SAN ISIDRO SPECIAL - JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021 - 1000 COPIES
'The Shot for the Butt': Solidarity wins a battle in the official war against the voices that dissent in Cuba
Social media counteracts the smear campaign on state television calling for the TV to be turned off at the time of the 'Star Television News'.
Cuban artist Tania Bruguera on Thursday delivered a formal complaint addressed to the Presidency of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) in response to another "chapter" of the National Television News (NTV) that, in recent weeks, has been dedicated to distorting, defaming and creating negative opinions about the artivist and others classified by the Government as "mercenaries".
It is an "amoral and desperate practice" against those who think differently, in an unequal war in which the official media does not entitle "their noted", Bruguera said in making public the filing of his complaint.
The official campaign against dissenting voices began strongly against activists who armed themselves at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement last November to demand the release of rapper Denís Solís, and other figures who supported and demonstrated on 27 November in front of the Ministry of Culture.
However, the effect that the propaganda machinery of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has achieved, with its maximum expression precisely in the continued attacks of the NTV,has been to contrary that expected by officialism.
Activists such as Tania Bruguera he own, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Anamely Ramos claim to have received shows of solidarity on the streets, from anonymous people who have come to say hello or even ask for a photo.
The director of 14yMedio,Yoani Sánchez, said that she has even been put in front of the chicken tail,and the freelance journalist Iliana Hernández claimed that a botero took her for free.
The shot went to the authorities for the butt. This was expressed by visual artist Camila Lobón in a post on her Facebook profile:"(...) You think you're poisoning people, and for a while it's worked for you. What they don't know is how more and more Cubans, after their infamous reports, hug in the street and proudly raise their thumbs, which on the night before attacked in the News. I've seen it. Waves of identification and solidarity grow, likes and attention to independent media that they awkwardly condemn. Keep advertising."
On social media dozens of people have shown their outrage at the crusade to criminalize dissenting voices in the so-called cuba as "Cuban TV star time", and have summoned Cubans to turn off televisions, in a campaign that is moving with the main label of theNTVmiente.
"At 8pm, Cuba's NTV time, it's a good time to save and stand in solidarity with the people who are under attack. Our rejection of media defamation will be expressed from today by turning off Star News TV," 27N group members called Thursday via Twitter and dozens of users have already supported them.
'Divide and conquer': Cuban actors question the creation of an 'association' in the wake of the 27N
'Being an accomplice never again,' says actress Olivia Manrufo Hernandez.
The alarm voice was given from the outside by actress Olivia Manrufo Hernandez. "I get this message, read and read the document and the signatories of that document (...) Cuban actors appear to feel more actors than Cubans," he wrote on his Facebook wall,in reference to the call for the creation of a performer society following the 27N.
The call consists of an introductory message and an agreement drafted, with legal precision, which speaks on behalf of "Cuban actors". At the moment, it circulates among guild professionals in search of accessions and has already collected more than 200 signatures, as confirmed by the document itself.
So far the traces of naivety that the movement contains. Alarms are being sounded as the enthusiasm of this initiative comes, according to them, from the dialogue that occurred with the Ministry of Culture after the 27N, which is, in principle, confusing.
On the night of November 27, 2020, 30 young artists and activists entered the Ministry of Culture for talks, after hundreds of others gathered outside the gates of that institution. They wanted to denounce the repression and were heard and even promised future encounters.
Communion, however, was short-lasting. Just one day. It was only until political police began to repress members of that group again, loosely, in breach of the supposedly agreed truce.
When the agreement between MINCULT and the 30 independent interlocutorswas broken, the agency accused some of them of having "committed their work to the enemies of the Cuban nation" and then called for dialogue with artists who were not traitors. From the latter conclave, supposedly, came the initiative of such an association.
According to the message received by Manrufo, after the meeting with the Minister,they created a Whatsapp group, made an assembly and, taking advantage of the Ministry of Culture being conducive, devised as a unique agreement to form an Association of Actors of Cuba.
That graying 27N derivation has been perceived as a betrayal for many.
In the actress Olivia Manrufo has caused disgust. She declares not to want to "be complicit anymore." "Divide and conquer", says a user identified as Roberto Dagmar Molina, in reference to the split that is envisaged both in the artist community, and within the 27N group itself.
The actor Emmanuel Galbán Jiménez, however, defends the initiative by claiming that the association has been an old aspiration of the guild and that "it is simply an association for actors, where this time most of its promoters were that November 27th and even within the 30 representatives".
The formally written agreement refers to several guild claims such as the payment of image rights, the existence of a leveling court, among others. The goodwill of the authorities in this case is suspect, however (always suspected).
Most of the association initiatives that arise from civil society are rejected by the authorities under the pretext that there is already another conclave, an officialist, who fulfills the functions that the new group intends. In this case, the UNEAC Association of Stage Artists could serve that logic that sponsors rejection. That existing grouping, the authorities would say, can represent actors very well. For example, the regime is unable to legalize or a animal protection society outside its own official ANIPLAN.
It should not be ruled out, then, that this happy meeting between actors and authorities is but an attempt to capitalize in favour of the regime the rebellion attested on the night of 27 November 2020 against MINCULT.
So far, the group of 30, represented on the 27N Facebook page, has not spoken out.
"I take away the counter-revolution": police stop Amaury Pacheco
The artist was intercepted by PNR agents as he prepared to join the demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture
MIAMI, USA. – Cuban police forces today arrested the artist Amaury Pacheco as he prepared to join the demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT), which ended up being suppressed by the agency's own officials.
Pacheco, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), was fenced in the ground floor of his home by agents of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), who prevented him from leaving his area of residence, the neighborhood of Alamar, in the municipality of Habana del Este.
The agents intercepted the artist with the order to search his backpack.
"We should be paying homage to the Apostle, but this is what there is," the poet noted during a live broadcast via Facebook.
The activist proceeded to show the officers the contents of his bag, however, the police insisted that the protocol should be carried out at the station.
"You know how this is, we take you, we identify you and we let you go (...). We can't search your backpack here, you have to come with us to the station," the repressors insisted.
Finally, Amaury Pacheco was arrested and taken to a unit.
"Plurality is what will save us as a nation for today or after," the artist said moments before being handcuffed and driven in the patrol car.
Although the poet was stripped of his phone, the broadcast remained live for several minutes.
"I take away the counter-revolution," one of the agents who participated in the operation was heard to say.
On Wednesday, around fifteen people, among independent artists and journalists, were suppressed by MINCULT officials, with Minister Alpidio Alonso and Deputy Minister Fernando Rojas at the helm, while requiring the authorities to cease arbitrary detention in Cuba.
Hours later, the institution justified the facts on the grounds that it was an act of self-defence of the workers of that body, who came out in the wake of the "counter-claims" planted in front of the ministerial headquarters.
Police fence and arrests of Cuban artists and freelance journalists for a tribute to Martí
Reporter Camila Acosta is arrested on the street in Vedado, while several members of the 27N group remain under surveillance.
Freelance journalist Camila Acosta and artist Camila Ramírez Lobón were arrested on Wednesday in Vedado, Havana, on a day when other members of Group 27N are under police surveillance for wanting to pay tribute to José Martí.
Poet Katherine Bisquet has a police patrol and surveillance outside her home. In the same situation are the artist Tania Bruguera and the journalist Luz Escobar,who have State Security agents stationed near their homes, confirmed DIARIO DE CUBA.
Our journalist Mauricio Mendoza said he received a call from the Ministry of the Interior(MININT)to inform him about a subpoena.
Mendoza managed to reach the space of artistic creation led by the curator Solveig Font,where a group of people was already there to start the day. So he showed it in a direct from Facebook. Ramirez Lobón was released and was able to meet with the attendees.
"The homage of the 27N to the anniversary of the birth of José Martí is not allowed by the political police in Cuba. It seems that José Martí is the exclusive heritage of the State; individuals and free citizens have no right to evoke their name, nor their aspirations to 'with all and for the good of all'," the artist Hamlet Lavastida wrote on his Facebook profile.
This week, the 27N launched a call in which they come to the figure of José Martí "to more clearly shape the future of Cuba".
"This anniversary we want it to be to celebrate and make stronger the fraternal ties that we are managing to regenerate," the group said on Facebook.
"We call the Day La Ley Primera,born of the initiatives of many Cubans in multiple places of the world, of the love and closeness of these Cubans. All who want can accompany us, just go back to Martí and get something out of it that will help us on this path of freedom that we have undertaken, which is also a path of personal freedom. Sharing with everyone that finding is enough to be part of the event," the communiqué added.
According to the announcement, the day "is dedicated especially to Denis Solís, Luis Robles and Virgilio Mantilla,and to all our political prisoners,now unjustly detained for practicing the right to live with dignity".
Camila Acosta, from police station to house arrest
Camila Acosta was taken home after several hours held in an office at the infanta and Manglar police station
MIAMI, USA.- Hours after being arbitrarily detained in front of the new headquarters of the Cinemateca de Cuba, in Vedado, Havana, CubaNet journalist Camila Acosta was released and is currently under siege at home.
In a telephone interview Acosta recounted that the State Security officers who arrested her took her to the infanta and Manglar police station. Camila Lobón, who was with her and was also arrested, was released minutes after the fact.
"Camila Lobón was even given a key because he resisted, yet they let him go because his interest was not with her but with me," the reporter said.
When they were imprisoned, the two young women were in 11 and 4, in the capital Vedado, where they had come to participate in a tribute to José Martí planned by members of the 27N.
The meeting was also to serve "to explain a little bit about the situation in which the dialogue with the Ministry of Culture is," Acosta said.
The reporter recounted that she was held until 1:30 p.m. in a police station office, "guarded by two women, a first lieutenant and a lieutenant dressed in green."
"They didn't talk to me at all, they were just watching me, I tried to get them talking, and educate them, to know who I was and what they were lending themselves to, a little educational work," Acosta said.
Back home, escorted by three security men, she was told she couldn't get out. "When I asked why I was told that they were orders from the high command of the Ministry of the Interior, and that the measure would be maintained until they understood."
Camila Acosta was arrested this morning while broadcasting live on Facebook's social network. The young woman, along with Lobón, was preparing to participate in a congregation convened by the 27N, two months after the historic events" of 27 November.
During the arrest, the State Security agent who identified himself as Officer Fidel threatened her: "Camila, you're not new to this. Being arguing is a crime of contempt," in the face of Acosta's refusal to accompany him without a warrant.
"I don't have to go with you anywhere. You haven't identified yourself," Acosta ordered you just before the transmission was cut off.
Cuban singer Yotuel Romero, a member of the Orishas group, reacted to the arbitrary arrest of the freelance journalist on Wednesday. "We are all Camila Acosta, we are all San Isidro. We all want Cuba's freedom," he said in a video posted on his social media.
Cuban actors meet with the Ministry of Culture for the creation of an 'association'
The meeting comes two months after the unreleased demonstration before MINCULT known as 27N.
A group of Cuban actors met on Tuesday with authorities of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT), "two months after the unreleased demonstration in Havana starring more than 300 artists to ask for freedom of expression," the AFP agency reported.
"After a paralysis of dialogue, a commission (of ten representatives) met on Tuesday for about five hours with officials from the Ministry of Culture, on behalf of 231 actors and actresses to discuss their request to create a National Association of Actorsof Cuba," said Leticia Pineda Corté, AFP correspondent in Havana, on Twitter.
According to one of the participants in the meeting, actor Reinier Díaz, the ministry "has not closed the door" at the request to create that association, AFP added.
So far, no further details of the meeting between that group of actors and MINCULT have been transferred. At the time of writing, Movement 27N, which emerged after the demonstration in front of MINCULT headquarters,had not expressed its position on this meeting.
Following the protest against MINCULT, which ended at a meeting of 30 of the protesters with the Deputy Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas, the Cuban authorities broke the commitments made at that meeting, tightened surveillance and repression against several of the participants and were used thoroughly to try to discredit the 27N.
Cuban actress Olivia Manrufo Hernández sounded alarm about the circulation of a text for the creation of an association of performers,following the 27N. "Cuban actors appear to feel more actors than Cubans," she said on Facebook.
"This document arises from a division, from a estre from the movement of people who attended that day, the 27N,and from the foundations of their principles and demands. So, by 'self-excluding' the actors,so that with them a dialogue does open up, it seems to me, to say the smallest, a betrayal," he said.
The alleged creation of a National Association of Actors of Cuba, was questioned by several Cubans due to limitations for the free association of citizens on the island.
Cuban actress Lynn Cruz, censored on the island, commented that "an actor friend told me she was going to propose to be included. I'm still waiting for you. There's a lot of political maturity before we can get ahead. With half inks we are still 61 years old and pa'lante".
"I was also in front of the ministry and made my own complaint about my situation. For three years now, they've been preventing me from practicing my acting profession. However, I will not give up my freedom of thought and expression. I exist only in Pyramid Productions. Nothing to do with Cuba," he added.
For his part, actor David Reys said that "an organization that represents Cuban actors, those from all over the world, is being founded, and if it is to represent actors, I do not see why those who are not should be included should be included. I know this will be an organization that thanks the 27N, but without any political but union interest."
MINCULT "will not accept provocations" or "dialogue with mercenaries"
The agency noted that those who gathered in front of its headquarters were "counter-re-enacters" characterized "by their provocative attitude and their relationship with the media paid for by U.S. federal agencies"
MIAMI, USA. – The Ministry of Culture of Cuba (MINCULT) reacted this afternoon to the aggression of several of its officials against a group of protesters that demanded the cessation of arrests against activists on the island, who ended up being led by political police forces.
The agency emerged in the wake of social media complaints, ensuring that they were "counter-claims" that have been characterized "by their provocative attitude and their relationship with the media paid by U.S. federal agencies."
"On the morning of today, a meeting was scheduled at MINCULT with three spokesmen appointed for dialogue by a small group of people who have been been raised by their provocative attitude and their characteriz relationship with the media paid for by US federal agencies. At the time the meeting was being set, around thirty people, who were asked to withdraw several times, we were presented to the institution's headquarters, because of the risk posed by the COVID-19 epidemic in public space crowds," the agency noted in a note disseminated through its official channels.
MINCULT stressed that independent artists who stood in front of that ministerial headquarters should have been evicted due to their refusal to engage in dialogue with the authorities.
"In the face of the refusal of the congregations, they were repeatedly invited to go to MINCULT headquarters, to wait there for clarification of the situation of some citizens who, according to those who remained outside the body, had been arrested elsewhere in the city. They were also suggested to discuss topics of mutual interest with all of them," the publication adds.
In this sense, the institution called the protesters irresponsible, who demanded, as a condition of dialogue, the police operation in the area be dismantled.
"In a frankly irresponsible attitude, those who remained on the street expressed that they wouldn't leave. During the more than two hours of these incidents, the media paid for by the U.S. government were commenting live on what was happening and reinforcing the provocative matrix of counter-re-envoys," the statement said.
The note adds that, "in these circumstances, workers at the Ministry of Culture of Cuba decided to react immediately."
"They gathered in front of the provocate- and urged them to retreat. Faced with their refusal, and the obvious intention to come up with a media show, the agency's workers confronted and evicted them from the venue," the publication stressed.
The events were precipitated when with the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Grau, supported by several MINCULT workers, including Fernando Rojas,violently lashed out at the nearly 15 artists planted, who were eventually arrested and driven on a bus, where they would have been the victims of further aggression.
The Ministry of Culture closed its statement on Wednesday en that it remains open to dialogue without "provocations" and without mediation of "mercenaries".
"The Ministry of Culture confirms its willingness to dialogue with honest creators on any issue related to the cultural policy of the Cuban Revolution and reiterates its refusal to accept provocations or dialogue with mercenaries. IViva the Cuban Revolution!".
New protest over MINCULT ends in crackdown
All 27N members planted on Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba (MINCULT) were violently arrested by repressive regime forces
MIAMI, USA.- All 27N members planted wednesday in front of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba (MINCULT) were violently arrested by repressive forces of the regime. According to a live Facebook broadcast of La Hora de Cuba, the young protesters were put in a guagua at the cries of what seemed like an act of repudiation.
Moments before they were taken away, the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, left the state institution and assaulted one of the young artists waiting outside the ministry to speak with Deputy Minister Fernando Rojas, who had promised to have a meeting at noon on January 27 with curator Solveig Font, playwright Yunior García and artist Camila Lobón.
According to images broadcast live on the Facebook of Neighborhood Journalism (PB), Alpidio Alonso, along with several officials of the state institution, assaulted one of the members of the 27N trying to snatch his phone while filming. The broadcast was abruptly cut off amid the struggle between regime representatives and protesters.
So far, the whereabouts of those in front of MINCULT in the capital veto are unknown.
The event took place after at least 30 members of the 27N were planted on Wednesday on the outskirts of MINCULT to demand a return to dialogue with the authorities of the island, two months after the historic November planting, because of the constant harassment, repression and discredit to which they have been subjected by the government.
However, Rojas kicked them out of the place on the pretext that he would meet only with the three selected spokesmen. "I beg you to disperse, to leave and have a coffee and at 12:00 you are here at the Council (National Council of Performing Arts) Camila Lobón and Solveig Font," he said, but those present, including Maykel Osorbo of the San Isidro Movement, refused to obey.
The artists, who also demanded in front of MINCULT explanations for the arrests and disappearances that have taken place since hours of the morning, had called for today, in a place in the capital that was not disclosed for security reasons, a meeting in which they would make public a statement in tribute to José Martí and reaffirm the demands presented last November.
The arrest and release, soon after, of Tania Bruguera, Amaury Pacheco and CubaNet journalist Camila Acosta has been reportedso far. Writer Katherine Bisquet,who was also arrested and taken to La Lisa police station to prevent her from reaching the Ministry, reported that she is already at home, "but not at large." For his part, Michel Matos and Luz Escobar are besieged.
Cuban independent artists return to the charge
What happened on January 27 before the Ministry of Culture of Cuba has already had an impact on national and international public opinion
HAVANA, Cuba. – On Wednesday, the Cuban capital witnessed a new episode of repression and abuse of citizens just by having thoughts and taking actions that disagree with those that the castrist regime deems appropriate. On this occasion, such events took place again before the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT), in the block of Calle 13 between 2 and 4, in the Vedado habanero.
Dozens of people from the cultural world attended this site. On this occasion, the trigger for his interest was the situation of two colleagues—independent artists Tania Bruguera and Katherine Bisquet—who had been arbitrarily detained by repressive forces.
As is often the case with these communists, senior officials intended the dozens of gathered to leave the site without having received an answer to their legitimate concerns. Deputy Minister Rojas said: "I beg you (...) let them go and have a cup of coffee." The question that is asked is "Where!". But we must not blame the majimbe; it is likely that, in the midst of his life of privilege and prebendas, he does not know that in this city, "thank you" to the castrist regime, there is no place that one can go to for a very creole coffee.
Under the very long and anti-political title of They do not want dialogue and provoke to the limit,the government agency itself, in official note, tried to disqualify those protesting. According to the bureaucrats of culture, the aforementioned ones were characterized by their "provocative attitude" and "their relationship to the media paid by US federal agencies."
According to this "official history," castrism once again took as its pretext "the risk posed by the COVID-19 epidemic in crowds in public spaces." Therefore, Havana's regime again lends its hands with the pandemic caused by the Chinese Communist Virus to justify its repression and disrespect for human rights.
It doesn't matter that, in the vicinity of MINCULT—less than a block away, to be more precise—the store is located at the intersection of 11 and 4. It is a trade characterized by the hundreds of people who swirl every time it is stocked with chicken or other necessities, which the inoperative Cuban system is unable to supply regularly. Like this very Wednesday, without going any further.
Agglomerations of this kind do not arouse the desveination of the regime's repressive agents. Although presumably it is to be those events to which the chief epidemiologist, Francisco Durán, refers, in his daily television ngas, when he speaks of "people on top of each other". Not to the events of MINCULT, of which he surely did not witness.
In any case, although the pandemic was used as a pretext, what came about was pure and harsh repression. Of course, the regime took advantage of the fewest answering citizens: if on 27 November there was talk of some four hundred people gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture, this Wednesday was only thirty.
Unsurprisingly, most of the officers were members of State Security, many of them known from the protesters for the interrogations and previous acts of intimidation in which they had participated. They were the ones who applied their martial arts knowledge, took blows and, ultimately, introduced the members of the group on buses located for this purpose.
But of course the lying castrista propaganda could not settle for this version of events. If things were like this, where would "the people be angry"! Turning to "official history," we see that, according to her, in the face of the protesters' refusal to leave, "the agency's workers confronted them and evicted them from the place." One more liar.
We must be resumed from the international reaction to this new hit-and-run. The OAS Rapporteurship on Freedom of Expression condemned repression for Cuban artists. So did the U.S. authorities through the State Department's Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, as well as its Embassy in Havana.
"We are concerned about reports that Cuban officials assaulted peaceful protesters." "We urge the government to listen and dialogue with its people instead of resorting to arrests, violence and internet cutting," expressed the sources of the great country that, once again, has proven to be the great ally of Cubans in their struggle for freedom.
I guess this last reality worried the castrists. And quite rightly so. Officials of the Havana regime (and also unidentified persons) suspected that the change of administration in Washington could translate into a policy of tolerance and even complicity with the unpresentable castrista regime.
Quick statements show that this has not been the case. In the midst of the chaotic situation exacerbated by the unwelcome implementation of the "Order Task",the mayimbes of the Palace of the Revolution must be well concerned about the stance assumed in the face of these facts by Joe Biden's government.
Culture or barbarism?
Power cannot be allowed to select its interlocutors and exclude those they don't like. Nor should they be the ones who select the place of the interlocution.'
I do not recall any case in which a minister and two deputy ministers of culture, followed by a small troop of stalwart bureaucrats, lashed out in a public space against two dozen artists who held a peaceful protest reciting verses from the founder of the Republic for his birth.
Maybe it ever happened under Trujillo or Somoza? I don't know. What I am sure of is that this is one of the most obscene acts that can be expected of an official in the cultural field. The stanzas of the national anthem could now be changed to say, "The homeland contemplates you ashamed and indignant."
Has he fallen that low? The worst part is that I suspect that it was not even an initiative of that savage they call a minister, but of the order received from the Ministry of the Interior incredulous by his passivity. The military likes civilians to be the ones who go out handing out sticks in the photos and videos. They handle these cowards from a distance, order them to act and wash their hands, then intervene as "forces of order." And the minister and his subjects know full well that it is up to them—not Diaz-Canel—to remain in office.
Artists learned basic lessons on the 27N. Power cannot be allowed to select its partners and exclude those they don't like. Nor should they be the ones who select the place of the interlocution, handle from a presidential table the microphones, the time of the meeting and the list of speakers. Much less can they be tolerated for being the only ones to release minutes of talks and agreements, if any. One can always talk about specific issues, but it is not possible to dialogue or negotiate – which are not the same thing – substantive issues when power holds hostages of the counterparty, arrested or disappeared, under his control.
The trick of passing into my cave only the people that I approve, we meet under our direction, the rest spread out and later inform them, did not work this time. Nor has it worked for them to select a group of people and make them some symbolic concession in isolation in order to divide the 27N.
Less so has the savage reputation assassination campaign against these creators and independent journalists reporting their fight been successful. They've been turned into heroes. Citizens thank them for their courage every time they are recognized on the streets. Times have changed. A lot. Who believes the Party, the Granma,the National TV News today? Not even Diaz-Canel and his minister of culture.
I conclude this note and have not mentioned once the name of the wretched minister. For what? He doesn't even deserve that recognition. But his victims won't forget it. In the future there will be no amnesia. It's scary because in Cuba you may be living the preamble to a revolutionary situation.
OCHR denounces arrests in Cuba for filing complaints with the National Assembly
In an open letter sent to Homero Acosta, secretary of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba (ANPP), the Cuban Observatory on Human Rights (OCDH) reported that at least four citizens have been detained on the island for attempting to "submit requests, complaints or remedies" to that institution of the
MIAMI, USA.- In an open letter sent to Homero Acosta, secretary of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba (ANPP), the Cuban Observatory on Human Rights (OCDH) denounced that at least four citizens have been detained on the island for attempting to "submit applications, complaints or remedies" to that regime institution.
Signed by Alejandro González Raga and Yaxys Cires Dib, Executive Director and Legal Adviser & Director of Strategies respectively, the mission claims to Acosta that one of the functions of his office, and in accordance with the regulations of the ANPP, was to "examine complaints, approaches, requests and suggestions of the population".
However, "we turn to you to vehemently denounce that at least four Cuban citizens who have filed or attempted to file applications, complaints or appeals with the ANPP, using rights enshrined in the Constitution, have been arbitrarily detained for this reason and subjected to other repressive methods."
It is really serious for the Observatory that "state institutions are forerated for citizens acting within the framework of legality and constitutional rights, just because they do not coincide with official approaches".
"As much as it is not a cause for surprise, it is reprehensible that government officials attack other citizens from the ANPP, as the Minister of Finance and Pricing has done with self-employed people, calling them 'parasites'. It is also reprehensible that the president of that body says at parliamentary headquarters things such as: 'We do not have to be tolerant of the gusanera' and other shameful expressions, referring to a group of young Cubans," the document reads.
However, the OCC says, "the threats and inappropriate language of its parliament take shape in the repression suffered by those who present initiatives that challenge the government, its dictates or a specific official."
Likewise, "it is striking that the State that condemns the assault or disrespect to the institutions of another country, has a parliament, which, in addition to not being plural, is part of or achillescent in the face of repression against those who use institutional channels", is why "we call on it to end these actions and for parliament to protect those who from their civil liberties submit their requests" , ends the open letter.
The facts to which the OCHR refers are as follows:
On April 29, 2020, citizen Enix Berrio Sardá filed an application at the ANPP headquarters to review and declare two articles of Decree-Law No. 370 unconstitutional. The request was based on the right under article 61 of the Constitution, which states that citizens have the right "to address complaints and petitions to the authorities, who are obliged to process them and provide appropriate, relevant and informed responses within the time limit and in accordance with the procedure established by law". To our surprise, two days later, Mr Enix Berrio was arbitrarily detained by police officers for more than 50 hours (30 of them in unknown whereabouts) and subjected to at least three interrogations with members of the counterintelligence.
On February 8, 2020, citizen Berta Soler and citizen Angel Moya were arrested by police as they prepared to submit an amnesty request for Cuban political prisoners to the Office of the People's Power Assembly in Havana.
Last Thursday, February 4, 2021, young art historian Carolina Barrero,a member of group 27N, was arrested in Havana. The citizen Barrero, together with Solveig Font, delivered on Wednesday 3 in the offices of the ANPP a letter with the signature of 1 255 Cubans to start a process of revocation of mandate of Alpidio Alonso Grau, deputy to that body, as well as Minister of Culture and member of the Council of Ministers. As she has transcended, the young woman was arbitrarily detained from nine a.m. at Infanta and Manglar station and was subjected to two lengthy interrogations by counterintelligence. She was released 10 hours later.
Journalist Roberto Rodriguez threatens to be prosecuted for terrorism
The Press Freedom Association warned that it fears for the physical integrity of the reporter and warned that he may be subjected, with fabricated evidence, to a spurio judicial process
MIAMI, USA. – Cuban political police threatened to prosecute freelance journalist Roberto Rodríguez Cardonafor "terrorist activities", the Pro Freedom of the Press Association (ALPL) reported on Thursday.
Rodríguez Cardona, resident of the city of Bayamo, Granma Province, had been summoned last Tuesday by a lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), identified as Daniel, for the Provincial Instruction Unit for Crimes Against State Security.
According to the report, the officer stated "with a threatening tone" that the journalist's case "would soon be presented on the roundtableprogram, on national television, and that he would then be accused of terrorism."
However, the lieutenant colonel assured Rodriguez Cardona that "none of that would happen if he cooperated with State Security to contact suspected terrorists."
ALPL points out that the case has a history in April 2020, when the reporter's house was raided by repressive force and taken to the same Provincial Crime Investigation Unit against State Security.
On that occasion, Rodriguez Cardona was detained for about 24 hours, six of them confined "in a narrow and dirty corridor in which he could only bend down", according to the journalist's testimony.
ALPL adds that "after that 'softening', the political police told the communicator that they knew of their contacts with terrorists, and that he had been arrested at Interpol's request, but at no point did they present him with evidence of what they claimed."
Roberto Rodríguez Cardona remains under constant harassment from the repressive organs of State Security, whose officers have come to tell him that "they will pass him with the tanks above".
The Press Freedom Association warned in its statement that it fears for the physical integrity of the journalist and warned that he may be subjected, with evidence fabricated by the political police, to a judicial process with the idea of attacking the image of the independent press.
State Security investigates Carolina Barrero for an image of José Martí and suggests leaving Cuba
'I'm convinced I haven't committed a crime,' says the art historian and 27N member.
Art historian Carolina Barrero,a member of the 27Ngroup, reported this Saturday that State Security is investigating her for an image of José Martí and suggested leaving Cuba.
"State Security informs me that they have opened an investigation file on the complaint imposed by Agent Kenya. Captain Gustavo tells me that you have up to ten days to notify me if the complaint is withdrawn or maintained. I suggest to me, personally, that I should better return to Spain, because then that exit could be complicated for me. The deadline seems to be not for them but for me," he said on Facebook.
Agent Kenya accused Barrero of printing an image of the National Apostle. "It is a Martí made of stars, with the stroke of tenderness and dream. There's not a shred of offense in that drawing, it's all respect and illusion. This print is not public disorder, it is an apology of the hero and the poet," he said on Facebook.
Political police are trying to build a case for the crime of clandestinity of forms,as set out in Article 241 of the Criminal Code of Cuba. The art historian could face "a three- to nine-month deprivation of liberty penalty or fine up to two hundred and seventy fees or both."
The crime of clandestinity of forms condemns anyone who "makes, disseminates or circulates publications without indicating the printing press or place of printing or without complying with the rules established for the identification of its author or origin, or reproduces, warehouse or transport".
"If you're going to build me a case of this to put me in a summary trial that will, but let's be clear to you, you're not going to blackmail me or threaten me with the construction of an alleged crime. I haven't hidden to do it, I'd print it a thousand times," he said.
The historian appeared on the morning of this Saturday at Picota 209 street station, between Paula and San Isidro, Havana. I made no statement about the accusations and welcomed his right to remain silent.
Barrero recounted that the criminal instructor, Captain Gustavo Figueredo Pérez, denied access to his lawyer because "the investigation process is secret and only criminal instructors/state security agents have access to it".
"I have not hidden to do so, I would print it a thousand times more; who needs to hide to print an image like that. The clandestineness of prints, on the other hand, is a legal figure that responds to a logic of another century, of another time. Don't make any more cases and, above all, don't try to use forms of blackmail, it's not going to work with me. I'm convinced I haven't committed a crime," I said.
Barrero was arrested this week by the political police,a day after handing over a petition to the National Assembly for the revocation of Alpidio Alonso from his post as Minister of Culture.
The petition was signed by more than 1,200 Cubans following the aggression of Alonso and other members of the Ministry of Culture to the young people gathered in front of MINCULT on January 27.
In defense of Tania Bruguera: Revolutionary is she and not the ones who lower the cervix
If Tania, as official propaganda says, denounces a climate of ungovernability on the island, it is because there is ungovernability in Cuba.
AVANA, Cuba. – Tania Bruguera, that brave touch of mine, I don't know her personally. She starts where I almost finished. We go on two sides imposed by time, sure of me that the saddest thing in the world is to live too long and not be able to get to the pass of the new ones who follow us.
Tania is a young artist, brave as few, very different from those other servile talents, who have already defined them our Apostle: "There is no spectacle, indeed more odious, than that of servile talents". Martí referred – no matter the time elapsed – to the cancerberos of the regime who accommodate a tyranny and are frightened when they hear the word freedom.
Those who are not able to recognize that "tyranny is the same in its various forms, although some of them are seen as beautiful names and big facts." We always turn to our José Martí.
But the thing is, a few days ago the journalist Pedro de la Hoz, of the Granma newspaper, had to be, from where else, he lashed out at a woman who has enough of what this writer lacks.
As he has lacks so much, I have becomes a soldier in compliance with the constitutional prescription of fascism. Good soldier is De la Hoz who uses his weapons to attack a woman artist who possesses eyes to see the bad and voice to denounce him.
I've accused her, but no one believes him anymore. Tania, as intelligent and cultured, free as birds, will be worthy of her career as a full and full woman. If it has been noted, it is because it occupies the true place of the honest and sincere, of the activists who have been on the path since previous years, when she was a child and those others ignited the fuse of freedom.
That freedom is two steps away, while those who stop and care for more than the millions who keep the tyrants, ashamed of so many failures and so many insults, will be left as cowards.
If Tania, as the official journalist says, denounces a climate of ungovernability on the island is because there is ungovernability. May the master repent.
Václav Havel and Jacek Kuro were left as patriots and those De la Hoz who wrote against him, are no longer remembered.
Tania, like me, and forgive brutal sincerity, cares much more about the grief and discouragement of our people than America, the most developed and prosperous country in history. Because here, Mr. Official Journalist, that November 27th, at the gates of the Ministry of Culture, there were hundreds, thousands of Cuban intellectuals in a common claim. There were also those who have died, my friends who have not been able to see the coming end, because by natural law everything that begins ends.
You go against the current, that Tania Bruguera is respected by time. Revolutionary is she and not the ones who lower the cervix in front of the bayonets and the military in neck and tie.
Today, Cubans think differently, of course they do: they stopped believing in the Revolution for a long time; have uncovered the lies of a tyranny fighting arm-in-arm to prolong a little longer what he he he he knows lost.
There those who are wrong like the De la Hoz and the Capote, who expect the "favors" of U.S.-Cuba relations, something Obama failed for and Biden will fail if he makes the same mistakes.
Cuba will be free. We always knew tyrannies like the beaver are long. We were never confused because the lies were many and they were repeated too much. Not imperial whispering.
But now the only whisper or murmur you hear is that of the Cuban people in the queues, where you can hardly buy food. And there also rises a curse against communism, day after day, waiting for an end point.
Luis Robles Elizástegui suffers degrading treatment in the East Combined
The young man, imprisoned for claiming freedom and the cessation of repression, is the victim of human rights violations in the Combined East Prison
HAVANA, Cuba.- Luis Robles Elizástegui demonstrated peacefully in early December 2020 on the central Havana boulevard of San Rafael in demand for freedom and the cessation of repression in Cuba, as well as the release of the answering rapper Denis Solís. He was immediately arrested and taken to Villa Marista, and from the moment of his own enclose the young man, 28 years old and without ties to the opposition or the San Isidro Movement, has been the victim of physical and psychological humiliation and mistreatment.
Robles is currently in the warehouse of building 3 of the Combined East Habanera prison, where he continues to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment – expressly prohibited in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5. The young person suffers from gastric reflux, for which he needs several medications, mainly Domperidone. Although his brother took the medicines to prison, the prison authorities did not hand them over to us, as reported by Luis Robles himself, who fears for his health. On the other hand, he has been veiledly threatened with harming his family. They also put a cockroach in his food.
The so-called depot is the section where the inmates pending trial arrive. For their part, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fortnightly visits of these inmates were suspended. Instead they receive the food and medicine their relatives bring them, but Luis Robles has not been given twice.
The young Guantanamer is one of five convicts of conscience by the NGO Prisoners Defenders in early January, bringing to 138 political prisoners on the island.
U.S. senators file resolution for San Isidro Movement
The bipartisan resolution calls for the immediate release of artists and activists who have been arbitrarily detained in recent months
MIAMI, USA. - U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Republican for Florida, and Bob Menéndez, Democrat for New Jersey, presented a resolution on Tuesday in solidarity with the San Isidro Movement (MSI),as well as with the independent artists and activists who have been recently targeted by the Cuban regime for protesting in defense of their right to freedom of expression.
According to a press release appearing on Rubio's official website, the bipartisan resolution calls for the immediate release of artists and activists who have been arbitrarily detained in recent months. The initiative also urges governments and legislatures in Europe and Latin America to renew their support for pro-democracy activists in Cuba.
"The Cuban regime continues to attack artists, dissidents, activists, academics, journalists, as well as members of the San Isidro Movement, who are not exempt from the repression of Díaz-Canel and Castro," Rubio said.
The Cuban-American lawmaker, 49, said he was "proud" to join Bob Menendez and other "colleagues" in condemning the Cuban dictatorship's "last wave of repression against the people."
Menéndez, for his part, expressed solidarity with Cuban activists, victims of the smear campaigns launched by the castrist propaganda apparatus.
"With this resolution, we stand in solidarity with the courageous artists and activists of Cuba's San Isidro Movement and join their call for greater respect for freedom of expression and social rights on the island," he said.
The Democratic senator also emphasized the disrespect shown by institutions towards Cuban dissidents, who "continue to be violently repressed and imprisoned."
"The images of the Minister of Culture himself physically assaulting members of the San Isidro Movement make one thing clear to the whole world: the Cuban people continue to be violently repressed and imprisoned. I ask my counterparts in Europe, Canada and Latin America to join us in paying attention to this reprehensible situation and defending democratic values in Cuba," Menéndez added.
On Monday, the official outburst against the actors grouped around the 27N - mostly young people - added another chapter. During the nightly broadcast of the Cuban Television News, lawyer and journalist Humberto López denounced alleged illegalities and irregularities in the proceedings of activists, artists and independent journalists, who , to say the communicator - are only seeking to "subvert order" on the island.
SIP labeled "mockery" new measures in Cuba with press censorship
"It is a new mockery against journalism, which has already been co-established by laws and decrees that allow journalists to be imprisoned"
MIAMI, USA. – The Inter-American Press Society (SIP) this Friday called several of the new economic opening measures issued by the regime in Cuba "kept the action of the independent press prohibited".
In his attempt to open the economy to the private sector, the Executive of the Caribbean island had several activities now allowed for citizens, but news agencies, audiovisual production and wireless telecommunications, among other entertainment activities, continue to be banned, recalled the Miami-based organization.
"It is a new mockery against independent journalism, which has already been co-established by laws and gag decrees that even allow journalists to be arbitrarily imprisoned," Jorge Canahuati, president of the entity, denounced in a statement.
The manager, also chairman of the Honduran group Opsa, regretted that the regime continues to enforce article 53 of the Constitution, which points to the socialist state and its officials, and not to citizens, as the owners and depositaries of the freedoms.
On February 6, the Cuban Government removed the list of permitted activities in the private sector and left only 124 occupations limited or forsa stoned, a long-awaited reform that opens the door to the expansion of self-employment in the midst of a serious economic crisis.
Four days later, the Cuban Ministry of Labour published the list of the 124 jobs that will continue to be banned for so-called "accountors".
According to the official document, the strategic sectors for the Cuban State such as health, telecommunications, energy, defense and the press will remain veted for the private sector, despite the elimination of the restrictive list of activities to which self-employed people could so far devote themselves.
In the IAPA statement, Carlos Jornet, chairman of the bank's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said that "this new state classification nullifies the entrepreneurial capacity of citizens."
Jornet, director of Argentina's La Voz del Interior newspaper, noted that the measure "deepens the regime's censorship of press freedom in its 62 years of dictatorship."
They call for open letter normalization between government and Cubans
"As Cuban citizens we want the government to move towards normalizing relations with other nations, but first of all with the Cubans themselves wherever they are"
LA HABANA, Cuba.- "The government of Cuba must normalize relations with its citizens, as a premise to normalize them with the world", was the message signed by more than three hundred Cuban artists, freelance journalists, lawyers and dissidents. The mission was made public on Monday, February 15, and is addressed to the Government of the United States of America, the Government of the Republic of Cuba and the Congress of the United States of America.
"As Cuban citizens we want the government to move towards normalizing relations with other nations, but first of all with the Cubans themselves wherever they are. May Cuba be inserted into the world as a truly sovereign, human rights-friendly and democratic country, something that is now far from a reality. Every negotiation must be focused on this objective," the letter states.
The epistle is sent to the possibility of a new rapprochement between the governments of Cuba and the United States. The signatories describe themselves as "members of the different sectors of Cuban society, people with different ideologies and political positions, but moved by the same yearning for a democratic, prosperous and respectful Cuba of all rights for all people".
As such, building on the experiences gained during the approach fostered by the administration of former President Barack Obama, they note that: "Cuba's sovereignty as an independent nation cannot be monopolized by a government (...). The regime in force in Cuba denies fundamental rights—political, civil, economic and cultural—to its society. It criminalizes dissent and excludes autonomous participation (...). No advances in human rights were experienced on the island during normalization (...). Repression is substantial to the totalitarian nature of the system and responds to the empowerment of citizens. It does not depend on the attitude of the U.S. government, as this first month of Biden's presidency demonstrates (...). Economic reforms made by the Cuba administration during Obama's normalization were minimal and suffered freezing or reversal even before the Trump administration (...) During the previous thaw, it is true that a certain urban middle class grew that maintained an attitude of non-confrontation or collaboration with the regime, but the country's impoverished majority did not benefit from normalization (...)".
On the part of this presentation, the signatories declare their commitment "to democratic progress in our country and support for new processes of standardization and negotiations, provided that they take into account a group of minimum and indispensable conditions".
These six conditions are: that there be a wide participation and representation of Cuban society, in all its social and political diversity, in the process of normalization. That the negotiation be carried out under conditions of transparency, with equitable access to Cuban official and independent means, as well as to the international press. That every negotiation must have as its main premise and purpose the recognition of the civil, economic and political rights of the Cuban people contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That the negotiation process and the resulting agreements be staggered, with concrete and empirically evaluable targets for each phase of the process. May the immediate release — without conditional exile – of the more than one hundred political prisoners, as well as the legalization of all civil society and private sector organizations to be represented in the talks, be preliminary at the beginning of the negotiations; in addition to the cessation of political repression and economic restrictions on citizens.
The conditions also include the need for a reopening of consular formalities in both countries: "that the United States government derogue restrictions on the travel of Cubans to the island and the sending of remittances by civil means; and for the Cuban government to eliminate bans on doctors, athletes, professionals, dissidents, activists and all people who are unfairly deprived of these rights. These are decisions that must be made in uniesonance by both governments."
Among the signatories are: Aldo Rodríguez Baquero (El Aldeano), Alexis Sabatela Ugarte, Aminta de Cárdenas Soroa, Anamely Ramos González, Angel Santiesteban Prats, Armando Chaguaceda Noriega, Arturo Sandoval, Boris González Arenas, Boris Larramendi, Carlos Amel Oliva Torres, Carolina Barrero, Dimas Castellanos Martí, Elena Larrinaga de Luis, Eliecer Avila Cicilia, Eloy Viera Cañive, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, Francis Sánchez Rodríguez, Hamlet, Henry Constant , Henry Erick Hernández García, Ileana Alvarez González, Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Camejo, José Daniel Ferrer García, Laritza Diversent Cámbara, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Omara Ruiz Urquiola, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Rafael Rojas González, Rosa María Payá, Silverio Portal Contrera and Tania Bruguera.
While these signatures were being collected, and without prior consultation, the document was exhibited last Friday in the National Television News by Humberto López, who used it to expose some of the efforts of "people who promote actions of disobedience and counter-revolution".
In a way, this misiva is a response to the open letter addressed to US President Joe Biden on February 10 last, in which some two hundred Cuban artists and intellectuals called for an end to the blockade.
The signatories of the new letter add that other signatories can join.
Editorial: An instrument that will justify the repression that comes
The list of self-employment economic activities includes offences sanctioned by law. Why?
Unlike the previous occasion when it published a list of 127 self-employment activities it authorised, the scheme has now published a list of 124 self-employment activities that are prohibited. You might think that the rest, as allowed, is a whole universe. However, the forbidden goes beyond those 124 numbered activities. To give just one example, number 92 – "Research Activities" – necessarily involves multiple occupations.
The list of prohibited activities includes some such as printing paper currency (activity 11), growing narcotic plants (activity 1) and gambling and betting (activity 115), which constitute offences covered by the laws of the country. Those who made the list will have preferred to be repetitive or it is an image trick: by sneaking into the list some criminal activities, the decision to prohibit the other non-criminal activities that accompany them becomes fair. It's the beginning of tell me who you're hanging out with and I'll tell you who you are.
It is also striking that, already with a gag law such as Law 88, they must prohibit "journalist activities" (activity 110), "news agency activities" (activity 66), "audiovisual and film production, sound recording activities and music editing" (activity 57) and so on.
It is suspected that inclusions like these are due to a desideologization of hot problems. The authorities will now be able to argue that these journalists and independent artists are persecuted and repressed, not for their crimes of opinion, but for the economic crimes they commit.
The newly published list, cheating from the quantities it lists, seeks to awaken the image of a magnanimous state. However, a simple reading of it allows it to be understood as an instrument that will justify the repression that comes.
Cuban and foreign intellectuals team up in support of Carolina Barrero
Art historian Carolina Barrero has been harassed and threatened by Cuban State Security in recent months for requesting the leave of the Minister of Culture.
A group of 11 Cuban and foreign intellectuals have signed an open letter in support of art historian Carolina Barrero in the wake of the pressures and threats suffered by this member of the 27N group. The misiva was published in context magazine.
The letter refers to the current situation of Barrero, which has been threatened by the Security of the Cuban State with criminal prosecution for "clandestineness of forms" (article 241 of the Penal Code), which could result ina conviction of up to one year in prison. As the art historian herself has indicated, the threat seeks to justify herself in a postcard that she printed with the silhouette of José Martí.
"It is hard to imagine that such an archaic legal status in contemporary constitutions will criminalize the free movement of leaflets in public space. Adding to this lack of legitimacy in the legal order, the police also informed Barrero that he was not entitled to a lawyer, since his investigation file wassecret," the letter denounces.
The misiva also recalls that part of the ensentment of the Cuban authorities with Barrero is because it, together with the art curator Solveig Font, presented to the National Assembly of Popular Power a document with more than 1,000 signatures to initiate a process of revocation of Deputy Alpidio Alonso Grau, current Minister of Culture.
"In recent months we have witnessed an absurd persecution of young Cuban creators (mostly women) simply by demanding greater autonomy for the creation and expression of the word public sphere. For this reason there is nothing more absurd than outlawing and criminalizing freedom of speech,association or circulation of images," the letter continues.
The signer group is held by Gerardo Muñoz (Lehigh University), José Luis Villacañas (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), Rita Segato (Universidad Nacional de San Martín), Maristella Svampa (Conicet, Universidad Nacional de La Plata), Elena V. Molina (Arthaus, Havana), Rafael Rojas (College of Mexico), Rodrigo Karmy (University of Chile), Germán Cano (University of Alcalá), Juan Cárdenas (Bogotá, Colombia), Luciana Cadahia (Catholic University of Chile) , Teresa Vilarós (Texas, USA), Carlos Pabón (University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras), Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia (University of Maryland), Margarita Pintado (Point Loma Nazarene University) and Salomé García (Polytechnic University of Valencia).
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