Ernesto Borges

On the late night of February 23rd 2012, the political prisoner on hunger strike, Ernesto Borges, was taken from Combinado del Este prison of Havana to an unknown location on a stretcher and in critical condition.  That is how the former political prisoner of conscience Ivan Hernandez Carrillo reported the situation through his Twitter account (@ivanlibre).  Carrillo added that Borges is in a state where “he cannot take care of himself, he has showed signs of extreme deterioration of health”.  The dissident blogger Luis Felipe Rojas also reported the news through his own Twitter (@alambradas), citing activist Eriberto Liranza as his source.

On Wednesday, February 22nd, the independent news agency ‘Hablemos Press’ published this report, where journalist Roberto Guerra explains that the situation of Ernesto Borges has gotten even worse, according to his father Raul Borges. In the report, Raul affirms that he does not know much information about his son, due to the fact that regime functionaries have refused him any information. Ernesto Borges has been on hunger strike since February 10th in the Havana prison of Combinado del Este, demanding freedom.

The hunger striker has been behind the bars of Cuban dungeons for more than 14 years.  He was previously a spy for Cuba, receiving training in the former Soviet Union in the KGB, but he became aware of the manipulations and lies of the Cuban dictatorship and decided to change his stance, providing American diplomats in Havana’s US Interests Section information on infiltrations occurring in the United States by Cuban agents.  According to his biography, another reason for which Borges decided to publicly oppose the Castro regime was Fidel Castro’s links to drug trafficking.  On July of 1998, Borges was caught, arrested and sentenced to 30 years of confinement for ‘espionage’.

Borges has maintained a firm stance during his imprisonment, despite suffering countless tortures, being denied the right to see his only daughter, and having contracted numerous diseases.  He had started a hunger strike on January 6th of 2012, but suspended it after a few weeks.  Now, without having fully recuperated from his previous protest, he re-initiated the hunger strike.  The political prisoner was previously being held in the Special Regime of Guanajay, in Artemisa, but was transferred to Combinado del Este on October of 2011.  His father has turned to just about every independent news source, especially Hablemos Press, to denounce his son’s situation, alleging that the Cuban dictatorship wants to do to him the same thing they did to Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Throughout the island, tributes were held by dissidents for the fallen prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo who was assassinated exactly two years ago by the Castro dictatorship on February 23rd 2010.  As was expected, the regime responded with violence.  In Havana, Ladies in White gathered in the group’s headquarters, the house of their fallen leader Laura Pollan, and were surrounded by government agents.  Marta Diaz Rondon was among the 40 Ladies in White who was at the house.  The audio attached to the end of this post is of Rondon during the mob attack, which, according to her was headed by communist functionaries and “mentally sick people and drunkards”.  In fact, a tourist was even attacked during the mob scene.  The mobs screamed offensive slogans at the activists, but the response of the women were to scream at the top of their lungs: “ZAPATA LIVES!”

(The audio is in Spanish.  Marta Diaz Rondon explains that 40 Ladies in White were congregated to pay tribute to Orlando Zapata Tamayo and also the 4 Brothers to the Rescue who were shot down on February 24th of 1996 by Cuban planes.  One can also hear the chants of the mobs, screaming that ‘the streets belong to Fidel’, calling the Ladies mercenaries, and offending them)

(MORE REPORTS COMING SOON)

Bicycle of dissident Jose Francisco Rangel w/ “Change” sticker. One of the reasons for repression against him.

"Boitel Lives" painted on the wall of a church in Colon, Matanzas a few weeks back

The dissidents from Cuba’s Matanzas province Jose Francisco Rangel Manzano, Provincial Delegate of the Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy Party in Matanzas, and Carlos Olivera, Vice-Delegate of the same Party, were summoned on the morning of February 19th to the police station in the city of Colon.  Major Osmany Hernandez- a well known henchman and aggressor  of Colon and surrounding municipalities- was in charge of the interrogations.

Francisco Rangel was warned, as agents told him that they would not tolerate further anti-government signs and/or graffiti propping up on walls along the centric roads of Colon, to which the dissident responded that he had no control over the appearance of those signs because it was the everyday people who was putting them because they have grown weary of the constant lies and oppression.

Major Osmany Hernandez said that they (the political police) knew that the orchestrator of the signs were Ivan Hernandez Carrillo and Felix Navarro, both former prisoners of conscience from the group of the 75.   Francisco Rangel responded that if he was going to talk about an orchestrator that he too was one, because he did not need to demonstrate his opposition to the regime with signs put up in the dark of night.  “My opposition and my posture against your system is up-front and public, out in the light of day.  This shirt I am wearing right now which says ‘Change’, my bicycle has a sticker which says ‘change’, and right now I’ll tell you that I do not want to fix anything with you all in any way“, said the dissident.

When Major Osmany Hernandez mentioned that the anniversary of Orlando Zapata’s death was getting close, Francisco Rangel bravely reminded the agent that it was not just a mere death, but an assassination at the hands of the regime.  The henchman told Rangel: “Let’s respect ourselves”.  Rangel reminded Hernandez that “if we are going to talk about respect, then do not forget about how you have all thrown excrement at the homes of dissidents in Colon“.  Upon saying this, the functionary had no response.

Carlos Olivera

After this incident, dissident Carlos Olivera was interrogated.  This specific interrogation was more violent, considering that Carlos refused to sit and the agents threw him against a window.  After being beat as well, Carlos told his oppressors that he had nothing to talk about with them.  They accused Olivera of being  disrespectful for not wanting to sit, and the activist responded, “you’d have to kill me first.  I have nothing to talk about with you.  The signs are being put up by the people because they are tired of you all, they have nothing to do with Ivan and Felix“.

Lazara Sanchez and Caridad Burunate during a symbolic funeral of Wilman Villar Mendoza, 2012

On the following day, February 20th, they also summoned Caridad Burunate, dissident and Lady in White of Colon, for more of the same as well as Lazaro Diaz Sanchez, an activist from the Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy Party.  On this occasion, they wanted both dissidents to sign citations and take their finger prints.  The interrogators, however, could not force them to do such things because the activists refused to subject themselves to the humiliation.  One of their slogans are: “We are dissidents, not delinquents“.

Burunate then affirmed in one her most recent Tweets that despite all this harassment and all these citations: “The opposition in Colon, Matanzas will pay tribute to Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Pedro Luis Boitel on the anniversary of their assassinations.  No more state terrorism!

Functionaries of the regime threw pig excrement at the home of Caridad Burunate in Matnazas a few months ago.

This was Burunate's response: Putting up a sign whcih reads "down with state terrorism and 'crap' is what the government does"

—–

A special thank you to the Cuban and Twitter activists @mspianoteacher for providing this report and these photos

Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, former political prisoner and current national coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) was arrested during the night hours of  Tuesday, February 21st as he was leaving the home of dissident Hector Palacios in Havana, after a meeting of ex prisoners of conscience.  His whereabouts are unknown.

The news was confirmed by various dissident sources through Twitter, including Yoani Sanchez, Luis Felipe Rojas, Felix Navarro, Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, Guillermo Farinas, and Pedro Arguelles Moran.

It was also reported by dissident Ramon Bolanos Martin on the website ‘Hablalo sin Miedo‘.  Martin expressed that the “final sanctuary for the weak is violence“.

Jose Daniel Ferrer constantly reports about the Cuban reality from his Eastern town of Palmarito de Cauto and is one of the most active members of the Cuban Resistance.  For these reasons, he suffers large-scale repression at the hands of the Castro tyranny, as do countless other dissidents.

During the same afternoon of his arrest, Ferrer had shared some declarations with this blog.  He informed about more than 30 signs with anti-government slogans which had propped up throughout the town of Palma Soriano.  In addition, Ferrer pointed out that the violence on behalf of the regime against the Resistance had been increasing, but that dissident activities and activism out on the streets was also increasing.  “This repression is the measure of the activism which exists, it is the desperate response of the repressive organisms against Cuban activists“, affirmed the dissident.

We must demand that the dictatorship FREE HIM NOW!

—

(Along with Ferrer, there are also a number of Ladies in White and activists from UNPACU who have been detained since this past weekend.  More information coming soon)

Lady in White Daymi Vega Biscet lost her six weeks old baby when she was aggressively arrested by agents of the Cuban political police on the afternoon of this past Saturday, February 18th. The Lady in White was on her way to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity from her municipality of Palma Soriano to participate in Sunday mass. According to ex-political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer, the violent threats from the political police led her to a state of nervousness which induced her abortion.

“The arrest took out on the side of the highway  in Palma Soriano,” explained Ferrer Garcia, “the police were determined to prevent her from attending mass,”  which numerous Ladies in White were doing as well on the Sunday.

Ferrer pointed out that when Vega Biscet was taken to local police unit “they (the political police) got her out of the car, and she was frightened by their threats of beating her. Her blood pressure rose and she started vomiting. This led to the loss of the fetus“.

This is yet another case of the numerous crimes committed by the Castro dictatorship, and has occurred  just weeks before the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI to the island.

Jose Daniel Ferrer has not been able to communicate with Daymi Vega to check how she is doing but her husband, Yuniesky Dominguez, did tell Ferrer via text message, “these communist just ripped a piece from me“.

Guantanamo

The general coordinator of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina, was violently arrested on Saturday the 18th along with activist Isael Pooveda Silva as they were heading back to their home towns from a meeting in Antilla.  “When we arrived at the police checkpoint, we were taken out of the car by force“, denounced Lobaina.  It was then that police agents began to carry out a search of their bodies.  “The check was very violent.  They twisted my arm, despite the fact that it is injured“, added the dissident.

Lobaina noticed that various people were witnessing the arrest and so he began to shout phrases in favor of freedom and he explained that he and Isael were human rights activists.  Despite this, the “police violently lashed out against me, and they handcuffed me.  Minutes later, we were taken to the Operations Unit of Guantanamo” where both activists remained until the following day.  “As usual“, signals Rodriguez Lobaina, “the political police showed its deep worry of the recent travels we carried out through different provinces of the Cuban East as they began to threaten us“.  Lobaina refers to the meeting held in Antilla in commemoration of the 8 years of the Eastern Democratic Alliance’s activism in favor of freedom.

Banes, Holguin

This past Sunday February 19th, Lady in White Marta Diaz Rondon was “under constant vigilance” as she walked to church along with Gertrudis Ojeda Suarez, also a Lady in White.

“We were able to make it to church in spite of the constant surveillance by State Security officials,” explained Rondon, “They would look at us and would try to provoke us, they were constantly behind us“. After mass, both Ladies in White had their homes surrounded for the rest of the day.

Although dissidents like Diaz Rondon and Ojeda Suares are always under surveillance by State Security agents, especially on Sundays, Rondon highlights that the repression has actually intensified against her since the communist authorities “want to prevent us from traveling to  the city of Holguin to meet with other Ladies in White and attend mass at the Jesus Christ Redeemer of Men Church. Also, Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s second anniversary of his murder is coming up, which is another reason they are intensifying the repression“.

“Amid the threats, we, the dissidents in Banes, do not fear repression. We will go to where Zapata was buried because his body rested there for 6 months and we will continue going to leave flowers on his tomb. Zapata gave his life for Cuba’s freedom and we will continue his example. His death will never be in vain“.

Boyeros, Havana

Sara Marta Fonseca, Lady in White, was arrested by the political police on Sunday at 8:50 am when she left her home in Rio Verde to join the march of the Ladies in White. Before her arrest, she was able to send the message “I’m being detained” through Twitter.

Fonseca was violently pushed inside the police car and taken to the police unit of Calabazar in the municipality of Boyeros where she was left for 30 minutes before being taken to the National Revolutionary Police (NRP) unit in Cotorro. Sara Marta explained, “I was interrogated 3 times and was detained for a total of 12 hours. I was released at around 8:30pm“. This time, she was told to get off the car a few blocks away from her house, contrary to the usual treatment where she is left stranded in desolated, dark areas.

The Lady in White affirms that during her detention she was “witness of the increase of violence in Cuba. I witnessed attacks with aggressors using short weapons, and apparently this kept them from leaving alone since they were responsible for me because they had arbitrarily arrested me“.

Fonseca suffers from various disc hernias in her back and is currently under immense pain due to the arrests, beatings and aggressions.

The political prisoner Luis Enrique Labrador Díaz, sentenced to 5 years of jail,denounced from the prison of Aguica that his brother, the common prisoner Adrian Labrado Diaz, had been tranferred from the Canaletas Prison to Aguica.  Adrian Labrador is being mistreated on a constant basis in front of his brother’s presence.  Luis Enrique assures that this has been done in order to provoke him and, in turn, increase his sentence, because his brother Adrian, although he is a common prisoner, is his family after all, and the authorities know very well that the violence he is being subjected to hurts him.

Also from the prison of Aguica, in the province of Matanzas, the political prisoner William Gonzalez Concepcion, sentenced to 9 years behind bars for “helping the enemy”, denounced that the prisoner Oscar Villable Hernandez cut himself, and in the regime’s prison they stapled 70 stitches onto his stomach.  He is currently in a cell which is one meter by one meter in length, completely naked.  All of this occurred after he had received a brutal beating  by the penal police.  Concepcion decried that the current director of the mentioned prison, a guard by the name of Emilio, has earned his ranks as Lieutenant Colonel by beating, directing, and supporting the most serious of human rights violations in that gulag.

Signing this denouncement,

William González Concepción
Cybernetic mathematician

Luis Enrique Labrador Díaz
President of the Strength and Truth Movement

___

Forced eviction of 20 families in Boyero, Havana

Leidys Serrano is denouncing that the President of the Boyeros Local Government- a woman named Rosa- visited the building where more than 20 families reside on Friday February 17th and again on Saturday the 18th, telling all inhabitants that there would be a meeting held there on the 20th.  During that meeting which took place at around 7:30 on the 20th, Rosa told all the families that they would be evicted on February 22nd, adding that she did not care about human rights or anything of the sort.  She also threatened that if the families did not leave, the regime agents would use force to get them out.

The functionary said this in front of Bartolo Marquez, an activist from the Pro-Human Rights Party.  The building had been abandoned for 6 years and was recently repaired by its inhabitants.  More than 20 families are under the threat of being evicted, and within these families there are around 12 children.  The building is located on 26th of July Avenue, between 247 and 249, no number, Abel Santamaria Neighborhood, Boyeros Municipality, Havana.

- Sara Marta Fonseca

Sign reads "Down with Fidel and Raul"

Palma Soriano

José Daniel Ferrer García reported that a self-employed coach driver from Palma Soriano was being harassed by a Cuban police official.  As a response, various dissidents from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in that area civilly confronted the policemen, defending the driver.  “The dissidents began to explain to the coachmen and other people around about their rights, and it all culminated in that the officials fined activist Alexei Rodriguez for defending the driver“, explained Ferrer, the national coordinator of the pro-democracy group.

El Cobre

Numerous videos have been circulating throughout the internet via UNPACU about forced evictions which are occurring in the zone of El Cobre prior to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the island.  The citizens being evicted live in shanty homes along the route leading to the Cobre Sanctuary, which is by where the Pope will travel this March.  Nidia Lopez, a mother of 3 small children who also suffer from various health ailments, was already evicted from her home.  Meanwhile, the Cuban authorities have begun constructing a temporary home for Pope Benedict to reside in during his visit to the Sanctuary.

Contramaestre

During Thursday the 16th and Friday the 17th, numerous signs with anti-Castro slogans propped up throughout the town of Contramaestre.  Among the messages were “Wilman Lives”, “Fidel and Raul are assassins”, and “UNPACU”.  They have been found during the morning in public places such as walls, sidewalks, and bus stops.  As a response to these displays of opposition, “the political police is looking for Jorge Cervantes, for they are alleging that he is the responsible one for putting up the signs“, explains Jose Daniel Ferrer.  “They have not been able to arrest him because he is currently outside of this municipality“.

San Luis

In this city there have also appeared 6 anti-government signs as of Thursday.  The political police is accusing dissidents Roberto González and Omar Silueta of having put them up.  In the case of Silueta, according to Jose Daniel Ferrer, “he was taken to the police unit and strongly threatened that he would be arrested if he continued putting up signs…they are accusing him of being responsible“.  Meanwhile, Roberto Gonzalez is outside the municipality and the police is still searching for him.  Both men “are under the threat of a possible arrest“, denounces Ferrer.

Mella

Lady in White Karina Hernandez was threatened and expelled from her job by Cuban authorities on Thursday February 16th.  The reason for the expulsion, according to regime functionaries, was because she had been  far too many unexcused absences.  However, the activist had turned in a note which explained that she would miss various days due to health complications she and her young son were suffering from.  The real reason for her being fired is her political activism in favor of freedom in Cuba.  Jose Daniel Ferrer reported.

Guantánamo

Members of the Resistance and Democracy Movement, an organization affiliated to UNPACU, imparted a series of classes on civic activism.  Jose Daniel Ferrer explained that “the political police surrounded the home where the classes were taking place and did not let any dissident arrive to the event“.

Holguín

The home of Lady in White and independent journalist Caridad Caballero Batista has remained under a strong surveillance on behalf of armed Cuban agents since Wednesday February 15th.  This tends to occur on Wednesdays since the dissident carries out a weekly vigil on this day in solidarity with Cuban political prisoners and in demand for their immediate liberation.  A number of activists were kept from assisting the vigil, but as every other Wednesday, Caballero and her husband Esteban Sandez held the vigil anyway.

Antilla

46 activists from the Eastern Democratic Alliance met in Antilla, Holguin to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the mentioned organization, according to Directorio Democratico Cubano.  Among those present were Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina (coordinator of the group), Luis Felipe Rojas, Franklin Peregrino del Toro, Marta Diaz Rondon, and Eriberto Liranza Romero.  The latter traveled all the way from Havana to show his solidarity with his Eastern brothers-in-struggle.  Caridad Caballero, who is also an active member of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, was impeded from traveling to the meeting, due to the military operation around her home.  The same occurred with a number of other activists throughout the Eastern region of Cuba.

Remembering Orlando Zapata…

In addition, members of UNPACU have already began a campaign paying tribute to Orlando Zapata Tamayo on the 2nd anniversary of his assassination at the hands of the Cuban dictatorship on February 23rd.  Jose Daniel Ferrer pointed out that activists have already begun to wear T-shirts with images of Zapata and have been handing out pamphlets and CDs with the story of the martyr.

Sara Marta Fonseca and Julio Leon Fonseca

The Lady in White and leader of the Pro-Human Rights Party of Cuba, Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo, traveled from her Rio Verde neighborhood in Havana to the province of Pinar del Rio this past Sunday February 12th along with her husband and dissident Julio Leon Fonseca.  The activist couple had plans to meet with Raul Risco Perez, the coordinator of the Pinar del Rio Democratic Alliance.  However, upon arriving to the home of Risco Perez, all three dissidents and their relatives quickly became victims of a lengthy act of repudiation which began at 8 PM and lasted throughout the afternoon of Monday, February 13th.

At approximately “8 in the evening on Sunday, the president of the Cuban Woman’s Federation in Pinar del Rio knocked on the door of Risco.  She was the one who spoke out and told my husband and I that we had to return to Havana“, explained Fonseca Quevedo, adding that “this woman was accompanied by 8 police officials who were dressed as civilians.  They threatened us and told us we were not allowed to carry out any sort of activity“.  In just a matter of minutes, the building where Raul Risco lives was totally surrounded by oppressors of the regime.  “In fact, there were even officials standing by the stairs of the apartment“, pointed out Fonseca.

The building remained like that all of Sunday night and continued onto the following day.  Those participating in the act of repudiation were Ministry of the Interior officials, students of the Cadet School, and State Security officials, and the majority of them were “dressed in civilian clothing“, according to Sara Marta.  The aggressors screamed obscenities at the dissidents and their relatives and demanded that Fonseca and Leon immediately return to Havana.  In addition to the three dissidents, there were also relatives of Raul Risco in the house, including his elderly parents, his wife, and their small daughter.

Raul Risco denounced that in the mob act of repudiation more than 60 people participated, and that the majority of them were the “traditional oppressors” who normally participate in violent acts against dissidents in that area of Pinar del Rio.  “Among them were Colonel Jorge (chief of State Security in Pinar del Rio), Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Linares, Major Ivon, the First Lieutenant Lorenzo, the First Lieutenant Juan Carlos, Captain Alba (State Security), Officer Maikel (political police), officer Dignora (Ministry of the Interior), Officer Zacaria (Ministry of the Interior) and Jose Vargas from the Rapid Response Brigades“.  According to the dissident, this last one- Vargas- is one of the “biggest corrupt and repressive officials in the province, who regularly robs things that belong to the people, including food“.

At around 2:30 in the afternoon, Sara Marta Fonseca and Julio Leon decided  to walk out of the apartment to run some errands, but their completely peaceful behavior culminated in an arrest.  Fonseca narrates that when they had walked only 3 blocks, “the chief of confrontation for State Security in Pinar del Rio arrived and told us that they were going to deport us to Havana in one of their police vehicles“.  Both Julio and Sara civilly resisted, declaring that they would continue walking and return to their home whenever they wanted to and through their own means.

“They started to follow us“, recounts Fonseca, “and they called other police vehicles to arrest us.  They shoved us in one of their cars and some of the mobs arrived and started a brief act of repudiation because the car quickly sped off with us inside“.  During this time, the dissidents managed to scream back at the mobs- with slogans such as ‘Down with Fidel and Raul Castro’ and ‘We want free and multi-party elections’, and Sara Marta managed to quickly write a Twitter message on her cell phone, sending it out to the world as proof of the arbitrary arrest.  “They are detaining us“, read the message.  Fonseca was able to send out two more- “My husband Julio Ignacio and I taken under threats in a police vehicle towards Pinar del Rio exit.  Mobs are offending us” and “Deported  from the city by State Security in car and closely followed by political police“.

The dissidents were taken to the bus station of the area, and the agents tried to make them board a bus out of Pinar del Rio and to Havana, but both husband and wife refused, affirming that they would return to Havana on their own.  It was then that the officials stopped a taxi and the dissidents were pushed inside.  In the taxi, in addition to the driver, there were various citizens inside.  State Security officials and Political Police agents stopped the car various times on its route to Havana, with the purpose of harassing and intimidating the activists who were sitting in the backseat.

“The people who were in the taxi became really upset and began to complain“, explained Fonseca, “Julio and I took advantage of the moment and explained to them why this was happening to us, who we are, and we handed out a few copies of the Declaration of Human Rights which we had on us“.

Upon arriving to their neighborhood of Rio Verde, Sara Marta and Julio were still under surveillance by uniformed and civilian clothes agents.

“What happened to us is just more proof of the totalitarianism of the Cuban regime and the lack of respect towards human rights“, affirmed Fonseca Quevedo, “and it just inspires us even more, and the meeting we had planned with our brothers in Pinar del Rio will happen, whether the regime wants it or not“.

“We are Cubans, we live in Cuba, and we have every right in the world to travel freely through any province of our country.  We will return to Pinar del Rio“.

————–

For more information: Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo (011-5353-379-011).  Twitter: @SaraMartaCuba