Cubanita's Thoughts

Human Trafficking in Castro's Cuba

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:55:00 +0000

"Voice of the Resistance" -- Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet interviewed by Jay Nordlinger

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:06:00 +0000

A must read for any human being with a working brain on the face of Earth. Long, but worthy a million times. Really, nobody can describe better the real life in Cuba... someone should definitively pass this to Obama, just for his reading pleasure, ya know...

(Emphasis are mine.)

Voice of the Resistance
Dr. Óscar Biscet, in Cuba’s prisons for twelve years, speaks
BY JAY NORDLINGER

‘I NEED to get to work,” says Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet. Are you familiar with him? He is perhaps the foremost Cuban democracy activist, a symbol of the general resistance to the Castro dictatorship. Has he been neglecting his work? Not exactly. For the past twelve years, essentially, he has been in prison, suffering the things that the regime’s prisoners have always suffered. George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. The recipient could not accept it in person, of course. But he has now been released from prison. The day, so long hoped for, by so many of us, was March 11. I spoke to him three weeks after.

Biscet was born in 1961 and has a wife, Elsa Morejón Hernández, and two children, Winnie and Yan. The children have been in the United States for several years; Elsa, like her husband, is in Cuba. Biscet obtained his degree in internal medicine in 1985. A few years later, he embarked on human-rights activism. In 1994, he was charged with “dangerousness,” a very common charge. It means that the individual in question will not submit meekly to dictatorial rule. In 1997, Biscet established the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights (“Lawton” being the name of the Havana neighborhood in which he lived). The organization, of course, is banned. In 1998, he spoke out strongly against abortion, particularly late-term abortion: In his work as a doctor, he saw ghastly things. The authorities responded harshly to his protest.

After being detained repeatedly — 26 times — Biscet was arrested in 1999 and thrown in prison for three years. He was released on October 31, 2002, and had 36 days outside of prison. During this time, he worked on his “Democratic Principles for Cuba” and a civic project called “Club for Friends of Human Rights.” He was again arrested on December 6, 2002, and underwent his ordeal until last March 11.

I found it somewhat amazing to hear his voice, after reading about him and writing about him for many years. His voice was low, grave, and resolute. We spoke by phone, Biscet in Havana, his questioner in New York. Serving as translator between us was Aramis Perez, of the Directorio Democrático Cubano in Miami. Biscet has felt “a kind of ambivalence” in the last few weeks. Those are his words: “a kind of ambivalence.” “I’m happy to be able to return home to my wife, but I’m unhappy to see an entire people still without freedom.”

In his view, Cuba as a whole is “the big prison” while El Combinado del Este, where he and so many other dissidents have been confined, is “the little prison.” “We who live under this dictatorship look to the sea and know that the sea is our prison bars.” Biscet also says, “This great, beautiful island of Cuba has been converted by the Castro brothers into their own personal estate.”

Why, in his estimation, did the government choose to release him? “Because of the economic crisis, coupled with the social and moral crisis. The government offers false expectations of democratic change. They do this so that free countries will give them economic support. My release is part of the effort to create false expectations.” The government’s overriding goal is “to be financed. They want more money, even as they impoverish the Cuban people, and, with money, they will remain in power.”

In the weeks before Biscet’s release, a movement was building around the world to get him the Nobel peace prize. He was nominated by the prime minister of Hungary, U.S. congressmen, members of the European Parliament, and others. Did this movement have an effect on the Cuban government and its decision making? Biscet is less likely to get the prize outside of prison than he was inside. He cannot say for sure whether the Nobel prize played a part in the government’s calculations. But he can say this: “It was a political error for the regime to imprison the Group of 75,” an error that cost the regime in the court of world opinion. The 75 are the democracy activists arrested in the crackdown of March 2003, known as the “Black Spring.” These prisoners have now been released.

Almost all of them were exiled to Spain. This is what the regime wanted to do with Biscet, too, but he strongly resisted this fate. Instead of being exiled, he has been released on a kind of parole. He is serving out his prison term beyond the gates of prison itself. His continued freedom depends on his “good conduct.” Why was he so set against exile? “Because I love the people of Cuba and want them to be free. I want basic human rights to be respected, so that the Cuban people can develop themselves and their talents fully. They need freedom in order to develop themselves fully.” Men and women of Biscet’s makeup always resist exile, no matter how terrible are the conditions at home. Remember that Solzhenitsyn did not leave the Soviet Union voluntarily; he was expelled, a fate he considered a tragedy.

Somewhat gingerly, I ask what it was like inside prison. For years, we heard reports of the torture that Biscet was enduring. He answers me very, very briefly (and I don’t press him): “My experience was very traumatic. I was forced to live among criminals,” meaning common criminals, thugs, not prisoners of conscience, like Biscet himself. And he was indeed tortured — “primarily between 2002 and 2006.” He immediately adds, “I also gained a lot of wisdom, because I studied a great deal and drew closer to the Biblical God.” Biscet is a devoted Christian. The authorities allowed him a Bible, although he could not share it with anyone, or pray with anyone. If this happened, the other prisoner would be punished and transferred to another cell. Biscet also says, “I thought of Beethoven, who said, ‘There is no evil so great that no good can come of it.’”

Biscet is a steadfast advocate of nonviolence: a nonviolent struggle for political change. We have always heard that his models are Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama. Is this so? Yes, says Biscet, but there are others, ones who may not be as “universal,” because they come from the Bible, and not all “accept Biblical teaching.” He cites Moses — “who led the first nonviolent revolution.” Then he mentions the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. “When a king tried to force them to bow down before an idol, they refused. They knew that God would help them — and even if He did not, they would never bow down to an idol.” While in prison, Biscet “kept them close, because they are examples of freedom of expression and freedom of religion.” And they were, of course, delivered.

For the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biscet will not take any personal credit. “I felt honored, but I wasn’t the only person being recognized with the medal. The American people saw in me the suffering of the entire Cuban nation.” And the medal “helped change the way the world thought about Cuba.” One day, Biscet would like to meet Bush and “thank him for everything he has done for Cuba’s freedom.”

Why was abortion so important to him, early in his dissidence, and why is it important now? “The fundamental duty of a physician is to defend life.” And “life lasts from conception until natural death.” Biscet maintains that science makes clear that a fetus is “a human being distinct from the mother.” He regards abortion as “a crime against humanity.” And he links it to human rights more broadly.

What about the Cuban health-care system as a general proposition? One of the myths of the Cuban revolution is that it has provided health for all. This is not a myth that works on Biscet, who, as a Cuban doctor, knows too much. What about another myth, concerning race? The myth that Communist rule has been a boon to blacks? Biscet himself is black, as are many other leaders of the opposition. His contempt for this myth is unconcealed. “Completely false,” are the words he uses. “We know that the Cuban dictatorship is anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-black.” And if you would like to know what the dictatorship thinks of black Cubans, “you need only go to Cuban prisons.”

It is natural to ask Biscet what he thinks of a contentious issue in the United States: the longstanding sanctions on the Cuban regime, known collectively as “the embargo.” He says, “The embargo has helped the Cuban people both politically and morally.” He wishes that all “free and civilized countries would boycott Cuba, the way they did racist South Africa.” The world made South Africa a pariah state. The American embargo should be lifted, says Biscet, “when the embargo against the Cuban people’s human rights,” imposed by the dictatorship, “is lifted.” He believes that “civilized countries” have given the dictatorship “life” and “oxygen” for the past 20 years — in other words, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When he says “civilized countries,” does he mean Western Europe, which has supplied much cash to Havana? “I mean civilized countries in Europe, Latin America, and North America” (which is to say, Canada and Mexico).

Recently, Jimmy Carter was in Cuba, seeing the Castro brothers and others, including some democracy activists, Biscet among them. During his stay, Carter referred to Fidel Castro as an “old friend.” This is appalling to Biscet, as to other democrats. “One can have different ideas, and they should be respected. But to call a tyrant a friend is truly horrible.” Many in the world have tried to make a hero out of Castro. And “we should not encourage the creation of false heroes.”

By the way, who is really in charge of Cuba — Fidel Castro or Raúl, whom Fidel has pushed out front? Biscet says, “In our country, the Communist party directs the course of events and is above the law, and Fidel Castro is the general secretary of the Communist party.” Biscet says this as though Fidel’s continuing dominance should be the most obvious thing in the world.

Then there is the question of Biscet’s future: What will he do? He says that his immediate task is to “recover psychologically and physically” from his twelve years in darkness and hell. “I hope to be in the best possible condition,” to do the work he finds it unavoidable to do. Does he expect to be rearrested? “Anything is possible,” but he will work without fear. He believes that the island’s democrats are basically united, although “we do live under a totalitarian dictatorship that uses all of its resources to attempt to destroy us, which makes it difficult to progress as quickly as we would like.” That is the understatement of the hour — the hour of our time together. The Cuban people are “enslaved,” Biscet says, “but here in Cuba, the slaves will revolt,” as they have done elsewhere. He mentions China, Iran, and Libya. And he describes a great challenge of the opposition: to shape a transition to democracy without a Tiananmen Square. Without a massacre by the rulers, who will not give up power sweetly.

What does he want from America? He wants people to recognize just how bad the Cuban dictatorship is. And he wants solidarity. “The American people can help the Cuban people by drawing close to us in our suffering. Those of you who live in freedom have the ability to do this.” Above all, he says, do not provide the regime with the “oxygen” it needs to survive. He sees the Obama administration making concessions to the regime. And it is incomprehensible to him why “civilized and democratic countries” should lend a hand to such people: should give oxygen to the persecutors of so many, persecutors who are ripe for a great push.

After we hung up with Biscet, I talked for a while with Aramis Perez, who had translated. How did he think Biscet had sounded? “Serene and collected. He spoke out of such conviction that he did not need to emphasize his words” — they all had authority. Every now and then, you feel that you have encountered a great man. Someone who makes up for some measure of human iniquity and indifference. Perez and I felt this about Biscet. So will many others, around the world, if they get to know him.

Source: National Review / Digital
H/T to Valentin Prieto ;)

Cuban political prisoner forcibly released by castro's government

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:01:00 +0000

About a week ago, the news started to spread that the Cuban government was planning to release prominent political prisoners against their refusal to be freed, unless the castro's thugs agreed to release the sick prisoners first.

Angel Moya -one of castro's worst fears- was one of them and Alberto de la Cruz, from Babalu Blog, interviewed him over the phone.

Here is the English transcription of their conversation.

In it, he describes how he was forcibly removed from prison, dressed in a police car and dumped in his apartment in Alamar, where the gov't thugs from the Rapid Response Brigades (in-your-face philosophy, remember?) held a repudiation act against him and his family.

For more background information on who is this Cuban freedom fighter, go here, and here. To read about him and his family, go here.

Godspeed, man, y buena suerte!

What's wrong with this picture?

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:53:00 +0000

Cuba's communist regime seeks 20 years prison sentence for Alan Gross.
Obama relaxes travel and hard currency remittances to the tropical gulag.

What's wrong with this picture?
The total absence of Vaseline (or KY for her/him) is the first thing that comes to mind.

Via Babalu Blog & H/T to @marcmasferrer:

Cuba to seek 20-yr jail term for detained American

Relax, Americans.
We're on the right track.

Your WTF moment of (last) week, brought to you Sen. Charles (Clueless) Schummers (D-NY)

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:32:00 +0000

How did I missed this one?
Jeez, I need to get my blogging mojo back, ASAP!

Via Michelle Malkin, here is Sen. Charles Schummers (D-NY) new definition of the three branches of goverment.

Kids, please cover your ears and eyes; here comes that Sarah Palin again...oh, wait...never mind...

Now I am ROFLMAO!
Cubanita OUT!

BREAKING NEWS -- Cuban government would freed two prominent political prisoners

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Developing...

News broke today that the (c)astro's regimen might freed two prominent political prisoners that have staunchly refused to accept the regimen's offer to be released but exiled in Spain.

"The two men - Angel Moya and Guido Sigler - had refused a government deal to go into exile and insisted on staying in Cuba, along with the other nine dissidents who remain in Cuban jails nearly seven months after the government agreed in principal to free them. Under the agreement announced Friday, Moya will stay in Cuba while Sigler "has indicated a desire to go to the United States," church spokesman Orlando Marquez said in a statement."

Angel Moya Acosta, whose story as political prisoner I recently chronicled here, is one of them.

He has been jailed in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, serving a 20 years sentence. He was arrested on March 19th, 2003 –during the Black Spring where the Cuban government arrested and jailed 75 peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, librarians and human rights activists. He has served 7 years and 8 months of his sentence, enjoying a relative good health, considering the conditions where the government keeps political prisoners.

He is one of the 11 prisoners of conscience who didn’t accept the government’s offer to be released if they accepted exile in Spain, which they consider a deportation scam.

According to his wife, Lady in White Berta Soler Fernandez, Angel says he respects other political prisoner’s decision to accept the government’s deal, in order to have every body else respecting his. “He says no one can force him to leave his homeland and if he decides to do at some point in the future, it will be on his own terms, and to the country of his choice.”

The other is Guido Sigler Amaya, whose ailing brother, Ariel Sigler Amaya, arrived to the United States last year. Moya and the Sigler brother are from the same hometown of Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas Province, East of Havana.

H/T Babalu Blog

Where is my government-mandated ration of global warming?

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:07:00 +0000

... but this Cubanita wonders if I need to produce the rationing book from the tropical gulag in order to receive my minimal dose of warmer temps...hey, whatever it takes, if we are being blinded and frozen by snow and record low temperatures in 1/3 of the United States!

Since we're in the topic, I wanted to share drillanwr's superb take on this global-warming-that-in-winter-is-called-climate change, over there at Babalu Blog.

Enjoy! After all, I'll have a balmy 35 F ovah here today.

PS-Wholeheartedly dedicated to a scientist-inquiring mind... while this Caribbean girl in Colorado daydreams with sun, salty water and white sands... :)

Not completely ready to be back, but sharing an old lesson...

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:30:00 +0000

Probably an old lesson passed to me by a friend a few days ago...something that I will definitively keep to share with my son when the time comes.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very Liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends, because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked , 'How is your friend Audrey doing?' She replied, ' Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.'

Her wise father asked his daughter, 'Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA, and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.'

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, 'That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!'

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, 'Welcome to The Republican party.'

If anyone has a better explanation of the difference between Republican and Democrat I'm all ears.
If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test:

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat..
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A liberal will delete it because he's "offended".

From the WTH?! Department

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:09:00 +0000

A New Civil Right.

No comments.

H/T Ace of Spades.

We've been calling off this red flags...

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:35:00 +0000

... for a long, long time. Regardless, I still feel that nobody is listening.

Then, I can't help thinking: do Americans really need to live like I lived in Cuba or like this writer did in Russia to learn their lesson the hard way.

Are you, my fellow Americans, willing to pay the highest price for your lifetime lesson?

If so, please read before you keep commiting mass suicide:

The Modern Left (Unmasked)

"... the names are unimportant. The Lefts true believers will likely scream bloody murder at comparisons between their philosophy and Socialism, even though birds of a feather have been shown to flock together in London, Pittsburgh, and Toronto..."

"...To be sure, they all share and wish to perpetuate a basic misunderstanding of two Constitutions -- a Soviet one that promised what a government would do for its citizenry, and an American one that guarantees what a government will not do to its people..."

(Via American Thinker)

Love, Freedom and Human Rights --UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:57:00 +0000

Welcome, Babalu Blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, Uncommon Sense and other fellow Cuban bloggers' readers.
Pasen, estan en su casa. ;)
Thank you all for spreading the word about Cuban political prisoners!

“¡A mí no me llevan preso por delincuente, ni por drogas ni por asesino! ¡Yo soy un hombre pacífico, defensor de los derechos humanos que Fidel le viola al pueblo cubano! ¡Vivan los derechos humanos! ¡Libertad para los presos políticos! ¡Abajo la dictadura!”

Ángel Moya Acosta, Alamar, Habana, Cuba

19 de marzo del 2003

“I am not being arrested for being a criminal, a drug dealer or a murderer! I am a peaceful man, a defender of the Cuban people human rights that Fidel violates! Long live Human Rights! Freedom for the political prisoners! Down with the dictatorship!”
Ángel Moya Acosta, Alamar, Havana, Cuba
March 19th, 2003

It was 4:40 pm on a breeze afternoon in the Eastern point of Alamar, the worker’s suburban neighborhood filled with Eastern-Germany block style buildings, East of Havana. Right in front of the ocean, it is during this month when the coldest temperatures are felt in the Caribbean’s island.

Luis Angel, 7, is coming home from the nearby school where he is in second grade, to the modest 1.5 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. As usual, Angel is waiting for the rambunctious kid to get home before heading to the old street near the shoreline for his daily jog, while the boy takes care of going to buy the daily ration of bread.

Berta Soler, Angel’s wife for 28 years, stays at home tackling the daily struggle of fixing dinner for the family of five. Angel and Bertica share the small apartment with their two children, Luis Angel and Lienys Caridad, 19.Maria Elena, Bertica’s sister, also lives with them.

Ten minutes later, Bertica sees Angel coming back from his jog. Too soon, she thought. And he is not alone; he is being escorted by five agents of the government’s state security.

“When I asked what was going on, another four agents entered the house like if it was their own, hauling huge video cameras and recording everything they wanted,” remembers Bertica. I asked again what was going on and they told me they have a search order and that they were coming with two witnesses from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).

“I asked what they were looking for”, she says, “and they replied ‘subversive materials.’”

Walking down the hill from the supermarket, with his family ration of bread, the seven year old boy sees a crowd gathering in the corner of his building. Quickly, a couple of neighbors stopped him, preventing him from getting closer to the scene. They convinced him to stay with them, sitting, in the water tank of the building right across from his, where he could see from the distance…

“From that distance [my son] couldn’t realized what was happening and all of the sudden, the only thing he sees is how is father is being arrested, handcuffed and dragged down the stairs by the state security agents, while shouting to the top of his lungs ‘I am not being arrested for being a criminal, a drug dealer or a murderer! I am a peaceful man, a defender of the Cuban people human rights that Fidel violates! Long live Human Rights! Freedom for the political prisoners! Down with the dictatorship!’”

Bertica remembers that Angel was taken away immediately, that he was not present while their house was being searched. “They told me to shut up because they had other two police cars ready and waiting for me,” she says, “and I told them that we had to scream and shout because there were near 300 people outside watching and they needed to know that all that was not related to drugs.”

Around those months of what is now called the Black Spring of 2003, Cuban authorities were also conducting anti drug operatives to halt the increasing drug traffic in Havana.

“We don’t want any confusion and I want them to know who (Angel) is. Besides, I am not afraid of you, if you want to arrest me, go ahead, but will have to take me away with my children.”

The search process in the tiny apartment started at 5:45 pm and ended at 1:45 am. They took a radio, a charger, books, manuscripts and a tape with some sort of war movie.

They left everything all messed up. They even searched the garbage cans. The children ate dinner that night thanks to some neighbors that fed them. They were allowed to enter the house again at 2 am, took quick bath and went to sleep some before getting ready for school in matter of hours. Then, Bertica started the long journey of being the wife of a political prisoner in Cuba, by trying to find out where Angel was jailed, to bring him some basic items.

It was the holiday’s season, December 1992, in Pedro Betancourt, a small town in the Matanzas province, East of Havana, Cuba. Berta Soler Fernandez, 19, was a Microbiology technician when she met Angel Moya Acosta, 18, at a popular party in their hometown. Angel was a cadet starting in the Armed Revolutionary Forces (FAR).

After six years on a long distance relationship (Berta got a job in Havana and had to move to the capital, while Angel was still stationed in Matanzas) they got married on October 16th, 1988. Angel was being sent on a mission to the war in Angola. They wanted to formalize their relationship before his deployment.

“Our relationship was like that since the beginning, long distance,” says Berta. “But it was the distance what gave us the strength to keep going and our love grew more each day we were apart.”

She remembers his family was very “communist” and blindly supporters of the regime. “I was the one that was always teasing him and making him uncomfortable criticizing the government while he was trying to justify it.”

That changed when Angel was deployed to Angola, fulfilled his mission and came back home. “He came back completely changed. He was not replying to my comments the same thing he used to say before. Angola changed his life.”

The couple bore two children, Lienys Caridad, born in 1991, and Luis Angel, born in 1995. A couple of years after Lienys was born, Angel was discharged from the military, (his sworn commitment was for five years) and got a job at a welding facility in his hometown, in the Matanzas province.

According to his wife, when Angel returned from his military mission in Angola, he started to meet people involved with the human rights movement in the island. . By 1995, he started visiting churches and develops relationships with members of a movement called “Pedro Luis Boitel”. Later on, Angel created the movement “Alternative Option” / Opcion Alternativa, filling the duties as hair of the movement in 1997. By then, he is a human rights activist and a supporter of civil and human rights for all Cubans.

“It was June 1999 when he first told me about what he has been doing,” says Berta. “He knew what was coming after him was not gonna be easy and he decided to tell me.”

She confesses she didn’t have the best of the reactions to the news. “I told him: ‘don’t get in trouble with the government, they have all the power and you are not going to solve the problems of the Cuban’s people.” “It was a shock for me. I told him he didn’t ask for my opinion before the fact and that now, our entire family would suffer the consequences.”

“To do this, I don’t need anybody’s permission,” said Angel. “My decision and my determination are important, and [I’m doing it also] thinking in my family. I am doing this for the well being of all of us, for the freedom of my people and that’s why I am telling you.”

He told her he wouldn’t pressure her to support him, nor did he ask her to continue to be married to him. “I love you and I love my children, but your [position] is not going to change my decision to fight…”

Berta says her love for him was so strong that she was able to overcome that initial shock and their relationship continue like it was since the first day they met. “I was not directly involved with any activity, but at least I was mentally prepared for whatever could come after us.”

“I remember Angel as a decent and quiet man, sometimes borderline shy. Tall, athletic and with bright ebony skin, he didn’t talk much, but was always smiling. He and I would stomp into each other at the local gym, or jogging by the coastline. I would have never ever imagined he was having such courage…” --Cubanita, writer on this site and former neighbor of Angel and Berta.

“He used to tell me all Cubans sufferings were being caused by a horrible government that didn’t care about its people,” says Berta.

His wife describes him as a quiet man, respectful, who enjoys working out, reading, writing and someone who has never allowed anybody to violate his rights. “Even in the middle of the Special Period, he never complained in public places where he could cause trouble to bystanders. He protested in his workplace, in the face of the big bosses and where any government official could hear him.”

She said as a father, he is very good and caring. “A little strict, I would add, but he is the best father.” When Lienys was born, he was afraid to even hold her, but little by little he started to lose his fears and when the baby was five months old and Bertha had to return to work, he basically became a stay-at-home Dad. “When the boy was born, he was already a pro.”

“My children had suffered the separation from their father, but thanks God, they have not been traumatized [by these circumstances]. I talk to them a lot, so in the future, they can be good woman and man, and thanks to this suffering, they won’t be easily fooled.”

"Our Mom has been a Lady in White since the government jailed our Dad, when they decided to get together and walk the streets to ask the government to release their relatives. Little by little, the people have learned about the Ladies in White and our classmates and their parents are starting to show more respect towards them. They say ‘that’s a right they have to protest’ and they congratulate us for standing up for our father. We’re not saying they are better off, but they are indeed more recognized and respected." "We are both very proud of having the mother and the father we have, with the courage to raise their voices against the injustices this government is doing against our people." --Luis Angel & Lienys, Angel Moya Acosta and Berta Soler Fernandez's children.

* * *
Angel Moya Acosta is jailed in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, serving a 20 years sentence. He was arrested on March 19th, 2003 –during the Black Spring where the Cuban government arrested and jailed 75 peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, librarians and human rights activists. He has served 7 years and 8 months of his sentence, enjoying a relative good health, considering the conditions where the government keeps political prisoners.

He is one of the 11 prisoners of conscience who didn’t accept the government’s offer to be released if they accepted exile in Spain, which they consider a deportation scam. According to his wife, Lady in White Berta Soler Fernandez, Angel says he respects other political prisoner’s decision to accept the government’s deal, in order to have every body else respecting his. “He says no one can force him to leave his homeland and if he decides to do at some point in the future, it will be on his own terms, and to the country of his choice.”

PS-This interview, originally in Spanish, was obtained, electronically, from a direct conversation between the blogger an Berta Soler Fernandez.

Are your feeling the chills going down you back?

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:26:00 +0000

Well...you should.

USA's New Missile Crisis; gracefully brought to you by Barack Obama, dictator-in-the-making Hugo "Monkey" Chavez and the latter's Iranian pal.

Have at it.

Wikileaks a-la-Cuban --UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:22:00 +0000

UPDATE:
Oh, my!!! I SO need to get back on track!
Penultimos Dias has great compilation on the WikiLeaks and the Cuban Conexion, both in English and Spanish. Here.

I couldn't help the urge to share! Masterfully brought to us by Alfredo Pong:

Yeah, I feel sorry for those flies...

"Let's talk once and for ever, you exiles!"

"The mask...is it for Halloween or for Wikileaks?"

My not that short answer...

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:11:00 +0000

Welcome reader Casey!

I tried to answer your question in the comments section with no success; even my shortest version wouldn't fit in the box, oops! Thanks for stopping by... I'm glad to read you are not clueless about castro and che; that, per se, leaves a huge room for political debate.

You question is the million dollars quest. I'll try to give you my view: the opinion of a simple girl that was born and raised under castro's communist dictatorship and who has been living in freedom for merely ten years. (If you dig back in some of my posts, you'll be able to get into more details).

First, in my own experience, I have seen that most Americans are uninformed/ill informed (thanks, MSM!)about the embargo being a legal consequence to castro's decision to unlawfully confiscate (and not properly pay for) American property. That's a legal/judicial process by international laws where you have two choices: either pay for those properties (which never is gonna happen with castro) or face the legal consequences (the embargo in this case.)

I'd say almost the entire world, including Cubans inside and outside the island know the embargo is the one-size-fits-all excuse the commies has been using for 51 years to blame their own failures; from a dengue epidemic to the their socialistoid economic disaster.

Many people --and I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe, well intentioned-- argue that if we remove the excuse, castro will be exposed. Really? Do we really need to expose him more? Because whoever have not seen in the past 51 years the atrocities of castro and his thugs is, well, because they don't want to...

And how that is going to change the life of your regular average Cuban?

See... you'd have to understand that there are two parallel realities in Cuba: the one for communists, government, military and tourists elites, and a whole different hell hole of life for the average Cuban citizen that has no access to hard currency.

The embargo being in place or not WILL not affect the life of those privileged elites at all. They have always lived --and believe me, will continue to live-- like royalty in the land of slaves. Nor will change the life of the poor souls on the darker side of Cuba's society. More money will end up in the commies' pockets. Period.

Nowadays, one also have to keep in mind that the embargo is more cosmetic that anything else. It has been weakened substantially during the past US administrations and there are only two measures in place: Cuban govt has to pay in cash, and Americans are restricted to travel (directly) to the island.

From a Libertarian point of view, I agree that no government should restrict the free movement of its citizens. But also, from real life experience, I can tell you Americans traveling there will not bring substancial change either; unless they have supernatural powers I haven't seen yet ;)

Cuba has been receiving tourists from all over the world (not only Canadians) for years. Sadly, the biggest majority of them are only interested in the PR-ready Cuba, where they can get drunk and have sex with cheap underage young men and woman, then post their videos/pics online and pretend they are bringing democracy to the island, one mojito at a time...that is.

From the American taxpayer's point of view (because that is what I am now, an American that works her back off and pay her fair -an unfair--share of taxes), extending credit to a communist government that has one of the worst credit/payment records in the world, according to recent stats from the Paris Club, I think that is a terrible mistake.

Who can guarantee me that castro's debts are not gonna be paid by my hard-earned money in the next bailouts craze, when the next US administration happily decides to use the Constitution as their deluxe toilet paper?

Errr...thanks, but no thanks.

Will lifting the embargo bring change and democracy to Cuba?
IMHO, I highly doubt so... Cuba's mess can only be solved by Cubans themselves.

Had the US government been really interested in helping, it would have done it years ago, by simply don't betraying Bay of Pigs. That was the moment. If it didn't happen back then, it won't happen now.

But... where is the hope?! Can something be done now?! --you may ask...

Yes, of course. I think in the this moment, the US can make the difference by supporting that incipient dissident and civil movement that has been growing in the island in the past 10 years, with all those independent bloggers, journalists and peaceful dissidents battling inside the monster and needing basic technology to weaken censorship and repression from within.

Even if we have to do it one tweet at a time. That will help to bring down the wall the regimen has built since 1951.

On the other hand, I don't have a very promising diagnosis for the useful idiots on this side of the ocean, drooling over everything castro. They only cure would be to GO THERE and SUCK IT UP 'till they die.

(I bet you my relatives there will trade places with all the Maxine Waters, Barbara Boxers, Sean Penns and et al of this world in a New York minute)

Castro's regimen endorses UN homophobic resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:56:00 +0000

Via Capitol Hills Cubans:
This week, the Castro regime endorsed an amendment to a U.N. resolution (along with homophobic African and Middle Eastern nations) that exposes gays to arbitrary executions.
The U.S. strongly opposed the amendment.

"According to the International Gay and Lesbians Human Rights Commission, the UN General Assembly's Third Committee on Social, Cultural and Humanitarian issues removed "sexual orientation" from a resolution addressing extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions this past week in a vote that was overwhelming represented by a majority of African, Middle East and Caribbean [led by Cuba] nations."

More details here.

But things changing in Cuba. And Castro II is more pragmatic. And he is releasing political prisoners. And more direct infusion of money and tourists is gonna change their minds. And... I have a bridge for sale. Wanna buy it?

PS - Can someone please alert the troops of useful idiots that haven't received the memo yet?
Thanks

I Honor Back"

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:53:00 +0000

Thank you, Veterans.
To all service men and women in the United States; gracias.

Whether we agree with what they do or not, there is one thing we always should keep in mind:

The fact that we are here, comfortably disagreeing or supporting our troops, means that at some point in time, one of them gave his life for us to be able to do so.

Freedom is dangerous.
Live dangerously.

(Via http://www.anystreet.org/)

Cubanita is back to the groove

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:06:00 +0000

Yep, I’m back.
Re energized, revamped and refurbished, as promised.

For the first time since I moved to colorful Colorado, I have enjoyed a summer and a seemingly endless fall reconnecting with things and people that were being left behind. But most importantly, I had time to take a look inside me while redecorating this life of mine. There was also some work-related travel + great professional experiences (#ata51) and it’s been… gooooood!

Freedom Trail, Boston, MA

I’m still a busy working Mom, who day-to-day struggles to keep afloat my unconventional family, but I realized that I can not quit writing and blogging. A break? Yes. A good bye? Not so much…after all, writing helps me to keep my mental sanity.

Even though I was outta here, I never stopped learning lessons the hard way, most of the them from the chapter of “Never say never”... I know, "nunca digas de esta agua no beberé".

Insert here: yoga, kick boxing, dating in the US, mountain biking, zen living, hiking, meeting amazing people at unusually amazing places, getting inspiration from people that not even in my wildest dreams I thought I would agree with [at least in some common sense stuff] and much more…

Blue Sky Train @ Horsetooth Reservoir

I’ve learned the immense and powerful energy I can get when I pull a Warrior II pose or how I am able to root down to earth and forget everything when posing a tree. I’ve managed to deliver some useful jabs and kicks and I can pull a pretty mean Zumba with Pitbull’s “Sube, sube, hasta las nubes.” (OK, I"m kinda of cheating here because the rhythm sort of come the genes, but you get the idea.)

There has been butterflies and fireworks. And I’ve been bruised; both physically (try losing your bike’s brakes on a trail that was supposed to be for beginners and it wasn’t) and emotionally. But I have picked up my pieces, dusted off by butt and kept going. There is simply no other way around.

It is not that I didn’t know who I was or the things that were/are important for me; it’s that now I am more in sync with my inner self and more aware of my own virtues and flaws. Yes, I‘m also better equipped than ever to don’t give a crap when I don’t fit with someone else’s preconceived mold.

I have re discovered the priceless values of living a simple life, packed in 24 hrs chunks of “present”. After all, “the good thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” --Abraham Lincoln.

Truth to be told, I am a lucky & blessed woman who, stealing my friend’s line, does live a charmed life.

Now you might wonder, what’s up with all the whining and the exorcism?

Well, one more time I have realized that I have no reason to complain. There is always someone out there weathering something thousand times harder. It is all about perspective.

Case point: Reina Luisa Tamayo, mother of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died on a hunger strike last February in Castro’s dungeons.

She has been assaulted by Castro’s thugs; again. She’s being harassed in the streets. In the eyes of the dictatorship thugs, the mother of a dead political prisoner is a very dangerous entity.

And here I am, taking time off from blogging to redecorate this life of mine.
Seriously.

I am not dead. And I haven't quit

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:35:00 +0000

It's just that this Cubanita still have some re-decorating to do in her personal life, on top of working to keep up with real life and raising my Cubanito 2.0 in colorful Colorado.

I will keep blogging because, after all, Cuba is still an oppressed country and in a matter of weeks my adopted homeland will see whether we can pull ourselves out of the road to nowhere or not.

Besides, writing helps me to keep my mental sanity.
Soon will be back in the arena, fully refurbished, revamped and re-energized

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:46:00 +0000

Cubanita's been out, redecorating her personal life.
Blogging and Twittering will be light during this summer... I still have a lot of pictures to hang and furniture to move in this life of mine. And need time to hang out with friends and family on Facebook :-)

I'll be back soon!

Mexico & Cuba's corruption and immigrants traffic in AZ's borders

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:08:00 +0000

Yesterday, the Mexican investigative magazine Proceso published an article unveiling the ties of corrupt Mexican officials and the Cuban governments - intelligence ties and Castro's relatives included - with traffic of illegal immigrants (and who knows what else) from Cuba to the United Sates.

Huge hat tip to Ernesto at Penultimos Dias, for the heads up.

My very own, free and unedited translation, is here:

“Greg” and his wife: trafficking Cubans

By Juan Balboa and Juan Veledíaz
Proceso.com.mx

Greg Sánchez and his wife, Niurka Sáliva – in complicity with ex spies from Cuba and officials from the Benito Juárez municipality (where Cancún is located) – set up an organization to traffic illegal immigrants from the island to the Quintana Roo. Even though the phenomenon of the immigration from the island is not new, this time it was a huge scale operation. And to achieve their goal, Greg’s advisors created a whole series of fake companies and businesses.

Click here to read the entire article.

Cancún, QR, June 7th (Proceso) – A red to traffic with Cubans operated in this city from the power circles closer to the ex major of the Benito Juarez municipality and ex candidate to the state’s governor seat, Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, “Greg”, who spent public monies in what it was supposed to be cultural events, trainings or philanthropic activities to gather the OK from the National Migration Institute (INM) and get the Cubans to enter the Mexican territory.

Back in January 2009, arrived in Mexico the last wave of Cubans through this channel. They were, in its majority, women who came to work for the company Escenario Total, S.A de C.V, created in December 2008 and whose owner is, according to Quintana Roo property public records, Alberto Ayra Vazquez, a Cuban naturalized in Mexico that worked as “advisor to the Benito Juarez’s city government”.

The Cubans were entering with tourist visas and official authorizations to stay for 180 days. Once in Cancun, they were being hired in different “shows”. The trading company Comercializadora Riviera Maya was also involved in some of those shows. Its general manager, Francisco DiMare, submitted the applications to enter the country, in its role as “advisor to the office of the Benito Juarez’s municipal president.”

Other officials close to Greg Sanchez, such as Jorge Alberto Rodriguez Carrillo, brother of the state’s ex attorney Melchor Rodriguez Castillo, were also using these methods to get the Cubans legal entrance to the country.

While being a municipal official, Jorge Alberto submitted an application to the INM, on January 11th, 2010, to request the entrance to Mexico for Arletty Rebeca Cruz, who would be attending a “comprehensive training on the government’s accountability law”, with no remuneration, because “it was a philanthropic activity, therefore, the petitioner would be moral and economically responsible for her support”.

According to INM documents dated on January and February of this year, whose copies were obtained by Proceso, one of the last waves of Cubans that entered the country thanks to the actions of advisers and employees of the city while Greg Sanchez was the municipal president took place during the Cancun carnival.

The phenomenon that opened the doors to the massive entrance of Cubans, aided by local authorities, started on November of 2009, when the city council passed a resolution to promote the cultural cooperation between the Benito Juarez municipality and Cuba’s Ministry of Culture.

The agreement was geared, among other things, to start an exchange of “specialized bibliographic documents” and “specialized artistic and technical personnel to teach workshops, seminars and conferences about different art expressions in educational and cultural institutions.”

During the two years Sanchez Martinez was the municipal president, the number of Cubans close or inside the municipal government increased. The [Cuban] presence also grew in the entire state’s territory, but mostly in the municipalities of Benito Juarez, Isla Mujeres and Solidaridad.

In the early 2000’s, the Cuban community in Quintana Roo was almost nonexistent. Its surprising increase, according to the state’s government and the INM data, had two waves: the first one in 2005, when the illegal immigration of Cubans through Mexico exploded, and the second one, when Greg became major of Benito Juarez, in 2008.

According to the INM data, five years ago, there were 893 Cubans residing in Quintana Roo. It was the third biggest foreign community in the state, after the Americans (2,213) and the Argentinians (1,011).

Now that cluster has grown six times (there are more than 6,000 Cubans, according to the state’s government) and during the last two years, the Cuban presence in the municipal government, and areas like business, tourism and illegal ventures has become significant.

Facade businesses

It is a one-level house, painted in white. It has a sign that reads: Escenario Total, S.A. de C.V. It is located in a very centric area of Cancun, near the main bus station.

It is a modest dwelling: from the outside, you can only see two windows and a small front patio. It doesn’t seem there are employees and you don’t see the regular movement inherent to is business plan, as written in their documents, of: “build, buy, export and import all kind of audio, video, lighting and computer equipment.”

Neither you can see there anything that can be bought, sold or “operated as all kind of assets, including but not limited to machinery, equipment, accessories and /or tools.” It seems that none of the 12 objectives for which Alberto Ayra created the company one year and a half ago can be reached in this house of 60 square feet that appears as the company’s legal address.

This magazine tried to interview AyraDurango SUV, with only one plate from Florida, was parked outside. On Wednesday June 2nd, the Durango was gone and nobody answered the door.

According to immigration officials investigating the case, it could be possible the business Escenario Total was being used as a facade to operate the Cubans’ entrance to Quintana Roo. Since Greg’s arrest (he is currently being held in the Tepic prison, accused of organize crime and money laundering) the business’s public activities were suspended.

In Ayra’s case, within the circle closed to ex candidate to the state’s governor, is just another stories of those starred by other former Greg’s advisers, grated with discretionary powers, involved in dubious operations while in public office.

It is worth to remark the situation of Boris del Valle Alonso, lawyer and diplomatic born 43 years ago in Havana, whom, up to March 2009, was the “general advisor for public security, social development, urban infrastructure, real state, private business initiatives and diplomatic relations” of the former Benito Juarez’s major. [My note: Boris del Valle is related to Delia Soto del Valle, Fidel Castro's official wife].

The security and intelligence’s man of the ex candidate to governor’s of Quintana Roo was accused of participating in the murder of General Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñones, on February 3rd, 2009. Del Valle was arrested on March 6th, 2009 in the Mexico City airport, according case 242-09 to the office of the attorney general (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR), for his connections with “the criminal group” Los Zetas, to whom, presumably, he was supplying protected and privileged information.

Investigations previously started by General Tello (PGR/SIEDO/UEIDCS/052/09) tied Boris Del Valle to Los Zetas in Cancun. Boris is jailed in El Rincon Prison, in Tepic, where Greg is also being held.

While he lived in Cuba, this man of white skin, prominent nose and premature baldness, was an intelligence official for the G-2, the Cuban state espionage agency. He started to become popular in Quintana Roo when he was linked Francisco Velasco Delgado’s “El Vikingo” [The Viking] activities. Velasco Delgado was in charge of the municipal department of public security and was also involved in the execution of Tello.

Since 2004, both Greg and Boris became partners in the creation of the enterprise Xuyco, S.A. de C.V., specialized in “construction of all types of real state and other assets, from any material, and to any economic area”. According to the company’s business plan, published by the local newspaper Luces del Siglo, in March 2009, the company was created on April 30th, 2004, con a joint variable capital of 50,000 Mexican pesos, invested in 100 stocks on a 100 year term.

Furthermore, along with Greg and Boris, there was another Cuban as stockholder, Manuel Benitez Perez and a Swiss national resident in Panama named Bernard Baenier. Each one was listed as owning 25% of the company, with a capital of 12,500 Mexican pesos.

In recent revelations to national newspapers, a group of protected witnesses mentioned Greg in the traffic of Cubans, Chinese and Russians to the Yucatan peninsula. In this region, one of his most trusted men, Erik Ramirez Martinez, is suspected of having had meetings with Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzosa, alias “El Puma”, a member of Los Zetas identified as the mastermind behind the murder of Tello, with whom he had negotiated the transit of the undocumented through this region of the country.

Family Stories

The G-2’s eyes and ears always follow NiurkaSáliva Benítez, Greg’s third wife, like a shadow. In her personal security team, this woman has a discreet and nice man: Javier Alfredo Molina Benítez, one the half siblings of the failed candidate to governor of Quintana Roo.

According to government’s reports, this man was trained to shoot by Cuba’s police and studied in the state security academy, which is the place where they train their spies.

Niurka’s other half brother, Alfredo Javier Molina Benítez [sic], is an electronic engineer who married Mexican national Rosa del Rosario (daughter of businessman Guillermo del Rosario Hernandez, local ex secretary of Tourism and legal representative for the company Promociones Bahia Azul) to obtain the legal residency and later divorced her.

He was the one who faked a sickness, back in February 2005, so his half-sister, Niurka Sáliva, could apply for a “humanitarian” visa to enter Mexico. Niurka and Greg had already gotten married in Cuba, but she was not still allowed to leave the island. Once in Mexico, her husband helped her to adjust her immigration status to obtain the legal residency and, later, the naturalization.

In the fall of 2004, Niurka Sáliva Benítez, was a young woman missing one semester to graduate from medical school, with a specialization in Pediatrics. Back then she met Greg, who traveled to Havana frequently. He used to stay over at a Cuban’s couple place: Pedro and Julia. Pedro was a G-2 agent, but was separated and stigmatized from the department when it became known that he was pimping jineteras, the slang used to call the Cuban prostitutes.

Greg met Niurka when she accepted him a lift, they started a relationship and a few months later, they got married in Havana. The girl’s father, José Ángel Sáliva Pino was a guajiro [farmer, native from the countryside] who fought for the Revolution, was an officer in the Intelligence Services and reached the rank of colonel. Despite having belonged to the state’s security, during his last years serving in the Cuban army, he was just the director of the Interior Ministry Museum.

His daughter was a good student, with an almost perfect GPA. When she arrived to Mexico, her husband sent her to study public speech with an evangelical pastor from Guadalajara, according to a source close to the couple who requested anonymity.

With or without preparation, Greg’s wife has demonstrated she can handle public presentations in front of a camera and holds the profile of a committed woman. This granted her being considered as a substitute to the candidature to the state’s governor seat; but this possibility was discarded a few days ago by the PRD national headquarters. Her role now has been reduced to being her husband’s “representative” in the huge meetings organized in popular areas of Cancun, they keep a strong base of supporters.

This “strange presence” of Cubans in Cancun is now gearing towards he municipal DIF, organization led by Greg’s wife until he requested a leave to work on his race.

Some sources agree the applications for doctors and other Cuban professionals invited to participate in social initiatives organized by the group “Todos Somos Quintana Roo” [We Are All Quintana Roo] to enter Mexico were approved in that DIF.

The group “Todos Somos Quintana Roo” operates in the Northern part of the state, where all the traffic of Cubans to the United Stated is usually planned.

Cuban violence in Cancun

Quintana Roo, Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz and the airports in Mexico City and Cancun are the hot points of the Cuban immigration to our country, with the final goal to reach American soil, where they can request the protection of the Cuban Adjustment Act.

However, with the massive arrival of Cubans from Florida and mostly from Havana, the criminality rates have increased since 2005 in the Yucatan peninsula.

The increasing presence of groups of Cubans from Miami that are trafficking with undocumented in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres and Isla Convoy – and above all, their disputes to control routes that initially belonged to narcos – since 2007 have created levels of violence never seen before in this state.

Luis Lázaro Lara Morejón, a Cuban national, was executed in July 2007, shot to death with 10 bullets in an area of the highway Cancún-Mérida. In late September, a Cuban resident in Florida, Maximiliano Reyna Molas, Richard Aguero [sic] was shot to death in the parking lot of the Coral Negro local market, in Cancun´s hotels area.

Three months later, his brother, Juan Carlos Reyna Molas was surrounded by a commando in the residential neighborhood of Santa Fe. Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon and Maximiliano and Juan Carlos Reyna Molas are three of the 30 Cubans executed in Quintana Roo in 2007. According to the PGR investigations, the victims were part of a group trafficking with citizens from the island.

The murder of Humberto Febles Santana, another Cuban, in March 2008, closed the first part of the story of the new tenants in the Cuban community in Quintana Roo. The second one started that same year, when Greg became the municipal president in Benito Juarez.

Cuba & Mexico dirty business: corruption, narcos, illegal immigration and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:21:00 +0000

I´m out of the loop for a few days to revamp this tired Cuban brain, and the dirty laundry from the tropical gulag does not cease to amuse me. Well, honestly, I am not that surprised.

In the past few days, in Mexico blew up the corruption bomb surrounding the candidate for governor of the state of Quintana Roo - where Cancun is.

UPDATE: A dissection of how this mess is tied to Arizona, the recent immigration legislation passed in the state and Castro's bashed against it - courtesy our very own Humberto Fontova - can be read here.

Via Babalu Blog & Capitol Hill Cubans:

Gregorio “Greg” Sánchez Martínez, the leftist (voilá!) candidate for governor of Quintana Roo was arrested for money laundering and trafficking (Cuban, Chinese and Russian) illegal immigrants, exposing the ties between the Cuban intelligence and the Mexican narcos.

Don’t you worry; this is just the beginning of a long family’s tree.

Sanchez Martinez’s wife, Niurka Saliva, is the daughter of a high ranking Colonel in Castro’s intelligence service. On top of that, working as Greg's security adviser is Boris del Valle Alonso, relative of Delia Soto del Valle, Fidel Castro’s wife. It is also said that Boris Soto del Valle is tied to Los Zetas, the paramilitary Mexican group turned into drug lords, involved in the execution of a Mexican general.

Oh, la la!

Today, the Mexican investigative magazine Proceso has an extensive report on the dirty business of the ex candidate and his Cuban wife, including some interesting demographic data:

(H/T to Penultimos Dias - Spanish)
In my very own translation:

"… five years ago, there were 893 Cubans residing in Quintana Roo. It was the third largest foreign community in the Mexican state, after the Americans (2,213) and the Argentinians (1011). Now that cluster has grow six times, according to the state’s government that reports more than 6,000 Cuban residents and during the last two years, it is notorious the presence of Cubans in the municipal government, local businesses, tourism and illegal ventures."

(working on my English version of the entire Proceso’s article…)

What´s going on with all these Cubans in Mexico?
Click here to continue reading the modus operandi used by the Cuban government, err, these enterprises, to do business in Mexico.

Allow me to illuminate some other sordid details – for obvious security reasons; I reserved to myself the source:

Many of those Cubans residing in Mexico belong to Cuba’s state security multiple departments. For different reasons and using different connections within the corrupt Cuban government itself, they managed to legally emigrate and start a new business.

Just think about how hard is for average Cuban Joe to leave the plantation and this “easy immigration” pattern will give you tons of food for thought.

Then, aided by their connections with both the Cuban and Mexican officials, most of these enterprises buy stuff in the United States to supposedly import it to Mexico, but it is really just to send it to Cuba.

They are working for the Cuban government to bypass the embargo restrictions, and using Mexico as a bridge. And their businesses are diversified: they either go for unlocked cell phones, lawn mowers, fork lifts, car’s parts… you name it, and they will do it. And that also means they have countless “business partners” right here, in the United States.

Just imagine a divided MC Department… yes, that department managed by Cuba’s intelligence that in the 80’s was involved in this same type of dirty business that prompted the trial and ultimate death in the firing squad of General Arnaldo Ochoa and eight other high ranking officials.

Now, throw in the mix the drug cartels that rule in Mexico, that are also diversifying their business to include the traffic of illegal immigrants, and you can get a pretty good picture.

So much for the embargo making regular Cubans miserable... Do you think those cell phones, lawn mowers and car parts are sold at subsidied prices, throught the rationing card, to your average Cuban? Really?

Think again.
In this case, as well as in Ochoa’s case in the eighties, one thing has to be clear: Cuba is a communist plantation ruled by the Castro's and his cronies.

And in a slave’s plantation, NOTHING happens without the owner’s (tacit or explicit) OK.

Cuban political prisoners will not accept conditioning of their release

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Sun, 30 May 2010 07:25:00 +0000

Angel Moya Acosta, Cuban political prisoner sentenced to 20 years during the Black Spring of 2003 puts it simple: Dignity and Decorum - we will not accept any conditions to our release.

Moya is the president of the Movement for Democracy and Freedom for Cuba and is speaking up against the blatant attempt of blackmail the Castro regimen is trying with the Ladies in White, asking them to split from their support ladies if they want to see their loved ones among the released - which is still something to be seen anyway.

Blackmail anyone?

Via Baracutey Cubano, here his is original letter in Spanish. A free English translation, courtesy of *yours truly*:

Combinado del Este prison, Havana, May 27th, 2010

* * *
If my freedom depends on the Ladies in White and the support ladies stop doing what they have been doing for the past seven years, because the repressive regimen is imposing this condition on the, I won’t accept it because it is humiliating, denigrating and immoral.

Whoever accepts freedom under this type of conditions, well, it his problem. We all have the right to fight and demand from the regime the freedom to all Cuban political prisoners, but we must do it with dignity and decorum.

To ask this from women that for seven tough venturesome years have fought for the freedom of Cuban political prisoners with courage, honor, dignity all the right moral reasons in this world, is totally unacceptable.

To accept this condition from the 21st department of the State Security’s police is immoral and embarrassing. The freedom of Cuban political prisoners will not bear any type of condition. The only ones who accept humiliating conditions in order to be free are pervert criminals.

Support ladies are an inseparable part of the Ladies in White; the represent the Cuban people that have joined us in this fight. Through their example, dignity and courage, they set a precedent for men to break loose from the chains of fear and join the struggle.

Click here to keep reading

After more than fifty years of repression, the 21st department of the State Security’s police – the executioners of the repression- is so cynic that [its agents] are visiting the relatives of political prisoners, telling them there will be releases.

Let us keep it real. These smokes and mirrors should take nobody away. If the regime decides to release political prisoners, will do it for its own convenience; to improve its political image that has deteriorated a lot.

On the other hand, the release of the political prisoners is part of the problem, but it is not the solution. What would really solve the problem is to establish a democratic government in Cuba, with freedom, justice and rights for all. So that never again the Cuban would be considered a criminal for standing up and demanding his rights.

Where is the good will and the good intentions of the 21st department of the State Security’s police when Samper, Tamayo and other higher rank officials leading this group have organized, lead and instigate the Rapid Response Brigades – that are merely gangs of terrorists – against peaceful and unarmed women?

Where is the good will of the regime lead by Raul Castro when he left Orlando Zapata Tamayo die and, few days after, ordered this very same department to organize a public beating against Zapata Tamayo’s mother? And all that because she dressed in white again and kept the fight for the ideals to which her son gave his life…

I would like that some of those who the 21st department paid them a visit would tell me when the political prisoners will be released and how many of the them would benefit from the initiative. We all know the Cuban military regime wants to take the Ladies in White and the support ladies out of the spotlight.

Beware and careful before putting any blame on this women, in the even the regime, as usual, fool us again. It is immoral to play this game and whoever plays it, it is an immoral.

If we want to see all Cuban political prisoners released, we need to do the same these women are doing; we need to join them in the streets of Havana, without conditions or dishonorable deals.

One more time, the regime is testing us.

First, they wanted to condition our release to the release of the five spies convicted in the United States and this was rejected.

Today, history repeats herself.

Let’s support these courageous women that have fought, for seven long years.

Let’s stand up like men and let’s say that we are with the Ladies in White and the Support Ladies, together
with civil honor, dignity and decorum.

* * *

H/T to Zoe Valdes

Disclaimer: Angel Moya, his wife Berta Soler and their two children were my lifetime neighbors back in the tropical gulag so yes, I have a HUGE bias towards this honest, hard-working and unbelievable good family, their courage and the living hell they have experience just for daring to stand up for their rights.

Obama, Sestak, and the centuries old Chicago Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Michael Ramirez summarizes it pretty well in IBD:

Once in the family, always in the family...

As an updated footnote, one only needs to add that the White House didn't try to bribe Sestak; they only sent Bill Clinton to explore if he would be open to a bribe, I mean, an unpaid advisory position.

Really? That's a big difference, no?

And let's not even go to Colorado's version of My Big, Corrupt, Chicago Wedding!

Now, back to regular programming...

Where were we? Ah!, Sí... the most transparent administration ever, in this new era of hopeandchange. We have nothing to worry about; after all, it's Bush's fault!

Mexico's hypocrisy and double standard

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:34:00 +0000

Aside from any opinion one may have about the recent state legislation approved in Arizona regarding immigration, there is one thing that should be crystal clear for every person in this planet:

Felipe Calderon and his government representatives have absolutely no business criticising a law written and approved by American legislators.

Why?
Because that would be the uttermost example of hypocrisy and double standard a person could ever show.

This article I found in USA Today online has more than one example of facts that support my opinion, beyond the countless personal testimonies I've heard from people from Central America and Cubans that have escaped the tropical gulag and have had to use Mexican territories to get to the USA.

I mean, I've seen - literally - clinical cases of post traumatic stress disorder caused by violent experiences individuals have suffered while being kidnapped by Mexican officials while trying to get to the US border.

Here is a preview:

... in Mexico, illegal immigrants receive terrible treatment from corrupt Mexican authorities, say people involved in the system. And Mexico has a law that is no different from Arizona's that empowers local police to check the immigration documents of people suspected of not being in the country legally.

"There (in the United States), they'll deport you," Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. "In Mexico they'll probably let you go, but they'll beat you up and steal everything you've got first."

In one six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009, at least 9,758 migrants were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico — 91 of them with the direct participation of Mexican police, a report by the National Human Rights Commission said. Other migrants are routinely stopped and shaken down for bribes, it said.

A separate survey conducted during one month in 2008 at 10 migrant shelters showed Mexican authorities were behind migrant attacks in 35 of 240 cases, or 15%.

Most migrants in Mexico are Central Americans who are simply passing through on their way to the United States, human rights groups say. Others are Guatemalans who live and work along Mexico's southern border, mainly as farm workers, as maids, or in bars and restaurants.

On top of that, on October 2008. Mexico's government signed an agreement with the Cuban government to deport back to the communist island all Cuban nationals captured in transit or without documents in Mexican territory. More details here, here and here.

Mexico's government knows their national emigration to the USA is based on economic motives. Mexico's government knows that Cuban emigrants are escaping a communist dictatorship and seeking freedom.

But they have chosen to side with the oppressors.
And now its president has the guts to come into his neighbor's house and criticize their legislation.

They march in the USA, sometimes not-so-peacefully, demanding rights for undocumented immigrants. But are turning the blind eye and the deaf ear to what THEY ARE DOING to other immigrants in Mexico's soil.

If that is not hypocrisy and lack of minimal decency, how on earth would you call it?

Now, let the tirade of "racist" offenses, begin...

“Shakiras”, torture and the “non-existent” political prisoners in Cuba UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Cubanita) — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Luis Felipe Rojas (Crossing the barbed wire) is a Cuban blogger that writes from Holguin about pretty much everything that happens in Cuba’s Eastern provinces.

Today, he bring us a heart-wrecking post with a conversation he had with a man who served four years in Guantanamo's Province Prison for trying to leave the country.

UPDATE:
English version of Rojas' post here.

Anderlay Guerra Blanco served four years in prison for trying to escape Cuba. Photo from Crossing the Barbed Wire

Yep, in case you haven’t notice, in Cuba you go to jail if you try to leave the plantation without the master’s permission.

The interviewed painfully describes the “Shakira”, who is not by any means the Colombian singer whose hips don’t lie. (The original post in Spanish is here)

No. He is talking about a method of torture currently used in several Cuban prisons, especially against political prisoners.

Here is a milder demonstration:

An excerpt, in my very own free translation:

"The "Shakira" is the worst method of torture that I saw in that place. Since the individual is handcuffed with both hands and feet tied to his back, and later is thrown in the dirty floor of a punishment cell, he is left in an extremely uncomfortable position. When he tries to make any movement, the only part of his body that moves are his hips. Can you imagine the irony?

They have established the parallel with the singer that happily dances, moving her hips in a very peculiar way, with the way the inmate copes with the pain and the uncomfortable position. I saw men there who urinated and defecated in that position because they were being held like that for 24 or 48 hours.

There is even a variation of the "Shakira" where the inmate is literally hung from the ceiling of the punishment cell, through the chains between the handcuffs. This lacerates the skin, leaving permanent scars in wrists and ankles.

When the guards decide they want to punish someone, first of all, they handcuff the man like that and then, beat him up before putting him in the punishment cell in that position. That's why I told you it is humiliating for everyone, but the cruelty is worse when it is a prisoner that it is there for political reasons, or when the inmate shouts off against the government or when they engage in hunger strikes to demand to be taken to a doctor or what they call "their [political] prisoner's rights.

Besides, there are different variations of that same torture. The chain that ties hands and feet can be lengthened or shortened. The shorter they leave it, the inmate can only rest his chest in the dirty, humid and putrid floor they share with insects and rodents."

I can’t help to wonder WHERE are those that over the world raised their voices against water boarding and the tortures against jihadists in Gitmo.

Not that I justify it – that’s a topic for a whole different conversation - but, WHERE are their voices when the victims are just Cuban political prisoners?

WHERE are their progressive, liberal, politically correct, humanitarian, considerate, just, fair and moderate voices condemning the tortures against Cuban political prisoners in the hands of Castro’s thugs?

And the United Nations and et-al?

And the MSM that have news bureaus there?

And the intellectuals, Michael “Sicko” Moores and Congressional Black Caucus that drool over the buttock-less old “dear leader”?

And all those that in the floor of the US Congress recently applauded Cuban legislators – completely out of scope – resolution against Arizona?

I better don’t even go there…like cheap whores – actually, worst than them - they always end up in bed with the dictatorship.

Your silence is deafening.