I invite you to read the Articles 5, 39, 53, and 62 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. Would you accept that the Constitution of your country had similar articles?

 

Besides, in Cuba the brainwashing begins in kindergarten. Children across the country begin each school day with the chant “Pioneers for Communism, We will be like Che!“ I invite you to watch the videos that show the children primary target in Cuba brainwashing.

 

 

 

8,012 political arrests in Cuba

 

during the first ten months of 2014

Castro’s Cuba in Summit of the Americas?

What has changed in Cuba?

Manuel Castro Rodríguez

 

Juan C. Varela

President of Panama

 

President Varela:

 

I’m writing to you because Panama will invite the Castro dictatorship to 2015 Summit of the Americas.

 

President Varela, why do you think that the dynastic dictatorship that is the greatest violator of human rights in West must be present at a meeting of democratically elected governments?

 

If it will succeed, you would be giving a boost to the brutality of the Castro’s regime –-it was declared guilty by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

 

President Varela, I invite you to watch the videos that show the killing of children by Cuban dictatorship.

 

President Varela, you know that Fidel Castro “severely damaged the Panamanian people. He supported Noriega knowing full well that he was a dictator Papa Doc Duvalier style: corrupt and cruel”.

 

President Varela, I invite you to read The process of political protest in Panama, 1968-1989, by Brittmarie Janson Pérez, a Panamanian anthropologist.

 

This week, The Economistpublished ‘Rekindling old friendships’: “Cuba is once again resorting to geopolitics to support a failing economy”.

 

President Varela, Russia has always used the Castro’s regime to extend its influence in the region. The Guardian, a British leftist newspaper, said: “Russia to reopen spy base in Cuba as relations with US continue to sour”. Russia-US relations have plummeted over the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

 

President Varela, I remind to you that on July 28, 2014, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Ocean Maritime Management Company, Ltd., the operator of the North Korean ship known as the Chong Chon Gang that was interdicted by Panama on July 10, 2013, with illicit arms shipment from Cuba, that violate the U.N. ban on the trading of arms with North Korea.

 

I take you back that on July 13, 2013, Panamanian diplomats met with Cuba’s vice foreign minister, Rogelio Sierra Díaz, who flew to Panama to appeal for the ship’s release. His appeal was rejected.

 

The Castro brothers’ regime initially described the intercepted cargo as nothing more than aid in the form of sugar. When weapons were discovered under the bags of sugar, the authorities in Havana then attempted to dismiss the cache as “obsolete” items that were en route to North Korea for repairs (the UN prohibits all arms transfers to North Korea).

 

But the inspection showed that the Government of Cuba lied. The vessel was carrying 25 shipping containers with military equipment inside. The cargo included two Mig-21 jet fighters. The jet fuel inside their tanks, along with maintenance logs, indicated that they had recently been flown. Ammunition and 15 apparently new MiG engines were also discovered.

 

Besides, the white bags of brown sugar that hid the armament were themselves unusual. Sugar of that sort is usually shipped in bulk, not bagged, because it is almost always refined after it arrives at its destination.

 

Shortly after the ship’s interception, General Kim Kyok Sik, the army chief who had met Raúl Castro in August, was dismissed. “North Korea announced on December 13, 2013, that it had executed the uncle of its leader Kim Jong”. In its unprecedented character assassination of Mr. Jang before his summary execution, North Korea said, among other things, that he “stretched his tentacles” into areas where he should not have been interfering. Whether the arms deal with Castro’s Cuba was an example of that may never be known.

 

In March 2014, the U.N.’s Panel of Experts published its official report on North Korea's illegal trafficking of weapons, in conjunction with the Castro’s regime.

 

President Varela,this muggling of weapons could endanger the lives of the habitants of the cities of Colon and Panama.

 

President Varela, I invite to youto read Cuba missile crisis: When nuclear war seemed inevitable.

 

President Varela, Cuba Archive has documented 166 deaths and disappearances from 7/31/2006 to 12/15/2013, that is, since Raul Castro assumed power inherited from his brother.

 

Due to the ongoing nature of the work and the difficulty of obtaining and verifying data from Cuba, Cuba Archive is currently examining additional cases. Experience has shown that as additional outreach efforts are undertaken, many more cases are likely to be uncovered.

 

President Varela, I remind to you the systematic violations of human rights in Cuba. For example, in July 2012, the Social Christian leader Oswaldo Payá and fellow dissident Harold Cepero were died in a controversial car crash. Payá’s family maintains that the car was deliberately forced off the road.

 

A devout Christian, Oswaldo Payá was the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement, which campaigns for political change, civil rights and the release of political prisoners. Payá won the European parliament’s Sakharov Prize in 2002 for his efforts and was nominated twice for the Nobel peace prize by the former Czech president, Vaclev Havel.

 

The circumstances surrounding Payá’s death have many questioning if it was a targeted killing: “Oswaldo Payá crossed red lines with the Cuban government before his death.”

 

Cuban dissidents call for transparent investigation of Oswaldo Payá’s death: “The Christian Liberation Movement called on the Cuban military junta Monday to carry out a ‘transparent’ investigation of the deaths of its founder Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, a champion of civil society, and dissident Harold Cepero Escalante.”

 

Why the Government of Panama not call on the Castro’s regime to authorize an international investigation of the deaths of Payá and Cepero? President Varela, reflect on:

 

1- Opposition activist Juan Wilfredo Soto died in May 2011 after complaining of a severe police beating.

 

2- Laura Pollán, the former head of the Ladies in White, who died of a suspicious ailment on October 14, 2011.

 

Two prisoners of conscience who were adopted by Amnesty International died amid lengthy hunger strikes in the last four years: Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on February 23, 2010 and Wilman Villar Mendoza died in January 2012.

 

On September 11, 2013, Amnesty International declared: Cuba must immediately release prisoner of conscience. “It is a sad reflection of the state of the rule of law in Cuba, when people are convicted to prison terms not for what they have done but for what they might do”, said Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International.

 

In 1950, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day. Regrettably in Castro’s Cuba this is a day of intimidation, acts of harassment, beatings and arbitrary arrests. For example, on December 10, 2013, at the same time as in South Africa the President Obama shakes hands with the General Raúl Castro, in Havana members of the Ladies in White were arrested and the home of Antonio Rodiles –nephew of Major General Samuel Rodiles and leader of the independent group Estado de Sats-, was besieged by the police and plainclothes agents. High school students were taken outside Rodiles’ residence and remained them there throughout the day.

 

Raul Castro’s speech on January 1, 2014, confirmed that he will continue increasing repression against Cuban citizens peacefully expressing themselves. On January 10, 2014, the retired Cuban teacher Ariel Hidalgo published In a normal country, that was a reply to Castro’sspeech of January 1. In his paper this Cuban Marxist says:

 

What country has a law that prohibits bringing happiness to children? And if it does not have, what authority was the arrest and seizure of the gifts? In a normal country an ideological deviation would not be considered the right of children to have a decent toy”.

 

Elizardo Sánchez, dean of Cuba’s dissident movement and spokesman of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHRNR), revealed in its monthly report that 963 Cubans were arrested for political reasons in June; this number is smaller than record-setting May, when 1,120 Cuban citizens were arrested for political reasons. The total number of arbitrary arrests in the first seven months of this year is 6,556. These only included political arrests that have been thoroughly documented.

 

Arbitrary detention of critics of the regime has increased in recent years. The CCHRNR documented 6,424 in 2013, 6,602 in 2012, 4,123 in 2011 and 2,074 in 2010.

 

According to CCHRNR, the number of political prisoners in Cuba has climbed to 114. The CCDHRN includes on its list the twelve (12) dissidents sentenced in the Black Spring of 2003 and who are now out on parole, a condition that prevents them from traveling abroad.

 

Sonia Garro Alfonso -a member of the Ladies in White- and her husband, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, have remained in prison for more than two years after their imprisonment and haven’t been tried. They were arrested during a crackdown preceding the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba in March 2012.

 

State measures to control the press were especially harsh during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. Dozens of independent journalists and bloggers were detained a week ahead of the visit.

 

The Castro’s regime violates the right of assembly established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For example, the leftist historian Manuel Cuesta Morúa organized an alternative forum to the II Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). On January 26, 2014, two days before the Summit, Cuesta Morúa was arrested. After four days of confinement in a police station, the Social Democratic leader was released with the charge of “spreading false news against international peace”, requiring Cuesta Morúa to report his presence each week at the same police station where he was under arrest.

 

President Varela, all this amply confirmed that the Castro dictatorship hasn’t interest in making changes that lead to a process of national reconciliation and a free society. I remind you The Leopard, written by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa: “Everything must change, so that everything can remain the same”.

 

Besides, the conditions in Cuba’s prisons are inhuman. The political prisoners suffer degrading treatment and torture. I invite to youto read Memory to Red Hot, by a Cuban Marxist teacher.

 

Cuba is the only Western country without any free elections in 66 years. It is also the only Western country where it has been illegal to be a member of the opposition since 1960, that is, for more than half century!

 

Moreover, in accordance with the article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

    (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

 

However, the Cuban government prevents me entering my own country, because I denounce the violations of human rights. I am on the blacklist of the regime, but under what law is it issued?

 

Tens of thousands of Cubans are prevented from entering our own country; mothers who die without ever seeing their children, grandchildren who do not know their grandparents. I have not been able to meet with the eldest of my granddaughters. This is cruel and inhuman! 

 

As well, the need to obtain permission to leave Cuba has not disappeared completely; certain categories of Cubans continue to be subject to the same limitations in place before the migration reform was implemented by the Castro government in January 2013.

 

With this type of repression, the Castro’s regime has in mind to prevent the Cuban diaspora to denounce its crimes. The Castro government has developed a highly effective machinery of domination never before seen in West.

 

I hope that Panama’s President will recognize that Cubans who fought peacefully for the democratization of our country are victims of political persecution. Why the President of Panama did not has done a call to the Government of Cuba to lift all restrictions against free movement of Cubans?

 

I envy those who have a passport because in reprisal for my complaints the Castro dictatorship refuses to issue me a new passport, so I can not leave Panama.

 

Castro’s Cuba has the most restrictive laws on free speech and press freedom in West. The constitution prohibits private ownership of media outlets and allows speech and journalism only if they “conform to the aims of a socialist society.”

 

Cuba’s legal and institutional structures are firmly under the control of the Castro brothers.

 

Laws criminalizing “enemy propaganda” and the dissemination of “unauthorized news” are used to restrict freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. Insult laws carry penalties of three months to one year in prison, with sentences of up to three years if the president or members of the Council of State or National Assembly are the objects of criticism.

 

Four years ago, the Chilean senator Isabel Allende, daughter of toppled president Salvador Allende, supported the statement of the deputies of his party, the Socialist Party, which calls on the Cuban authorities to release prisoners of conscience. The senator Allende declared:

 

The freedoms of opinion, association and assembly were freedoms that we fought in the Socialist Party and we will always fight. Would that actually be a reaction from the Cuban authorities and understand that the world today condemns societies that do not respect the right to freedom of opinion”.

 

President Varela, what has changed in Cuba?

 

You can ask me any question about Cuba and the university education, which are my two great passions.I will try to answer it.

 

President Varela, can you answer my request please?

 

Thanking you in advance for your attention,

 

Manuel Castro Rodríguez

Panama ID: E-8-91740

El mito de los cambios en Cuba

Manuel Castro Rodríguez

1 de agosto de 2010

 

En Cuba no se han realizado elecciones libres desde hace sesenta y seis años. Es el único país occidental donde es ilegal ser opositor: marxistas, liberales, socialistas, trotskistas, democristianos y anarquistas han sufrido difamación, ostracismo, destierro, cárcel, tortura y asesinato.

 

Los cubanos continuamos votando con los pies -en la última década nacieron cubanos en 138 países-, porque las reformas impulsadas por Raúl Castro, el dictador designado, son cosméticas –su objetivo es aliviar la tensión interna y obtener credibilidad internacional-, no son reformas estructurales y, por ende, no pueden mejorar el nivel de vida del pueblo cubano.

 

En varios artículos y llamados apoyé el levantamiento del embargo norteamericano a la junta militar que tiraniza a Cuba. Los hechos acontecidos en los dos últimos años me hicieron cambiar de opinión. Desde hacía más de medio siglo el régimen de los hermanos Castro no contaba con un reconocimiento internacional similar al que tiene desde que Raúl Castro asumió como dictador designado. A cambio de ello, ¿qué se ha logrado en materia de DDHH?El castrismo ha acrecentado la represión contra los opositores pacíficos.

 

Fidel y Raúl Castro, tiranos insaciables que a Cuba han destruido, jamás han tenido un proyecto para favorecer al pueblo cubano. Todo lo que han hecho los hermanos Castro ha sido con el objetivo de entronizarse en el poder, primero ellos y ahora sus descendientes.

 

El castrismo no quiere cambiar, sino sobrevivir a toda costa, dar una imagen de cambio para conseguir que se elimine la posición común europea –gracias al Partido Popular español lo van a lograr- y lo poco que queda del embargo norteamericano.

 

En Cuba no existe una legislación de protección laboral como la que caracteriza a la mayoría de los países de América. Por ello los multimillonarios agrupados en Cuba Study Group y Council of the America’s están haciendo lo imposible para que se levante el embargo: Poderoso caballero es Don Dinero. Véase lo que les espera a los trabajadores cubanos si estos depredadores de humanos invierten en la Cuba castrista.

Seleccione idioma

José Martí: El que se conforma con una situación de villanía, es su cómplice”.

Mi Bandera 

Al volver de distante ribera,

con el alma enlutada y sombría,

afanoso busqué mi bandera

¡y otra he visto además de la mía!

 

¿Dónde está mi bandera cubana,

la bandera más bella que existe?

¡Desde el buque la vi esta mañana,

y no he visto una cosa más triste..!

 

Con la fe de las almas ausentes,

hoy sostengo con honda energía,

que no deben flotar dos banderas

donde basta con una: ¡La mía!

 

En los campos que hoy son un osario

vio a los bravos batiéndose juntos,

y ella ha sido el honroso sudario

de los pobres guerreros difuntos.

 

Orgullosa lució en la pelea,

sin pueril y romántico alarde;

¡al cubano que en ella no crea

se le debe azotar por cobarde!

 

En el fondo de obscuras prisiones

no escuchó ni la queja más leve,

y sus huellas en otras regiones

son letreros de luz en la nieve...

 

¿No la veis? Mi bandera es aquella

que no ha sido jamás mercenaria,

y en la cual resplandece una estrella,

con más luz cuando más solitaria.

 

Del destierro en el alma la traje

entre tantos recuerdos dispersos,

y he sabido rendirle homenaje

al hacerla flotar en mis versos.

 

Aunque lánguida y triste tremola,

mi ambición es que el sol, con su lumbre,

la ilumine a ella sola, ¡a ella sola!

en el llano, en el mar y en la cumbre.

 

Si desecha en menudos pedazos

llega a ser mi bandera algún día...

¡nuestros muertos alzando los brazos

la sabrán defender todavía!...

 

Bonifacio Byrne (1861-1936)

Poeta cubano, nacido y fallecido en la ciudad de Matanzas, provincia de igual nombre, autor de Mi Bandera

José Martí Pérez:

Con todos, y para el bien de todos

José Martí en Tampa
José Martí en Tampa

Es criminal quien sonríe al crimen; quien lo ve y no lo ataca; quien se sienta a la mesa de los que se codean con él o le sacan el sombrero interesado; quienes reciben de él el permiso de vivir.

Escudo de Cuba

Cuando salí de Cuba

Luis Aguilé


Nunca podré morirme,
mi corazón no lo tengo aquí.
Alguien me está esperando,
me está aguardando que vuelva aquí.

Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé mi vida dejé mi amor.
Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé enterrado mi corazón.

Late y sigue latiendo
porque la tierra vida le da,
pero llegará un día
en que mi mano te alcanzará.

Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé mi vida dejé mi amor.
Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé enterrado mi corazón.

Una triste tormenta
te está azotando sin descansar
pero el sol de tus hijos
pronto la calma te hará alcanzar.

Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé mi vida dejé mi amor.
Cuando salí de Cuba,
dejé enterrado mi corazón.

La sociedad cerrada que impuso el castrismo se resquebraja ante continuas innovaciones de las comunicaciones digitales, que permiten a activistas cubanos socializar la información a escala local e internacional.


 

Por si acaso no regreso

Celia Cruz


Por si acaso no regreso,

yo me llevo tu bandera;

lamentando que mis ojos,

liberada no te vieran.

 

Porque tuve que marcharme,

todos pueden comprender;

Yo pensé que en cualquer momento

a tu suelo iba a volver.

 

Pero el tiempo va pasando,

y tu sol sigue llorando.

Las cadenas siguen atando,

pero yo sigo esperando,

y al cielo rezando.

 

Y siempre me sentí dichosa,

de haber nacido entre tus brazos.

Y anunque ya no esté,

de mi corazón te dejo un pedazo-

por si acaso,

por si acaso no regreso.

 

Pronto llegará el momento

que se borre el sufrimiento;

guardaremos los rencores - Dios mío,

y compartiremos todos,

un mismo sentimiento.

 

Aunque el tiempo haya pasado,

con orgullo y dignidad,

tu nombre lo he llevado;

a todo mundo entero,

le he contado tu verdad.

 

Pero, tierra ya no sufras,

corazón no te quebrantes;

no hay mal que dure cien años,

ni mi cuerpo que aguante.

 

Y nunca quize abandonarte,

te llevaba en cada paso;

y quedará mi amor,

para siempre como flor de un regazo -

por si acaso,

por si acaso no regreso.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

me matará el dolor;

Y si no vuelvo a mi tierra,

me muero de dolor.

 

Si acaso no regreso

me matará el dolor;

A esa tierra yo la adoro,

con todo el corazón.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

me matará el dolor;

Tierra mía, tierra linda,

te quiero con amor.

 

Si acaso no regreso

me matará el dolor;

Tanto tiempo sin verla,

me duele el corazón.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

cuando me muera,

que en mi tumba pongan mi bandera.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

y que me entierren con la música,

de mi tierra querida.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

si no regreso recuerden,

que la quise con mi vida.

 

Si acaso no regreso,

ay, me muero de dolor;

me estoy muriendo ya.

 

Me matará el dolor;

me matará el dolor.

Me matará el dolor.

 

Ay, ya me está matando ese dolor,

me matará el dolor.

Siempre te quise y te querré;

me matará el dolor.

Me matará el dolor, me matará el dolor.

me matará el dolor.

 

Si no regreso a esa tierra,

me duele el corazón

De las entrañas desgarradas levantemos un amor inextinguible por la patria sin la que ningún hombre vive feliz, ni el bueno, ni el malo. Allí está, de allí nos llama, se la oye gemir, nos la violan y nos la befan y nos la gangrenan a nuestro ojos, nos corrompen y nos despedazan a la madre de nuestro corazón! ¡Pues alcémonos de una vez, de una arremetida última de los corazones, alcémonos de manera que no corra peligro la libertad en el triunfo, por el desorden o por la torpeza o por la impaciencia en prepararla; alcémonos, para la república verdadera, los que por nuestra pasión por el derecho y por nuestro hábito del trabajo sabremos mantenerla; alcémonos para darle tumba a los héroes cuyo espíritu vaga por el mundo avergonzado y solitario; alcémonos para que algún día tengan tumba nuestros hijos! Y pongamos alrededor de la estrella, en la bandera nueva, esta fórmula del amor triunfante: “Con todos, y para el bien de todos”.

Como expresó Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas en el Parlamento Europeo el 17 de diciembre de 2002, con motivo de otorgársele el Premio Sájarov a la Libertad de Conciencia 2002, los cubanos “no podemos, no sabemos y no queremos vivir sin libertad”.