Tell a Friend About CSH!

Joomla Slide Menu by DART Creations

Follow CSH on Twitter!

Follow us on Twitter

CSH RSS Subscribe!

CitizenSoldierHandbook.com Articles
CSH Articles

Join CitizenSoldier on Facebook

Share on facebook

Search

GoogleAdsense

Cuban Repression Continues...Starring Raul Castro PDF Print E-mail

 

Working on a video for Human Rights in Cuba and found this report."...Criminal Code offense of "dangerousness," which allows authorities to
imprison individuals before they have committed any crime, on the suspicion that they are likely to commit an offense in the future. This
"dangerousness" provision is overtly politica...l, defining as "dangerous" any behavior that contradicts Cuba's socialist norms."

 

What To Do:  1.  Pressure your Elected Officials To Inquire about these Individuals.  2.  Write Letters to the Cuban Government.   3.  Possibly participate with Amnesty International, despite their own socialist leanings, to use their mechanism for his release.


Human Rights Watch Report

 

123 Pages


Here is one Illustrative Case of Castro's Socialist Repression:


Ramón Velásquez Toranzo

Ramón Velásquez Toranzo set out on his march on December 10, 2006—International Human Rights Day. With him were his wife, Bárbara, and their 18-year-old daughter, Rufina. Each of them carried a sign. The signs read: “respect for human rights,” “freedom for political prisoners,” and “no more repression against the peaceful opposition.” Their goal was to walk the entire length of the island of Cuba, from east to west.

They marched silently. At night, they slept on the sides of roads, in bus stops, or in the homes of people who took them in. After a few days, security officers began trailing them. On the outskirts of Holguín, a group affiliated with the government known as a “rapid response brigade” surrounded them with bats and metal rods. They called Velásquez and his family “mercenaries” and “whores,” and threatened to rape Bárbara and Rufina. Police looked on and did nothing.

Security officials arrested the family as they walked through Holguín. Velásquez was thrown in jail, while his wife and daughter were forcibly returned to their home in Las Tunas. When Velásquez was released four days later, they continued to march west. Twice, cars tried to run them over, and they had to dive off the road to avoid being hit. More brigades taunted them. Security officers threatened them. Still, they kept marching.

They reached Camagüey on January 19, 2007, and were arrested again. Velásquez was held for four days and then taken to a municipal court. That he had not committed a crime did not matter; under Cuba’s “dangerousness” law, individuals can be imprisoned simply when courts determine they are likely to commit a crime in the future.

The state’s only evidence against him was a series of “official warnings” (advertencias oficiales) for being unemployed—issued while he was on his march—which he had never seen before. His lawyer, whom he met five minutes before the trial, defended him vigorously at the outset of the hearing. Then, the judge called a recess and invited the defense lawyer to his quarters. When the lawyer returned, she stopped defending Velásquez and did not speak for the rest of the trial.

The trial lasted less than an hour, and the judge sentenced Velásquez to three years in jail. He was bused to a prison, stripped down to his underwear, and thrown into a solitary confinement cell. The tiny space had no bed—only a concrete floor that flooded with water every time it rained. When his family brought him food to supplement the meager prison rations, guards repeatedly left it outside his cell to rot.

His wife, Bárbara, fell into a deep depression following his incarceration, not leaving her bed for weeks, while his son, René, was fired from his job without warning. His daughter Rufina, who continued to monitor human rights and report on abuses, was subjected to constant surveillance. Authorities warned her that she would suffer the same fate as her father if she did not change her behavior. She eventually fled to the United States, where she lives today.

 

Email the White House

You can send an email to the White House and Obama right here...





Useful Videos

CitizenSoldierHandbook.com, Powered by Joomla!; Joomla templates by SG web hosting