Renuncian 19 Damas de Blanco en Santiago de Cuba

Pablo Alfonso/ martinoticias.com

La líder de las Damas de Blanco, Berta Soler, declinó responder en detalle a las críticas sobre favoritismo y falta de espacio para el debate dentro de la organización, que motivaron la salida de 19 integrantes del grupo el martes 18 de junio en la provincia de Santiago de Cuba.

“Ellas se fueron por no cumplir el reglamento”, dijo Soler por teléfono a Martínoticias.com desde La Habana el miércoles. “El reglamento dice que quien le falte el respeto a la líder, provincial o nacional, incumple el reglamento”, agregó.

Soler se refirió vagamente a problemas de “celos y acusaciones infundadas” en la delegación de las Damas de Blanco en Santiago de Cuba, pero se negó a aclarar las causas concretas del conflicto.

“No tengo que darle cuenta a ningún medio de prensa de los problemas internos de la organización, las Damas de Blanco somos una organización democrática”, respondió enfática.

Martinocias.com logró entrevistar a seis de las Damas de Blanco involucradas en el conflicto, algunas de las cuales participaron en una reunión celebrada el jueves de la semana pasada en Santiago de Cuba bajo la dirección de Soler, para conocer el problema.

Adriana Núñez Pascual, dijo que Soler llamó por teléfono a la Oficina de Refugiados de la Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos en La Habana, para comunicarle los nombres de las 19 personas que salieron de la organización, para que no pudieran pedir visas a nombre de las Damas de Blanco.

“Delante de mí Berta Soler llamó a la Oficina de Intereses para leer la lista con los nombres”, dijo Adriana Núñez Pascual. “Yo pienso que ella hizo eso con el objetivo de que las Damas de Blanco que hemos socilitado visas fuéramos denegadas”, opinó.
Soler colgó el teléfono cuando Martinoticias.com le preguntó sobre la llamada para verificar la información.

Un funcionario de la Sección de Intereses en La Habana dijo: “no tenemos información sobre esa llamada”. “No comentamos sobre temas relacionados con asuntos migratorios”, añadió.

El conflicto entre las Damas de Blanco en Santiago de Cuba, que venía gestándose desde hace algún tiempo, estalló durante el habitual Té Literario, celebrado el martes 18 de junio en el Reparto Vista Alegre.

La crisis gira en torno a una Dama de Blanco quien supuestamente colabora con la Seguridad del Estado. Martinoticias.com pudo conocer su identidad pero omitimos su nombre mientras corroboramos las acusaciones. Hasta el momento de esta publicación no hemos podido contactarla para obtener su reacción.

Según varias de las participantes la líder en la provincia de las Damas de Blanco, Belkis Cantillo, se negó a separarla de la organización.

“Belkis no quiso someter el tema a votación y no nos permitió expresar nuestra opinión, eso no es democrático”, afirmó Aymé Garcés. “Nosotros renunciamos por ese motivo, no tiene nada que ver con reglamentos”, añadió.

En términos semejantes se manifestaron las Damas de Blanco, Eduviges Chang Rodríguez y Janet Deleica Despaigne, quienes también fueron entrevistadas por Martinoticias.com.

Karina Quintana Hernández dijo que ellas pidieron una reunión para que se expulsara esta Dama de Blanco, quien ingresó al movimiento “hace seis o siete meses, y siempre ha tenido una actitud disociadora y conflictiva, creando divisiones en la organización”.

“Está claro que trabaja para la Seguridad del Estado. La UNPACU y (José Daniel) Ferrer, tienen pruebas de eso”, afirmó.

Según Ferrer, líder de la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), se trata de una persona que "trabaja en efecto para la Seguridad”, y asegura que su organización tiene esa confirmación “por otros colaboradores arrepentidos que lo han confesado en privado”. Agregó que no se explica por qué su esposa, Belkis Cantillo, de quien ahora está separado, le da tanto apoyo a ella.

Nuñez Pascual asegura que estuvo el jueves 20 de junio en la reunión celebrada en Santiago de Cuba, donde asistió Soler, pero se fue antes de que concluyera.

"Allí se confirmó la renuncia de las 19 Damas de Blanco y la expulsión de una, Tania.
Nosotras en ningún momento le faltamos el respeto a Belkis”, afirmó.

Martinoticias.com llamó en varias ocasiones al teléfono de Belkis Cantillo y no pudo comunicarse con ella. Tampoco con la Dama implicada para conocer sus comentarios.

María Elena Mato Creagh aseguró que esa reunión encabezada por Soler se celebró en su casa, y a la misma fueron invitadas las líderes de la organización de distintos municipios. Matos confirmó que, en efecto, Soler llamó desde allí a la Sección de Intereses, según ella dijo, para informar los nombres de las Damas que ya no pertenecían a la organización, algunas de las cuales han solicitado visas para viajar a Estados Unidos.

“Es muy penoso todo esto que está pasando, yo no puedo decir que sea una colaboradora de la Seguridad, porque no tengo pruebas”, dijo Matos. “Las Damas de Blanco tienen un prestigio alcanzado con mucho sufrimiento, maltratos y calabozos, y no se pueden caer”, agregó Matos entre sollozos.

Organizadas tras el arresto de 75 opositores en la llamada Primavera Negra de 2013 las Damas de Blanco adquirieron de inmediato reconocimiento nacional e internacional por sus habituales caminatas dominicales por la 5ta.Avenida de Miramar, pidiendo la libertad de sus familiares.

En el año 2005 el Parlamento Europeo otorgó a las Damas de Blanco el Premio Sájarov.

Tras la liberación de los 75 en 2010 y la muerte de su líder y fundadora, Laura Pollán, las Damas de Blanco ampliaron su base integrando a otras mujeres en todo el país, y convirtiéndose en un movimiento cívico de mayor alcance político.
-------------------
Declaraciones:

Berta Soler sobre presupuesto y membresia de las Damas de Blanco

martinoticias

El movimiento de derechos humanos Damas de Blanco anunció su decisión de aceptar nuevas miembros, dada su expresa intención de crecimiento y las bajas sufridas en los últimos meses, declaró su líder Berta Soler en el programa Cuba al día, de Radio Martí.

Al regreso de su gira por el extranjero, 21 damas de blanco causaron baja de la organización, 19 de ellas por no ajustarse al reglamento y 2 por su partida al exilio en jueves próximo, aclaró Soler en referencia a los rumores que se han levantado en algunos blogs sobre el mal manejo de los recursos monetarios de la organización y la baja de varias de sus integrantes.

“Las puertas de la organización están abiertas siempre y cuando se respete el reglamento que tenemos desde noviembre del 2011. Si no puede respetar el reglamento, se pueden ir cuando quieran. Las puertas están abiertas para las que quieran entrar y para las que quieran salir,” acotó.

La activista indicó que gracias a donaciones y premios recibidos en el extranjero, disponen de los recursos monetarios necesarios para expandirse, y explicó que se usan “para moverse, para comer y para poder dejar algo en la casa cuando son detenidas”. Además, todo lo entregado se controla por escrito.

La líder de las Damas de Blanco, como muestra de su transparencia en los asuntos de la organización, manifestó su agradecimiento a los cubanos de Puerto Rico, Miami y New Jersey por su donación de 24 mil dólares para apoyar su lucha pacífica, y recordó que el monto del premio Vaclav Havel se encuentra en Noruega y el Andrei Sajarov, en una cuenta en España.

Soler advirtió que aunque el crecimiento de las Damas de Blanco es una prioridad, desean “cantidad con calidad”, o sea  “mujeres de respeto”, que se acerquen de manera espontánea a formar parte de su lucha pacífica.

Las mujeres interesadas en unirse al movimiento deberán contactar con la delegada de la organización de su provincia o ciudad más cercana. Esta le entregará una copia del reglamento para su estudio a conciencia y finalmente estarán a prueba durante tres meses.

En la segunda parte del programa Cuba al día, disponible a continuación, pueden escuchar las declaraciones de la Dama de blanco. 

Lanzan Campaña "Yo Si Quiero-Republica en Resistencia" [en Miami]

cubandemocratic

(Asamblea de la Resistencia. 6 de junio de 2013) - Se ha lanzado dentro y fuera de Cuba la campaña "Yo Si Quiero-Republica en Resistencia" con las principales fuerzas de la Resistencia interna, entre ellos los lideres Jorge Luis García Pérez 'Antúnez' (Frente de Resistencia Orlando Zapata Tamayo), José Daniel Ferrer García (Unión Patriótica de Cuba), Berta Soler (Damas de Blanco), Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina (Alianza Democrática Oriental) y el Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet (Fundación Lawton/Proyecto Emilia). La campaña reclama viviendas decorosas, acceso libre al Internet, el derecho de salir y entrar al país, pan con libertad y el fin de la dictadura. En este video hay imágenes del lanzamiento de "Yo Si Quiero" en Miami, FL.

Cuba: S.O.S. for Sonia Garro

capitolhillcubans

The health of Sonia Garro, an Afro-Cuban member of the pro-democracy group, The Ladies in White, continues to worsen as the Castro regime has confined her to a punishment cell during the last 10 days.

Garro has been in prison for over one-year and three-months without charges filed or a trial.

On the week leading to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba, Castro's secret police burst into her home, shot her in the legs with rubber bullets and took her away.

Her husband, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, was also imprisoned at the time and is being held at the notorious Combinado del Este prison, where earlier this year he was savagely beaten for conducting a hunger strike demanding the release of his wife.

Their 16-year old daughter has been under the care of an aunt, who is also under constant harassment from the authorities.

Yet sadly, foreign news bureaus in Havana find an over-privileged Australian adventure swimmer to be more newsworthy.

Video del regreso de Berta Soler a Cuba

Angel Moya

Berta Soler de vuelta a Cuba

martinoticias

La líder del grupo disidente cubano "Damas de Blanco", Berta Soler, dijo hoy a su regreso a la isla que su gira internacional de 78 días por varios países de Europa y Estados Unidos fue "muy fructífera y positiva".

"Llego a Cuba fortalecida, tras recibir una acogida bien positiva y receptiva de los gobiernos de los países que visité", declaró Soler a Efe, tras su llegada este lunes a La Habana procedente de la ciudad estadounidense de Miami, último punto del recorrido que inició por España el pasado 10 de marzo.

En su primera salida de la isla, Soler también viajó a Polonia, Bélgica, República Checa, Puerto Rico y Alemania, entre otros países.

"Para mí ha sido fructífero y muy positivo porque he podido denunciar al Gobierno de Cuba por la situación en que está el país", señaló Soler.

Dijo además que salió de la isla "a buscar solidaridad, apoyo o moral, espiritual y material de la comunidad internacional y de los exiliados cubanos para el crecimiento de las Damas de Blanco y he tenido ese apoyo".

Durante el recorrido, Soler participó en una ceremonia en Bruselas junto a otras integrantes del colectivo opositor que lidera, en la que recogieron el premio Sájarov que le concedió el Parlamento Europeo en 2005.

Soler como otros miembros de la disidencia interna entre los que figuran la bloguera Yoani Sánchez, el activista de derechos humanos Elizardo Sánchez y Rosa María Payá, hija del fallecido opositor Oswaldo Payá, han salido fuera de Cuba después que entró en vigor el 14 de enero pasado una normativa que flexibilizó los viajes de los cubanos al exterior. 

Cardinal Scolds Dissidents, Pope Blesses Dissidents

capitolhillcubans

Yesterday, Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega (once again) scolded dissidents who support sanctions.
Meanwhile, today in Vatican City, Pope Francis met the leader of Cuba's Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and bestowed his blessing upon her.
Soler supports sanctions against the Castro regime.
Oh, the irony.
In October 2011, upon turning 75-years old, Cardinal Ortega presented his resignation as Archbishop of Havana to then-Pope Benedict XVI.
We pray Pope Francis finally accepts his resignation -- for the Cuban people deserve better.

Video-El Papa Francisco a las Damas de Blanco: "sigan adelante"

TVMartiNoticias

Berta Soler: 'Llevo a Cuba la bendición del papa Francisco'

Diario de Cuba

Cubanet

La líder de las Damas de Blanco, Berta Soler, asistió este miércoles a la Audiencia General del papa Francisco en el Vaticano, tras la cual pidió al pontífice "su bendición para el pueblo" de la Isla.

"Ha sido muy lindo. Esto es el punto culminante de mi gira. Llevo a Cuba la bendición del papa Francisco, es algo muy grande que el pueblo de Cuba necesita", dijo Soler en declaraciones a este diario desde el Vaticano.

Explicó que, tras la audiencia, el Papa saludó a todos los cardenales y luego a los asistentes que estaban en primera fila.

"Cuando llegó a mí, teníamos desplegada la bandera cubana y le dije 'Su Santidad, somos las Damas de Blanco de Cuba, familiares de presos políticos. Ayude a Cuba, su bendición para el pueblo de Cuba. Seguiremos rezando por usted", relató.

Según Soler, tras darle la bendición, el Papa le dijo: "sigan adelante".

WSJ: Havana in Black and White

NewsWatchStation1

capitolhillcubans

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal:

Havana in Black and White

Dissident Berta Soler takes a big risk by telling the truth about racism and repression in Cuba.

After an 11-hour police interrogation in 2011, Berta Soler, one of the founding members of the Cuban dissident group known as the Ladies in White, was given an ultimatum.

During an interview at the Journal's offices last week, Ms. Soler told me that the ministry of interior official who escorted her home said "Laura [Pollán, another founding member of the group] and I had to leave the country—because without us there would be no Ladies in White." Ms. Soler said she responded by telling the official that "the ones who have to leave are the Castros."

Cubans have been put against a wall and shot for less, but Ms. Soler's courage could not have been news to the regime. For seven years, beginning in 2003, the Ladies, dressed in white from head to toe, had attended Sunday Mass together at St. Rita's Church in Havana and then silently filed through the streets to demand that their political-prisoner relatives be freed.

The group was regularly set upon by Castro agents and clawed, punched and kicked. But they never retreated, even when the regime upped the ante by dragging them onto buses, driving them far from home and dropping them off to find their own way back.

By 2010, cellphone photos of the brutality embarrassed the dictatorship enough internationally that it began deporting the prisoners with their immediate families to Spain. It was classic Castro: For more than a half-century, strong dissident leaders who couldn't be broken have been killed or exiled.

Laura Pollán's husband, Héctor Maseda, and Ms. Soler's husband, Ángel Moya, were among a small number of prisoners of conscience who refused to leave. Eventually Castro paroled them, but the Ladies did not disband. Instead they began to work for the release of all political prisoners and for human rights.

The group was growing in numbers and expanding across the island on that day in 2011 when Ms. Soler was told to get out of Cuba. Seventeen days later, on Oct. 14, 2011, Pollán died mysteriously in a Havana hospital, surrounded by state security agents.

Ms. Soler's friend had reportedly been in good health only weeks earlier when, as she describes it, Castro enforcers attacked Pollán, bit and scratched her arm, and ran a handkerchief over the open wounds. Whether that was a way to introduce something into her bloodstream we may never know. But a week later Pollán came down with chills and vomiting and on Oct. 7 when she was admitted to the hospital, she suffered from shortness of breath.

Ms. Soler claims that Pollán might have been given oxygen but instead was "intubated and doped" and "seven days later we lost Laura." As I reported at the time, there was no autopsy and Pollán's body was quickly cremated.

Raúl Castro may have thought that the Ladies would soon fade away. He thought wrong. Ms. Soler says that the death of her friend and the equally suspicious death of dissident leader Oswaldo Payá in July 2012—supposedly in a car accident in which witnesses did not report a crash—has energized the movement.

Now Ms. Soler is taking advantage of the dictatorship's new travel policy—that for the first time in a half-century allows Cubans to take trips abroad—to ask the international community for "moral and spiritual support" for the Cuban people in their struggle against the dictatorship.

She wants the world to know of Castro's racism. Blacks, she says, are grossly underrepresented in the universities and overrepresented in prisons. "The beggars in Cuba are black, not white. The marginalized are blacks, not whites." She adds: "They tell me 'Negra, what are you doing? You have a lot to thank the revolution for!'"

Repression is on the rise, and in the absence of international condemnation the regime feels free to administer publicly the beatings the Ladies in White endure in order to show who's boss. The regime used to send women only to attack the Ladies but now they send men as well. They punch the Ladies with the clear intent to hurt them. They sometimes break bones.

Ms. Soler says that these attackers "never have been neighbors" spontaneously defending the glorious revolution. They are professionals working for the Interior Ministry or civilians who obey the regime in order to keep their jobs or their place in university classrooms. Ms. Soler says that for the past two years many of "the same faces" have consistently shown up to attack the group. The woman who bit Laura Pollan is well known by the Ladies because she is a regular on the goon squad and works for the ministry.

It is chilling to think what might happen to the politically incorrect Ms. Soler when she returns to Cuba, which is what makes her trip to Rome this week so crucial. She has asked to see Pope Francis. If he agrees, the visit might protect her. Without it, and in the absence of other influential international voices coming to her defense, her fate is less certain.

Denuncian Damas de Blanco manipulaciones mediaticas

Joisy García Martínez

Cuba’s message to dissidents: You had your trip, now we’re coming after you

Fausta's Blog

Belkis Cantillo, second from the left.

Cuba’s Communist regime has telegraphed a message to dissidents Orlando Luis Pardo ‏@OLPL, Yoani Sánchez @yoanisanchez, Rosa María Payá @RosaMariaPaya, and any others who were allowed to travel outside the country:

One week after returning to Cuba, Lady in White is missing after being beaten and arrested by Castro State Security

Yesterday, the Castro regime carried out its usual Sunday of violent repression against members of Cuba’s peaceful human rights group the Ladies in White when they joined together for Sunday church services as they do every Sunday. As the women stepped out of the church after Sunday mass in the town of Palma Soriano, they were met by Castro State Security agents who began to viciously punch them and beat them with umbrellas before placing them under arrest. Among the Ladies in White victimized by the violence of the Castro dictatorship was Belkis Cantillo, a Lady in White who just a week ago was in Brussels to take part in the long overdue acceptance of the Sakharov Prize the group had won in 2005. Ms. Cantillo was one of the women who was beaten and arrested by the Castro political police before being arrested and taken away. As of this morning, her physical condition and whereabouts are unknown.

In record time, From Brussels to a Cuban Prison in just one week.

In Italy, Yoani Sánchez was “greeted” by this, 

Lady in White Belkis Cantillo From Brussels to a Cuban Prison

capitolhillcubans

Belkis is second from the left

The Castro regime has brutally beaten and arrested members of the Ladies in White upon leaving Mass in the eastern city of Palm Soriano.

The Ladies in White is a peaceful pro-democracy group composed of the female relatives of Cuban political prisoners.

Members of Castro's secret police punched and hit them with umbrellas as they exited the church, Our Lady of the Rosary.

Among those arrested was Belkis Cantillo, who just returned from Brussels this week, where she joined Ladies in White leader Berta Soler in receiving the European Parliament's Sakharov Award for Freedom of Thought.

Cantillo's current whereabouts are unknown.

(Another group of seven Ladies in White have been beaten outside the the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Santiago.)

More "reform" you can't believe in.

[Video] Berta Soler visita el congreso de EEUU y la Casa Blanca

TVMartiNoticias

"Contraataca" Kaxtro a las Damas de Blanco

Desde Cuba[DES]información TV

Cuba: Dama de Blanco se declara en Huelga De Hambre

TeleCID

Cuba: Esposo de Sonia Garro, en huelga de hambre para exigir una solución a su caso

Diario de Cuba

El preso político Ramón Alejandro Muñoz está en huelga de hambre en la prisión Combinado del Este, en La Habana, para exigir una solución a su caso y el de su esposa, la Dama de Blanco Sonia Garro.

La pareja lleva más de un año en prisión sin juicio. Están acusados de "tentativa de asesinato" y "desorden público".

Sonia Garro sufre actualmente una infección en una pierna, en una herida con bala de goma que recibió en marzo de 2012 durante su arresto, informó el Directorio Democrático Cubano, con sede en Miami, citando a la hermana de la activista, Yamilé Garro.

Ramón Alejandro Muñoz "está haciendo una huelga de hambre y me llegaron noticias de un preso que (…) lo habían sacado inconsciente de donde lo tienen (…)  en 'la incrementada' (zona de mayor seguridad)", dijo Yamilé Garro.

"Lo iban a llevar para el hospital a pasarle suero, pero él se estaba negando; en las mismas condiciones que él estaba se estaba negando (…) Él lo que quiere es que se acabe de determinar qué es lo que van a hacer con ellos", añadió.

Yamilé Garro denunció que las autoridades de la Prisión de Mujeres del Guatao, en La Habana, engañaron a su hermana diciéndole que la llevarían al hospital para tratar la infección de su pierna.

Según relató, lo que hicieron fue sacarla del centro penitenciario para que no estuviera durante la visita que organizó el Gobierno para la prensa internacional la semana pasada.

"Hace unos días le dijeron en la prisión que la iban a llevar para el hospital para hacerle un chequeo general para ver de qué le estaba saliendo, a ver qué parásito tenía y a ver con qué antibiótico se lo podían curar, y todo fue mentira", dijo Yamilé Garro.

"La sacaron de la prisión (…) para que la prensa extranjera viera lo que ellos querían que vieran, no les convenía que ella estuviera ahí", añadió.

"La regresaron de nuevo para allá sin atenderla un médico, sin nada", aseguró.

Cuba: Beyonce Should Give Five Minutes to Berta Soler

capitolhillcubans

From The Miami Herald:

Mauricio Claver-Carone, an anti-Castro lobbyist in Washington who has denounced the couple’s visit to Cuba, said he only wants the singers to hear the arguments of people such as Berta Soler, leader of the dissident Ladies in White.

“The point is not to get them fined or reprimanded,” he said. “I just hope they can take five minutes to meet with someone like Berta Soler and hear their side, and I will be a happy camper.”

As the article notes,

Beyoncé is not new to political controversies, and in 2009 was paid $2 million by a son of Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi to perform at a New Years Eve bash in the British-run Caribbean island of St. Barts. She later donated the money to Haiti earthquake relief.

Beyonce corrected her controversial action then with a noble deed after -- can she do the same now?

Just give 5 minutes to Berta, who will be visiting the U.S. later this month.

Is that too much to ask?

WSJ on Sonia Garro: Two Easters in Castro's Dungeons

capitolhillcubans

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal:

Two Easters in Castro's Dungeons

For speaking about human rights, Sonia Garro has been held in prison without charge since March 18, 2012.

It's hard to believe a year has passed since Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba and met with the Castro brothers. Tempus fugit. That is, unless you're Sonia Garro, a dissident who has been sitting in a Cuban jail since then. For her, time moves painfully slow. Ms. Garro's sister, Yamilet, recently told the independent online newspaper Diario de Cuba that Sonia "feels she has been forgotten."

That's exactly how her jailers want it.

Ms. Garro is a 37-year-old mother and a member of a women's group that supports the Ladies in White. Both groups work for the release of political prisoners. Ms. Garro just spent her second Easter in lock-up even though she has never been charged with a crime. She is now being held at the notorious Manto Negro prison.

Her husband, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, who tried to defend his wife, was arrested at the same time and also has never been charged. He is being held at Havana's maximum-security Combinado del Este prison. Both jails are run down, rat-infested dungeons where neither international Red Cross observers nor the United Nations special rapporteur on torture are permitted. Government investigators say they are still mulling over their cases. The couple's 16-year-old daughter is in the care of her aunt.

Welcome to the surreal world of Cuban "reform," where the more the regime talks of change, the worse things get for anyone with a conscience. In the latest episode, Cuban propagandists have been flaunting the new travel policy that has allowed a few high-profile government critics out of the country. But a much larger group has been left behind. Their inhumane treatment, rarely covered by the media, underscores how little progress has been made.

Ms. Garro and Mr. Muñoz were taken from their home on March 18, 2012, a week before Benedict was scheduled to arrive on the island for a three-day visit. The Ladies in White and Ms. Garro's group, Ladies in Support, had been refused an audience with the pope but they were still agitating to see him in the hope that the Vatican would relent. Suddenly armed guards from the ministry of the interior descended on the Garro-Muñoz home.

Journalist Iván Garciá recently interviewed a neighbor who was there for a report published in Diario de Cuba on March 19. The guards "were dressed like riot police in American films. They used rubber bullets. They employed exaggerated violence; they detained Sonia and her husband Ramón. They took away almost all their belongings. It was something tremendous. They treated them as if they were terrorists." In a letter written from prison in February, Mr. Muñoz said 60 armed men invaded his house that day and one of the rubber bullets hit Ms. Garro in the left leg.

Ms. Garro is poor, black, generous in spirit and nonconformist—in short everything the regime detests and fears. Born in 1975, 17 years after Fidel Castro seized power, she has lived the racism and impoverishment of the glorious revolution. Mr. García reported that Ms. Garro told him in 2009 that she grew up in "a marginalized and violent neighborhood" but believed that if she studied and worked hard "I could change my luck."

The revolution had other ideas. One example: She studied to be a lab technician and earned highest honors. Because of this her diploma was to be presented in person by the minister of public health at graduation. Just before the ceremony a government official told her that someone else would stand in for her because her dark skin would spoil the photo. She told Mr. García that she never picked up her diploma.

Later she was fired from her job because of her husband's opposition to Fidel. That's when she learned to sew and began working out of her home to earn a living. She noticed the children in the streets in her neighborhood. Girls as young as 13 and 14 were working as prostitutes, and other children were getting hurt because they had no supervision. Ms. Garro opened a community center for them in 2007.

"The first rule was no talking politics," Ms. Garro told Mr. García. The children were encouraged to draw, sew and study music. The center was so successful—with donations from foreign charities—that she opened another center in a different neighborhood. The response from the government was to unleash a mob of citizen thugs to lay siege to her home three times and to twice beat her up. The harassment finally forced the closing of the community centers.

For her determination to try to change Cuba for the better, Ms. Garro has paid a steep price. In one seven-hour detention by state security in 2010 she suffered a broken nose.

Cuban dissidents know her story well, and it is meant as a warning to them. That you have probably never heard of Sonia Garro, put away for daring to speak about human rights ahead of Pope Benedict's visit, is a testament to the power of regime propagandists and the weakness of American journalism.

The Stoning of The Ladies in White

capitolhillcubans

Castro's secret police has surrounded the home of Denia Fernandez, a prominent member of The Ladies in White pro-democracy movement, in the eastern municipality of Palma Soriano.

The home has been surrounded and is (literally) being stoned by agents of the regime.

There are eight members of The Ladies in White inside the home, including the organization's leader of the Santiago de Cuba province, Belkis Cantillo.  There are also children inside the home.

Some of the women have been hospitalized.

Meanwhile, various neighbors, including Jessica Hernández, Maricela Chea and four other women, have been beaten and arrested for expressing their solidarity with the besieged democracy activists.

Apparently, these activities didn't make-the-cut of the recent "women's rights" reports issued on the Castro regime.