ASSEMBLY OF THE CUBAN RESISTANCE SENT MESSAGE TO THE POPE AND DENOUNCES INCREASE OF REPRESSION IN CUBA

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ASSEMBLY OF THE CUBAN RESISTANCE SENT MESSAGE TO THE POPE AND DENOUNCES INCREASE OF REPRESSION IN CUBA
By Assembly of the Resistance

Miami January 23, 2012. To international public opinion To the Vatican Chancellery Considering it an urgent matter to bring to public attention the Cuban regime’s direct responsibility for the death of, Wilman Villar Mendoza, a Cuban prisoner of conscience who was on a hunger strike; and the rise of brutal repression against civil resistance, the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, comprising of more than fifty organizations in the island and in exile, denounces before international public opinion and sends to the Vatican the following partial summary of facts which demonstrate the systematic violations of all human rights by the communist dictatorship in Cuba. Given the advanced preparations for the visit of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the island, aiming to bring a Christian message of faith and hope to an enslaved people aspiring to live in freedom, we urge an evaluation of the conditions under which this visit will take place since it is our deep concern that His Holiness’s stay will be manipulated by the regime on the island in order to legitimize its permanence in power and thus continue to repress the Cuban people with impunity. The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance denounces this recent crime and the situation of harassment and repression that endangers the lives of Cubans in the island who defend human rights and civil liberties. This situation, promoted and executed by the Cuban regime, has recently left a balance of four deaths: Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto García, Laura Pollán Toledo and Wilman Villar Mendoza, thousands of arbitrary arrests and hundreds of beatings, assaults, acts of repudiation and other degrading treatment. On January 19, 2012 in the Eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the young human rights defender Wilman Villar Mendoza who was jailed since November 24, 2011 in Aguadores Prison died. Wilman’s only crime was to actively participate in the human rights movement in the town of Contramaestre and take part in a nonviolent march on November 14, 2011 for which he was charged, tried and convicted without due process. In said prison he declared himself on hunger strike to protest his conviction and, by order of the prison director Major Luis Enrique López Díaz, was confined in a punishment cell without clothes where he was denied water and medical care. His wife Maritza Pelegrino Cabrales made numerous protests outside the prison to demand medical attention for Villar Mendoza. When his captors took him to the hospital it was too late to save his life. But these are not isolated facts. The regime in Havana and its prisons have a system devised to eliminate those political and common prisoners who protest against the injustice and inhumanity of their captors by denying them water and medical care and confining them in punishment cells in freezing temperatures. Under these prison conditions many Cubans have perished. Below are some of the human rights violations reported from the island since January 1, 2012. Compiled by the Coalition of Cuban American Women, Assembly of the Resistance JANUARY 1, 2012 – In the city of Santa Clara (central Cuba), The Rosa Parks Movement alongside members of the Central Opposition Coalition were victims of the cruel and brutal aggression of the political police, as well as of members of the Rapid Response Brigade and the Communist Party when they tried to carry out a peaceful march “for the freedom of Cuba, against impunity, and in support and solidarity with Ivonne Malleza Galano.” The activists were taken away and arrested with brutal force from the home of Idania Yanes Contreras, president of the Central Opposition Coalition. Frank Reyes Lopez, who was filming the attack, fractured his right arm after he was thrown off from the roof by State Security agents. Maria del Carmen Martinez also suffered a fracture in one of her arms, while Aramilda Contreras was victim of serious injuries. Robert Alcides Rivera Yanez, the son of Yanez Contreras and a minor, was also beaten and shoved by police officials and suffered injuries and bruises all over his small body. Several neighbors intervened and managed to shelter the child from the police. The activists who were subjected to short term detentions and suffered physical as well as verbal attacks were: Ydania Llanes Contreras Damaris Moya, Maria del Carmen Martinez Lopez, Ana Iris Burune Rivera, Yanoisi Contreras Aguilar, Alcides Rivera Rodríguez, Frank Reyes López, Jorge Luis García Pérez ‘Antúnez’, Natividad Blanco Carrero, Aramilda Contreras Rodríguez and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. While in their cells, the guards screamed obscenities at the women and threatened to rape them. According to Yanes Contreras, the guards were “raffling” off the women amongst themselves to see which one they would rape. Damaris Moya denounced that her 13 month old son was desperately screaming in the arms of his grandmother while agents were applying martial arts immobilization locks on her. She was dragged into a patrol car and taken to a detention center. Her husband Yanoisi’s face is swollen because of the beating and choking. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez was savagely and repeatedly punched by agents in the patrol car during the ride to the police station in Santa Clara while the agents forced him to cry out “Viva Fidel”. Antunez has numerous swellings on his head and is suffering from dizziness and loss of vision in his left eye. All the activists vowed to continue with their public peaceful marches in 2012, a year they consider important for the Cuban Resistance Movement. JANUARY 4, 2012 – Act of repudiation in Camaguey against the home of activist Virgilio Mantilla Arango from 3 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. to prevent a group of activists from meeting in a public park in the city of Camaguey. Among the activists who were arrested were: Elizardo Reyes Jimenez, Jorge Luis Suarez Varona, Virgilio Mantilla Arango, and Alexis Sabatelo of the Unidad Camagueyana por los Derechos Humanos. They were all taken to the Center of Criminal Investigation and confined in cells. They were all interrogated and threatened not to continue with their public independent acts. JANUARY 5, 2012 –In Havana, Independent journalist, Dania Virgen Garcia, Lady in White, Belkis Felicia Jorrin, and human rights defender Yosvani Martinez Lemus (beaten) were subjected to short term detentions. The home of Lady in White, Caridad Burunate, in the city of Colon, (Matanzas province) was victim of an act of repudiation. JANUARY 6, 2012 – According to independent journalist, Luis Felipe Rojas, the Lady in White, Isabel Peña was attacked by a government thug in Guantanamo (eastern Cuba). In Havana, the political police surrounded the home of Lady in White, Anisley Pavon in the suburb of Marianao. Paramilitary forces of more than 100 agents attacked the home of Maritza Castro in the Havana district of El Cerro with stones, sticks, and bottles. Maritza Castro has been carrying out a hunger strike for almost a month, demanding the freedom of Ivonne Malleza, Ignacio Martinez, and Isabel H. Alvarez. Maritza is a neighbor of Ivonne Malleza and her husband Ignacio. JANUARY 7, 2012 – Hot tar was thrown against the front of the home of Lady in White, Gertrudis Ojeda in Banes (eastern Cuba) because she displayed anti-government signs in her home. The tar’s pungent odor is affecting one of her sons who is seriously affected with asthma. According to the independent journalist, Roberto de Jesus Guerra, Ojeda was beaten and dragged by the paramilitary forces that invaded her home. JANUARY 8, 2012 – The activist Prudencio Villalon Rades of the Union Patriotica de Cuba (UMPACU) denounced that Ladies in White, Annis Sarrion, Milagros Leiva, Maritza Cardosa, Osmeilis Jimenez, as well as her daughter Arianis Gainza Jimenez (12 years old) were all aggressively attacked by a member of the Communist Party and paramilitary forces in Municipio Mella, (eastern Cuba). Also, the Lady in White, Caridad Caballero Batista and her husband, Esteban Sade were arrested as they were entering the Church Pueblo Nuevo in Holguin (eastern Cuba). In Cacocun, Holguin, the Lady in White, Berta Guerrero and her husband, Franklin Pellegrino del Toro were arrested with violence to prevent their assistance to Mass.The independent journalist, Jose Lino Asencio reported that In central Cuba, the house of Lady in White, Yasmin Conyedo Riverón, located at calle Trista 374 entre San Pedro y Virtudes, in the city of Santa Clara, was attacked by a pro government mob brought in a bus by State Securiy forces. In Pedro Betancourt, a town in the province of Matanzas, the independent activist Oscar Sanchez Madan was violently arrested alongside Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya and other human rights defenders, members of the Independent Movement Alternative Option, who were on their way to the cemetery to honor the Lady in White, Gloria Amaya, an activist and mother of three ex political prisoners of conscience. Yasmin Conyedo, the representative of the Ladies in White in Villa Clara, central Cuba, and her husband, Rafael Yusmani Esmoris continue under arrest in a police unit known as the UPOP since Sunday, January 8, 2012 when their house was attacked by a pro-government mob and when they were both severely beaten and arrested. As a result of their unjust detention, twenty seven arrests were documented in the central province of Villa Clara. The Lady in White, Ivonne Malleza Galano, her husband, Ignacio Martinez Montejo, and a Cuban citizen, Isabel Haydee Alvarez remain confined in maximum security prisons in Havana without formal charges. All three were violently arrested on November 30, 2011, following a peaceful protest in the Fraternidad Park in central Havana. Throughout the week of January 9 – 15, 2012, members of the peaceful Cuban internal resistance movement who publicly demanded fundamental freedoms in numerous provinces across the island where threatened, intimidated, subjected to threats, beatings, short term detentions, house arrests, and acts of repudiations that were instigated and carried out by the political police. Below are some of the human rights violations reported from the island since January 9, 2012. JANUARY 10, 2012 – Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, president of the Cuban Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement, was beaten and detained when she was on her way to the local hospital in Placetas (Central Cuba) to seek medical treatment. Yris has been beaten with such violence by State Security agents on so many ocassions in the last months that she is suffering from serious injuries throughout her body (see attached photo of Yris sent from Cuba).JANUARY 11-12, 2012 – In the evening hours of January 11 in (Eastern Cuba), Municipio Luis Antonio Mella, Santiago de Cuba, the house of human rights defender Karina Santana (Lady in White) and her husband Ramón Bolaños was attacked for hours as it has been many times before by a mob throwing eggs.In Eastern Cuba, Roberto González, Arnold Hernández and Raúl Frómeta, were arrested in Dos Caminos where they were going to carry out a public peaceful protest.A group of activists in Villa Clara, Placetas, Cienfuegos, Sagua la Grande and Manicaragua (Central Cuba) were subjected to beatings and short term detentions when they went to march and protest on behalf of Yasmin Conyedo and her husband, Rafael Yusmani. After their released, many were left abandoned in remote areas, far from their homes: María del Carmen Martínez López, Alexei Sotolongo Díaz, Yanoisi Contrera Aguilar, Michel Oliva López, Yosmel Martínez Colcho, Víctor Castillo Ortega, Omar Núñez Espinosa, Zander Reyes Machado, José Lino Ascencio López, Rodoisy Zapata Blanco, Jesús Arístides Hernández Pérez, Jorge Luis Artiles Montier, and Guillermo Fariñas Hernández. In Placetas: Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, Yaimara Reyes Mesa, Xiomara Martín Jiménez, Yaite Diosnellys Cruz Sosa. In Cienfuegos: Pablo González Villa, Justo Luis Alonso García. On January 12, Ignacio Martinez Montero, confined in the Combinado del Este Prison began a hunger strike demanding his freedom. In a recording obtained via telephone by the independent journalist, Roberto de Jesus Guerra in Havana, Martinez Montero states: “ either I’m released or I will be taken out of this prison dead”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ8oo0HCvJY In Havana, a vigil that was to take place on behalf of Ivonne Malleza and her husband Ignacio Martinez caused the short term arrest of the following activists: Vidiet Martinez, Mercedes Evelyn Garcia, Ismael Alfaro, Leonardo Chalas and Odalis Sanabria. Odalis was taken to the outskirts of Havana and left abandoned far from her home. JANUARY 13, 2012 – The house of Lady in White, Caridad Caballero Batista, was under watch by State Security to intimidate her and prevent her attendance to Sunday Mass in the Eastern city of Holguin. In the Western province of Pinar del Rio, activists and members of the Ladies in White were subjected to house arrest when their houses were surrounded and their phone service was interrupted. Maria Cecilia Ramos, the representative of the Ladies in White in the western province of Pinar del Rio, was threatened by the political police on January 12 so she would not participate in the marches of the Ladies in White. She was summoned on the 13th to appear at a Police Unit in Pinar del Rio and suffered an act of repudiation or mob attack to her home on Sunday, January 15, 2012. JANUARY 14, 2012 – Idania Llanes Contreras, president of the Central Coalition Opposition reported from Central Cuba that State Security had surrounded the homes of numerous human rights defenders to prevent any public protests for the arrest of the Lady in White, Yasmin Conyedo, and her husband, Rafael Yusmani Esmoris. The ex-political prisoner of conscience, Librado Linares was held prisoner in his house in Camajuani and the same happened to the activists Enrique Martinez Marin and Orlando Alfonso Martinez in Manicaragua. Also in Central Cuba, the activist Jose Lino Asencio Lopez declared himself on hunger strike, demanding the freedom of Yasmin Conyedo. Ladies in White, Marta Diaz Rondon, Gertrudiz Ojeda Suarez and Miladis PInales Rosa were beaten and arrested when they were traveling from Banes to Holguin. Mariblanca Aviles Esposito was also subjected to acts of repression in the town of Velasco, province of Holguin. Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Cuban Republican Party and affiliated to UMPACU in Eastern Cuba, reported the arrest of the following Ladies in White who were taken to the Police Unit called “Unidad de Enfrentamiento”: Aurora Martin Calderin, Niraida Martin Calderin and Matilde Mejias. JANUARY 15, 2012 – Rapid Response Brigades, members of the political police, the communist party and communist youth surrounded the homes of activists and Ladies in White to prevent them from attending Mass in the Western province of Pinar del Rio. The home of the ex-political prisoner of conscience, Eduardo Diaz Fleites (located at Calle 20 #1303A at Entronque de Herradura) where he was with his niece and Lady in White, Marielis Diaz Torres, suffered an act of repudiation carried out by a mob of around 40-50 people from 8:00 a.m.-11:00a.m. to prevent them from going to the Church of Consolacion del Sur. At around midday, at a checkpoint located between the cities of El Cobre and Santiago de Cuba, nineteen members of the Ladies in White who had just attended Mass at the Basilica of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba, and who were on their way to give their support to the wife of Wilmar Villar Mendoza at the Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital, were violently beaten and arrested by male and female police agents. Those who were beaten the most were Tania Montoya Vazquez, Yakelin Garcia Jaen and Aricel Figueredo Valdes. Other women involved in the incident were: Yanelis Elegica Despaigne, Yamiseli Aliaga Callamo, Karina Quintana Hernandez, Madelaine Santo Grillo, Mayelin la O Montero, Darmis Aguedo Zaldivar,Yarisel Figueredo Valdes, Yanilla Montero Vazquez, Aliagna Isaac Leme,Arelis Rodriguez Chacon, Aurora Martin Calderin, Miraida Martin Calderin, Yudislaidis Travieso Barlobo, Yusmari Chacon Lamot, Elisa Milagro Reinier Acosta, and Maria Alfonso Cordoba. Aurora and Miraida were arrested twice on January 15, and still remain under arrest. Human rights defenders in Eastern Cuba who were also beaten and arrested when they tried to show their solidarity on behalf of Wilmar Villar Mendoza in front of the hospital where he lies in critical condition were: Raumel Tinajera Altive, Rulisan Ramirez Rodriguez, Enyor Bismar Peña Perez, Yuselin Ferrera Espinosa, Antonio Gonzalez Bordonado, Ovidio Martin Castellanos, Carlos Martin Calderin, manuel Santiago Zaldivar Gonzalez, Andry Verdecia Osorio, Abraham Carrera Torres, Aurora Martin Calderin, Arelis Rodriguez Chacon, Luis Enrique Lozada Igarza, Enrique Lozada Ayedo, and Miraida Martin Calderin. Ana Celia Rodriguez Torres and her husband Henry Perales Elias.In Contramaestre, Eastern Cuba, the home of human rights defender, Jorge Cervantes was attacked by a mob because he had a sign in the front that read: “Wilmar cannot die”. The Lady in White, Caridad Caballero Batista and her husband, the activist, Esteban Sande Suarez, were arrested in the Eastern city of Holguin. Though Caridad was released, the whereabouts of her husband are still unknown. Guillermo Fariñas was arrested in the central Cuban city of Villa Clara.

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