Cuba: totalitarianism is alive and well Cuba Archive May 19, 2017
Felix Llerena on his recent visit to the US
When 20 year-old Félix Llerena returned to Cuba April 27th after a visit to the U.S., he was detained and subjected to a 4-hour search; many of his belongings were then confiscated –including a tablet, flash drives, and a pamphlet on the U.S. Constitution. The following day, he and his mother were interrogated and threatened by Cuba’s State Security (political police) and, on May 8th, he was expelled from his university for absences, in contradiction with the rules of the institution. As of late, many university students are being expelled for political reasons –at least 15 just from one university (“Marta Abreu”) in Las Villas province.
Félix is the Western Coordinator of the Patmos Institute and editor of the Patmos Press Bulletin; he also supports other human rights’ initiatives. (Patmos promotes inter-religious dialogue, defends religious freedom, and educates on human rights.) Cuba Archive representatives met with Félix during his U.S. visit and found him to be intelligent and enthusiastic. He wrote us that he greatly regretted having the Cuba Archive brochures we gave him confiscated and added the following message: “I, Félix Yuniel Llerena López, will continue forward, with faith in God, and in His power, and will persist in my peaceful struggle for a free, independent, and sovereign Cuba, a Cuba where we can all coexist –one [Cuba] for all and for the good of all.” His bravery, faith, and patriotism inspire us.
Daniel Llorente arrested for waving the american flag on May 1, 2017
Repression has inceased and economic dysfunction persists Many human rights’ defenders and members of civil society traveling to the U.S. –if allowed to leave the country– endure experiences similar to Félix’s when leaving and/or returning Cuba. These cases represent just one aspect of how the Cuban regime has dealt with the “opening” with the United States and illustrate the escalating repression unleashed against Cuba’s peaceful opposition –even against those who’ve most supported the “normalization” process with the U.S. initiated by President Obama. Underscoring the aberration that is Cuba, just flying a U.S. flag is considered a crime! 52-year old Daniel Llorente, who outfoxed security and ran while flying a U.S. flag during the recent May 1st parade in Cuba, was violently arrested and remains in prison. A year ago, he had been arrested and held for 24 hours for merely wearing a U.S. flag over his shoulders at the Havana arrival of the cruise ship Adonia from the U.S. (See http://globalnews.ca/video/3417058/man-waving-u-s-flag-beaten-dragged-away-after-disrupting-cuban-may-day-marches )
Regrettably, repression has escalated in the climate of total impunity the international community has granted Cuba. In recent years, the severity and number of violent aggressions against peaceful opponents and independent civil society actors has escalated; what’s more, the victimization of women, children, and the elderly has grown.
The home of human rights defender Alexander Rodríguez Santiestaben, from Holguín province, was raided on 5/12 for the 5th time in the last year. His son was assaulted and he was beaten (his nose broken) and arrested. His whereabaouts were un. known, but he was release 3 Days later.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation recently reported that just in the last year, the number of political prisoners has doubled to 140 and that so far this year there have been 1,800 arbitrary detentions of peaceful opponents; in 2016, 9,351 were reported and in 2015, 8,314.
Aside from prison or arbitrary detention, the long list of systematic human rights abuses by the Cuban regime against members of civil society and human rights defenders includes torture, interrogation, sexual assault, kidnapping, confiscation of property, death threats, dismissal from work or study, denial of medical care, phony judicial charges, steep fines, surveillance, suspension of telephone service, censorship, forced exile, defamation campaigns, home raids and evictions, restriction of movement within Cuba, prohibition to travel abroad, threats and reprisals to family members, strange “accidents,” and death or enforced disappearance (the latter are reported in detail at www.Cuba Archive.org). Scores of reports arrive from all over the island almost daily. Just one civil society group from the eastern part of Cuba, the Eastern Democratic Alliance, has reported dozens of very serious repressive incidents against its members in eastern Cuba during the first quarter of 2017.
Movimiento Ciudadano Reflexión y Reconciliación (MCRR), an independent Group operating in central Cuba, advocates economic, social and political reforms through non-violence. Its main Project assists disadvanteged Children, including those with special needs, who lack government attention. Its founder José Alberto de la Nuez has been attacked by authorities, repeatedly threatened, harrassed, arrested, imprisoned without just cause, imposed steep fines, and is now facing fabricated charges. The photo above is the result of a shoulder laceration in September 2016 after a beating by a policeman while he was visiting his parents' home.
Despite growing ties with the world’s leading democracies, a gigantic repressive apparatus and the Stalinist constitution and laws remain in place in Cuba; the only “reform” has been in adopting more sophisticated forms of domination. The one-party Communist state still subordinates the judiciary to the executive, controls all means of communication, and precludes the exercise of political and economic rights, including of self-determination, association, expression, as well as labor rights. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2016, a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide, continues to include Cuba as one of the world’s worst autocracies.
On the economic front, the inefficient and parasitic Cuban economy is in crisis and, as in past years, the 2017 Index on Economic Freedom (http://www.heritage.org/index/) –analyzing 12 freedoms, from property rights to financial freedom– ranks Cuba no. 178, at the bottom of the list of 180 countries, only slightly above Venezuela and North Korea. The regime refuses needed structural reform and continues to forbid private property while expanding the huge military corporate conglomerate. The exploitation of the citizens through several state-run human trafficking businesses is the country´s primary source of revenues together with aid from the Maduro regime –to the detriment of the Venezuelan people. Internet connectivity is one of the lowest in the world and the business climate remains dire.
Internationally, Cuba continues to impose its failed model in Venezuela and other countries in the region, to strengthen its alliances with rogues (Iran, North Korea, Syria, Hezbollah, etc.), and to work against U.S. interests. No to impunity. It’s high time for the international community –at least, democracies and democratic institutions– to hold Cuba accountable. It must demand a stop of these abuses and insist on conditions seeking concrete results that empower Cuba's citizens.
See more on the above at: http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/cuba-uscirf-condemns-the-expulsion-f-lix-yuniel-llerena-l-pez-the
http://www.csw.org.uk/2017/05/10/news/3554/article.htm
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article150602062.html
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