The Only Thing to Fear...
Cubans are slowly losing their fear of the Castro regime. Convalescing with a multiply-fractured knee, the bearded elderly man in olive green uniform can still stand and deliver a "speech" for five hours in the scorching heat of Havana. Still, Cubans are quietly (but not silently) beginning to defy him more and more.
For more than a year, a group of women whose husbands have been sent to prison for no other reason than to oppose the Castro regime's ideas and for demanding greater openness, have been walking the streets collecting signatures in protest. They are Cuba's version of the heroic Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
About 1 000 people have had the courage to sign the petitions, providing their names, ID numbers and addresses. One thousand brave souls who dare not to be intimidated.
Elsewhere, Oswaldo Paya, who organized a group of dissidents since last year has been pushing for greater opening and greater freedoms for the islanders. Most of the dissidents arrested, whose wives are collecting signatures, were part of Paya's movement, known as the Varela Project.
These Cubans are models of courage. They are defying a 44-year tyranny, one of the world's longest. Like Pierre Trudeau, many Canadians still come to the island for relaxation and refreshment, to be served and waited on by people with medical and engineering degrees who lack basic political rights. Lately, even the Europeans are demanding that Castro relax his iron fist and open the country to greater human rights for Cubans, but Canada dances around Castro's ego, worried not to offend him.
Canada and Canadians should be ashamed of their active and tacit support of Castro's tyranny.
For more than a year, a group of women whose husbands have been sent to prison for no other reason than to oppose the Castro regime's ideas and for demanding greater openness, have been walking the streets collecting signatures in protest. They are Cuba's version of the heroic Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
Leal and the other women walked about 45 minutes from Central Havana to Revolution Square without incident. Most of the women represented 75 dissidents sentenced to long prison terms in 2003 on grounds that they conspired to destabilize the socialist system. Human rights organizations, the Vatican, the European Union and U.S. government have requested amnesty for the political prisoners. So far, the Cuban government has granted 14 dissidents probation for health reasons.
About 1 000 people have had the courage to sign the petitions, providing their names, ID numbers and addresses. One thousand brave souls who dare not to be intimidated.
Elsewhere, Oswaldo Paya, who organized a group of dissidents since last year has been pushing for greater opening and greater freedoms for the islanders. Most of the dissidents arrested, whose wives are collecting signatures, were part of Paya's movement, known as the Varela Project.
These Cubans are models of courage. They are defying a 44-year tyranny, one of the world's longest. Like Pierre Trudeau, many Canadians still come to the island for relaxation and refreshment, to be served and waited on by people with medical and engineering degrees who lack basic political rights. Lately, even the Europeans are demanding that Castro relax his iron fist and open the country to greater human rights for Cubans, but Canada dances around Castro's ego, worried not to offend him.
Canada and Canadians should be ashamed of their active and tacit support of Castro's tyranny.
posted by kaqchikel at
2/18/2005 07:15:00 PM
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