, one of MSI's spokesmen.
Police asked for his ID cards and alleged a violation of a health protocol because they have Maykel as a covid-19 suspect. Political police used the same pretext to evict the 14 Cubans protesting at MSI headquarters in Havana on Thursday for the release of answering rapper Denis Solís,including hunger strike artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
"We were going to be transferred, first to a unit, then to a medical place to do Covid-19 emergency tests, when we barely spent 15 minutes with Maykel, impossible for the Covid to be running through our veins," Matos said.
The detainees recalled the meeting with MINCULT, in which they promised to end the crackdown and yet the police "were snating it." In addition to Matos, Katherine Bisquet, Amaury Pacheco, Claudia Genlui, Iris Ruiz and Yasser Castellanos were arrested.
Activists and artists were released, but report that they searched all their belongings and reiterated that they are suspected of Covid-19. "We have to be isolated, we can't leave our homes, where the PCRs are going to go. We basically have social immobility and if we fail to do this, we are going to be prosecuted for violating health protocols," Matos added.
The San Isidro Movement noted in Twiter that "the Police and State Security 'argue' that Maykel Castillo is not on hunger strike, that he is in his house, guarded by having Covid... and for that reason these companions will be isolated for three days."
"Attention the Covid-19 is being used to restrict the mobility of dissent in Cuba," MSI warned.
In Matanzas, a dozen young people protesting in Freedom Park were arrested at about 1:30AM from 8:00PM.
"They were about a dozen, front frank Batista, of the rock band Rice and Beans, also Dr. Antoinette Contino, I don't know the names of the others. We know that repression is stronger in the province, so let's share all this and demand the release of these boys. May these acts of violence not be repeated in Cuba anymore," claimed art curator Anamely Ramos,who was also a victim on Saturday of the political police crackdown.
Limitation of movement to the US business manager in Havana
Ramos recounted that he was the victim of the police encirle of the political police at the house of Maykel Osorbo.
The teacher and activist tried to go to the rapper's block in the car of U.S. Embassybusinessman Timothy Zúñiga-Brown, but a police patrol blocked their way. The moment was recorded on video by the freelance journalist Héctor Luis Valdés.
"They wouldn't let the embassy car through because of course they didn't want me to come to Maykel's and see him. I turned around, I got into Esteban's (Rodriquez).. After much talk, I managed to get to Maykel's house. He's sick, he's uneating, he's very weak, we don't know how he has the vital signs. But he's strong enough to continue," Ramos explained on Facebook.
The Cuban Chancellery reported that the U.S. diplomat was summoned for his alleged "interference in internal affairs."
Ramos said political police have different strategies against activists. "Power acts as it pleases, with one way and with others in another. Let's not go on naively."
The activist is at the home of Professor Omara Ruiz Urquiola. Both were part of the group locked up for nearly two weeks at MSI headquarters, have constant state security surveillance and criticize the dialogue with MINCULT.
"If we insist on Denis Solís, it's for Maykel and Luis to stay alive to continue the fight (...) There are hundreds of other people who are less visible and are the ones who are daily violated by their rights and no one knows," he said.
For her part, independent activist Diasniurka Salcedo Verdecia reported that she was the victim of "hours of psychological torture and threats." Salcedo disappeared this Saturday in Havana when he tried to access Fajardo Hospital to see Otero Alcántara.
"I just got to the farm, I was held on a 167th patrol almost five hours without water with nothing. Then I was moved to the checkpoint of the highway where I was mounted on patrol 442 and these dogs left me booty 14 km before I reached the farm, alone, dark, without mobile, without a house nearby," he wrote on Facebook.
On social media they also denounced the arrest of Yusimy Ferreira de la Cruz "for defending his right to demonstrate peacefully in Havana," said activist Arys Jauregui Miranda.
On Saturday, a call to protest in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Trade (MINCIN) over the closure of stores in MLC (freely convertible currencies) took place. The call was supposedly organized by Cuban mothers.
... 'In less than 24 hours the Ministry of Culture broke several of the promises,' says Tania Bruguera
Despite broken promises, Cuban artists and intellectuals are ready to follow the dialogue with MINCULT.
Artists after the meeting with MINCULT.GABRIEL GUERRA BIANCHINI / CAPTURE
The artists and intellectuals who spoke with officials of the Ministry of Culture said on Sunday that they are committed to continuing to talk to the authorities of Cuba, despite the promises broken by MINCULT.
At a somewhat erratic press conference with diverse voices, since the group is not organized or closed, they acknowledged that they failed to yield in some of the main demands such as the immediate release of Denis Solís for the end of the hunger strike of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo (Osorbo).
MinCULT failed, according to Brugera, to cease harassment of alternative groups,in this case the San Isidro Movement; Otero Alcántara's return home and the liberation of Solís. He recalled that on Friday the police were prepared to attack those present. "There were people in the Army with long guns and we're not going to accept it."
He called the accusations made by the Saíz Brothers Association and in the state media that called MSI protesters "mercenaries" and paid by the CIA as irresponsible, because such accusations, in Cuba, can put people's lives at stake.
Bruguera regretted that the deputy minister omitted parts of the meeting, such as all harassment and harassment against independent society. "They can't say more that they don't know what's going on in Cuba," he added.
The artist requested that if there are upcoming meetings, a subsequent press conference would be held with both parties, officials and intellectuals, as well as that there be a space in the state media for those who dialogue with the Government.
El realizador Juan Pin Vilar fue más contundente con el viceministro, al decir que el Gobierno de Cuba quemó a su interlocutor y no dieron posibilidad a los 14 cubanos presentes en la sede del MSI de defenderse. "El programa de ayer fue un espacio horrible. ¿Por qué no incluyeron a cinco de los 30?", agregó.
La realizadora audiovisual Grettel Medina dijo que "la responsabilidad de nosotros era comunicarles, que aunque se hubieran hechos algunos acuerdos, las demandas fundamentales no estaban siendo respondidas y no fuimos claros en decirlo. En ese sentido fallamos y estamos a tiempo de tener esa claridad y unirnos todos".
Medina noted that what happened at MINCULT's headquarters was unpublished in Cuba, but also his little faith in an effective dialogue with the island's government for his long history of silenced dissenting voices.
The playwright Yunior García was one of the first to appear on Friday against MINCULT in solidarity with the San Isidro Movement. Garcia said that yesterday they (the government) gave their version, with which we do not agree, today we are saying ours. Both he and others present insisted on the willingness to dialogue because "this country needs it".
Julio Llópiz-Casal, also a filmmaker, detailed that the eviction of the San Isidro Movement detonated the protest in front of MINCULT, but that its members were not the ones who organized the event.
In this regard, Garcia emphasized that "there was not a single voice, one thought, it was a very diverse Cuba."
None of the members of the San Isidro Movement were present because they are warned that they can be prosecuted for the crime of spreading epidemics if they leave their homes. Bruguera claimed that State Security let them visit Maykel Osorbo's house and then reported that they were possible focuses of Covid-19.
No concrete proposals were made for future actions at the conference.
Diaz-Canel suggests the use of violence against the San Isidro Movement
The ruler is at the forefront of the regime's attack on Cuban artists and activists who make up that independent group.
Miguel Díaz-Canel took over this Saturday's attack by the regime, its institutions andits mediato the San Isidro Movement, with Twitter posts even suggesting the use of violence.
"Those who designed the farce of San Isidro got the wrong country, got the wrong history and got the wrong armed bodies," Diaz-Canel published. "We do not accept interference, provocation or manipulation. Our people have all the courage and morals to sustain a fight for the heart of Cuba," he added.
After the meeting to which the Ministry of Culture was forced on Friday, when hundreds of artists, intellectuals, activists and other citizens concentrated before their headquarters to protest the eviction, on Thursday, of the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Havana Vienna, on Saturday and this Sunday the official press has put all its machinery in function of iscrediting the group.
The eviction, for which the authorities used protocols against Covid-19 as a pretext, came after a seed of more than ten days of 14 artists and activists to demand the release of rapper Denis Solís, sentenced to eight months in prison for a false crime of contempt.
Several of the activists carried out hunger strikes and are still carried out by rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez and the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro, whom the authorities hold for force at Fajardo hospital.
In addition to breaking off the commitment not to suppress artists and activists, some of whom suffered arrests and records on Saturday while others were besieged in their homes, the regime snatched attacks through its institutions and media, in which it never entitles its critics to reply.
"Sovereign Cuba does not accept interference. Some are committed to starring in media shows against the Revolution, poisoning and lying on networks. The Cuban revolutionary people will fight," wrote Díaz-Canel, who shared on their Twitter several of the official press posts instigating hatred against independent artists and activists.
"San Isidro, an act of imperial reality show. The imperial spectacle to destroy our identity and re-submit. All those plans will be defeated," he added.
He called the movement "farce" and, as the regime routinely does with its detractors, said it is linked to "U.S. government officials, in charge of the care and supply of its operational base in Cuba."
Miguel Díaz-Canel and the new Minister of the Interior, Brigadier General Lázaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, were included last Friday in the database of violent Cuban repressions made by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC).
The foundation held these two officials accountable for the new wave of brutal repression fought throughout Cuba against freedom of thought, expression and assembly. "Both are responsible for the assault on the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement as well as for the previous blockade of food, water and medicine to that compound that caused the hunger strike of those gathered there," his statement said.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo continue on hunger strike for the release of Denis Solís
Members of the San Isidro Movement will be uneating until Solís is released.
Maykel Osorbo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, before the eviction.KATHERINE BISQUET / FACEBOOK
Members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and singer Maykel Castillo (Osorbo) continue on hunger strike until the Cuban government releases answering rapper Denis Solís.
MSI leader and 13 other Cubans were evicted on Thursday night from MSI headquarters in Havana for an alleged crime of spreading epidemics, according to Cuban state media.
Otero Alcántara refuses to go anywhere else in Havana other than his home in Damas #955, seat of the movement, confirmed sources daily from CUBA.
Political police action against MSI led to a concentration of 300 people this Friday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) in the capital. A group of 30 artists, intellectuals and journalists managed, among other promises of that institution, to follow the situation of Otero Alcántara and Osorbo.
Osorbo is out of medical assistance and with police surveillance at home, his daughter's mother told activist Esteban Rodriquez. "He's still on hunger strike from home. He's in a lot of pain," he wrote on Facebook.
On the dialogue with MINCULT, Rodriquez noted that "locked up with Luisma and 13 brothers, we decided that there was no dialogue at all. That first was the freedom of Denis Solís."
The Cuban government accused Solís of contempt of authority and sentenced him in a summary trial to eight months in prison.
Amnesty International called on the Government of Cuba to cease harassment of MSI members and worried about the situation of art curator Anamely Ramos, who is also guarded by police at the home of Professor Omara Ruiz Urquiola.
Both the MSI peaceful protest and the subsequent rally at MINCULT headquarters are supported by Cuban artists on and off the island. "To the San Isidro Movement, thank you very much for what you're doing, for what you're building (...) the foundations of a free Cuba, a new Cuba," said singer Yotuel Romero.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara deposes hunger strike
Otero Alcántara began eating food and maintains a good physical and mood, his uncle told CubaNet after an encounter with the opponent
MIAMI, USA.- The artist and leader of the San Isidro Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Movement deposed the hunger strike he had been holding since November 18, as reported by his uncle Enix Berrio in telephone conversation with CubaNet.
Otero Alcántara began ingesting food and maintains a good physical and mood, his family member said after an encounter with the opponent, who remains hospitalized and recovering at the Comandante Manuel Fajardo Surgical Clinical University Hospital in Havana.
According to his statements, Berrio managed to visit Otero Alcántara on Sunday at noon, who remains isolated in a small hospital ward, guarded by two State Security agents.
The regime's agents allowed Berrio to "talk to his nephew for only ten minutes, 'without commenting on counter-violence issues', as ordered."
As later confirmed by La Hora de Cuba, in a Facebook post, "the artivist was evaluated by a dermatologist and was also performed an abdominal ultrasound. In addition, he has been tested for blood and urine, and psychiatric evaluations due to the delicate state of health with which he was received in the hospital center."
Berrio claimed that Otero Alcántara was entered against his will last Friday at the Manuel Fajardo Hospital, after repressive forces from the regime forced him from his home, home of the San Isidro Movement, where he had been on a hunger strike for a week.
During his uncle's visit, Otero Alcántara "sent a message calling the unit and ensuring that he will soon be with everyone to embark on a new path."
Last Thursday night the agents of the Castrist dictatorship beat luis Manuel and the other 13 strikers of Damas 955,where they were protested and demanding the release of the answering rapper Denis Solís, sentenced to eight months in prison on November 11, in a summary trial, for the alleged crime of contempt.
Enix Berrio, the uncle of Luis Manuel Otero, who is an economist, opponent and executive secretary and spokesman for the Democratic Action Unit Bureau (MUAD), was arrested last May for more than fifty hours at the Santiago de las Vegas police station in Boyeros.
Days when his family did not know of his whereabouts, and during which he was subjected to various arbitrarinesses: five interrogations and a transfer in the early hours of the morning to the Police Investigation Station, on Acosta Street, in Old Havana.
"Holiday, COVID-19 pandemic, weekend... They didn't wait 72 hours, on a Sunday afternoon they returned me to freedom and with a warning for pre-delic activities in times of alarm for walking on the streets in breach of the health authorities, to take away the political nuance," he then told CubaNet about his arrest.
The opponent was arrested after a request he made to the National Assembly to declare Decree Law 370 unconstitutional. Berrio went for 24 hours without eating food, and in a cell about two meters next to about seven detainees.
Maykel Castillo deposes hunger strike
"Thanks to all the young artists, playwrights, thanks to all the Cuban who connected with the reality of what happened to us," he said
Various members of the San Isidro Movement (Photo: Anamely Ramos/Facebook)
MIAMI, USA.- Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo, known as Maykel Osorbo, deposed this Monday the hunger strike he had been on since November 18, as he communicated himself by telephone to CubaNet.
The musician thanked in his statements the intellectuals who supported them after repressive forces of the regime took him and 14 others out of the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, in Damas 955, Old Havana, where they were on strike for the release of the answering rapper Denis Solís.
"Thanks to all the young artists, playwrights, thanks to all the Cuban who connected with the reality of what happened to us," Osorbo said in reference tolast Friday'smassive protest in front of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT).
Maykel Castillo is at home still besieged by State Security, he said, with "two patrols, one on every corner, and like 20 security officers who won't let me out."
The political police "won't let me go out and thank all the intellectuals who supported us, to shake hands with those young people who stood in front of the Ministry of Culture. They won't let me connect with Omara, to see how he's in health, or with Anamely, or Luis Manuel, or with my friends," he noted in an audio sent to the program La Maquinita, by Cantalo TV.
Known for his critical stance on the regime, which has cost him several arrests, Maykel Castillo thanked the more than 500 people who went to demand a response from the culture authorities about the violent eviction they were victims of.
This Sunday Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara's uncle, Enix Berrio, announced thatthe leader of the San Isidro Movement abandoned the hunger strikehe had also held since November 18. The activist has been evicted from his home at Manuel Fajardo Hospital in Havana in an isolated room guarded by State Security officials.
Denis Solís is incommunicado and only knows "the basics"
"We are his source of information and there has been no time to tell him everything, but the basics," says a guy from Solís.
HAVANA, Cuba. "When Denis's mother, a friend of mine who was 75, died, she said, 'Do you want us to take this out?' and I said no, what for? But this time I'm not going to shut up," says Vladimir Lázaro González Scull, the uncle of Denis Solís González, the rapper and member ofthe San IsidroMovement sentenced to eight months in prison for the alleged contempt offence.
In this way, his uncle remembers that, at the age of 12, Solís lost his mother to medical negligence. "He spent a hard childhood with his stepfather who was a terrible man. And when he came to live here with us, unfortunately we didn't give him the childhood we should have given him because we had a lot of financial need," the interviewee says.
"Above all the storm that happened, he became a nurse and practiced in Nephrology and calixto García hospital," says his uncle. He soon adds that Solís had to give up his job as a nurse "because of the economic need", after which he began to drive a bicycle taxi, a common destination for black and Afro-descendants in Cuba, who find better remuneration on the streets and with rough jobs.
On the current situation of Solís, González Scull has few details.
"He is incommunicado and knows nothing. We are his source of information and there has been no time to tell him everything, but the basics: the hunger strike and that the whole world is crying out for him," he says.
Between the campaign of solidarity of the people demanding the liberation of Solís and the smear campaign that has sustained the regime in its official means not only against the rapper but also against the strikers of San Isidro, the young man's family has not been left behind in legal matters. The Cubalex legal advisory center has accompanied you in each management.
Cubalex director Laritza Diversent Cambara explained to CubaNet the legal actions that have been taken in this case.
In this way, the family is requesting a "copy of the Oral Trial Act, because although the judgment is delivered orally in summary proceedings, an act is made in all trials which is what is on the record and the evidence used by the Court to determine that Denis was guilty must be reflected there" ,, explains the lawyer.
A complaint has also been filed with the State Council forthe violation of constitutional rights and a literal copy of the car notifying him that he is deprived of his liberty "because thehabeas corpus response saidthat hehad appeared before the prosecutor on the 10th at 13:00 hours, and then says that the provision of the provisional prison was made at 9:00 a.m., so there is an inconsistency," she explains.
Other criminal proceedings, such as the appeal, were also taken into account during the days when the artist was completely incommunicado.
"We have a lot of concern," says González Scull. "I have tremendous anxiety to see him, to know. He himself told us that he was beaten in Point 30, that he was beaten at the Vivac and we don't know what might be happening to him now."
In the last call he was able to make, Solís himself asked his uncle not to see him "because God will know the pressures they will be making to them."
Although various sources have suggested that Solís could be on hunger strike, his uncle denies that assumption. "He told me that (the hunger strike) for him is a suicide, that he's going to stay strong, but he's not going to trade."
González Scull stated that Denis Solís' recording broadcast on Cuban Television dates back to 2016, "when he had a biketaxi removed and made a public protest," after which he was imprisoned.
"That's when he films 'Condemned Society' and begins his artistic career, after belonging to the Republican Party of Cuba," recalls González Scull, who rejects the regime's lies against his nephew.
San Isidro Movement: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is 'kidnapped' at Fajardo Hospital
In the care center there is a strong police deployment and several security rings that prevent access to the Cuban artist.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.SAN ISIDRO/FACEBOOK MOVEMENT
TheSan Isidro Movementreported that its leader, Luis ManuelOtero Alcántara,is under"kidnapping"at the Manuel Fajardo Surgical Clinical University Hospital, where political police interned him against his will last Friday.
According to Michel Matos, the collective's spokesman, there is a police deployment and several security rings that prevent access to the artist,who would have deposed his hunger strikeover the weekend, according to his uncle, lawyer Enix Berrio, the only relative who has been able to visit him there.
Matos assured that everything the MSI knows about the state of Otero Alcántara is through Berrio, as the artist "does not have access to a phone". According to the same source, Luis Manuel "has been subjected to analysis, which he approved".
For this reason, the MSI called the status of its leader "kidnapping" and warned: "We cannot accept the situation as logical or benevolent. We have asked and asked the international community to rule on this and call on the Catholic Church to provide spiritual assistance" to the detainee, so he asked the authorities to authorize it.
About certain calls to take violent action circulating on the island, Matos indicated that the MSI does not accept "nor will we participate in any kind of call to violence." The latter, in reference to vanishing actions against dollar stores of the Cuban military.
"Stores in MLC are an injustice, an economic apartheid that creates classism in a supposedly socialist society, but we cannot accept vandalism and violence, which will bring serious situations to Cuban society. We reject it bluntly," Matos said.
Therefore, the spokesman refused to use MSI tags to call for vandalizing those stores. "He who does not accompany us in this discourse, who does not accompany us, " he asked.
"The Government has a unique opportunity to dialogue with those who disagree with its philosophy. We are seeking freedom, concord, prosperity and also cuba's sovereignty. The Government has an obligation to listen, to understand, even if it has no obligation to do what it is asked to do."
"It is imperative that they listen to us. The people who criticize us for that, we appreciate the criticism, but not all of Cuba thinks the same way. A nation is diverse, it is plural. This is not a challenge or pressure, it's about taking the nation down a better path," Matos said.
On the other hand, the poet Amaury Pacheco, another MSI spokesmen, insisted on the release of Denis Solís and asked activists not to criminalize their allies using "speeches normally used by the government against civil society. This is a time to look us in the face and the only way is dialogue."
Matos stressed that the MSI urges the Government "to recognize that we are all children of Cuba."
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is released
Otero Alcántara was from last Friday admitted to the Commander Manuel Fajardo Surgical Clinical University Hospital, in an isolated room, and guarded by State Security agents
LA HABANA, Cuba.- Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was discharged and is at his mother's house, as confirmed to CubaNet on Tuesday afternoon sources close to the "artivista" and leader of the San Isidro Movement.
Otero Alcántara was since last Friday entered the Hospital Universitario Clínico Quirúrgico Comandante Manuel Fajardo, in an isolated room, and supervised by agents of the Security of the State of Cuba.
Just a few hours ago the poet Amaury Pacheco had denounced in a direct on facebook's social network that he was not allowed into the health center, where he was held against his will since repressive forces from the regime beat him, along with 13 other activists, from his home, home of the San Isidro Movement, in Old Havana.
The last person to have seen Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was his uncle, the lawyer Enix Berrio, who was also prevented from visiting the leader of the San Isidro Movement today.
"The Fajardo is Luisito prison," the artist's uncle said, because the day after his visit "the cousin tried to bring him some of the things he had asked for and they wouldn't let it go either." He said he was given what he was brought, a toothbrush and other personal effects, but was denied access.
Enix Berrio says that to reach Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara he had to go through six safety rings, and that the room where he was held is of infectious diseases.
"It's a room with keys. The nurse asks you what you want, who you're going to see and closes the door to find answers and answer."
The artist has so far been prevented from returning home, after being raided by his home,Ladies 955 and the seat of the San Isidro Movement, on Thursday, November 26.
After several of the other strikers were returned to their homes that same day around midnight, Luis Manuel was kept wandering around the city despite weakness after a week of hunger strike.
According to witnesses, San Isidro remains closed even though the belongings of Esteban Rodríguez, Anamely Ramos and the other strikers who were forcioly evicted must remain inside.
In detail: This was the meeting between Cuban artists and Fernando Rojas at MINCULT
The Deputy Minister was oblivious to all the acts of repression by State Security narrated by those present. Some told him they had proof, but he didn't even ask them to see them. He knew, and everyone knew that he knew, even if he wanted to deny it
Artists in front of the Ministry of Culture. Photo Facebook Reynier Leyva Novo
LA HABANA, Cuba.- November 27, 2020 will remain in Cuba's history as the day young people saved the pride and courage of the Cuban nation. The day before, State Security (SE) officials stormed the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and beat up fourteen activists with the justification that coronavirus was spreading there. About a week ago, several had been on hunger strike (others also thirsty) for the freedom of Denis Solís, a rapper arrested and sentenced to 8 months' deprivation of liberty, in summary trial, for an alleged crime of contempt.
At 11 a.m. on Friday 27, around 15 young artists gathered outside the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT). They demanded to meet with the Minister of Culture; his intention was to repudiate what happened with the MSI and demand a pronouncement, also to advocate respect for freedom of expression and the cessation of censorship.
Ten hours later, and having gathered hundreds of people and media outlets on the site, they did it. Thirty people (number required by the Deputy Minister of Culture) and two separate guests, representing the rest, were received by MINCULT officials. The pressure exerted by all those gathered there forced officials to do so.
Of the 30 representatives, 27 were democratically elected from among the different artists' guilds present at 4pm; the other three were independent media journalists who had accompanied the process almost from the beginning: ADN Cuba, Diario de Cuba and CubaNet.
The meeting began at 9 p.m and lasted for almost 5 hours. In that small meeting room, a few steps from the entrance of MINCULT, were, on the one hand, the 32 representatives and, on the other hand, the five MINCULT officials.
It was a very emotional meeting, because all the artists spoke with love, sincerely, from the heart; channeled decades of personal, professional and citizen frustrations. But there were also moments of tension. Strong truths were said, at least on the part of the creators. All based on respect and tolerance.
They didn't let phones or recorders in. Although it was already an achievement that allowed the independent press in a government institution. I was able to at least take notes, many, which I think capture the essence of that meeting, and that's what I then transcribe.
Fernando Rojas, Deputy Minister of Culture, welcomes you and gives you the floor.
Michel Matos,representing MSI, demands respect and transparency; he speaks of MSI's suffering.
State Security has taken over the country, we are treated militarily and we are civilians, we have been mistreated by them, arrested, repressed, beaten... and this is not acceptable. It's inadmissible what's going on. The hunger strike initiated by some of the MSI members has been the result of despair. And we've all been suffering from this kind of thing.
What country are we living in? What are we becoming? We're all Cubans, even if we disagree. A country can't go as a camp is run, and this is what we're seeing. We're desperate. The official media themselves are manipulating reality.
We are at a point of demanding the basic freedoms we should all have. We demand respect for our individuality. We're not mercenaries, we're not criminals, we're Cubans. We feel the need to participate in our nation.
We have been waiting for a response from MINCULT for the debate and opposition generated by Decree 349 for two years. They're not respecting us, they're not listening to us. We're not criminals, we're creators. This isn't a show. The SE, if it persists in its criminal methods, is going to create a truly dramatic reality. We want a sovereign Cuba, a prosperous and free Cuba.
Katherine Bisquet readsthe demands:
-Review and transparency of the judicial proceedings against Denis Solís.
-Freedom of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (LMOA).
-Right to have rights, freedom of expression, free creation and dissent.
-Cessation of defamation and discredit by the official media.
-Recognition and respect for independent positioning.
-No more police violence, no more political hatred.
Fernando Rojas takes note.
Mauricio Mendoza, journalist from Diario de Cuba, talks about the recognition of the independent press, the right to participate in these debates and document. Also from the blockades of those media in Cuba. The need for freedom of expression and the right to practice the profession, as well as the discredits suffered by independent journalists in the official press.
Daniel Díaz Mantilla: We must remember the years leading up to the founding of MINCULT, emerged at a time when dialogue seemed impossible, to establish a channel of communication between creators and the government. We must put an end to the lack of communication between artists and culture officials that has existed for years. We are not enemies, we have to find common ground for dialogue.
What I see in these boys is the same thing that I experienced in the 90s and early 2000s: censorship, suspicion, mistrust. We must prevent criminal methods from being used to treat Cuban society; State Security is even violating the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. When criminal methods are used, it is criminal and when the state resorts to criminal methods, that state is also criminal.
The SE is taking actions that do not correspond to it and with total impunity, sow fear, destroy friendships, families... none of us here are taking on positions that undermine sovereignty, much less. You have a responsibility in this that's happening.
You have to have the courage to say what you think in this country, as we are saying now what we think. Honor the reasons why you exist as an Institution.
Yunior García: The UNEAC Congresses have been a theater, a staging. You have to listen to the diversity of Cuba. This has been a black year for censorship and repression.
He mentions the case of Pedro Junco, recently expelled from UNEAC for political reasons.
I have a right to say what I think. It cannot be that an artist for thinking differently is treated like a criminal and differs from him in the press.
The official press, not telling the reality, is denying something that the whole world already knows by the independent media and the foreign press. Not showing the true Cuban reality or hiding it is lying.
We demand respect for the dignity of artists, not censorship or discrimination on political grounds.
Understand that this youth is not the same as it was years ago. Enough of that lousy staging. Those old mechanisms don't work. It can't be that you look more like the UJC than we do.
The diverse Cuba is not reflected in e e e e.g. the official press or the institutions. Political ideas are battled with ideas, not censorship or jail.
Mention Decree 349. He jumps defensively Fernando Rojas saying no, that's not what he was going to talk about.
They have to stop seeing us as enemies. We're not. We're Cubans who think differently.
Juan Pin Vilar: No one has the right to say who is an artist. Everything we've seen here is a result of MINCULT's inefficiency. These people exist and have rights, and you are there for them.
For years we have seen corruption in institutions. How the press doesn't talk about it and does call us mercenaries? We're not mercenaries. Freedom of expression must exist.
Grethel Medina: We must insist on what has brought us here today, and these demands transcend creative freedom, it is the freedom we have to exist, it is citizen freedom in general. All of this transcends artistic freedom is the freedom that someone in your home can express themselves freely.
Why do we come here? Because you're the ones who represent us. It cannot be that violations of the Constitution are being committed in Cuba and the institutions that represent us have not been pronounced. We don't feel like you're representing or protecting us. They haven't mediated anything that's happened.
Henry Erick Hernandez:"Words to intellectuals" in the 1960s, which is so beautiful, was nothing more than a pact with guns. It wasn't an inclusive pact. There have been many grey quinquenians in Cuba.
Before you become an artist, you are being human and citizen.
He mentions the case of Italo, an artist who was forced to leave the country by censorship and repression.
It's 60 years of repression. We have been asking for the same thing for 60 years, inclusion, cessation of censorship, freedom of expression... So we have to finish solving this quickly. We're going to convict them if they don't do anything now and they're going to die with that stigma. Open the way.
Julio Llópiz-Casal: There is a Cuban writer in exile named Rafael Rojas, who everyone should know him, he wrote a book called Tombs Without a Foot. This book was given to me by my father after a trip to Spain, it shows much of Cuba's history: it talks about Roberto Fernández Retamar, about the debates between different political parties to draft the Constitution of the 40, the diversity of opinions and consensus...
How is it possible that I had to wait for a book from Spain to fall to want to know my country, to see Cuba from the heart?
It's not about saying up or down the revolution, it's about forming a country, a country with a very sad history. In my family there have even been family divisions on political issues, but in general we respect each other, and we live together despite our differences of opinion. Why can't our country be like this?
Protest outside the Ministry of Culture of Cuba on November 27 (Photo: EFE)
Amaury Pacheco: The MSI is born of a system anomaly: Decree 349. Since then, we have suffered state security repression and even press attacks. We have also faced, as part of these dark decrees, Decree-Law 370.
349 can work for a government, but it hurts the nation. We've said BASTA and we're assuming it. We have set a wick to a national plurality.
We demand the cessation of attacks and harassment on LMOA and MSI. LMOA is missing and has resisted more than a person can resist.
Cuba now holds a position at the UN Human Rights Council (United Nations) and violates human rights. This is not understood.
Ian Benavidesexplains that this divorce between the state and society is caused by censorship.
Gretell Kairúz: I think we should talk about what unies us, and what unies us is that we love this land, To Cuba, we want a society that is beautiful, prosperous. But for that to exist, it takes your children, each and every one of your children, my mother who was literate and a communist, and my father who was a worm. That's my family and so is my homeland.
I'm not interested in concepts. Cuba is an ajiaco. This cops of ours we call it Cuba. And Cuba needs the realization of each of its children. We need freedom to say and do. I am very concerned about something: What society do we have if I cannot think, say or do? In a Cuba that has a great tradition of thought, which was a light for Latin America: Martí, Varela... These of us here today are the children of that tradition.
If I can't think or do, it's because I can't dream. And yes, you can dream. I need to believe we're capable of dreaming. Everyone from inside and outside the country is dreaming of Cuba.
And I wonder: Is this the Cuba we want to leave to our children? It takes dialogue, respect to be able to dialogue. It is our responsibility the Cuba that we are going to besing to our children. That's why I'm sitting here.
Yunior Garcia: I must say, I am proud to be a part of this meeting. I am proud of my generation, of all of us in here and those who are waiting for us out there.
Tania Bruguera: Independent art is not recognized in Cuba due to censorship. I can exhibit at MOMA but not in my country. Independent art is not an enemy, it is a right; the artist is independent by nature.
I have a question: What is the relationship between MININT and MINCULT?
It explains the siege and repression towards INSTAR by both MINCULT and State Security.
I've been censored in Cuba for 30 years. But that censorship has spread abroad. I have come to artistic events in other countries where I have been told how officials of this institution have gone there to speak ill of me, to say that I am not an artist. And they do, I know, to isolate me, it's not enough for them to censor me in my own country, by what right do they do that? BASTA, that's out of your duties.
Fernando Pérez: I am happy to be here, for the first time I feel that here at MINCULT there is a diverse group; that's a first step. I feel identified with many of your interventions.
We must end the censorship, the manipulations of the official press, the acts of repudiation. Freedom of expression is free or not, and that must be applied to all spheres of reality.
There have to be concrete answers to what has been said here. In plurality, diversity, there is the strength of this nation.
Camila Ramírez Lobón: I came in before everyone here today, with Yunior, in a first encounter. And a civility of yours told me something that has already been mentioned in the media, that the street is of the revolutionaries.
The street and public space is not of the revolutionaries, but of all the citizens born in this country. And you have to just understand that or at least respect it. You can't attack ideas with repression. Politics cannot be above people's basic rights; that way is going to violence. We're totally helpless. Enough of the same speech to justify brutality. Those who are repressing the most are those who are demonstrating peaceful ways to build dissent.
The street and public space is not of the revolutionaries, but of all the citizens born in this country. And you have to just understand that or at least respect it. You can't attack ideas with repression. Politics cannot be above people's basic rights; that way is going to violence. We're totally helpless. Enough of the same speech to justify brutality. Those who are repressing the most are those who are demonstrating peaceful ways to build dissent.
Stop it. Don't make any more sticks. May the changes that will come be through dialogue, respect, civics.
Mikhail Rodriguez : Let'snot underestimate the power of art. With these actions of repression they are showing fear of art.
We are here artists, people in general. This is a hope. This moment has united us. The institutions force us to separate, but this moment has united us.
We don't care about Cuba and we care about Cuba. We've lost our fear thanks to the nets. We have to take the street because the small spaces they have offered us have not solved anything for us. We're sick of it.
We have to get out of here with something constructive. The government has a duty and an obligation to work for this people.
Reynier Diaz: Although some have not been let in, this morning, at 11, there were 15 of us, now we are 300. What does this say? That despite fear, there is a real motive, something that motivates several generations.
Ulysses Padrón: Today there is a lot of apathy of young people for politics, for everything, and that is due to the absence of spaces of participation. There are no spaces of creation, where they feel part of something. Young people need to find that space in society.
Miryorly García Prieto: I hope this is the first of many meetings to settle the gulf between us and the Institution.
We come here with love, with a will for dialogue. But most of all, we're here because we're giving them a chance. It is your responsibility to do the right thing for Cuban culture.
He's lying, he's defaming, crimes are being committed, and as we go, some may even die. That's the urgency.
Reynier Leyva Novo: Today there has been a whole police security device, SE, civilian-clad military, police patrols.... That's abuse of power, intimidation. Se are paramilitaries. Be aware of the pressure we've been under.
Michel Matos: State Security has taken over the nation. LMOA is on hunger strike and has been beaten to death. Deputy Minister, beaten to death while even handcuffed, I've seen him. That sounds like Batista or Machado. The SE is operating above the law.
If Luis Manuel dies, he would have no words to say that we will never be able to dialogue again. Denis Solís has not even had rights. We're desperate.
Katherine Bisquetrecounts the repression and arrests she was subjected to just for reading poetry on the outskirts of Cuba and Chacón police station, days ago.
I'm here after all that, having slept in a dungeon, having done a hunger strike that I haven't recovered from yet, after being about to see a person die. I'm here ready to talk. This isn't pressure, it's your responsibility. Out of respect for everyone, we need answers.
Jorge Perugorría: It's time for dialogue. Everyone has the right to be heard. Today an important step has been taken, the doors of this Ministry have been opened. I think we should continue the dialogue.
Fernando Rojas says he cannot respond immediately, he also says that he knows nothing about the military deployment around MINCULT and peaceful protesters. It is even oblivious to all the facts of repression by the SE narrated by some of those present. Some tell him they have proof, but he doesn't even ask them to see them. He knows, and everyone knows he knows, even if he wants to deny it.
Tania Bruguera asks you to call and ask for LMOA's freedom. Fernando Rojas' response: With that level of confrontation I cannot dialogue.
Juan Pin Vilar: I came here today without even knowing what these guys were demanding, but I came to support them. And I've been surprised that these are what you call mercenaries. If they were really mercenaries or criminals, they would have already put a bomb in MINCULT, as the July 26 Movement did. If you were really mercenaries and criminals, don't ask for dialogue with you.
Miryorly García Prieto: We demand that you tell the truth as an Institution. Let them say that the boys of San Isidro are artists and until they were repressed. That story is in the nets, they're lying like liars. We're not afraid and we're never going to have it. If you think that by giving a dig we're going to shut up, quite the opposite. We're giving you guys a chance not to lie.
And if I get kicked out of work tomorrow, I don't care, I'm going to go sell croquettes to support my son. We are ready to repeat every word said here before whoever it is, even before Raul Castro.
Fernando Rojas evades a pronouncement of MINCULT as an institution.
Fernando Rojas: I agree that human lives are sacred. We're going to be interested, in any way we can, in the case of Denis Solís and LMOA.
And he goes to Mauricio Mendoza, journalist from Diario de Cuba who was right in front of him taking notes and says: and don't change me a comma, I know that Diario de Cuba has lied on some issues. And he then mentions that this medium receives funding from the United States government.
Mauricio Mendoza tries to answer him, but this is not the time. Everyone notices that Rojas is trying to distort the meeting. And he does it on at least a couple of occasions, both against Mendoza.
Grethel Medina: MinCULT must rule on the existence of us as artists and what is happening in Cuba, and that is your responsibility. The recent AHS statement is false, it didn't count on artists for that.
Fernando Rojas was trying to postpone everything: Let's work on this, yes, let's analyze it... He insisted that he knew nothing of the facts told to him, that he was not doubting the words of those present, but that he should investigate it.
Juliana Ravelo: Can you explain to me then what your job is?
Fernando Rojas: I don't have to account for my work.
How, said many of those present.
The AHS statement was then discussed, where the artists of the San Isidro Movement are called mercenaries. They said it was a regrettable text and they had to back down.
Yaser Toledo,Vice President Association Hernanos Saíz (AHS) explained that the statement had been discussed among the national council of the organization.
-Tell us ₋ said one of those present₋, do you consider us mercenaries?
They considered that this statement was not only against the MSI but against independent artists.
Toledo didn't know what to say. He evaded the question several times but the rest of the interlocutors insisted. Finally, he acknowledged that he did not think so and undertook to discuss the statement with the rest of the AHS National Council and, if decided, retract.
Jorge Alfonso,Network Director of Genesis Galleries explained that this meeting would be only the beginning, that they should continue to discuss these issues.
Tania Bruguera: We come here with an honest energy, and all we are receiving are evasiveness, procrastination.
Marta Bones, Deputy President Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC): It is not you and us. Here we have set aside our creative work to work for Cuban culture. I feel charged and it's not fair.
As Bones spoke, the current went out; the first of at least two times. They were left in total darkness, but the creators insisted on continuing to do so. Someone interrupted Bones to go out and see if those waiting outside were okay. They explained that they feared for their safety, and that the fact that the light was gone could be exprofessive, an SE maneuver.
Jorge Fernández,Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts, went on to explain that they knew nothing of what those present told himabout the repression: Let's work, to review the situation.
Fernando Rojas stresses that there are issues that he cannot answer and that will create a discussion agenda. Also, on a proposal from those present, it undertakes to propose to the MININT to engage in a dialogue with the creators on the repression and violations of laws by the SE.
Rojas strikes back the independent press present, specifically Diario de Cuba.
Fernando Rojas: I don't believe in the press out there (independent and foreign press). I don't believe in social media.
After almost 5 hours of debate, the following agreements are taken:
-The Deputy Minister would be interested in the cases of LMOA and Denis Solís.
-MINCULT will organize discussion agendas, meetings with artists to negotiate their demands.
-MINCULT would organize discussion sessions on the implementation of laws and the role of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), this refers to the repression of artists by the Security of the Cuban State.
-AhS would review their statement and, if accepted by the organization's National Council, retract.
-TREGUA: Artists will be able to gather even in independent spaces without being harassed, to discuss issues related to their demands.
Fernando Rojas also conveyed a message from the Minister ofCulture, Alpidio Alonso, who promised to meet with the artists the following week, after Wednesday, December 2. It also yielded to the demand of those present to ensure that the hundreds of people gathered there could return home safely and without police violence.
At the end of the meeting, Yunior García, Kaherine Bisquet and Tania Bruguera informed the more than five hundred independent and foreign people and media who were waiting to gather outside MINCULT. They had achieved the main objective: to be heard and the commitment to obtain answers.
Artists gathered in front of MINCULT this Friday, November 27th. Twitter photo
It was then that they learned that, while they were gathered, some young people had been thrown pepper spray at some young people, hundreds of others had been banned from passing through. But none of this altered the healthy environment, of joy and also of cultural expressions; everyone had waited those five hours, eager to know the results. Something was noticeable, there were many more people than five hours earlier, more than five hundred, perhaps. Something like this had never happened in the history of totalitarianism in Cuba.
Soon after, without further altercations, we all withdrew from the place. We were able to pass in front of all those hundreds of paramilitaries and rapid response brigades without them being able to do anything.
There were artists of several generations, but also common Cubans who went to support, parents with their children, cousins, uncles, friends, brothers. There were left-wing, right-wing, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary people connotated; but to all he joined them something: the desire to exist, the desire for a better Cuba for all Cubans.
What caused the MSI had become something much bigger. It was not about ideologies, it was about a people against power.
List of people who discussed minculT officials, 27 November 2020
Michel Matos (MSI)
Amaury Pacheco (MSI)
Katherine Bisquet (MSI)
Claudia Genlui (MSI)
Cardenas Aminta (MSI)
Tania Bruguera (INSTAR)
Camila Ramírez Lobón (INSTAR)
Juliana Ravelo (INSTAR)
Gretell Kairúz (INSTAR)
Reynier Leyva Novo (Plastic Arts)
Julio Llópiz-Casal (Plastic Arts)
Solveig Font (Curator)
Sandra Ceballos (Plastic Arts)
Miryorly García Prieto (Art Historian)
Liatna Rodríguez Jiménez (Art Historian)
José Luis Aparicio (Film)
Mikhail Rodriguez (Film)
Alejandro Alonso (Cinema)
Grethel Medina (Cinema)
Juan Pin Vilar (Cinema)
Ulysses Padron (Writer)
Alfredo Martínez (Writer, collaborator of Tremenda Nota)
Daniel Díaz Mantilla (Writer)
Henry Erick Hernandez (Plastic Arts)
Yunior García (Dramaturgo)
Ian Benavides (Music)
Reynier Diaz (Performing Arts. Actor)
Mauricio Mendoza (Press, Journal of Cuba)
Nelson Julio Alvarez Mairata (Press, ADNCuba)
Camila Acosta (Press, CubaNet)
Luis Manuel Otero arrested less than 24 hours after his release
Her partner, curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, was also arrested.
Luis Manuel Otero and Claudia Genlui (File Photo / Facebook)
MIAMI, USA. – Cuban artivist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was arrested on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after he was released from the hospital where he was being held following a protest and hunger strike that lasted for nearly 10 days.
In a Facebook direct broadcast by her partner, curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo may see the moment state security officials are arrested by Otero Alcántara.
After the arrest, which took place in Miramar, Genlui Hidalgo attempted to access the residence of journalist Monica Baró Sánchez, but several Interior Ministry officials prevented her from moving on and arresting her, cutting off the live broadcast.
A few minutes later, journalist Carlos Manuel Alvarez confirmed on his Facebook profile that Otero Alcántara and Genlui Hidalgo had just been arrested in 7th and 32nd Miramar.
"Luis Manuel slept here yesterday (in the house of Baró Sánchez), since there were no minimum conditions in Damas 955, and now he was going to meet his uncle. Just yesterday he had been released and all he's done since then is sleep. Looks like he committed a new crime in the dream. Today's his birthday. Unwarranted harassment continues," Alvarez published.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, who was on their way to...
Otero Alcántara had been released on Tuesday afternoon, after he was evicted along with other artists and activists from the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, where he was on hunger strike protesting the eight-month prison sentence of rapper Denis Solís.
After passing through several police stations, the Cuban performer had been transferred to a hospital, where he abandoned his hunger strike. Initially, the regime's authorities refused to return to their own home, the seat of the San Isidro Movement. However, Otero Alcántara managed to access his home on Tuesday night, where he waited for his birthday with several friends, activists and artists.
The leader of the San Isidro Movement has been arrested more than thirty times due to his performances,which the regime considers a provocation.
Following his release on Tuesday, Otero Alcántara told CubaNet exclusively that its objectives remained "Cuba's democracy and freedom."
"Right now my number one goal is to get Denis (Solís) out of prison," he said. "Denis has to be out of prison (...) because due process was violated. Denis' problem is not an alpha male dog who wants to take the cat into the water because I've given in."
On the other hand, the artivist expressed optimism for the airs of change in Cuba: "Cuban reality right now is believing in change. And youth is believing in a change. And yes, we're going to change. This is the time, we don't have another one. I will not leave, as I have said on other occasions, responsibility to my children. What I have to do today, I'm going to do today," he said.
Court refuses to hand over The Act of Judgment of Denis Solís
According to lawyer Julio Ferrer Tamayo, such a refusal constitutes "a lack of respect for citizens, a lack of transparency".
HAVANA, Cuba. – The Municipal Court of Old Havana denied the sentencing act of rapper Denís Solís, requested by Vladimir Lázaro González Scull, his uncle. In this way, the authorities violated Instruction 212 2011 of the Governing Council of the Supreme Court, which establishes the right of all persons to obtain the legal document establishing a penalty against them.
Recently, González Scull had filed an application for a copy of the minutes of the oral trial of Case 170 of 2020, for which Denis Solís was punished for eight months' deprivation of liberty, allegedly for the crime of contempt.
However, the president of the Municipal Court of Old Havana informed her that "in summary trials everything is oral, nothing is written", to which Gónzalez Scull replied with a new question: "Is that legal?" Taking advantage of his disrecognise about laws, the authorities replied that "yes, that this was typified in the Law."
In case of doubt, one of the lawyers of the Cubalex legal advisory group, Julio Ferrer Tamayo, explained to CubaNet what is the legal rule referred to in this case.
"Article 375 of the Criminal Procedure Act states that a sentencing act must be drafted and all that needs to be recorded in it is explained," says the specialist. The law also "specifies everything that must be brought in writing to that Act," Ferrer adds.
Cubalex's lawyer clarifies that this is the same document that should have been sent to prison. If not, "how does the prison know the penalty and the crime?" he asks.
The refusal received by Denis Solís' uncle is part of the legal irregularities of which the artist who is a member of the San Isidro Movement has been a victim. Because of the solidarity he has aroused, the rapper is being subjected to smear campaigns in the official media, who are committed to criminalizing his activism by linking him even with terrorist actions, even if they do not have concrete evidence.
The latest television report on the Solís case exposed the rapper's refusal to attend an official subpoena – which also did not have the requirements established by law – as evidence of his alleged contempt. However, the official media does not mention that the rapper has been denied all possibilities of defense.
Because of the very highest nature of his judgment, the artist did not have access to a lawyer. Then, because he was incommunicado and forced to disappear, he was also unable to appeal to his sentence. In addition, the habeas corpusfiled in his favour point to irregularities in his transfer to prison, which occurred without a judge having been notified of the crime he had committed.
Finally, he is now denied access to documents that could clarify his situation and settle the matter.
Ferrer Tamayo classifies the court's actions as "a lack of respect for citizens, a lack of transparency, because using a person's legal knowledge to deceive him cannot have another qualifier".
MIAMI, USA. - CyberCuba journalist Iliana Hernández was arrested on Wednesday as she left her home in Havana, that independent media reported.
"They take me," Hernandez wrote to the editor shortly after warning that he would leave his home, and so far he is in an unknown whereabouts.
According to the note, Iliana reported on Tuesday night, through her Facebook social media account, that several State Security patrols were planted on the outskirts of her home.
Hernandez was one of the people who was in the san is one of the people since November 18 at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, in Old Havana, on strike for the release of the answering rapper Denis Solís, and whom the government beat up the property last Thursday, November 26.
After the violent eviction, Iliana Hernandez was taken home and has remained under siege ever since.
This weekend, for its part, as part of a campaign carried out by the regime against members of the San Isidro Movement, the state television program dedicated a special broadcast "to defaming and misrepresenting the facts", so the journalist had recently claimed.
"I'd like you to give us the right to reply to today's crude manipulation on that show," he said. "I demand my right to defend myself in the program We make Cuba from the lies poured there, I am in total disposition to give my version of the facts before the cuban television cameras and at a press conference if necessary."
"From here I call on all youth, all Cubans who want to have a decent future in our country, only with change, making Cuba a democratic country where you can live with differences of all kinds, of each one," he added.
This Wednesday, less than 24 hours after being released, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was also arrested.
Acts of repudiation against MSI members multiply
Recent weeks have been marked by the militarization of Havana and the violence that the state has exercised against peaceful protesters
Act of repudiation against Osmani Pardo (screen shot)
HAVANA, Cuba. – Adrian Osmel Rubio and Osmani Pardo Guerra, two of the lesser known activists of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), have been victims of repudiation rallies, in the absence of "material" to try to discredit them in the stellar television spaces.
Rubio lives alone with his 10-year-old sister and mother. After his decision to refuse to enter the Military Service, his family has been under pressure and harassment. After being raided by MSI headquarters, Adrian has undergone two rallies in less than a week. The first time was at night and the activist claims that State Security agents traveled up to eight blocks around to summon them to crowd in front of their home.
On this second occasion he feared for his little sister. "My sister is afraid that this will affect her because she saw in the act of repudiation the teacher, the principal and other teachers at the school she is in," and it is already known from other experiences that children in opposition families are subjected to as much violence as adults in the house.
A few hours later, Osmani Pardo Guerra denounces on his social media: "This is in front of my house with people who are not from here." It is seen in the video how a group of people, with religious attributes of Osha's rule, get off a bus and start playing drums in front of their home.
Pardo Guerra is an accountmaker who decided to support MSI strikers and earned his esteem by ingesting the few teams that could help them survive the siege. Without a career as an activist, he's more vulnerable than the rest.
The last few weeks have been marked by the militarization of Havana and the violence that the state has exercised against peaceful protesters, both those of MSI headquarters and those who wanted to establish a dialogue with government institutions. The latter among their demands also have the release of the artist Denis Solís, for whom this broad movement of solidarity has been generated.
Activists of the San Isidro Movement imprisoned in their homes: 'A full state comes upon us'
'Right now we're risking our lives, not just the political future,' art curator Anamely Ramos warns.
State Security Vehicles stationed in front of the house of Tania Bruguera.DEBORAH BRUGUERA/FACEBOOK
Art curator Anamely Ramos on Saturday warned of the real danger to their lives faced by the 15 activists who were planted in San Isidro,Old Havana, whose claims and subsequent assault on their headquarters, pushed a wave of solidarity on and off the island.
Ramos recounted the situation faced by a group of people besieged in their homes for more than a week in a direct through Facebook. In this he took the opportunity to demand "empathy" from some intellectuals who try to discredit them or demarcate the movement by appealing to "jokes" or comments he described as unlucky and "immoral".
She first reported that on Saturday she was"kidnapped Anyel Valdés Cruz,the housewife who accompanied the activists planted in San Isidro and who was an invaluable help to all."
"In addition to Jorge Luis Arias, Abu Duyanah Tamayo, Iliana Hernández, Oscar Casanella, whom political police have threatened to prosecute us all" in arrests and interrogations, "Maykel Osorbo is under enormous surveillance", on Saturday they "made their nephews cry" in a "pretty unpleasant" fact.
He said Esteban Rodriguez is in a similar situation. In their house they came to install a camera at the interception of Villegas and Muralla streets. Another of these devices was also assembled in front of Iliana Hernández's home.
"Of course, Luis Manuel Otero has close surveillance. Adrián Rubio suffered a repudiation act, as well as Osmany Pardo, who at first had no surveillance, but three days ago suffers from it," he said.
"All these people have permanent surveillance, it's illegal, they won't let us out. Omara Ruiz Urquiola and I have only had one truce for a consultation I had at the doctor," he said.
Ramos referred to the 30 people of the meeting agreed with the Government following the demonstration of 27 November at MINCULT, who are also besieged.
"Go counting. The 30 of the Ministry, the 15 that were inside San Isidro, some independent journalists also besieged. Possibly 50 people with surveillance in their homes already add up," he said.
Real pressure threats
"How long is all this going to be? What kind of campaign are they campaigning that in the official media are constantly defaming us and saying that we are in contact with terrorists and yet they have us imprisoned in our homes?" asked Ramos.
For the activist, "these are threats of real pressure that we can fall for real prisoners."
"Who is inciting a climate of violence? (...) The sources of protests in Cuba are because of the unsustainable situation there is, it has nothing to do with us, it has to do with the mismanagement of the government, that there is no food, there are no medicines, because people have tired of not having a future and are reacting," he said.
Ramos, who has been a member of the San Isidro Movement for a few months, called on all Cubans to share the reality of activists who are in a certain situation. "We can be wanted at any time, the situation is being very difficult for all of us," he lamented.
In a second part of the direct, he argued that "the San Isidro Movement does not want to impose an agenda on anyone, nor represent, or impersonate anyone."
He believes that intellectuals who claim to be unchecked from MSI "may be in a very dangerous situation."
"A whole state comes at us (...) Right now we're risking our lives, not just the political future," he said.
He pointed them out as "complicit in power, of a power that has no ideological, completely conservative and reactionary sign that uses discrimination and the vulnerability of people."
He made these people "a human call to generate empathy that has to go beyond politics."
For his part, Omara Ruiz Urquiola called "to the world to look at the situation of terror in which the Cuban state has put ordinary citizens, people who have no record associated with violent activities, terrorists, criminals".
She gave the example that she taught at Cuban universities until last year, that her brother, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, is a full researcher, her mother also a commendable career as a citizen.
"There is no justification" for the very strong operation of surveillance and violation of the freedoms of movement and expression they are suffering.
On Saturday the journalist Carlos Manuel Alvarez denounced from Cardenas, Matanzas, a fact that according to the writer reveals the intention of the Cuban regime to manufacture a political case for him to be able to prosecute him.
"State Security sends me a guy to my grandmother's house, a little man countermade, nervous and mediocre, who comes sent from I don't know who, posing as an opponent, trying to bond with organizations that I don't even know what they are," he wrote on his Facebook profile.
"I told him to come out kicking in that second. Don't make up any more, I answer just for my actions, they're not going to make me any political case. My transparency speaks for me. I have been denunting from now on this kind of diabolical mechanism with which the regime has destroyed so many lives," he condemned.
Arrested Tania Bruguera for the third time in a week
The Cuban artivist was released an hour later.
Tania Bruguera.T.BRUGUERA/FACEBOOK
The artivist Tania Bruguera was arrested on Sunday by State Security, the third time in the week, reported actress Lynn Cruz, who witnessed the arbitrary arrest and confirmed that she was released an hour later.
"(...) In front of my own face I have once again seen the monstrosity of a system. They just took Tania Bruguera. This is the number of the red car veneer you loaded with it (P076624). They were dressed as civilians," Cruz said on his Facebook profile.
"Tania was released at approximately 1:35PM. An hour later. I just saw Miguel Díaz Canel speak on TV, his voice was choppy and he was nervous. I speak to Diaz-Canel now, in your hands is a peaceful transition. Release the productive forces!" he wrote.
"ENOUGH! You have to use the correct definitions: Kidnapped PERSON . Tania Bruguera carried for the third time this week against her will by officers dressed as civilians who did not identify themselves. I was going with Lynn Cruz literally to the corner of the house; these people came running towards her and took her in a red car with P076624 veneer," he confirmed.
"If this is not a KIDNAPPING someone will explain to me what it is. If you have something to say to her, you want to accuse her of something you can do it quietly in public, she hides nothing, she has always been transparent and does not believe them if they tell her things against her colleagues and none of them are going to take fear because they understand that these retaliation are for this, to make her look like the criminal she is not and an example to others" Said.
"Just understand that you have lost your fear and above all remember that you are not going to talk to you," Bruguera concluded.
On Friday Tania Bruguera was forced to the force of the car where she moved along with Sandra Ceballos and drove. "During the interrogation, as promised last time, he did not utter any words." Bruguera did not want to sign eer the act of detention or the release act "as it was an arbitrary detention".
US academics condemn repression of members of The San Isidro Movement
Figures who have fostered art and education exchanges between Cuba and the US public their support for 27N protesters in front of MINCULT.
Inauguration of the exhibition 'Havana-Portland Intersections' in 2016.REYNIER LEYVA NOVO
Following developments around the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and repression of independent artists, academics at Lewis & Clark University in Portland, USA, including art curators, have publicly spoken in favor of MSI and the events of November 27.
"We express our solidarity with the artists in Cuba who are part of the San Isidro Movement and those artists who have been arrested for expressing their views," Elliott Young, History Professor at Lewis & Clark Collage; Daniel Duford, artist, co-founder of Ground Beneath US and Linda Tesner, former director and curator of Hoffman Gallery, Lewis & Clark Collage.
Young, Dufford and Tesner, curators of the Exhibition Havana-Portland Intersections, "as U.S.-basedcurator and academic artists," declare standing firm "against any kind of intervention by the U.S. government in Cuba," but condemn the crackdown on dissent.
"We also believe it is important, as people who have fostered art and educational exchanges between Cuba and the United States, to speak aloud when our colleagues have faced arrests, censorship and government hostility," they say.
"Defending revolution cannot be an excuse to silence artistic expression, even if those ideas may be critical of the government. The great Cuban patriot and poet José Martí said it best: 'Criticism is love'," they argue.
Intersections Havana-Portland was an exhibition of six young Cuban artists at the Hoffman Gallery, Lewis & Clark Collage, held in January 2016.
"I hope that my support for artists and intellectuals in Cuba will not cut ties with institutions, but when colleagues like Reynier Leyva Novo are fighting for freedom of expression I felt an obligation to support them," Elliott Young told DIARIO DE CUBA Elliott Young, who has maintained a close bond with Cuban artists.
"I feel identified with the Revolution and make my criticism from a position of support for all Cubans seeking a free and supportive nation," he added.
There is only the way of confrontation
The dictatorship has never recognized the validity of those who, even with the use of peaceful methods, aspire to substantial changes in the country
One of the many times Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been arrested by the regime's police (pictured)
HAVANA, Cuba. – Of course the dialogue is necessary to face all the problems that arise daily. A healthy exchange of ideas and opinions among the actors involved in the social fabric. And, of course, where the machinery of power recognizes the existence of its interlocutors, and does not stigmatized them a priori. Unfortunately, a condition that is not seen in the Cuban landscape these days.
An article by the essayist Enrique Ubieta, that outrageous defender of castrism, appeared in the Granma newspaper brings us closer to these issues of throbbing topicality.
The articleist defines dialogue as "the exchange with those who recognize and accept the historical legitimacy of the Revolution". I mean, the allies of castrism. On the other hand, he states that there may be debate "with those who differ from our goals and make us wrong, but seriously argue their position." In other words, this "serious argument" would be for those who, even without being sympathetic to castrism, do not constitute a danger to the existence of the current state of things on the island.
Finally, confrontation would be discussed when the objective was "the overthrow of his adversary, the taking of power, or if there was an express intention of subversion" Reasons for which, according to Ubieta, "the right of the Revolution to defend itself" emerges.
But let's see what mechanisms have been used by the machinery of power to implement that defense. First, the disqualification of the other party.
The expeditioners of brigade 2506 who landed in Playa Girón were mercenaries; elevations in the Escambray and other mountainous areas of the country were bandits; those who welcome America's intentions to restore democracy in Cuba are nothing more than annexionists; those who left the island through the port of Mariel in 1980 were not migrants who wanted better living conditions, but vulgar scum; those who recommend measures that depart from the centralism with which the government conducts the economy are labelled neoliberals; and what to say about the qualifier they reserve for journalists, artists and opponents who receive American and other figures from the international community: these are nothing more than people paid for by the empire.
For all of them, castrism has reserved only prison, exile or internal ostracism. Never have the rulers of the island recognized the validity of those who, even with the use of peaceful methods, aspire to substantial changes in the political, economic and social spheres.
Ubieta's article was followed by the most recent position of the Ministry of Culture in the face of the meeting to be made with young artists in solidarity with the activists who barricaded themselves in San Isidro.
In reviewing the list of potential interlocutors, Deputy Minister Fernando Rojas noted that "there are some who have long self-excluded for their assaults on patriotic symbols, for common crimes and frontal attacks on the direction of the Revolution".
It's the same attitude as always. The eternal deputy minister wants an encounter with young artists, journalists and other activists who do not question the existence of the dome that currently holds power. Nothing to do with those who intend to reverse the reality of today's Cuba.
The latter are closed the doors for dialogue and even debate. Only the path of confrontation remains.
Denis Solís is transferred to the East Combined Prison
For its part, the crackdown on the 14 quartered in Ladies 955 and the artists who demonstrated the 27N continues.
HAVANA, Cuba. Denis Solís González, the rapper and member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) sentenced to eight months of deprivation of liberty allegedly for the crime of contempt, was transferred to the Combined East prison, his uncle Vladimir González Scull reported.
However, the day of the transfer is not known, it states. Solís's call, in which he reported on the prison change, took the family by surprise as the rapper has been allowed to communicate very little. In the East Combined, the MSI member will agree with other prisoners of conscience, confirmed various sources.
Lawyer Laritza Diversent, director of the Cubalex Legal Information Center, assumes that isolation should have nothing to do with "security but with avoiding some kind of support."
He also believes that "maybe on the new site he's not watching the TV to see all the support he's getting, that they (the authorities) have televised and that he can interpret it as a positive thing."
The case of Denis Solís has generated a achievement of events that have marked a milestone in the history of Cuba. The summary trial to which it was submitted on 11 November sparked a group of peaceful MSI protests, independent activists, journalists, artists, but has also sparked a smear campaign by the regime against the 14 activists who boarded at MSI headquarters and against the 30 artists and journalists who were received at the Ministry of Culture headquarters on 27 November , following pressure from some 500 people gathered on the outskirts of that institution.
Although the November 26 break-in at Ladies 955 seems to be the cessation of Denis Solís' demands for freedom, the "sitting" in front of MINCULT has caused the government to escalate the crackdown on those who speak against him.
According to Project Inventory,25 people remain under surveillance so far and another 19 have been arrested, usually for solidarity with MSI. In addition, they have suffered acts of repudiation Andrián Rubio and Osmani Pardo, two of the 14 planted in Damas 955 and have been summoned for interrogation by three other people: Oscar Casanella, Jorge Luis Capote and the mother of youtuber Nelson Julio Alvarez.
The castrista repression has not changed, the times have
Thanks to the internet and social media, the world is getting to know the true face of the castrista dictatorship
LA HABANA, Cuba.- I started in opposition in the late 1980s, when in the wake of the collapse of the socialist camp a group of women from the Cuban Humanitarian Women's Front, accompanied by other opponents, delivered a letter to the State Council in which we demanded from Fidel Castro freedom of expression, free elections and other political changes aimed at democratizing the country.
On the way out we were surrounded by a crowd of repressors of both sexes dressed as civilians. They were leaving the ministries around the square. They started pushing us and beating us. Some of us were taken prisoner that day, and the rest in the days after. We had no experience in the repressive tactics of the dictatorship and had not taken the precaution of convening the international press, so the repressors had complete freedom to snout us and beat us as they please.
Thus we began to know the vast arsenal of repression of the castrist dictatorship. Veges, intimidation, and the most implausible forms of punishment that a totalitarian regime is capable of: that awaits those who defy the government in Cuba. They make arbitrary records of us, where they strip us of what belonging they want. They threaten our children and family members, and we are threatening to harm our children and family members. They throw stones, excrement and acid into our homes. They kill our pets and break our locks. They paint offensive and denigrating posters on our facades. They put agents to keep an eye on us to stop us from going out or visiting. For this they also employ the elderly – former militiamen and members of the PCC – through deception (for example, that we hide criminals).
Sometimes on the street they throw motorcycles, cars and even trucks on us. They also force us in cars and leave us in remote areas of traffic and the city, with no money and no ID card, and usually in the early hours of the morning. They arrest us for no reason and lock us up with agents trained in martial arts, who pass as prisoners to beat us. Thus I lost several teeth in the 10th Police Station of Acosta Avenue, in the cast La Víbora, ten de Octubre municipality. On one occasion when my husband and I were imprisoned in that unit, my daughter was told we weren't there, and we were told that no one had gone to see us.
At first the neighbors shyed away from us because they were afraid of government reprisals for relating to dissidents, opponents, or as the people most commonly call us, human rights activists. Some friends and family also turned away from us for fear of losing their jobs or worse.
Then, as now, we were defamed by videos in which we were made to look like criminals, vulgar and low-moral people (counter-violence, lumpen, worms, slag), drug dealers or people, employees of imperialism who enjoyed prebendas and a loose life, when in reality we had nothing to live for, because in Cuba the government's first crackdown on opponents , as well as often to our relatives.
Three decades ago, the only means of press we had to denounce human rights violations committed by dictatorship and repression against us and the rest of the people was Radio Martí. Few of us had a phone, which was our only way to do so, and because of these complaints we were lined up and cut off for months, sometimes much more than a year.
While all that was happening, Fidel Castro cackled at the world that in Cuba there was no torture in prisons or repression in the streets, and had his officers well trained not to hit in front of the cameras. The Castrist dictatorship tortured and tortured. The difference is that in the internet age it is no longer so easy to keep repression hidden. Today the people have tools such as mobile phones and social networks, which increasingly make it more difficult for the regime to mistreat us without the world knowing.
Kidnappings, disappearances, deaths in uncertain circumstances, beatings, surveillance, house lock-ups, intimidation, threats, face disfigurement, defamation, acts of repudiation, attacks, unjustified dismissals, arbitrary searches, rape of domicile, rigged trials, tricked videos: methods of repression of the castrista dictatorship have not changed. But times do.
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