How many people have to die? How long must the Cuban people have to suffer under the hands of a brutal dictatorship. They continue to KILL and the world continues to stand by silently....WHY???????
Saturday, July 28, 2012
"Si Carromero habla puede ser asesinado en prisión"
El español que viajaba con Oswaldo Payá está detenido porque conducía el vehículo siniestrado. Fariñas lo ha calificado de "asesinato en frío".
esRadio 2012-07-24
Rosana Laviada ha entrevistado en Es la Mañana... al disidente cubano Guillermo Fariñas uqe ha lamentado la pérdida "de un gran hermano, un gran patriota" y ha apuntado que "la familia está muy consternada". Fariñas ha contado que "he conversado con los hijos y la hija plantea que el padre la llamó para decirle que estaba siendo seguido por otro coche, que estaba siendo embestido por la parte posterior". Por ello, ha calificado lo sucedido "de un hecho claro de asesinato en frío". El disidente cubano ha explicado que "están intentando aparentar un accidente, porque estaba siendo un año decisivo para la obtención del premio Nobel por la Paz de Oswaldo Payá y no querían que un disidente lo obtuviera en las circunstancias políticas en las que se está desarrollando Cuba". Además ha apuntado que "a la misa de las 8 acudieron todas las tendencias políticas que hay en Cuba dentro de la disidencia, incluso acudieron personas que desde el punto de vista político y hasta personal no tenían las mejores relaciones con Oswaldo". Sin embargo "vinieron a rendirle homenaje porque todos los cubanos han entendido que es un gran patriota". "Cuando el cadáver llegó a las 4:10 a la iglesia de Santo Tomás en El Cerro hubo un aplauso que duró 16 minutos y no continuó porque la familia pidió que no se siguiera porque se empezó a gritar libertad", ha relatado Fariñas que ha añadido que "es el mejor homenaje que se le puede hacer". Ángel Carromero en peligro En el accidente había un español, Ángel Carromero, de Nuevas Generaciones del PP. "Esta persona está bajo custodia judicial, pendiente de un juicio y una condena por un delito de homicidio involuntario" ya que conducía el coche. Como ya apuntó ayer Carlos Alberto Montaner en esRadio, Carromero puede estar en peligro. Guillermo Fariñas ha subrayado que "si habla más de lo adecuado para el Gobierno puede ser asesinado en prisión por un prisionero común" y ha deseado "oír la versión de Carromero cuando esté en España en libertad". Por último, ha pedido "a todos los gobiernos del mundo que soliciten al Gobierno cubano un gesto de buena fe para que permitan la entrada a una comisión de peritos internacionales puesto que los peritos que van a decir lo que pasó son del Ministerio del Interior, son personas del régimen".
esRadio 2012-07-24
Rosana Laviada ha entrevistado en Es la Mañana... al disidente cubano Guillermo Fariñas uqe ha lamentado la pérdida "de un gran hermano, un gran patriota" y ha apuntado que "la familia está muy consternada". Fariñas ha contado que "he conversado con los hijos y la hija plantea que el padre la llamó para decirle que estaba siendo seguido por otro coche, que estaba siendo embestido por la parte posterior". Por ello, ha calificado lo sucedido "de un hecho claro de asesinato en frío". El disidente cubano ha explicado que "están intentando aparentar un accidente, porque estaba siendo un año decisivo para la obtención del premio Nobel por la Paz de Oswaldo Payá y no querían que un disidente lo obtuviera en las circunstancias políticas en las que se está desarrollando Cuba". Además ha apuntado que "a la misa de las 8 acudieron todas las tendencias políticas que hay en Cuba dentro de la disidencia, incluso acudieron personas que desde el punto de vista político y hasta personal no tenían las mejores relaciones con Oswaldo". Sin embargo "vinieron a rendirle homenaje porque todos los cubanos han entendido que es un gran patriota". "Cuando el cadáver llegó a las 4:10 a la iglesia de Santo Tomás en El Cerro hubo un aplauso que duró 16 minutos y no continuó porque la familia pidió que no se siguiera porque se empezó a gritar libertad", ha relatado Fariñas que ha añadido que "es el mejor homenaje que se le puede hacer". Ángel Carromero en peligro En el accidente había un español, Ángel Carromero, de Nuevas Generaciones del PP. "Esta persona está bajo custodia judicial, pendiente de un juicio y una condena por un delito de homicidio involuntario" ya que conducía el coche. Como ya apuntó ayer Carlos Alberto Montaner en esRadio, Carromero puede estar en peligro. Guillermo Fariñas ha subrayado que "si habla más de lo adecuado para el Gobierno puede ser asesinado en prisión por un prisionero común" y ha deseado "oír la versión de Carromero cuando esté en España en libertad". Por último, ha pedido "a todos los gobiernos del mundo que soliciten al Gobierno cubano un gesto de buena fe para que permitan la entrada a una comisión de peritos internacionales puesto que los peritos que van a decir lo que pasó son del Ministerio del Interior, son personas del régimen".
Friday, July 20, 2012
Epidemia de cólera en Cuba
Por Dr. Darsi Ferret
Miami, Florida. 19 de Julio de 2012.
Miami, Florida. 19 de Julio de 2012.
Hoy es un día muy especial, puesgracias a mi gran amigo Jorge Utset tengo la emotiva oportunidad de reencontrarme con sus lectores en el querido espacio virtual Therealcuba.com. La satisfacción incluye la particularidad de que les escribo desde Miami, que para mi es el lugar que, durante más de medio siglo de padecer nuestra tierra el funesto totalitarismo, ha servido de resguardo de la verdadera Cuba, donde se conservan los patrones y valores que identifican a nuestro pueblo.
El tema que se me pidió abordar es la dramática situación desatada por laepidemia de cólera que sufren nuestros compatriotas por estos días y las reales condiciones del sistema de salud para afrontarla. Esta es una nueva calamidad que se suma a la larga lista de consecuencias del fracaso de un modelo político aberrante, que lo único que genera es miseria creciente, desesperación y desesperanza. Además del sufrimiento al que obliga a la mayoría de nuestro pueblo.
La filtración en Cuba de las nuevas tecnologías que acompañan a la Globalización, facilitan que cada día sea mas difícil ocultar la realidad que con celo se pretende esconder tras los muros del castrismo. Por estos tiempos la información fluye a mayor velocidad y se salta muchos de los obstáculos con los que la dictadura pretende amordazar a los cubanos. Por ello cada vez se desvanece mas el mito que sostiene la falsa propaganda de que Cuba es una potencia médica.
El sistema de salud cubano es un desastre, se compone de instituciones ruinosas y lo caracteriza la carenciacrónica de profesionales, los que son exportados por miles a países del tercer mundo para garantizar un lucrativo negocio que le ofrece a los Castro jugosas ganancias económicas y políticas. También es crónico el desabastecimiento de medicamentos y la falta de equipos imprescindibles para la realización de exámenes diagnósticos, rehabilitación y tratamientos, así como la carencia de insumos y recursos médicos.
Específicamente el cólera no se reportaba en el país desde hacía 130 años. Y, aunque no se declara de modo oficial, los hechos indican que esta epidemia fue traída por alguno de lostrabajadores de la salud que retornaron de Haití, donde miles de cubanos han estado brindando sus servicios en el combate a la epidemia de cólera que apareció luego del terremoto que afecto a esa humilde nación.
Las consecuencias que se desprenden de esta situación son muy preocupantes, debido a la posibilidad de rápida propagación de la enfermedad por todo el territorio nacional y a la incapacidad del sistema de salud de hacer frente a este tipo de evento biológico. El panoramase complica ante el conocido desprecio que el gobierno practica con el pueblo y su prevalente actitud de preservar sus intereses políticos a cualquier precio.
Por solo recordar dos casos ilustrativos, en el año 1991, el Dr. Terry declaro que la etiología de la epidemia de poli neuropatía o beriberi que afecto a unos 30 mil pacientes era la hambruna provocada por el drástico recorte de los suministros venidos de la desaparecida URSS y le costo automáticamente su cargo, el que hasta ese momento se desempeñaba como viceministro de salud. El Dr. Dessy Mendoza en 1997 denunció a la opinión pública la presencia de un brote de dengue posteriormente confirmado y terminó condenado a 8 años de privación de libertad. Esto demuestra cual ha sido el esquema del régimen cuando han tenido que lidiar con eventos que enturbian su imagen de potencia médica y que además les reduce la entrada de turistas al país.
La aceptación por parte de las autoridades del gobierno de que han ocurrido tres muertes a consecuencia del cólera y de que han diagnosticado decenas de infestados en la provincial de Granma es muy alarmante y constituye un indicio de que la problemática es mucho peor de lo que ellos reconocen. Situación que se agrava aun más por la confluencia de diversos factores, como es el suministro irregular del abasto de agua, que obliga a su almacenamiento en todo tipo de recipientes, y a la pésima calidad de esa agua potable, muchas veces contaminada con albañales y carente de un tratamiento adecuado, lo que la convierte en un vehículo transmisor de enfermedades. A ello se suman la insalubridad por los abundantes vertederos de basuras presentes en todo el país y el abandono de los programas de control de vectores transmisores de enfermedades infecciosas y del control de los turistas y demás personal que entra al país procedente de regiones donde existen epidemias o una alta incidencia de enfermedades exóticas. Sobra aludir la carencia de medios para mantener la higiene personal y las medidas preventivas, como es contar con jabon para lavarse las manos frecuentemente o poder hervir el agua de beber.
Este breve análisis nos lleva a comprender la grave amenaza que se cierne sobre el pueblo cubano y las terribles consecuencias que pueden derivar de la política de manipulación y engaño que sistemáticamente practica el gobierno cubano, y de la desprotección que en materia de salud se padece en Cuba. Los cubanos del exilio tienen que estar muy vigilantes y pendientes de lo que suceda en estos tiempos dentro de la isla, pues nuestros hermanos corren el riesgo de ser diezmados por tan terrible enfermedad, que puede originar la muerte en cuestiones de horas por la deshidratación marcada que provoca mediante copiosas diarreas y vómitos, en medio del desentendimiento de la junta militar gobernante y de la complicidad de organismos como la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) y la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS), instituciones que a estas alturas aun no se han pronunciado respecto a dicha epidemia. Es hora de extender la mano mas que nunca a nuestro pueblo.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
CUBA: JULY ANNIVERSARIES OF TWO MASSACRES
CUBA: JULY ANNIVERSARIES OF TWO MASSACRES
Unpunished, but not forgotten
July 6, 2007, Summit, New Jersey.
Among the most flagrant atrocities committed by the Castro regime in its long history of human rights’ abuses, two incidents stand out –the Canimar River Massacre of 1980 and the Tugboat Massacre of 1994. Both took place in the month of July and poignantly illustrate the Cuban leadership’s profound disregard for human life and their egregious violation of the fundamental right of citizens to leave their country.
On July 6, 1980 three youngsters hijacked an excursion boat that was to navigate inland along the scenic Canimar river flowing into Matanzas Bay. Surprised passengers screamed their approval to go to the United States, but the security guard resisted and shot at the youngsters, who wounded him with firearms clandestinely obtained from their military service. Concerned for his health, they sent him back to shore with a passenger who refused to leave. Alerted authorities commanded a chase. High-speed Cuban Navy patrol boats fired on the escapees and attempted to sink the vessel. Then, a Cuban Air Force plane overflew the boat and opened fire. Finally, most not yet wounded or dead drowned when a special boat used for heavy industrial work was brought in to ram and sink the vessel.
The excursion boat had capacity for one hundred passengers, yet only ten survived. Reportedly, there were at least 56 victims, including four children, ages 3, 9, 11, and 17. The actual number was kept secret and recovered bodies were not handed to the families, communal funerals forbidden. The Cuban government claimed it was an accident, but survivors were threatened with prison into silence and kept under surveillance for years.
Fourteen years later, on July 13, 1994, a group of around seventy family members and friends, including many children, boarded the tugboat “13 de marzo” in the middle of the night planning to escape to the United States. As they made their way out of Havana’s harbor, three tugboats that had been waiting in the dark started a chase. Relentlessly, they sprayed the boat with high-pressure water jets, ripping children from their parents’ arms and sweeping passengers off to sea. Finally, the attackers rammed the “13 de marzo” enough to make it sink. Passengers who had taken refuge in the cargo hold were pinned down and desperately pounded on the walls, the children wailing in horror, as they went down. Survivors who then clung to life in high seas, contended with the three pursuing tugboats circling them and creating wave turbulence and eddies for them to drown. The attack stopped suddenly when a merchant ship with a Greek flag approached Havana Harbor and Cuban Navy ships picked up survivors. Brought to shore, the stunned women and children were interrogated and sent home. The men were kept in detention for months and given psychotropic drugs. No bodies of the 37 victims (including 11 children) were returned to their families for burial. Survivors and relatives of the dead were denied information and put under surveillance. Many were dismissed from their jobs and systematically harassed by the authorities.
It later transpired that an infiltrator in the group had helped plan the operation to set an example with its violent suppression. The Cuban government claimed it was an accident and blamed it on the escapees and United States’ immigration policies. An international outcry prompted the government to promise an investigation, but instead it awarded the head of the operation, tugboat pilot Jesús González Machín, received a "Hero of the Cuban Revolution" medal. Requests by international organizations for information and redress have been all disregarded.
These and similar tragedies in Cuba remain largely ignored by world media and public opinion. Yet, the Castro regime has for decades systematically murdered civilians for trying to escape their country. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, may have been killed by government authorities for attempting to escape by sea, for seeking asylum in foreign embassies, or trying to cross into the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo. Today the U.S. Naval base in Cuba remains sealed off by barbed wire and mines, with Cuban border guards ready to shoot to kill. Cuba's Penal Code punishes attempts to leave the national territory without government authorization with up to twenty years in prison or death. Over the course of decades thousands have served prison, under dire conditions, for these so-called crimes. Still today, a number of political prisoners are serving very long sentences for attempting to escape the country.
Cuba Archive calls on world governments, international organizations, and all people of goodwill to hold the Cuban government accountable for its crimes and demand respect for the fundamental rights of Cuba’s citizens to life, safety, and the right to leave their country at will.♣
See www.CubaArchive.org for details on victims of exit attempts. Website sections “Reports” and “Case Profiles” have detailed reports on both massacres and other cases. The Multimedia section has several short interviews narrating killings in exit attempts. The database has individual case records for all documented victims.
Cuba Archive Truth and Memory Project
P.O. Box 529 / Summit, NJ 07902
Tel. 973.701-0520 / info@CubaArchive.org
-----------------------------
CUBA: JULIO, MES DE ANIVERSARIO DE DOS MASACRES
-IMPUNES, PERO NO OLVIDADAS.
6 de julio del 2007, Summit, New Jersey.
Entre las flagrantes atrocidades cometidas por el régimen castrista en su larga historia de abusos, se destacan dos incidentes –la Masacre del Río Canímar y la del Remolcador 13 de marzo, ambas ocurridas en el mes de julio. Estos sucesos no dejan duda sobre el profundo desprecio del liderazgo cubano por la vida humana y su cruel transgresión al derecho de los ciudadanos cubanos a salir de su país.
El 6 de julio de 1980 tres jóvenes se apoderaron de una recién inaugurada embarcación de excursiones, el “XX Aniversario,” que navegaba a lo largo del pintoresco Rio Canímar, desembocando en la bahía de Matanzas. Los sorprendidos pasajeros gritaron de alegría cuando supieron que se dirigían a los Estados Unidos, pero el guardia de seguridad se resistió, disparándole a los jóvenes. Estos lo hirieron con pistolas llevadas a bordo, obtenidas en su servicio militar obligatorio. Preocupados por el estado del herido, lo enviaron a tierra junto a un pasajero que rehusaba partir.
Alertadas las autoridades, ordenaron una persecución. Lanchas de alta velocidad de la Marina cubana alcanzaron la nave y dispararon a mansalva contra los pasajeros. Al no poderla hundir, pronto apareció un avión de la Fuerza Aérea, que también abrió fuego sobre el “XX Aniversario.” Finalmente, un barco especializado en trabajos industriales pesados entró en escena, embistiendo la sólida nave hasta que se hundió. La mayoría de los heridos y que habían logrado escapar sanos hasta el momento se ahogó. Aunque el barco tenía capacidad para 100 pasajeros, sólo sobrevivieron diez personas. El número preciso de víctimas quedó en secreto, pero se cuentan al menos 56 conocidas, incluyendo niños de 3, 9, 11, y 17 años. No se les entregaron los cadáveres recuperados a sus familiares y se prohibió la realización de funerales comunitarios. El gobierno cubano declaró que había sido un accidente y amenazó a los sobrevivientes con prisión para exigir su silencio, manteniéndolos bajo vigilancia por años.
Catorce años después, el 13 de julio de 1994, un grupo de alrededor de 70 personas, incluyendo muchos niños, abordó el remolcador “13 de marzo” de madrugada para escapar a los Estados Unidos. Cuando apenas salían del puerto de la Habana, tres remolcadores que los esperaban en la oscuridad comenzaron a perseguirlos, echándoles chorros de alta presión. Sin piedad arrancaron a niños que gritaban de horror de los brazos de sus padres y tiraron a varios pasajeros a ahogarse en el mar. Finalmente, uno de los remolcadores asesinos le propinó el golpe final al “13 de marzo,” hundiéndolo. Los pasajeros que habían buscado refugio bajo cubierta se ahogaron, atrapados y gritando, propinando desesperados golpes pidiendo ayuda. Los sobrevivientes se aferraban a la vida en mar abierto y en la oscuridad mientras los remolcadores del ataque daban vueltas en circulos alrededor de ellos, creando remolinos y turbulencias para ahogarlos. El ataque cesó repentinamente cuando un carguero con bandera griega se aproximaba al puerto de la Habana y de la Marina cubana comenzaron a rescatar a los sobrevivientes.
Al llegar a tierra, las mujeres y niños fueron interrogados a pesar de su trauma y enviados a sus casas. A los hombres los mantuvieron detenidos durante meses y endrogados. Ninguno de los cuerpos de las 37 víctimas, incluyendo 11 niños, fue devuelto a sus familias para su entierro. A los sobrevivientes y familiares de los muertos se les negó toda información y se les sometió a vigilancia. Muchos fueron despedidos de sus trabajos y acosados constantemente por la autoridades.
El gobierno cubano declaró que fue un accidente y culpó a los que escapaban así como a política de inmigración de los Estados Unidos. Más adelante se supo que hubo infiltrados en el grupo que habían ayudado a planificar la operación para dar un ejemplo al pueblo. Los reclamos a nivel internacional indujeron al gobierno a prometer una investigación. Sin embargo, galardonaron al jefe de la operación, el piloto del remolcador Jesús González Machín con una medalla de “Héroe de la Revolución Cubana”. Las solicitudes de información y restitución por parte de organismos internacionales permanecen en el olvido.
Estas y otras tragedias en Cuba son ignoradas por los medios de prensa y la opinión pública mundiales. Peor aún, se ha pasado por alto el que durante décadas el régimen cubano haya asesinado a civiles que buscan escapar de su país. Cientos, quizás miles, han muerto a manos de las autoridades cubanas tanto en intentos de salida por mar, como buscando asilo en embajadas extranjeras o intentando entrar a la Base Naval de los Estados Unidos en Guantánamo. Hoy la afamada base permanece vedada a los cubanos por alambres de púa y minas y vigilada por guardafronteras cubanos con órdenes de disparar a matar. El Código Penal Cubano todavía penaliza los intentos de salida del territorio nacional sin permiso del gobierno con veinte años de cárcel o muerte por fusilamiento. Miles han pasado por las cárceles cubanas por esos supuestos crímenes, incluyendo los presos políticos que en la actualidad sirven largas condenas.
Archivo Cuba hace un llamado a los gobiernos mundiales, a las organizaciones internacionales, y a todas las personas de buena voluntad a que hagan al gobierno cubano responsable de sus crímenes y a que exijan que se respeten los derechos fundamentales de los cubanos a la vida, a la seguridad y a la libertad de salir de su país por voluntad propia.
En www.ArchivoCuba.org podrá ver detalles sobre víctimas de intentos de salida del país. Vea las secciones de Informes, Reseñas de Casos, y Multimedia, así como la base de datos en ingles, que contiene archivos individuales de cada caso documentado.
Archivo Cuba: Proyecto de Verdad y Memoria
P.O. Box 529 / Summit, NJ 07902
Tel. 973.701-0520 / info@CubaArchive.org
NECESITAMOS TU AYUDA.
Por favor vea “Como ayudar” en www.ArchivoCuba.org.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
"Cuba mute in the time on cholera outbreak"
Read article here:
HAVANA, Cuba — A cholera outbreak in eastern Cuba has put the best and worst of the island’s image-conscious socialist system on stark display.
Cuba’s well-regarded public health system has responded aggressively to the disease, quickly treating patients, providing clean water and mobilizing a sanitation campaign. They say the rate of infection is diminishing, and the outbreak appears to be almost entirely limited to an area around the eastern city of Manzanillo, where it has killed three senior citizens and sickened at least 110.
Such information is critical to Cubans worried the disease could spread across the island and reach their families. Only, they’d have to be watching CNN to get it.
Anxious Cubans who have looked to state-controlled news broadcasts and newspapers for up-to-date information about the cholera outbreak have instead found the usual fare of dull crop reports, government propaganda and anti-American editorials.
Castro government opponents and south Florida Cuban exiles have gladly stepped in to fill the void, claiming the cholera outbreak has been far worse than official versions. Those accounts quote dissident activists in eastern Cuba and other locals describing chaotic conditions at clinics, a shortage of hygiene products and a much higher number of infected patients.
Health officials in the Manzanillo area have reportedly been giving regular health updates on local television, but Cuba’s national media has been noticeably silent. By saying so little for so long, the government lets the rumors stand, even if the truth is otherwise.
“The number of cases is dropping,” said Dr. Manuel Santin Peña, Cuba’s national director of epidemiology, in an interview with CNN, the first foreign media outlet which the government has spoken to and allowed to visit a hospital in the Manzanillo area.
“That doesn’t make us confident so much as make us work to intensify all our preventive measures so that in the next few weeks we can stop the outbreak,” Santin said.
Such reassurances were nowhere to be found Friday. Instead, the Communist party newspaper Granma reported on Cuba’s Olympic hopefuls, the political crisis in Paraguay, and a highway repair project in the province of Granma, the same place where the outbreak has occurred. There wasn’t a word about cholera.
This despite the first outbreak on the island since the 1880s, when Cuba was a Spanish colony.
In recent years Cubans have been increasingly outspoken in venting their frustrations at the timidity of the island’s state-controlled media. The outlets are notorious for staying silent on major news developments until powerful Communist party officials give permission.
Cuban President Raul Castro himself has chided state broadcasters and newspapers in his public speeches, urging them to hold government bureaucrats to account and expose wrongdoing.
But the cholera outbreak has shown once more that when the news is not good news, it tends to go unreported. That information vacuum is a gift to the dissident blogs and US-government funded broadcasters like Radio and TV Marti that the Cuban government says it loathes.
“We have the necessary resources to treat patients at all of our medical facilities,” the statement said. “We urge the public to observe proper sanitary measures with their personal hygiene, water and food.”
Thousands of Cuban medical personnel have worked in neighboring Haiti, where more than 500,000 cases of cholera have been detected in the past two years and at least 7,000 have died. That outbreak has also spread across Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic.
Not surprisingly, anti-Castro lawmakers representing heavily Cuban-American districts in south Florida have used the outbreak as a cudgel against the Castro government, presenting it as a new reason not to visit the island.
Cuban health officials have acknowledged — again, to the international press, not Cuba’s state media — that at least one case has been detected in Havana. But the patient appeared to have picked up the bacteria from the Manzanillo area where the outbreak is centered. There has been no sign of special concern at hospitals in the capital.
In Manzanillo the government has responded by distributing soap and chlorine tablets for water treatment, and running public information announcements reminding locals to carefully wash their hands, drink treated water and avoid swimming or fishing in potentially contaminated areas. No quarantine is in effect, but local officials have urged residents to avoid non-essential travel.
Cholera kills as many as 120,000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization, and sickens between 3 and 5 million.
Cuba’s well-regarded public health system has responded aggressively to the disease, quickly treating patients, providing clean water and mobilizing a sanitation campaign. They say the rate of infection is diminishing, and the outbreak appears to be almost entirely limited to an area around the eastern city of Manzanillo, where it has killed three senior citizens and sickened at least 110.
Such information is critical to Cubans worried the disease could spread across the island and reach their families. Only, they’d have to be watching CNN to get it.
Anxious Cubans who have looked to state-controlled news broadcasts and newspapers for up-to-date information about the cholera outbreak have instead found the usual fare of dull crop reports, government propaganda and anti-American editorials.
Castro government opponents and south Florida Cuban exiles have gladly stepped in to fill the void, claiming the cholera outbreak has been far worse than official versions. Those accounts quote dissident activists in eastern Cuba and other locals describing chaotic conditions at clinics, a shortage of hygiene products and a much higher number of infected patients.
Health officials in the Manzanillo area have reportedly been giving regular health updates on local television, but Cuba’s national media has been noticeably silent. By saying so little for so long, the government lets the rumors stand, even if the truth is otherwise.
“The number of cases is dropping,” said Dr. Manuel Santin Peña, Cuba’s national director of epidemiology, in an interview with CNN, the first foreign media outlet which the government has spoken to and allowed to visit a hospital in the Manzanillo area.
“That doesn’t make us confident so much as make us work to intensify all our preventive measures so that in the next few weeks we can stop the outbreak,” Santin said.
Such reassurances were nowhere to be found Friday. Instead, the Communist party newspaper Granma reported on Cuba’s Olympic hopefuls, the political crisis in Paraguay, and a highway repair project in the province of Granma, the same place where the outbreak has occurred. There wasn’t a word about cholera.
This despite the first outbreak on the island since the 1880s, when Cuba was a Spanish colony.
In recent years Cubans have been increasingly outspoken in venting their frustrations at the timidity of the island’s state-controlled media. The outlets are notorious for staying silent on major news developments until powerful Communist party officials give permission.
Cuban President Raul Castro himself has chided state broadcasters and newspapers in his public speeches, urging them to hold government bureaucrats to account and expose wrongdoing.
But the cholera outbreak has shown once more that when the news is not good news, it tends to go unreported. That information vacuum is a gift to the dissident blogs and US-government funded broadcasters like Radio and TV Marti that the Cuban government says it loathes.
Cuba cholera outbreak caused by well water
Cuban authorities have said almost nothing about the disease since a July 3 statement acknowledging it has caused three deaths and sickened 53. That statement attributed the cholera to contaminated well water, and gave no indication where the bacteria may have come from.“We have the necessary resources to treat patients at all of our medical facilities,” the statement said. “We urge the public to observe proper sanitary measures with their personal hygiene, water and food.”
Thousands of Cuban medical personnel have worked in neighboring Haiti, where more than 500,000 cases of cholera have been detected in the past two years and at least 7,000 have died. That outbreak has also spread across Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic.
Not surprisingly, anti-Castro lawmakers representing heavily Cuban-American districts in south Florida have used the outbreak as a cudgel against the Castro government, presenting it as a new reason not to visit the island.
Cuban health officials have acknowledged — again, to the international press, not Cuba’s state media — that at least one case has been detected in Havana. But the patient appeared to have picked up the bacteria from the Manzanillo area where the outbreak is centered. There has been no sign of special concern at hospitals in the capital.
In Manzanillo the government has responded by distributing soap and chlorine tablets for water treatment, and running public information announcements reminding locals to carefully wash their hands, drink treated water and avoid swimming or fishing in potentially contaminated areas. No quarantine is in effect, but local officials have urged residents to avoid non-essential travel.
Cholera kills as many as 120,000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization, and sickens between 3 and 5 million.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
"Cuban army general’s son posed for photo with hands around the neck of ‘Fidel Castro’
Read article here.
Click here for the blog Cuba al Descubierto
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A Cuban army general assigned as an advisor in Venezuela has two children living abroad, including one in South Florida who was photographed “strangling” a statue of Fidel Castro, a Miami blogger reported Wednesday.
“We want to show the ideological decay in the armed forces, how the generals’ own children think, and warn the Venezuelans of what can happen to them,” said Luis Dominguez, who runs the blog Cuba al Descubierto — Cuba Uncovered.
The blog often takes jabs at the usually secretive members of Cuba’s ruling class, publishing their home addresses and phone numbers as well as private details on relatives who have left the island and now live abroad.
Dominguez said his post Wednesday was prompted by news reports that retired Venezuelan Gen. Antonio Rivero had identified Cuban Gen. Leonardo Andollo as the second in command of the island’s military mission in Venezuela. ivero complained to the national prosecutor’s office in Caracas last week that the “active presence” of Andollo and other Cuban officers in meetings of the Venezuelan military violated the South American country’s sovereignty.
Cuba has been reported to maintain a large military and security advisory mission in Venezuela to support leftist President Hugo Chávez, although its numbers and the names of its officers are not publicly known.
Dominguez headlined his post, “Cuban general who tries to enslave Venezuela has his two children and three grandchildren living in free lands.”
The blog post shows Andollo’s son Ernesto, in a photo from the son’s Facebook page, with his hands around the neck of a figure of Castro at a wax museum in New York. The text says, “How much I would give to really do it.”
Ernesto, 41, left Cuba in 1994, lives in Naples, Fla., is married and has two children, according to the blog post. El Nuevo Herald could not reach Ernesto, but messages to his wife seeking comment for this story were not returned.
His sister Deborah moved a year ago to Cozumel, Mexico, with her French husband and their son. She has held 16 records for diving without scuba gear and now runs an aquatic activities academy, Blue Yemaya, in the Caribbean island.
Her Web page, deborahandollo.com, includes photos of her father and brother. She confirmed to El Nuevo Herald that she was the daughter of Gen. Andollo, said she was not aware of her brother’s photo and declined further comment.
Dominguez also published details of Andollo’s career, including engineering studies in the former Soviet Union, a deployment in Ethiopia and his current membership in Cuba’s parliament, the National Assembly of People’s Power.
He also published Andollo’s Havana address and phone number and noted, “It would be good if all Venezuelans who want their homeland free of Cubans would call him and let him know.” He declined to reveal the source of his information.
The post included several photos of Andollo, his home in Havana and a brother named Sergio, Deborah’s husband Eric Testi and Deborah with Homero Saker, identified as the Cuban consul in the resort city of Cancun, near Cozumel.
Also published in the post were the numbers of Cuban passports and national identification cards for Deborah and others that could not be independently confirmed.
“We want to show the ideological decay in the armed forces, how the generals’ own children think, and warn the Venezuelans of what can happen to them,” said Luis Dominguez, who runs the blog Cuba al Descubierto — Cuba Uncovered.
The blog often takes jabs at the usually secretive members of Cuba’s ruling class, publishing their home addresses and phone numbers as well as private details on relatives who have left the island and now live abroad.
Dominguez said his post Wednesday was prompted by news reports that retired Venezuelan Gen. Antonio Rivero had identified Cuban Gen. Leonardo Andollo as the second in command of the island’s military mission in Venezuela. ivero complained to the national prosecutor’s office in Caracas last week that the “active presence” of Andollo and other Cuban officers in meetings of the Venezuelan military violated the South American country’s sovereignty.
Cuba has been reported to maintain a large military and security advisory mission in Venezuela to support leftist President Hugo Chávez, although its numbers and the names of its officers are not publicly known.
Dominguez headlined his post, “Cuban general who tries to enslave Venezuela has his two children and three grandchildren living in free lands.”
The blog post shows Andollo’s son Ernesto, in a photo from the son’s Facebook page, with his hands around the neck of a figure of Castro at a wax museum in New York. The text says, “How much I would give to really do it.”
Ernesto, 41, left Cuba in 1994, lives in Naples, Fla., is married and has two children, according to the blog post. El Nuevo Herald could not reach Ernesto, but messages to his wife seeking comment for this story were not returned.
His sister Deborah moved a year ago to Cozumel, Mexico, with her French husband and their son. She has held 16 records for diving without scuba gear and now runs an aquatic activities academy, Blue Yemaya, in the Caribbean island.
Her Web page, deborahandollo.com, includes photos of her father and brother. She confirmed to El Nuevo Herald that she was the daughter of Gen. Andollo, said she was not aware of her brother’s photo and declined further comment.
Dominguez also published details of Andollo’s career, including engineering studies in the former Soviet Union, a deployment in Ethiopia and his current membership in Cuba’s parliament, the National Assembly of People’s Power.
He also published Andollo’s Havana address and phone number and noted, “It would be good if all Venezuelans who want their homeland free of Cubans would call him and let him know.” He declined to reveal the source of his information.
The post included several photos of Andollo, his home in Havana and a brother named Sergio, Deborah’s husband Eric Testi and Deborah with Homero Saker, identified as the Cuban consul in the resort city of Cancun, near Cozumel.
Also published in the post were the numbers of Cuban passports and national identification cards for Deborah and others that could not be independently confirmed.
LOS CUBANOS DESTERRADOS EN ESPANA
LOS CUBANOS DESTERRADOS EN ESPANA
En mi reciente visita a Madrid, España, pude reunirme en dos ocasiones con los cubanos que han sido abandonados por el gobierno español y por la Iglesia Católica cubana que negoció la salida de los presos cubanos con el anterior gobierno socialista español y la Junta Militar cubana. Se trata de 115 presos políticos y alrededor de 640 familiares que llegaron al país europeo entre julio de 2010 y abril de 2011. Esta visita la realicé conjuntamente con mi esposa Felicita y un matrimonio amigo nuestro.
Los expresos aceptaron la libertad a cambio de salir desterrados a España con la promesa de que el gobierno español les proporcionaría una ayuda minima durante los primeros 18 meses sin decírseles que una vez transcurrido dicho período serían desalojados de sus viviendas aunque no tuvieran trabajo ni ningún otro ingreso. La libertad que obtuvieron nuestros hermanos fue la de recoger sus bultos e ir a vivir a la intemperie y alimentarse de la caridad pública. Los exprisioneros desconocían que en España el 25% de los ciudadanos no tiene trabajo ni que españoles con alto nivel educacional están desempleados por lo que un permiso de trabajo no es suficiente para encontrar empleo.
Los cubanos desterrados en Madrid duermen en los portales de los edificios de la Plaza de la Provincia frente al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores pidiendo que el gobierno español asuma su responsabilidad y les prorrogue la ayuda hasta que puedan conseguir trabajo o el gobierno de los Estados Unidos les conceda visas para entrar a este país. En ese lugar hay alrededor de 22 personas (8 expresos y 14 familiares), entre los que hay mujeres, niños y ancianos. Duermen sobre cajas de cartón, se cubren con sus vestimentas, se mojan cuando llueve y comen cuando pueden. A esto hay que agregar que hacen sus necesidades fisiológicas en cubos (que podrán ver en las fotos adjuntas), pues para poder usar los baños públicos tienen que caminar siete cuadras y dar un euro por su uso, euro que les falta. Y nadie se apiada de ellos, ni el gobierno del presidente Mariano Rajoy quien, aunque no tiene la culpa de la maniobra de su antecesor, el Expresidente José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, heredó el problema y está obligado a buscarle solución, ni la Iglesia Católica cuyo Cardenal cubano Jaime Ortega Alamino convenció a los presos de que si aceptaban viajar a España serían puestos en libertad. Allí se encuentra la mamá de Luis Campo Corrales miembro del Partido Democrático 30 de Noviembre “Frank País” quien cumplió 18 años en las prisiones cubanas de los 25 a que fue condenado. Su mamá Tita, que así la llaman cariñosamente, tiene 70 años de edad, es diabética, sufre de hipertensión y apenas si puede caminar. Alrededor de 8 grupos más de desterrados están diseminados por los portales de las distintas provincias de España.
En mi segunda visita antes de regresar a los Estados Unidos, tuve que presenciar un hecho que a todos nos consternó. Al llegar frente al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores pude presenciar cómo la policía (cuya foto adjuntamos) los estaba desalojando de los portales pues, según la misma, había una orden de que allí no podían permanecer más tiempo. Entonces los desamparados, obedientemente, recogieron sus “pertenencias” y se fueron hacia el centro de la plaza a recibir más sol y más lluvia. Imagínense que en España hay un dicho que dice “vivimos 9 meses en el invierno y 3 en el infierno”. En esos momentos la temperatura alcanzaba los 100 grados Farenheit. A este acoso de las propias autoridades hay que agregar el acoso de los pro castristas que pasan por allí gritándoles todo tipo de insultos para que no expongan sus carteles contra las violaciones de derechos humanos en Cuba. Solamente nos quedan tres meses antes del crudo invierno para “rescatar” a estos cubanos que una vez tuvieron las valentía de desafiar a la dictadura militar de los hermanos Castro, pero hoy la frustración, como se ve en los rostros de cada uno de ellos, los tiene al borde de la desesperación y el suicidio, como ya ocurrió con el disidente y periodista desterrado Albert Santiago Du Bouchet.
Por consiguiente, el Movimiento Revolucionario 30 de Noviembre “Frank País” exhorta a todos los cubanos, y a los amigos de la democracia en general, a que soliciten del gobierno español que conceda una prórroga de ayuda a nuestros hermanos desterrados y al gobierno de los Estados Unidos de America a que proporcione visas para que los mismos puedan venir a vivir a este gran país.
Rolando Infante
Miembro del Consejo de Dirección del
Movimiento Revolucionario 30 de Noviembre “Frank País”
Articulo publicado en el Washington Post sobre Pedro L. Rustan
Read the article here.
Pedro Luis Rustan, 65, aerospace and surveillance innovator
By Matt Schudel, Published: July 7
Pete Rustan once devised a way to keep Air Force planes from being damaged by lightning. He led a project to build a spacecraft that performed important scientific experiments on the moon. He earned a PhD while serving as an Air Force intelligence officer. He became a designer of spy satellites.
All of those achievements came after he made a daring escape from Cuba to come to the United States.
Col. Rustan retired from the Air Force in 1997 but went back to work after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at a federal agency so secretive that its budget, projects and accomplishments are classified information. His job was to lead research efforts in satellite reconnaissance for the military and CIA.
He might have been unknown to the general public, but Pedro L. “Pete” Rustan was something of a legend in the tight-lipped world of aerial intelligence and engineering. No one who worked with him is at liberty to say exactly what he did for a living.
Yet this much is true: When Col. Rustan retired last August from the little-known National Reconnaissance Office, the Navy SEAL unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden presented him with an American flag that flew at its forward operating base in Afghanistan.
On June 28, Col. Rustan died at his home in Woodbridge. He was 65 and had prostate cancer, said his wife, Alexandra Cary Rustan.
Any single element of Col. Rustan’s life — political escapee, scientist, military officer, satellite designer — sounds like the stuff of fiction, but he embodied them all.
“This guy was intense,” said Daniel S. Goldin, a former NASA administrator who knew Col. Rustan for 20 years.
When Goldin took charge of NASA in 1992, one of his goals was to build spacecraft that could be deployed quickly and could produce important scientific results at relatively little cost. His slogan was “faster, better, cheaper.”
Early in Goldin’s tenure, then-Maj. Rustan stepped up to help him meet his goal.
“I met this brash, young Air Force major who made promises beyond belief,” Goldin said in an interview. “I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Sure enough, he delivered.”
Col. Rustan managed a joint NASA-Defense Department project to build a 1,000-pound experimental spacecraft to go to the moon. The project, known as Clementine, took just 22 months from concept to launchpad.
“Each time I went back,” Goldin said, “I gained more respect for him. He always seemed to take on things that were impossible.”
Clementine went into space Jan. 25, 1994, and sent back 1.8 million images of the moon. It measured reflected light and radiation, created a topologic map of the lunar surface and discovered evidence of frozen water in craters at the moon’s south pole.
‘This is rocket science’
After Clementine, Col. Rustan went to work at the National Reconnaissance Office, which was created in 1961. Its existence was not officially made public until more than 30 years later.
All we know of Col. Rustan’s work at the NRO is that he helped design and manage spy satellites.
“This is rocket science,” Charlie Allen, a 47-year CIA veteran and former assistant director of the agency, said last week. “It has helped give the United States a decisive edge in the Cold War and in post-Cold War conflicts.”
After Col. Rustan retired from the Air Force, he consulted on commercial space ventures and for federal intelligence agencies. He was on an advisory board that recommended changes at the National Security Agency, one of the country’s largest intelligence agencies.
“He was hands down the most valuable member of that board,” Michael V. Hayden, a former director of the NSA and the CIA, said in an interview. “He was creative. He was energetic. He was candid without ever being caustic or unkind.”
After the 9/11 attacks, Col. Rustan left the lucrative private sector and went back to work for the NRO. He eventually led its Advanced Science Directorate and Mission Support Directorate.
In March, Col. Rustan received the Philip J. Klass Lifetime Achievement Award from Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. The citation said that, in the past decade, he designed two classified spacecraft that have “significantly improved U.S. capabilities in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.”
Even though his work was confidential, Col. Rustan often traveled to theaters of war and was known to troops on the front lines — including members of SEAL Team 6, the elite commando unit that killed bin Laden on May 2, 2011.
“I’ve talked about great Americans going to the sound of the guns,” said Hayden, a retired Air Force general. “Pete did that. This is the kind of guy the public never hears about but who is so responsible for keeping Americans safe.”
Escape from Cuba
Pedro Luis Rustan was born Dec. 29, 1946, in Guantanamo, Cuba, a small city about 40 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. His father, a labor leader, was jailed as a political prisoner in 1961 by the regime of Fidel Castro.
In August 1967, when Col. Rustan was 20 and a student at the University of Oriente-Santiago in Cuba, he looked up from his desk in the college library one evening to see his father standing before him.
“This night we’re leaving,” said his father, who had escaped from prison through a ruse.
Col. Rustan left his textbook open on the table and fled. With his father, two sisters and a brother-in-law, he climbed inside a railroad boxcar carrying sugar cane.
They jumped from the moving train as it approached the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo and waded waist-deep through a snake-infested swamp before reaching a tall security fence topped with barbed wire. Col. Rustan carried his younger sister on his back over the fence, then scaled a second fence inside the perimeter of the naval base. After they were picked up by U.S. forces, the Rustans asked for political asylum.
The U.S. chief of naval operations happened to be visiting the base at the time, and he took the family to the United States on his plane. (Col. Rustan’s mother stayed behind in Cuba with one of her daughters. They eventually came to the United States.)
The family settled in Chicago, but Col. Rustan spent a year in Rockville, where he tested computer circuit boards. He later studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1970 and a master’s degree in 1971, both in electrical engineering.
After he was drafted into the Air Force in 1971, Pedro Rustan (pronounced roo-STAHN) became known to many as Pete Rustan (rhymes with Dustin). He spoke with a Cuban accent throughout his life but seldom corrected the pronunciation of his name.
As an enlisted man, he did research on the the effects of trace radiation from microwaves. The Air Force sent him to Officer Candidate School and then to graduate school at the University of Florida, from which he received a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1979. He published more than 60 scientific papers during his career.
Studying lightning strikes
His PhD research focused on the effect of lightning strikes on aircraft — a recurring problem that sometimes caused Air Force planes to crash. While collecting information on electrical and magnetic fields, Col. Rustan rode in 53 airplanes that were struck by lightning.
In the early 1980s, the Air Force adopted Col. Rustan’s ideas for protecting aircraft from lightning with the installation of special strips that deflected electrical current. Since then, not a single plane has crashed after a lightning strike.
After his military career, Col. Rustan practically adopted a Honduran mountain village called Concepcion de Maria, which he visited many times. Working with his church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Lake Ridge, he and his wife helped buy 200 pairs of shoes for village schoolchildren. When they couldn’t find anyone to deliver the shoes, Alexandra Rustan recalled, “my husband said, ‘Well, I’ll go.’ So that began the mission.”
He supervised projects to bring running water to the village, to improve schools and to help local people find jobs in the tilapia fishing industry.
“In Peter’s eyes,” Alexandra Rustan said, “that was his greatest accomplishment.”
In addition to his wife of 33 years, of Woodbridge, survivors include two children, Peter Rustan of Bealeton in Fauquier County and Amy Rustan of Washington; and three sisters.
“As a refugee who escaped Cuba, Pete was driven by a desire to help the country,” said Goldin, who left NASA in 2001 but continued to collaborate on top-secret projects with Col. Rustan until shortly before his death.
“I can’t tell you what it is,” Goldin added, “but I can tell you it was splendid work.”
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
"Jailed Cuban dissident rushed to hospital after long hunger strike"
From the Miami Herald:
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Dissidents in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba reported Monday that jailed activist Frank Montero, who has been on a hunger strike for more than 30 days, was rushed to a hospital over the weekend.
Authorities have refused to inform Montero’s relatives about his health or whereabouts after he was removed from the Aguadores prison on Saturday, said Rolando González, like Montero a member of the opposition Cuban Patriotic Union.
Montero went on a hunger strike 36 days ago to protest his arrest on Feb. 19, along with his twin brother Daniel, on charges of trying to leave Cuba without the required permits ailing, González said. The brothers claimed they were going fishing.
Daniel Montero, who was also being held in Agujadores, told relatives Sunday by telephone that his brother had been rushed to a hospital. The brothers, who are 29 years old, are from the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said he first heard of Montero’s hunger strike about 19 days ago.
The deaths of political prisoners Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar Mendoza amid lengthy hunger strikes — Zapata in 2010 and Villar early this year — sparked broad condemnations of Cuba’s human rights record.
A member of the Ladies in White dissident group, meanwhile, alleged that police beat and humiliated her to block her from attending Sunday mass at the El Cobre Basilica of Our Lady of Charity in Santiago province.
“My whole body is black and blue,” a sobbing Yaqueline García said in a declaration recorded for Hablalo Sin Miedo, or Say it Without Fear, a Miami-based facility that receives and disseminates reports of human rights abuses on the island.
García said police detained her Saturday on her way to the shrine, dragged her in a police station until her pants almost came off and then released her late Sunday on a remote farm road after throwing her personal belongings at her feet .
Dissident José Daniel Ferrer García said police checkpoints established Saturday on the main road in the Santiago region, the Central Highway, detained or turned back about 20 Ladies in White as they tried to reach the El Cobre shrine for Sunday mass.
Another 11 managed to slip into the basilica, on a narrow road off the Central Highway, said Ferrer, who lives near El Cobre, 465 miles east of Havana. Most of the women detained were freed late Sunday and early Monday.
The Ladies in White in Havana are generally allowed to attend Sunday masses at the Santa Rita church in the capital and afterward stage brief street marches — the lone dissident protest tolerated by the government. But their eastern brethren have not been permitted to gather for the Sunday masses at El Cobre.
About 30 gay rights and other activists carrying rainbow flags and banners also walked down a Havana boulevard for Cuba’s second annual Gay Pride march Sunday, according to organizer Ignacio Estrada.
The marches went off without incident, although the activists were trailed by a van loaded with police men from an elite riot-control unit known as the Black Wasps.
Some black-rights activists, political dissidents and passersby also joined the two-hour march down Paseo El Prado, including some visiting Cuban-Americans and one apparent U.S. tourist, said Estrada.
Activists passed out pamphlets explaining gay rights under international conventions and at one point Estrada and his wife, Wendy Iriarte, went inside a cubicle made with bars, much like a prison cell, left on the boulevard from a recent art show.
“We went behind the bars because we feel imprisoned for our way of thinking,” said Estrada, who married Iriarte, a transgender woman, last year. Estrada calls himself a gay rights activist and political dissident.
Hablemos Press, an independent news agency, meanwhile, reported that it had received word that dissident Angel Frometa Lovaina in the far-eastern city of Guantánamo was sentenced to two years in prison last week for resisting arrest and disobedience.
Frometa claimed the charge stemmed from his street protest Dec. 11 demanding political reforms, according to the report. Another dissident in Guantánamo said local authorities have long been trying to seize a small farm that Frometa owns.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Dissidents in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba reported Monday that jailed activist Frank Montero, who has been on a hunger strike for more than 30 days, was rushed to a hospital over the weekend.
Authorities have refused to inform Montero’s relatives about his health or whereabouts after he was removed from the Aguadores prison on Saturday, said Rolando González, like Montero a member of the opposition Cuban Patriotic Union.
Montero went on a hunger strike 36 days ago to protest his arrest on Feb. 19, along with his twin brother Daniel, on charges of trying to leave Cuba without the required permits ailing, González said. The brothers claimed they were going fishing.
Daniel Montero, who was also being held in Agujadores, told relatives Sunday by telephone that his brother had been rushed to a hospital. The brothers, who are 29 years old, are from the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said he first heard of Montero’s hunger strike about 19 days ago.
The deaths of political prisoners Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar Mendoza amid lengthy hunger strikes — Zapata in 2010 and Villar early this year — sparked broad condemnations of Cuba’s human rights record.
A member of the Ladies in White dissident group, meanwhile, alleged that police beat and humiliated her to block her from attending Sunday mass at the El Cobre Basilica of Our Lady of Charity in Santiago province.
“My whole body is black and blue,” a sobbing Yaqueline García said in a declaration recorded for Hablalo Sin Miedo, or Say it Without Fear, a Miami-based facility that receives and disseminates reports of human rights abuses on the island.
García said police detained her Saturday on her way to the shrine, dragged her in a police station until her pants almost came off and then released her late Sunday on a remote farm road after throwing her personal belongings at her feet .
Dissident José Daniel Ferrer García said police checkpoints established Saturday on the main road in the Santiago region, the Central Highway, detained or turned back about 20 Ladies in White as they tried to reach the El Cobre shrine for Sunday mass.
Another 11 managed to slip into the basilica, on a narrow road off the Central Highway, said Ferrer, who lives near El Cobre, 465 miles east of Havana. Most of the women detained were freed late Sunday and early Monday.
The Ladies in White in Havana are generally allowed to attend Sunday masses at the Santa Rita church in the capital and afterward stage brief street marches — the lone dissident protest tolerated by the government. But their eastern brethren have not been permitted to gather for the Sunday masses at El Cobre.
About 30 gay rights and other activists carrying rainbow flags and banners also walked down a Havana boulevard for Cuba’s second annual Gay Pride march Sunday, according to organizer Ignacio Estrada.
The marches went off without incident, although the activists were trailed by a van loaded with police men from an elite riot-control unit known as the Black Wasps.
Some black-rights activists, political dissidents and passersby also joined the two-hour march down Paseo El Prado, including some visiting Cuban-Americans and one apparent U.S. tourist, said Estrada.
Activists passed out pamphlets explaining gay rights under international conventions and at one point Estrada and his wife, Wendy Iriarte, went inside a cubicle made with bars, much like a prison cell, left on the boulevard from a recent art show.
“We went behind the bars because we feel imprisoned for our way of thinking,” said Estrada, who married Iriarte, a transgender woman, last year. Estrada calls himself a gay rights activist and political dissident.
Hablemos Press, an independent news agency, meanwhile, reported that it had received word that dissident Angel Frometa Lovaina in the far-eastern city of Guantánamo was sentenced to two years in prison last week for resisting arrest and disobedience.
Frometa claimed the charge stemmed from his street protest Dec. 11 demanding political reforms, according to the report. Another dissident in Guantánamo said local authorities have long been trying to seize a small farm that Frometa owns.