The Castro regime has not changed, it continues to disinform others denying the pervasive and systematic repression it practices against those who dissent against it.
According to The Miami Herald, during an official state visit to Ireland Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel claimed at a gathering with Cubans on October 21, 2019 that “what happens is that there are Cubans who have excluded themselves… In Cuba, everyone is not revolutionary, nor is everyone with the revolution, and nobody is persecuted for being with the revolution or not.”
At the same time that he said this, the Castro regime was persecuting dissidents.
PEN America announced today that writer Jorge Olivera Castillo and his wife, social activist Nancy Alfaya, were arrested on Tuesday [October 22, 2019] for the second time in recent weeks. Castillo was promptly released, but Alfaya has reportedly been detained and her location is unknown.
AméricaTeVé reports that Castro’s State Security detained, interrogated, and threatened Cuban Youtuber Nelson Julio Álvarez Mairata for expressing opinions that the regime views as “counter-revolutionary.” He was detained on Monday and held until Tuesday afternoon by the secret police.
Cuban Lady in White Xiomara Cruz Miranda was sentenced in 2018 to one year and four months in prison for her dissident activities and began her sentence in the women’s prison of El Guatao and she was then transferred to another correctional center in Ciego de Ávila. Her health steadily deteriorated with doctors diagnosing her alternately with lung cancer or tuberculosis. Xiomara was discharged from the hospital on October 21, 2019 with a fever of 102.2 and in continued poor health with doctors saying she was suffering from tuberculosis.
Frontline Defenders disclosed that “Cuban cultural rights defender Michel Matos was banned from travelling [on September 26, 2019] from José Martí International Airport in Havana while en route to attend the Dublin Platform in Ireland.”
The Miami Herald also noted that “José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the opposition organization Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), is being held with no charges at an undisclosed location. State security agents arrested Ferrer and five other activists on Oct. 1 at UNPACU headquarters in Santiago de Cuba. Although it is a right included in the new constitution approved this year, a court denied the appeal for habeas corpus presented by his family.”
There are over a hundred political prisoners in Cuba today. Persons jailed for not “being with the revolution.”
Díaz-Canel is following the example of the dictator that still rules Cuba today. Raul Castro in March of 2016 at a joint press conference with President Barack Obama lied blatantly when he was asked why his regime held political prisoners. The Cuban dictator replied, “what political prisoners? Give me a name or names.”
Human rights defenders released lists at the time showing that there were over a hundred identified political prisoners.
The Miami Herald, October 23, 2019
Cuban leader denies harassment of dissidents — while holding opposition leader in jail
By Nora Gamez Torres
During a visit to Ireland, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel denied his government harasses dissidents, even though a prominent member of the opposition has been detained for three weeks with no charges.
“We, under our politics and feelings, do not exclude anyone,” Díaz-Canel said at a gathering with Cubans living in Ireland held Monday night. “What happens is that there are Cubans who have excluded themselves… In Cuba, everyone is not revolutionary, nor is everyone with the revolution, and nobody is persecuted for being with the revolution or not.”
Díaz-Canel answered a comment by Annarella Grimal, a Cuban who has lived in Ireland for a decade. The Cuban leader made a two-day visit to that country as part of a tour that includes Belarus and Russia.
“We need tolerance more than unity,” Grimal told Diaz-Canel. “If a person does not think like the people who are in the government, it does not mean that they are bad people. We need to include all Cubans. We cannot make ideology the center.”
Grimal also questioned government regulations preventing some Cubans, including doctors who abandoned government missions, from returning to the country for eight years.
“I don’t have to support socialism to listen to you and tell you, for example, that the salary increase [to state workers] seems very good to me, but it doesn’t seem so good to me that there are Cubans who are not allowed entry to Cuba,” she told the Cuban leader.
Grimal later declined to comment on the exchange, but posted the video on Facebook. She said she feared reprisals for her statements.
“I got the impression that the president didn’t like it,” Grimal wrote.
Grimal said that after the exchange, Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez, who was also attending, asked for her name and surname after she again referred to the eight-year ban.
“The first thing I thought was that I would be blacklisted,” she wrote, “that I would be included in the same list that today prevents my cousin from seeing his only daughter, the same blacklist that prohibits thousands of Cubans from attending a funeral of a loved one, or being at her mother’s birthday.”
Díaz-Canel’s comments come at a time when José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the opposition organization Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), is being held with no charges at an undisclosed location.
State security agents arrested Ferrer and five other activists on Oct. 1 at UNPACU headquarters in Santiago de Cuba. Although it is a right included in the new constitution approved this year, a court denied the appeal for habeas corpus presented by his family.
Relatives, activists and international organizations such as Amnesty International and the Organization of American States have called for his release.
“Cuban authorities have harassed and intimidated José Daniel Ferrer García for more than a decade due to his political activism,” Amnesty International wrote in a letter sent to Díaz-Canel. “His detention follows the naming by Amnesty International of six prisoners of conscience in less than two months.”
Since Díaz-Canel was selected as Raúl Castro’s successor in April 2018, activists and human rights defenders have denounced an increase in repression not only against dissidents but also against independent journalists, artists and academics.
Human rights organizations estimate that there are about a hundred political prisoners on the island. The Cuban Human Rights Observatory, based in Madrid, reported that there were at least 481 arbitrary arrests on the island in September, the highest figure so far this year.
“We call on the Cuban regime to immediately release human rights defender Jose Daniel Ferrer, arrested October 1 on false pretenses,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Twitter. “The United States and human rights organizations around the world are monitoring Ferrer’s case — one of more than 100 political prisoners held in Cuba.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article236556618.html
PEN America, October 23, 2019
PEN AMERICA CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF INDEPENDENT CUBAN ACTIVIST
Nancy Alfaya’s arrest is part of an intolerable crackdown in the wake of a 2018 legal decree that criminalizes artistic independence
October 23, 2019
PEN America
(New York, NY) — As part of a disturbing trend of harassment and intimidation of independent artists and thinkers in Cuba, writer Jorge Olivera Castillo and his wife, social activist Nancy Alfaya, were arrested on Tuesday for the second time in recent weeks. Castillo was promptly released, but Alfaya has reportedly been detained and her location is unknown. Julie Trébault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) at PEN America, released the following statement:
“Jorge Olivera Castillo and Nancy Alfaya’s arrest, just a mere weeks after a previous arrest on September 30, is evidence of the Cuban government’s intolerable efforts to silence independent artists and restrict artistic freedom of expression. Jorge and Nancy have faced ongoing intimidation for months, enduring threats, fines, and detention from the Cuban police. Their persecution is rooted in a broader crackdown on artists that has followed in the wake of Decree 349, a 2018 law that criminalizes all independent cultural activity on the island. Decree 349 gives the authorities total control over artistic production and ensures that individual artists can no longer be independent. PEN America calls for Nancy’s immediate release and for and end to the imprisonment and repression of independent artists in Cuba.”
PEN America leads the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a program dedicated to assisting imperiled artists and fortifying the field of organizations that support them. If you or someone you know is an artist at risk, contact ARC here.
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.