CUBA
ALARMING
INCREASE OF REPRESSIVE ACTS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS, INCLUDING A CHURCH
SANCTIONED POLICE RAID
Former political prisoner of conscience, Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina calls
on Cuba to be expelled from the UN Human Rights
Council
March 18, 2012
The
week of March 12-18, 2012, saw an increase in the government’s repression
against Cuban civil society, particularly human rights defenders who, in larger
numbers, are exercising their right to fundamental freedoms in the island.
Mob
attacks, death threats, arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment in prison cells,
homes under siege, intercepted phone lines, abandoned in remote areas far from
their homes were some of the repressive tactics carried out by Cuban
authorities.
Freedom
of religion continues under attack, even as the visit of Pope Benedict XVI is
one week away. The Cuban Catholic hierarchy’s actions coincided with those of
the Cuban Communist regime when paramilitary forces evicted by force, mistreated
and placed under surveillance, thirteen activists of the Cuban Republican Party
who decided to peacefully occupy the Church of Our Lady of Charity in Campanario
St. in Central Havana: Emilio
Torres Pérez, Yudit Ferrer Segura, Pascual Pérez Sánchez, Mayelín Lázara
Betancourt, Miguel López Santos, Orlando Corzo González, Dionis De la Caridad
Piloto, Josiel Diaz Piloto, Vladimir Calderón Frías, Deixis Ponce Arencibia,
Niola Camila Araujo Pina, Ferd Calderón Muñoz, and Roniel Valentín
Aguillón The activists wanted, among other
demands, that independent pro human rights groups in Cuba hold an audience with
the Pope during his visit to the island on March 26-28 to inform him of the
human rights situation in Cuba. This was part of a plan of coordinated protests
that were to be carried out by activists in other parts of the island as well
but which ended unsuccessfully. The Office of the Archbishop of Havana publicly
said that this was “an illegitimate and
irresponsible act” and called on the group to leave the church premises
immediately. The activists held on for two days trying to negotiate their
demands with high Church officials. The forced eviction took place on Thursday
evening, March 15 after they were told by Church officials that they would
secure their personal safety and that they would not be prosecuted. The parish
priest of the Church of Our Lady of Charity and Monsignor Polcari had informed
them that a government official was coming to speak to them but, when the doors
of the Sanctuary were opened, around 22 paramilitary agents entered the church.
The activists said that they were dragged, beaten, taken to a police unit in
Havana (located in Amenidad and Infanta) where they were
fingerprinted, photographed, weighed and samples of their hair, urine and sweat
were taken. The women were forced to undress. They were then transferred to the
State Security headquarters of Villa Marista in Havana and were all threatened
to be sanctioned with Law 88 ( Gag Law) after the Pope left Cuba. Repressive
forces continue to harass these 13 activists with
ongoing surveillance to their homes and
their activities. Vladimir Alejo Miranda declared that Cuban authorities are
trying to isolate them. The official
statement published by the Cuban Catholic Church contradicted the testimonies of
the 13 activists: http://www.arquidiocesisdelahabana.org/contens/webs/ind_main2_hoy.htm
On Wednesday, March
14, the former Cuban political prisoner of conscience Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, gave his
testimony as a survivor of Cuban prisons before the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva. On behalf of the Centrist
Democrat International, Rodriguez Lobaina described how he suffered cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment during more than 10 years; giving as an example
the mock execution he was subjected to in 1999 and called on Cuba to be expelled
from the Human Rights Council.
TEXT OF NESTOR RODRIGUEZ
LOBAINA’S SPEECH: http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2012/03/nestor-rodriguez-lobaina-calls-on.html
Three days before the
ninth anniversary of the Cuban crackdown against prodemocracy activists known as
the “Black Spring” that took place on March 18, 2003, around 80 human rights
defenders were arrested. Members of the Ladies in White “Laura Pollan” from
across the island began to gather at their headquarters located at Calle Neptuno
# 963 between Aramburen and Hospital in Havana. The streets nearby were blocked
off by authorities and on Saturday March 17 and an “act of repudiation” began at
2:30 p.m. as the house was surrounded by a police operative with a pro
government mob that screamed “let’s get
them with machetes, they are only a few !” . Of the more than fifty women,
nineteen Ladies in White wearing masks with the face of their deceased leader
Laura Pollan came out of their headquarters and were intercepted by authorities
three blocks down. Whereabouts of the women were unknown to their families until
they were released hours later, and reported that they were taken to the
4th Police Unit in El Cerro, in Havana.
On Sunday, the
crackdown continued, as dozens of arrests and acts of repression were reported
in Villa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Bayamos and Matanzas. More than
thirty members of the group “Ladies in White Laura Pollan” were arrested in
Havana, among them their spokesperson Berta Soler, as they were marching down
5th Avenue after Mass. Many were released in remote areas far from
their homes.
Marco Antonio Lima
Dalmau reported that paramilitary forces in Holguin Cuba arrested the Ladies in
White Adisnidia Cruz Segredo and Nelida
Molina Leiva when they left a Catholic Church in Holguin, as well as two
activists. In Gibara, among those human rights defenders arrested were: Antonio Caballero Pupo, Magdaly Guerrero
Silva, Jesus Frimas, Richard Duputel, Bernardo Torres Roldan, and Jesus Ferrer.
State Security placed
guards at the entrance of the Catholic church in the city of San Juan y Martinez
in the western province of Pinar del
Rio, to prevent the Ladies in White from entering.
In the central city
of Santa Clara, six Ladies in White
were arrested as they were leaving their homes to attend Mass at the Church of
La Divina Pastora.
Among the Ladies in White
arrested on Saturday to prevent their attendance to Mass at the Basilica of Our
Lady of Charity in the town of El Cobre in Eastern Cuba and who were mistreated
physically by the political police in the 3rd Unit of the PNR in
Santiago de Cuba were: Aurora Martin,
and Miraida Martin who declared themselves on
hunger strike
Ten
videos of inhumane prison conditions at the Combinado del Este Prison in Havana,
were smuggled outside the island by the independent journalist, Dania
Virgen Garcia who stated to the news agency CNN that the videos were
shot in January 2012 using a camera smuggled into the prison. The videos show
derelict cell blocks, thick grime on the walls, holes in the floor that serve as
toilets. Prisoners, many of them foreigners, are heard speaking of rotten food,
meager rations, dilapidated cells, moldy walls, overcrowding, limited exercise
hours and persistent sewage leaks. Combinado del Este is a Cuban maximum
security prison about 10 miles southeast of Havana that holds common prisoners
(accused of drug trafficking and violent crimes) as well as political prisoners.
Yasmin
Conyedo and her husband, Yusmani Alvarez both remain under arrest since January
8, 2012 in the central city of Santa Clara. Yasmin Conyedo is an independent
journalist of the group, United
Antitotalitarian Front and a Lady in White. Her husband, Yusmani Alvarez is an activist of the
Young Democratic League of Las
Villas. They are both falsely accused of attacking the home of a communist
party official in their hometown of Villaclara who had initially subjected the
couple’s home to a pro government mob attack the same day of the arrest. Yasmin
was transferred to the Prison of Guamajal and Yusmani to the Prison of La
Pendiente on January 16, 2012.
The
Coalition
of Cuban-American Women
alerts
the international community that the lives of those members of Cuban civil
society who are actively and publicly struggling peacefully on behalf of
fundamental freedoms are in danger. We are particularly concerned with the cases
of the activist couple Yasmin
Conyedo and Yusmani Alvarez, and
with the continued physical and mental harassment against members of the
"Ladies in White, Laura Pollan" throughout Cuba. International recognition of the peaceful
resistance and solidarity for these human rights defenders is crucial. We make
an urgent call on religious, civic, political, and cultural entities and its
leaders, as well as to non-governmental human rights organizations
worldwide.
Blog: www.coalitionofcubanamericanwomen.blogspot.com
Facebook Page: Coalition of Cuban-American Women
Twitter: @COCAW1
Facebook Page: Coalition of Cuban-American Women
Twitter: @COCAW1
FURTHER INFORMATION IN CUBA:
Jose
Daniel Ferrer Garcia + 5353631267 / Berta
Solerl +5352906820 / Antunez +53 52731656 / Alejandrina Garcia de la
Riva +53 52737663 / Martha Diaz
Rondon + 53 52771639
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