Juventudes Liberais

(The following is an article published online by the Associated Press on December 9th, 2011.) 

A coalition of Cuban exiles sailed south from Florida on Friday to protest the island's human rights record with a nighttime fireworks display, eliciting a stern rebuke from Havana officials who called it an affront to national sovereignty.

Organizers said their boats would anchor a little more than 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Cuban capital, just outside Cuba's territorial waters, and by early evening multicolored explosions could be seen intermittently far off on the horizon from Havana.

Only a handful of people were along the Malecon oceanside promenade amid a steady wind and sporadic rain. Almost entirely missing were the masses of young Cubans who gather to socialize on a normal Friday night.

When an Associated Press crew tried to interview the few who were there, a pro-government crowd of more than 20 people ran across the wide boulevard yelling "American press!" and demanding that a video camera be turned over. Some were holding bottles of alcohol and appeared to have been drinking.

The journalists identified themselves as accredited members of the press with the right to work in Cuba. One cameraman was punched in the face, another's thumb was sprained and a video camera was broken in the melee before the crew managed to leave the scene.

Exile organizers in Miami insisted the 18th protest flotilla over the years would be peaceful and was not a provocation, though they said they were trying to coordinate the protest with actions by dissidents on the island. They called on other Havana residents to bang soup pots in solidarity during the fireworks on the eve of International Human Rights Day.

The exiles said they were merely exercising their right to freedom of expression, and the U.S. government said it couldn't legally stop them.

Cuban officials accused them of having malicious aims.

"There's a whole program of provocative acts," said Jose Luis Mendez, an official at Cuba's Interior Ministry. "This is not just about innocuous fireworks. It is subversive."

More than two dozen members of the Ladies in White dissident group, meanwhile, held a literary tea and discussion of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the house of former leader Laura Pollan, who died last month.

A boisterous crowd clogged the street outside shouting epithets like "worms" at the Ladies and proclaiming support for Fidel and Raul Castro in what is known in Cuba as an "act of repudiation."

The government insists such counter-demonstrations are spontaneous outpourings of revolutionary sentiment, despite thinly veiled coordination with state security agents. The street outside the house had been closed to traffic since Thursday.

"We cannot celebrate Human Rights Day here in Cuba. We can't because they repress us and beat us. Right now there's an act of repudiation in front of the Ladies in White headquarters," said Bertha Soler, one of the group's founders. She accused police of blocking some members from joining them.

Other dissidents also reported that government opponents were briefly held to keep them from gathering or protesting.

The government strenuously denies beating dissidents, whom it considers to be common criminals. It accuses them of taking money from Washington to destabilize the island and bring down its socialist revolution.

Flotilla organizer Ramon Saul Sanchez of the small nonprofit group the Democracy Movement said about 50 protesters were going in six boats, including an 85-foot vessel and a small security craft. About a dozen members of the news media were following them.

State Department Spokesman William Ostick said federal authorities had met with the organizers to ensure they complied with U.S. and international laws. He said the organizers offered assurances that they would not violate Cuban territorial waters or airspace.

"We have urged the Democracy Movement and the Cuban government to exercise caution and restraint during the Democracy Movement's December 9 fireworks shows in international waters off Havana," Ostick said in a statement.

"We have also made it clear to Cuban authorities as well as participants in this event that the U.S. government would punish any violation of U.S. laws," he continued, adding: "The United States government does not promote or encourage this activity."

Nevertheless, Cuban authorities criticized Washington for not blocking the protest.

"That the Obama administration did not refuse to allow this kind of action is a very troubling sign, from the vantage point of it could create situations that nobody wants," Mendez said.

A colleague in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Rene Mujica, said President Raul Castro's government had communicated its concern to Washington but declined to say whether it had sent a formal protest note.

"The United States is perfectly informed about the Cuban government's concerns regarding this kind of provocations that have been repeatedly made against our country," Mujica said. "They can have consequences beyond their supposed immediate objectives."

The U.S. Coast Guard said it would patrol the area to ensure the protesters stayed more than 12 miles off Cuba.

 The original article can be viewed here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFO5q0qCGz4_dDs1XM0Dw1iwYIxQ?docId=787ab92aa9524f49b5be13a53e84179f

(The following is an article published by the Miami Herald on December 3rd, 2011.)

 

Cuban police and men in civilian clothes attacked more than 50 dissidents as they started a protest march Friday in the eastern town of Palma Soriano, leaving many of them bleeding from head wounds, witnesses and dissidents reported.

The march was part of an effort to stage coordinated protests throughout the island, starting in eastern Cuba, that had led to the police arrests of about 150 dissidents since they started Thursday, opposition activists reported.

Palma resident Liliana Rodríguez said the incident began after about 300 police and many men in civilian clothes closed off the street in front of her house, where about 50 government opponents had gathered for the protest march.

The dissidents stepped outside around 10 a.m., chanting anti-government slogans like “down with the dictatorship” and carrying a Cuban flag, but were immediately attacked, reported Rodríguez, who said she watched from the second-story of her home.

The police and men in civilian clothes “fell on them like a swarm of bees, and demolished them. Almost all had blood on them,” she said. “They were hitting with their fists, kicks and even one of those mechanic’s wrenches.”

Her sister Tatiana, who also witnessed the crackdown told the Madrid-based blog CubaEncuentro that some of the dissidents were “red with blood” after the attack.

Police then forced the dissidents onto three buses, pepper-sprayed some of the protesters who complained about their treatment and drove them away, Rodriguez told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Palma. She added that the men in civilian clothes were clearly State Security agents.

Ladies in White member Yelena Garcés said that before the crackdown, she saw about a dozen police patrol cars and a group of men changing from military uniforms to civilian clothes aboard a Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces bus parked near the Rodríguez home.

Among those detained were José Daniel Ferrer García and Angel Moya, two of the 75 dissidents jailed in 2003 and freed this year. Moya is married to Berta Soler, the leader of the Ladies in White, a group that demands the release of all political prisoners.

Rodriguez said police also arrested her brother-in-law, Osmani Céspedes, who tried to stay in the house so he could report on whatever happened, and another dissident who tried to record a video of the event.

Garcés told El Nuevo Herald that she could not witness the crackdown because police had closed off the street in front of Rodriguez early Friday, but that several neighbors on the street told her what happened by phone.

Police “hit everyone, everyone. There were busted heads, some with so much blood their faces could not be recognized,” said Garcés, whose husband, Miguel Rafael Cabrera, was among those who tried to march and was arrested.

Dissident reports of police violence can seldom be independently confirmed. The government’s news media monopoly almost never mentions such events, and foreign journalists in Havana are under heavy pressures to avoid reporting on them.

The Palma Soriano protest was to have been part of a string of attempts at street marches, starting Thursday in easternmost Cuba and following later in towns progressively to the west, to demand “liberty and democracy for Cuba.”

About 26 dissidents were arrested by police Thursday in the easternmost province of Guantánamo and another 25 or so were detained in the nearby provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguin, Ferrer García reported on Thursday.

Havana dissident Juan Carlos González Leyva reported early Friday afternoon that he had already received word of about 150 would-be marchers detained, including the more than 50 hauled away in Palma Soriano.

Most dissidents arrested to prevent public protests or other anti-government activities are usually freed hours or days later, with a police warning that they will be brought to trial and sent to prison if they persist.

Palma Soriano, a largely farming municipality of 125,000 people 18 miles northwest of Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest city, has seen several harsh crackdowns on dissidents in recent months by police and government supporters in plainclothes.

In August, police for the first time in recent memory broke up a planned protest in Palma by using tear gas and deploying a fire truck and a riot squad, wearing black uniforms and carrying gas masks, shields, helmets and riot batons.

Among the 30 or so dissidents arrested in that attack was Garcés’ husband. Cabrera was freed one month ago, after spending two months in jail “under investigation,” Garcés said.

The “National March Boitel-Zapata Live!” is named after two dissidents who died during prison hunger strikes, Pedro Luis Boitel in 1972 and Orlando Zapata Tamayo early last year.

The original article can be read here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/03/2529017/marches-are-part-of-campaign.html

(The following is a press release from the International Coalition for a Free Cuba, issued on October 30th of this year.) 

In the Eastern city of Guantanamo, the home of Niovis Rivera Guerra, (member of the Resistance and Democracy Movement), his wife, Yurilaidy Travieso and three young daughters, 13, 9 and 3 years old, was surrounded by patrol cars, military vehicles, and subjected to, at least, two days of brutal mob attacks (October 25-26, 2011) of around 400 people. Asphalt was thrown against the house, all the windows, as well as the door, were stoned and broken, the family received death threats, and Rivera Guerra was beaten and tear gased. All this brutal violence was because the family displayed pro democracy and human rights posters in the front of their home. This is the fifth time in 2011, that the home of this activist is attacked. Several members of the Resistance and Democracy Movement were beaten and arrested when they tried to come to the aid of Niovis Rivera Guerra and his family: Hermis Figueras Ros, Francisco Osoria Claro, and the Adventist Pastor Raul Martinez Caraballo.

 

Also in Eastern Cuba, on October 26, 2011, several cities suffered government repression, In Contramaestre, any activist or citizen who visits the home of human rights defender, Jorge Cervantes is under scrutiny by the political police. In Moa, Rapid Response Brigades threw eggs against the home of the coordinator of the UMPACU, Juan Carlos Vazquez Osoria and the Lady in White, Annis Sarrion Romero.

 

Two human rights defenders in Santa Clara (Central Cuba) who were on a hunger strike since September 28, 2011, demanding that the Cuban government put a stop to the violence against peaceful activists, were taken in critical state to the Provincial Hospital Arnaldo Milian Castro. Alcides Rivera Rodriguez was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, October 27, 2011, and diagnosed with bronchopneumonia. Rolando Ferrer Espinosa was admitted on the following day. Alcides has lost almost 60 lbs. while Ferrer Espinosa who is suffering a severe abdominal pain has lost over 30 lbs.of his body weight. Both continue in critical condition. 

 

On October 24, 2011 several human rights activists were arrested in Havana when peaceful organizations such as the National Front of Civil Resistance and Desobedience and the Human Rights Party called on activists to gather at the Martin Luther King Park. Adjacent streets to this park were all surrounded by State Security agents. Among several activists arbitrarily detained and released were Sara Marta Fonseca and Rodolfo Ramirez Cardoso. 

 

On Sunday, October 30, 2011, ten Ladies in White, in Eastern Cuba, were beaten and arbitrarily detained as they tried to attend mass in the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba. The following women were mistreated and suffered short term detention:Aymeé Garcés ( as well as her husband Julio Valcarcel) Leyva, Belkis Cantillo Ramírez, Vivian Peña Hernández, Liudmila Rodríguez Palomo, Adriana Núñez Pascual, María Elena Matos, Oria Casanova Moreno, Yuremi González Pavót, Tania Bandera González, Ana Celia Rodríguez Torres and a minor 14 years old, Marta Beatriz Ferrer Cantillo the daughter of Lady in White, Belkis Cantillo and the expolitical prisoner of conscience, Jose Daniel Ferrer.

At least three homes of activists who had gathered in the Eastern cities of Palma Soriano and Palmarito de Cauto to protest the violence against the Ladies in White on October 30 were surrounded by repressive forces. Under siege were the following human rights defenders of the National Front Orlando Zapata as well as members of the UMPACU ( Patriotic Union of Cuba): Prudencio Villalon, Roberto Quiñones, Pedro Manuel Guerrero, Julio Cesar Salazar, Ruben Torres, Dany Lopez, Rudy San Ramirez, Rolando Humberto Gonzalez, Maximiliano Sanchez, Abraham Cabrera, Amauri Abelenda and Manuel Martinez. 

(The following article is taken from Freedom House's blog and was written by Daniel Calingaert, Vice President for Policy and External Relations at Freedom House.) 

President Raúl Castro introduced market reforms in Cuba earlier this year to preserve, not dismantle, the communist system. He retains a tight grip on power and seems intent on pursuing a Chinese model of market economics combined with political repression. The reforms have, however, brought about a significant change in attitudes in Cuba, according to a recent Freedom House survey. Optimism is growing, expectations are rising, and Cubans want more freedom. Will the Chinese model work in Cuba?

The government shows no intention of opening up the political system.  At the Communist Party congress in April, when Castro welcomed a “new generation” of leaders, they were led by revolution-era geriatrics like himself.  Political repression meanwhile remains intense. The heavy-handed response last week to a gathering of the dissident Ladies in White was typical. Twenty members of the group, which advocates on behalf of political prisoners, were detained on their way to a meeting to discuss the organization’s future following the death of its leader, Laura Pollán.

Repression is also evident in the Cuban government’s control over the media. Only 8 percent of the respondents to Freedom House’s survey get their news from independent sources; 92 percent still rely on state sources. These state media keep Cubans in the dark about major international events. While four in five respondents had heard about the economic reforms in Cuba, awareness of the Arab Spring was very limited. Only 40 percent knew what happened to Egypt’s leaders, and only 36 percent knew what started the revolution in Tunisia.

Although Cuba remains among the most repressive places on earth, Raúl Castro’s economic reforms are driving larger changes, which seem likely to gain momentum. While most Cubans expect conditions to stay the same, the percentage who expect their family’s economic situation to improve in the next year has increased to 30 percent, from 17 percent in December 2010, when Freedom House conducted its previous survey on Cuba. Unless these increased expectations are met, Cubans may grow dissatisfied quickly. Moreover, the sense of insecurity and resentment about the reforms is most pronounced among Cubans who favor the socialist economic system and form one of the government’s main bases of public support.

The current reforms, particularly the cuentapropista (self-employment) licenses issued for small-scale businesses, have generated a desire for further changes.  Some respondents to Freedom House’s latest survey expressed interest in lower taxes, access to credit, and fewer restrictions on hiring employees, so that they could expand their businesses. Others want the Cuban government to issue licenses for professional services rather than limit them to unskilled work, such as street vending and running small restaurants. An architect interviewed by Freedom House, for example, would like a license to start a business building and selling houses.

As the economic reforms take effect, Freedom House’s survey also found a growing demand for civil liberties. When asked what reforms they would most like to see in Cuba, the largest number of respondents answered that they want increased freedom of expression and freedom to travel. By contrast, the most frequent answer to this question in the December 2010 survey was improved economic conditions. Cubans are increasingly looking beyond poor living conditions and seeking greater individual freedom.

The change in public attitudes between the two Freedom House surveys is quite striking. The December 2010 survey painted a picture of an overwhelmingly passive population. Cubans seemed to have no control over their destiny. They were simply trying to get by in tough times. The sense that emerges from the latest survey, particularly among the self-employed, is very different. Cubans now see that they can improve their lives. An economics student, for example, told a Freedom House researcher that “you should be able to get more money when you work harder,” while a businessman in Pinar del Río declared, “I am my own boss … and I earn what I want.”

More Cubans now want to work in private business than in the state sector, even though state salaries are secure and a fixed rate of taxes is imposed on private enterprises regardless of their profits. The preference for private-sector jobs suggests that many Cubans are ready to get past their dependence on the state and gain personal autonomy. 

In the survey, Cubans assume that the reforms are here to stay. There is no talk about reforms being rolled back, only about further changes when the Castros pass away.

As expectations rise and interest in individual freedoms grows, Cubans may come to demand more than the modest economic reforms they are getting. While some still cling to the old system, others look forward to additional changes or a complete transformation. As a young Afro-Cuban man in Santa Clara told us, “I want the total fall of the system; I want total freedom and capitalism; ... I also want to scream in the streets what I think about the country and its politics.”

Today, all of Cuba grieves for the passing of Laura Pollan, the co-founder of las Damas de Blanco (The Ladies in White). For nearly a decade, she helped to stage weekly protests with other wives of political prisoners to press for their release. She never missed a week, regardless of whether it rained or if the island was awaiting the imminent arrival of a hurricane. She also never gave up hope that her voice, and the voices of so many other families, would be heard. 

She was 63 years old when she passed from this world on Friday, October 14th. According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, she had been in intensive care for acute respiratory problems since October 7th.

As the head of the Commission said of her, "She was a teacher and a housewife, but she became a leader for civil rights. She has played a fundamental role, without a doubt even beyond winning freedom for her husband."

Indeed, it is true that few can remember a time when Pollan was seen wearing any colour other than white. But, before the Black Spring of 2003 that saw her husband and dozens upon dozens of other Cubans imprisoned on trumped up charges, Laura Pollan was a high school literature teacher who loved cats and plants. She steered clear of politics.

When she dared to speak out against her husband's imprisonment and to call for his release, the Cuban authorities labelled her a "traitor" and a "subversive agent" in the employ of the United States. Even under attacks by paramilitary forces, she and the other brave members of the Ladies in White have continued to march peacefully once a week, a silent and non-violent expression of resistance against a decaying dictatorship that stubbornly clings to power.

IFLRY stands in solidarity with the Ladies in White, the family of Laura Pollan, as well as all those who knew this courageous person, as they go through a difficult and trying time. Her loss is felt around the globe. But, as Laura Pollan passes from this world, she also leaves behind a powerful legacy. The weekly marches of las Damas de Blanco have secured the release of many political prisoners. The decision to continue, to carry on the legacy of Laura Pollan, is a welcome one. 

On behalf of the IFLRY Cuba Programme Team, I commit myself to intensifying our efforts, to giving all that we can and all that we have in the struggle for a brighter future for Cuba and the Cuban people. Laura Pollan deserves no less from us.  

- Paul Pryce

IFLRY Cuba Programme Manager

(Laura Pollan can be seen speaking on the situation in Cuba here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vWNAHLOzVk

(The following is an editorial piece written by Michael Putney for The Miami Herald. It is shared here for its relevance to the current situation in US-Cuba relations.)

 

Are we experiencing compassion fatigue on Cuba? I’m seeing signs of it, which doesn’t bode well for Cuba’s brave pro-democracy activists. Or for us. They’re suffering and most of us — along with most of the world — are yawning.

Thousands marched down Calle Ocho two years ago after Cuban human rights activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo went on a hunger strike and died. Now, as prisoners of conscience continue to suffer in the Castros’ jails and pro-democracy dissidents on the outside are beaten and harassed, the response for the most part is a shrug.

But not from South Florida’s three Cuban American members of Congress, who are trying to sound the alarm. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera called a news conference last week to demand answers from the Castro government about the whereabouts and well being of three women dissidents picked up by Castro’s goon squad. They were taken into custody Sept. 26 in Havana, held incommunicado and released just this past Monday.

One of the women, Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, is the wife of the well known pro-democracy activist “Antunez,” Jorge Luis García Pérez. In an email he says his wife and the other two women were on their way to “Section 21,” Cuba’s main state security office, to demand information about the health of some political prisoners. Their detention came a day after state security broke up a peaceful march by the Ladies in White.

What does it say about the Castro regime that it feels so threatened by a small group of non-violent, middle-aged women that it sics pro-government mobs and state police on them? Looks to me like a government that watched the Arab Spring and is deathly afraid of a Cuban Fall, literally and metaphorically.

So the Castros and their security apparatus — about the only thing that does work in Cuba — are resorting to the most vile tactics available to stifle dissent. Of course, this is a government that has made “dangerousness” a crime. It is beyond Orwellian.

“Before,” says Ros-Lehtinen, “the modus operandi of the regime was to detain people for just a few hours to send a message, ‘This is repression, you can’t do this.’ Now, they’re actually sentencing the opposition leaders up to five years in jail.”

As The Herald’s Juan Tamayo has reported, the Castro government — after recently releasing 52 dissidents from prison after eight years — appears to have lost patience with pro-democracy activists and has started to put them back behind bars.

Eleven dissidents will be put on trial, according to a pro-government blog, and the Ladies in White may be crushed.

So where’s the outcry? The marches? The condemnations? And where, as Ros-Lehtinen correctly asked, are the stories in The New York Times, Washington Post and the TV networks? For that matter, where are the stories in local English-language media? I was the only English-language reporter at the congressional news conference.

There are several reasons for the lack of attention. First, it’s maddeningly difficult to get solid, verifiable information out of Cuba. Unless you’re a network news anchor or sympathetic print reporter you can’t get a visa to work there. Reporters who’ve been even mildly critical of the Castro government are shut out completely. I haven’t been able to get a visa for a decade. Video from Cuba is hard to come by and when you get it Cuba stories are a hard sell for English-language TV stations, whose managers feel people interested in Cuba will get their news from a Spanish-language channel.

Another, thornier problem is the very members of Congress who are now sounding the alarm. They’ve cried wolf so many times in the past that it would take a pack of wolves to get the media’s attention. Our congressional delegation has spent much of its political capital protesting policies that most Americans see as reasonable — liberalizing travel to Cuba by exiles and American citizens and increasing remittances — or have sponsored laws that seem petty and vindictive. Like denying Cuba scholars the right to do research on the island no matter who’s paying for it. They’ve also gone ballistic on even President Obama’s most timid efforts to reach out to the Castro regime.

The upshot is largely indifference when our Cuban-American members of Congress complain about Castro. And compassion fatigue for the courageous Cubans who are demanding reforms. “It’s a lot different,” Ros-Lehtinen noted, “to say ‘abajo Fidel’ in Miami than it is to say it in Havana.”

She’s right, of course, and we need to remember that brave Cubans calling for basic human rights and democratic reforms in Cuba are paying a terrible price — their freedom. We need to stand up and speak out for them.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/04/2438697/compassion-fatigue-on-cuba.html#ixzz1ZsND1ng0

With some of the statements and actions coming from Havana in the early days of September, one must ask: are Castro and Qaddafi ‘best friends forever’?

 

This month, the Castro regime has brought a whole new meaning to the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Even as rebels in Libya have made increasingly significant gains against the old, decaying regime of Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, the Cuban authorities have become more and more concerned that their long-standing control of nearly all aspects of life on the island could be shattered should a similar uprising ever break out.

 

On September 3rd, the Cuban Foreign Ministry completed its withdrawal of all diplomatic staff from Libya. The Castro regime has also refused to recognize the Transitional National Council at a time when this body needs international support in restoring order and peace to Libya. The refusal to recognize the Transitional National Council included a blanket rejection of any and all provisional authorities that could be formed in Libya in the future. Apparently, Qaddafi’s rule by the barrel of a gun is what Castro considers “legitimate” and “democratic”.

 

What is more, the Cuban Foreign Ministry has released a statement calling the developments in Libya, including the seizure of Tripoli by the rebels and the dismantling of Qaddafi’s tools of oppression, “tragic”.

 

Truly tragic is the missed opportunity here for the Cuban regime to signal its willingness to support democratic transition, both abroad and at home. But now Raul Castro has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with one of the most ruthless despots of the early 21st century, signalling his willingness to be painted with the same brush or perhaps revealing his true nature.

 

 Birds of a feather flock together. Castro may soon be joining his friend in a swan dive from power.

 

On August 13th, Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada made history. There’s is the first wedding between a man and a transgender woman in Cuba. The wedding would have been unthinkable in even Cuba’s more recent past, where homosexuals and transsexuals were brutally repressed and persecuted at the behest of the country’s regime.

 

Even today, Wendy and Ignacio had many hurdles to overcome in order to partake in this happy occasion.

 

Wendy Iriepa previously worked for Cuba’s Sex Education Centre. However, her relationship with Ignacio Estrada came under scrutiny from the regime. Mariela Castro, head of the Sex Education Centre and daughter of reigning Raul Castro, did not approve. As a result, Wendy resigned from her position.

 

This may have been due to Ignacio’s associations with pro-democracy opposition groups on the island. At their wedding, the couple invited dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez to serve as the maid of honour. Leaders of the Ladies in White also attended.

 

As Sanchez expressed via Twitter, “How positive! Cuba now shows itself to be a kaleidoscope of ideas… The only thing missing is for them not to be repressed.”

 

The country’s democrats and dissidents – the true Cuban patriots – were there in numbers to celebrate their country’s social progress and the love shared between two individuals, Wendy and Ignacio.

 

But the current regime stayed far away from the wedding. In fact, they condemned it. Mariela Castro issued a statement insinuating that this consecration of love was all part of a US-backed plot to undermine the Communist Party’s authority. “US government funds exist here to create LGBT groups that oppose the position of the National Sex Education Centre,” she alleged.

 

What do Wendy and Ignacio think of all this talk of subversion and intrigue? “I think this has been politicized by the Cuban government. I have not wanted to make this into a circus or something really political,” Wendy said. “It is the happiest day of my life.”

 

If anything, the role of government is to enhance liberty, offering a helping hand where it can and bringing citizens within reach of their dreams. It should not, as the Castro regime has done, stand in the way of its citizens and endeavour to crush their hopes, their dreams by rationing liberty.

 

It seems the LGBT community in Cuba is sending a clear message to the regime: get out of our way, Mr. Castro!