FIDEL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER ON ELIAN GONZALEZ

"...But you know, among Americans, you use the word 'custody' and 'parental care' and stuff like that. It doesn't exist in Cuba....And then you're forgetting, too, that the American legal system is not sending back a boy to his father....[T]he American legal system is sending back a boy to a dictator who leads a regime that four years ago sunk a tugboat, killing 11 children, in front of the Cuban harbor. That's the point."

SILENT JUNE

Apologies from the blog....we've been busy and haven't been able to update our site due to a router issue. However we will be continuing to update soon so keep reading! Thanks.

EXAMPLE OF CUBAN AIDS DEATH CAMP

We greatly appreciate the work done by Cuba Archive. Their work is immensely important and will be honored in this website. In fact it is one of the reasons why this website was created.


translation of an article from Cuba Archive:


Ignacio Estrada Cepero, Agencia Jóvenes sin Censura Bitácora Cubana, 2 de febrero de 2007, Quemado de Güines



On Monday, January 29, 2007 a prisoner with AIDS died by hanging, Ricardo Pérez Hernández, known as "Papillo", according to reports from the activist for Human Rights José Vicente Ribalta Carrazana, by telephone from Territorial AIDS Prison, sita en Carretera Planta Mecánica, Kilómetro 1 ½, Ciudad de Santa Clara, Villa Clara. Ricardo Pérez Hernández was in jail for common crimes and it is not known as of now why he committed suicide, although he did it in a punishment cell. Ribalta Carrazana added: "Papillo announced publicly to the prisoners and officials that he wasn't going to stop until he killed himself. Pérez Carrazana was emotionally unstable, commonly found in persons who suffer from HIV/AIDS and have prison terms”. According to the source, "Ricardo Pérez Hernández, know to us as Papillo, committed suicide. I don't blame him for what he did, I blame the prison regime that exists in Cuba and its leaders. I blame the Jail and Prison Directory of jails and prisons of Villa Clara and the the psychologist Vilma for the misfeasance in matters such as these. It happens daily, not only deaths, self infliction of wounds including burns, amputations of fingers, cut veins and so on. Public opinion and the Cuban people must know what is going on in Cuban prisons”. The rest of the prisoners held a minute of silence this Tuesday for the deceased, in addition to giving condolences by telephone to the family of ‘Papillo’.


Youth Without Censors Press Agency (The Cuban government denies this agency its legitimacy).

CUBAN GOVERNMENT DOES NOT STOP ITS KILLING MACHINE

IN 2007:

Lázaro Baró Montalvo, age 27, died in prison in January 2007 for unreported reasons.

Jeile Rodríguez Aguilar, age 19, died January 25, 2007 after a beating by prison guards that was officially reported as a suicide.

Ricardo Pérez Hernández, reportedly committed suicide on January 25, 2007 while being held in a punishment cell in a special prison for persons afflicted with AIDS. Was said to be emotionally unstable

Rangel Enrique Pons, age 34, assassinated by police on March 20, 2007

ALCATRAZ 90 MILES SOUTH OF THE USA

Cuba's Bloody Iron Curtain
For immediate release

May 3, 2007, Summit, New Jersey. In the wake of the most recent escape attempts from Cuba, foiled or successful, we note the systematic murder of civilians by the Castro regime for their mere attempt to flee the island. These crimes illustrate a profound disregard for human life and stem from the egregious violation of the fundamental right of Cubans to leave their country.

Article 215 of Cuba's Penal Code punishes attempts to leave the national territory without government authorization with up to eight years in prison. In fact, if a citizen tries to take an able vessel or aircraft to do so -a necessity because all are state property and strictly controlled- the punishment is up to twenty years in prison or death. Over the course of decades thousands have served prison, under dire conditions, for these so-called crimes. Still today, a number of political prisoners are serving very long sentences for attempting to escape the country.

But what is even more shocking is what Cuba’s Penal Code does not say. The Castro regime has, in fact, for decades systematically murdered civilians for trying to escape their country. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are estimated to have been killed by government authorities for attempting to escape by sea, for seeking asylum in foreign embassies, or trying to cross into the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo. That Guantánamo, largely ignored by the media and world public opinion, is sealed off by barbed wire, separated by a mine field, and under the shadow of watchtowers manned round-the-clock by Cuban border guards with orders to shoot to kill.

Cuba Archive’s incipient documentation effort has already revealed 247 victims of assassinations and executions for attempted escapes from Cuba. This is a partial number that grows consistently as research progresses, yet it already exceeds the 227 killings at the Berlin Wall. See a summary of selected documented cases at <http://www.CubaArchive.org/english_version/articles/89/1/ Cubans -killed-for-attempting-to-flee-Cuba>. An account in English of the massacre of 37 civilians in 1994 is available at <www.CubaArchive.org/english_version/articles/97/1/The-Tugboat-Massacre>.

ENEMIES AND MERCENARIES OF THE STATE

this is from www.rsf.org Reporters Without Borders:

Updated information on imprisoned Cuban journalists

In Cuba, any journalist who does not work for the official media is considered to be an “enemy of the state” or a “mercenary”. The changeover at the summit of the state between the Castro brothers and the promises made by Cuba in relation to human rights at the Non-Aligned Summit in Havana have unfortunately done nothing to alter this state of affairs.
There are currently 24 of them who have paid with their freedom for having founded an independent news agency, written for a dissident review or spoken to a media in the Cuban diaspora. Some are serving prison sentences of 14-27 years. Others are being held without trial. Another, despite being put on trial, has never been told what his sentence was. All of them however suffer the same overcrowding, appalling prison conditions and mistreatment from the prison authorities that are the lot of more than 300 prisoners of opinion on the island.
In 2006, Cuba is still the second biggest prison in the world for journalists after China. Three years ago it was the first, following an unprecedented crackdown which saw the arrest of 27 journalists, speedily tried and sentenced for alleged collaboration with the United States against “Cuba’s economy and national independence” under the terms of the 88 law or “gagging law”. Seven of these journalists who were victims of the “black spring” have since had their sentences suspended for health reasons, including Raúl Rivero and Manuel Vázquez Portal who have both gone into exile abroad.
For all that, the regime has never loosened its grip on the independent press. The daily experience of dissident journalists is of harassment, summonses and sudden periods in the custody of State Security (the political police). Three were arrested in 2005 and a fourth in May 2006. The “justice system” has never formally charged them.
Reporters Without Borders is appealing for people to sign a petition calling for the release of Cuba’s 24 imprisoned journalists.