Nov 27, 2010

Meandering Cuba 2 (Updated)

This time they are not on a hunger strike but have nonetheless been deprived of access to food and water for 5 days. Castro's political police has surrounded their home in eastern Cuba and reportedly thrown water in through closed windows, thereby breaking some. Meanwhile, Mrs. Reina Luisa Tamayo awaits for the ashes of her dissident son who died in the Castro regime´s custody while on a hunger strike in February. Supposedly, they will soon be given to her but then she will be banished to the United States under an agreement supposedly backed by the Catholic Church.

Mrs. Tamayo attends a Catholic Church in Banes from where she typically walks to her son's grave. But she actually prays to a mythological African (Yoruba religion) deity, whom she sweetly refers to as "my Changó". How is it that supposedly Catholic Cubans expect God's liberating help while worshiping idols instead of Christ?

(I'm very sorry for all that she has suffered but hopefully she is not participating in Catholic communion while worshiping her idol. She certainly cannot claim to be a practicing Catholic. It's astonishing and terribly offensive that she has been using a Catholic temple while praying to a false deity and not to the Blessed Trinity. Insuperable ignorance cannot explain this. Doesn't she see the crucifix inside the Catholic Church? Doesn't she listen to the gospel readings? The fact that there are probably numerous followers of Afro Cuban Santeria posing as Catholics and receiving communion is a terrible offense. Why hasn´t the Cuban Catholic Church put a stop to this sacrilegious syncretism? Why don't they explain to Mrs. Tamayo the difference between a mythological idol and the liberating God of history? It is their duty, just as it was Moses' to chastise Aaron when the Jewish people reverted to idols in the Old Testament.)

In their struggle, the besieged dissidents are pleading for the liberation of political prisoners, and now of American Citizen Alan Gross too. Additionally, they are asking (who? the tyrants?) that one's "liberty of movement" be respected, and for an end to death threats against dissidents, yet they only mention eastern Cuba.

But why don't they just demand that the tyranny step down? That would actually mean something. Dissidents are just not credible when they act as if asking a 51 year tyranny to stop being tyrannical meant something.

RELATED

Meandering Cuba

The Catholic Catechism

Nov 18, 2010

Meandering Cuba

Once again Cuba's political police has intercepted the mother of a dead hunger striking dissident in whom Cubans' resistance to tyranny is converging. On Sunday, Mrs. Reina Luisa Tamayo's home in Banes was surrounded by the political police, who prevented her from going to church and to her son's tomb, as well as anyone from entering or leaving her home. Her associate Ladies in White were also kept out of the Iglesia de la Caridad and the cemetery. Meanwhile, a national resistance movement bearing Orlando Zapata Tamayo's name now has a wing in his hometown of Banes and another in Placetas. Its Secretary General is Mr. Jorge Luis García Pérez, also known as Antúñez, a former political prisoner and leader of the resistence in Placetas. Around 15 dissidents were reportedly arrested in central and oriental Cuba on Sunday.

On his end, after having broken his promise to release political prisoners, Mr. Raul Castro 'promised' it again. One political prisoner, Mr. Diosdado González Marrero, evidently a victim of psychological torture, again believed Castro and thankfully stopped the hunger strike he had begun to protest the cruel 4 month wait that ended in a lie.

Mr. Castro also called for another meeting of the so called "National Assembly" (a parliament hand picked by the tyrant's brother that last met in 1997) for 2011. Another political prisoner, Mr. José Daniel Ferrer García, soberly responded that Cuba didn't need another Communist Party Congress, that what it needed was a Constitutional Assembly. Of course, that (or better yet, reinstating the 1940 Constitution set aside by Batista's and Castro's coups) is what's obvious, but the Castros can't be the ones to organize it. Cuba's real leaders must be the ones to do that.


Related:


Cultural Dialogue But About What?

Ladies in White: "We´re Not Afraid of You"

Report of Attempt to Visit Antúnez and Cubans under Siege in Placetas

Don't Ask Stupid Questions


I know this may sound crazy but is Google part of Media blackout on Antúnez and the ongoing siege in Placetas?

Nov 8, 2010

Cultural Dialogue But About What?

Some of us waited until midnight November 7 for the Castros to release all of Cuba's political prisoners, as Mr. Raul Castro had promised. Just last week Cuba's Cardinal Ortega had expressed how honored he was by Mr. Raul Castro's presence at the inauguration of the first Catholic seminary in Cuba in 51 years. For a very brief moment, I even considered: could it be that Raul and Fidel are converting to Catholicism? Might it be that they are sorry for their crimes against the Cuban people? Does the cardinal perhaps know something which we don't? After all, they are unrepentant murderers in their late seventies and eighties and conceivably could die at any moment. Maybe, I wondered, Raul spiritually confided in the cardinal and that's why they appear to have a close bond.

As it turned out, I must have been fantasizing for the Castros appear far from repenting or converting to anything, let alone to the gospel of love and eternal life. As for Cardinal Ortega having expressed being honored by Mr. Raul Castro's presence, maybe he just did not know what else to say in the face of a murderous criminal in a suit who mixed himself in with a room full of others at a religious ceremony. Perhaps he took his cue from Jesus who soaked some bread and gave it to Judas while ordering him to quickly take care of the business that remained. (But hopefully Raul and Fidel will not meet the same fate. Hopefully both will repent and be humble enough to accept mercy and forgiveness in the true faith and the one they were baptized in, before it's too late.)

Raul Castro has now broken his promise. In his brother's mind there likely wasn't any point in keeping it given the results of the United States midterm elections. What might they expect to get in return for imprisoned Cubans now? Fidel, after all, has been trading Cubans ever since the post Bay of Pigs prisoner sale. He knows his business well. That's why they had promised to release all prisoners only after the United States' elections. In any case, the broken promise was not really much of a surprise and certainly not the only troubling news for Cubans the past week, even if the media missed it.

I just finished reading Mrs. Reina Luisa Tamayo's testimony on what the regime put her through last Sunday, November 1. Evidently emboldened by the support they have been getting, the tyrannic duo unchained their renowned rabid security mob on the mother of the dissident who in February died after more than 80 days on a hunger strike. Allegedly her son was killed by the regime's intentional negligence for he was imprisoned and therefore in their custody. So on the morning of November 1, Castro's regime allegedly had Mrs. Tamayo, her children and supporters brutally beaten up as they were leaving the cemetery where her son Orlando Zapata Tamayo is buried in Banes. Her son's tomb has evidently becoming a symbolic threat to the tyranny as has the mother of the one who is interred therein. It's not the first beating she gets from the regime's political police after her son's death,

According to Mrs. Tamayo, as she was preparing to leave church to visit her son's tomb, she observed people outside who she believed were preparing to harass her. Indeed, as she approached the cemetery with her children and companions, a person who frequently harasses her by calling her dead son "a skeleton" began laughing along with a growing crowd. They then began throwing rocks at them, striking two of Mrs. Tamayo's remaining sons and one of her daughters. Mixed in with the group where security and military personnel dressed as civilians. Then the man who routinely harasses her threatened to kill her and began to call her dead son a homosexual.

Upon reaching the cemetery and while surrounding her son's tomb, she says she saw uniformed military men, police cars, ambulances and buses close by. Finally, upon finishing her visit and stepping with one foot outside of the cemetery’s door, a military officer called out an order and she was thrown on the floor.

They then hit Mrs. Tamayo in the mouth and jumped on the others. Three men jumped on top of her and began pulling at her purse and pants to seemingly leave her in her intimate clothing, she contends. She was finally grabbed by both arms and forced by civilian dressed military women into a vehicle.

Regime officers shouted at her: "Shameless woman, you sold your son". She responded "Down with Fidel! Down with Zapata's assassins." But an officer warned: "Shut up you (expletive) Negro!" The chauffeur, a police officer, then told the other officers to take a dirty rag soaked in gasoline and stick it in her mouth but she clenched her teeth to prevent them and so they held it against her closed mouth, almost asphyxiating her, she says. She was then taken to a police station which was surrounded by military in civilian clothes. There she was denied water.

After the ordeal Mrs. Tamayo lamented: "Here in Banes , there is a total state of siege ...the cynics and assassins who tortured Zapata (her son) still think of themselves as having a right to beat up my (other) children and my brothers (her sympathizers), the ones who give me life, who sustain my life."

She finishes her declaration pleading for the world's help but she was again detained (in front of her home) and beaten up yesterday, November 7, the day the prisoners who were not released were supposed to have been freed.

Mrs. Reina Luisa Tamayo
Dissident Mother of Dead Hunger Striker Dissident
Photo taken from Directorio de Cuba


If one were to judge by what has been published in the most prestigious American newspapers the past week, part of the United States is blindly enthusiastic about the potential for a "cultural dialogue" with the brutally criminal Cuban tyranny and its supporters. How else could one otherwise explain how they missed Mrs. Tamayo's brutal assault while covering the tyranny's ballet? In a way, it's perfectly understandable, for just how does Mrs. Tamayo, her family, the political prisoners who were not released after all the promises and multiparty elections fit into the cultural dialogue? This they just never adequately explain.

In contrast, when it comes to a place like Burma (Myanmar), Senator Kerry [Dem], Chairman of the United States Senate's Foreign Relations committee, knows exactly what he wants: big changes and nothing less.
"The military’s 'roadmap to democracy' will lead to a dead-end if the government keeps its political opponents jailed and muzzled... If the Burmese government breaks from the policies of the past, the United States should stand ready to improve relations....But make no mistake, this will require a government with new faces and new policies: releasing political prisoners, easing media and speech restrictions..."
I wish Senator Kerry had said something like that about Cuba too but please don't misunderstand, I don't mean to single him out. He's certainly not the only one in Congress or in the United States who has been wanting to finance Castro's tyranny. But why isn't the United States Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, which he leads, demanding the same changes in Cuba?

Why have those who have sought to befriend, glorify, finance and uphold Cuba's tyrant as either a sage and model to be learned from or a sinner to be rehabilitated by United States tourist dollars, remained silent while Mrs. Tamayo was being threatened, insulted, struck, gagged, dragged on pavements and subjected to expletives hurled at her and her dead son?

AUDIO OF MRS. TAMAYO'S TESTIMONY FROM DIRECTORIO DEMOCRATICO CUBANO:

RELATED

UPDATE: Will Castro Break His Promise?

Plot Thickens on Castro's Political Prisoner Release - Part II

Plot Thickens on Castro's Political Prisoner Release


Castro Says Leave But Some Say No

Ladies in White: "We´re Not Afraid of You"

What does Castro want from Obama...as he attacks US imperialism and shifts focus to Bay of Pigs and School of the Americas- Part III

Nov 7, 2010

UPDATE: Will Castro Break His Promise?

Mr. Raul Castro is a little more than one hour away from breaking his promise to free all of Cuba's political prisoners by midnight tonight, November 7. However, Mrs. Reina Luisa Tamayo, mother of the renowned dead hunger striker dissident, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, has been detained again after allegedly having been brutally beaten by Castro's security forces last week as she headed to the cemetery where her son is interred.

At least 13 of the 75 detained in 2003 remain imprisoned as I write. Some of these are known to have insisted they wished to remain in Cuba and refused to be banished into exile.

RELATED

Plot Thickens on Castro's Political Prisoner Release - Part II

Plot Thickens on Castro's Political Prisoner Release


Castro Says Leave But Some Say No

What does Castro want from Obama...as he attacks US imperialism and shifts focus to Bay of Pigs and School of the Americas- Part III

Will Castro Break His Promise?

Updated HERE.

Nov 2, 2010

Hispanic Reason To Vote

Constituting 15.4% of the US population, Hispanics are in a position to help shape how the US is governed as no other minority in history. They are over ten percent (10%) of the eligible voters in nine states and an even more significant portion in larger states such as Texas, California, Florida and New York. But will they vote tomorrow and in a manner consistent with their traditional values?

According to a Pew Institute report only one-third (32%) of eligible Hispanic voters appear to be intending to vote. If this is true, why is it the case? Surely registered Hispanic voters appreciate the power of their numbers as voters (see table below). Surely they appreciate the price that has been paid by Americans to protect the privilege of a democratic vote and what happens when a people are prevented from doing so (e.g. Cubans). Furthermore, they have a superb reason to vote: helping end abortion in the United States.

Furthermore, the Pew Institute reports that two-thirds (69%) of Catholic Hispanics and almost half (45%) of Protestant Hispanics apparently intend to vote for Democrats, and therefore, I would add, against pro-Life candidates. How can this be? Protecting the family is a preeminent Hispanic value. Surely Hispanics understand that human life begins its path at conception (ask doubters where else it begins if not there?) and that destroying human life, while still legal, is indeed murder. Surely they know that 1.2 million Americans were therefore murdered in the United States in 2009 through an abortion. Surely the vast majority of Hispanics do not support this.

Perhaps it would make a difference if they knew that they have been disproportionately impacted by abortion. According to the US Center for Disease control there are, tragically enough, 13 abortions for every 1000 white non-Hispanic women, but 27 and 49 for every thousand Hispanic or Black women respectively. Why are relatively more Hispanic and black human embryos being aborted?

How many Hispanics know that in Miami, for example, more than 1 out of every 3 pregnant women (over 35%) aborted their child from 2000 to 2007? For all Florida, however, 1 out of every 4 pregnant (25%) women aborted. What is causing the comparatively higher Hispanic abortion rate in Miami? To what extent is this phenomenon characteristic of other regions with a high concentration of Hispanics?

If the number of Hispanics being aborted were proportional to their population in the United States, then around 180 thousand Hispanic embryos are being killed by abortion each year (15% of 1.2 million). But according to the Guttmacher Institute Hispanics account for 22% of US abortions. This means 264 thousand abortions of Hispanic embryos in 2008. Blacks accounted for 37% or 444 thousand abortions. Almost 2 out 3 embryos being aborted in the U.S. (59%) are thus either Black or Hispanic.

How could family loving Hispanics be doing this? Is it the result of heavy advertising by well funded organizations such as Planned Parenthood or the moral indifference to abortion of Univision TV?

I don´t pretend that other serious issues caused by egotism and even hatred towards Hispanic immigrants don't exist. But Hispanics should put aside all other considerations and cast a vote that will help protect the most vulnerable, a vote that will please the educated conscience and God. The quantity of Hispanics killed by abortion incomparably exceeds those that may have been killed by illegal immigration.

What are Catholic and Protestant Hispanics waiting for to vote for a Pro Life candidate tomorrow? What could be more important than this?

PRO LIFE VOTING GUIDE BY STATE -- Find out who the pro-life House, Senate and Governor candidates in your state are here.

RATES OF ABORTION BY STATE MAY BE FOUND HERE.

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL - SPANISH VERSION

Sources:

Guttmacher Institute

"Abortions by Selected Characteristics: 1990 to 2005", US Census as quoted by Guttmacher Institute

"Hispanic Protestants Closely Divided ... Hispanic Catholics Favor Democrats", Pew Hispanic Center

"Resident Population by Race, Hispanic Origin...2008", U.S. Census

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