Cuba's brave "Ladies in White"

The Ladies in White walk in 5ta Avenida, Miramar, Havana, the last Sunday 28. Photo Roberto Guerra, Hablemos Press.

Raul Castro, Cuba's successor to brother Fidel, has recently unleashed his thugs on women peacefully protesting Cuban human rights abuses. The brutal attacks completely undermine Mr. Castro's attempt to appear moderate and will set back his carefully cultivated relationship with the European Union. Ultimately it could lead to a popular uprising.

The attacks are unconscionable, and betray a realistic fear that the Cuban public is fed up with Castroism and only lacks a spark to rise up against the geriatric dictatorship. The Cuban women's protest movement could supply that needed spark.

Members and supporters of the "Ladies in White" human rights movement attempting to assemble for protests after church services in Santiago de Cuba have been physically attacked by Cuban government agents every Sunday from July 24 through Aug. 28.

The women are expected to exercise their right of peaceful protest again this Sunday.

But don't expect eyewitness reports from the foreign press in Cuba. They are being kept away.

The most detailed account of the beatings is a report by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights on what happened Sunday, Aug. 7, in the vicinity of Santiago. It said state security officials and "Castro supporters" attacked women assembling for a protest march using "sticks and other blunt objects" causing "injuries, some considerable," according to The Wall Street Journal.

The women were forcibly taken by bus to the city outskirts and forced to walk back.

When some attempted another protest march the same afternoon they were again attacked.

Government bullies also broke into two homes of recently freed political activists who refused to be sent into exile as a condition of their freedom. The wife and daughter of former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer and four other people were sent to the hospital with contusions and broken bones, the Federation report said.

According to Cuban dissidents, similar harassments, arrests, beatings and home invasions have been experienced by demonstrators on each of the past six Sundays.

In Havana on Aug. 18, a government-inspired mob punched, slapped and kicked members of a Ladies in White march, spit on them, pulled their hair and ripped clothes. Several of the 42 marchers reported bruises, according to their spokeswoman, Berta Soler, who spoke with the Miami Herald.

The Ladies in White harassed by the mob last August the 18th.

The government tactics could quickly backfire. On Aug. 23, a crowd of Cubans gathered in front of the steps of the capitol building in Havana was recorded on video as it booed, hissed and insulted government agents forcibly dragging away four women protesters.

One of the women, Sara Marta Fonseca, a member of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights, told a Spanish newspaper her hope is that "people will cross the barrier of fear and join the opposition to reclaim freedom."

Thanks to the Ladies in White and their supporters, the Cuban people are one step closer to realizing that hope.

Source: The Post and Courier

Cuba's "Ladies in White" ask Church to help stop violence

 

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Fake report of Fidel Castro's death leads to malware attack

Be on your guard if you receive an email seemingly from Chile's "24 Horas" news website announcing the death of Fidel Castro, the former dictator of Cuba.

The spammed out messages, which are written in Spanish, look like the following:

 
The messages have a subject line of

Murio Fidel Castro

and the text inside the emails claims that the longtime Cuban dictator died in the afternoon at his home, and that officials claim that he was taken ill a few days ago after suffering a sudden heart attack.

Recipients are urged to click on the image to see a breaking news video report about Fidel Castro's death.

Of course, if Castro was really dead (it's believed that he has been in very poor health for some years) then it would be headline news on the likes of the BBC and CNN. But I haven't seen any reports from those news outlets.

So don't be fooled into clicking on the links in this email, as they will take your computer to a Trojan horse (which Sophos detects as Troj/DwnLdr-JGW) that in turns downloads further malicious code (Troj/Agent-SYF) onto your Windows PC.

As a sidenote, this isn't the first time that the Castro name has been associated with cybercrime. Two years ago, it was revealed that Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, Fidel Castro's son, found himself tricked into revealing personal information to a virtual woman in an online love sting.

by Graham Cluley 

Source: Naked Security

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Cuba: Defending “Las Damas”

The Ladies in White on the sreets of Santiago de Cuba, last Sunday.

Cuban bloggers continue to update their posts about the most recent attack on Las Damas de Blanco (The Ladies in White), in which members of the group were reportedly “attacked and brutally beaten…by agents of Castro State Security upon exiting a church sanctuary.”

The Coalition of Cuban-American Women has issued a press release denouncing the attack, which even includes an audio clip [es] of one of the Ladies, Tania Montoya Vázquez, relating her experience. El Cafe Cubano has republished the Coalition's statement in a show of solidarity.

Babalu comments on the “recording by opposition leader Tania Montoya Vazquez, who called in to Hablalo Sin Miedo while a violent attack against the Ladies in White was taking place yesterday”, saying:

You can hear the desperation and fear in her voice. Even if you do not speak or understand Spanish, the tone of her voice and the screams in the background give a chilling account of the brutality of the Castro dictatorship.

The incident has caused an outcry from other factions as well; see The International Federation of Liberal Youth's statement, here:

Belkis Cantillo Ramirez was shot in the arm, while others were brutally beaten with batons, stones and other objects. In the midst of the violence, Tania Montoya and Rodaisa Corrioso were arrested by the authorities. Aside from these two brave women, thirteen members of this organization, including Belkis Cantillo Ramirez, are receiving medical care at a local hospital.
The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) condemns these attacks in the strongest terms. Las Damas de Blanco is a strictly peaceful movement. To respond to such non-violent resistance with such brutal repression colours the Castro regime as tyrannical at best. If these attacks were not sanctioned by the authorities, then an investigation must be immediately initiated and given far-reaching jurisdiction.

The statement goes on to demand that “Tania Montoya and Rodaisa Corrioso must be immediately and unconditionally released”, while Babalu writes another post with “more graphic details” (including photos), saying:

A quick review this morning of the websites run by some prominent ‘Cuba Experts' finds no mention whatsoever of this brutal and violent attack on these defenseless yet courageous women. The narrative put forth by these ‘experts' mirrors the narrative put forth by the Castro regime…they are not about to shine the light of truth on the atrocities…

Uncommon Sense also weighs in, making the point that:

To its credit, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Santiago de Cuba confirmed the report, and denounced the attack.

This has proven to be an interesting observation, considering Babalu's take on a USA Today editorial suggesting that:

Post-Castro Cuba will need someone trusted by all segments of society to help shepherd this nation into a new era, without bloodshed or upheaval. Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, archbishop of Havana, is that man. The son of a sugar mill worker, Ortega is uniquely equipped to fill any power vacuum.

Babalu strongly disagrees:

In a colossal display of sheer ignorance and contemptuous arrogance, Pinsky nominates for president one of the most corrupted and compromised individuals in Cuba today while ignoring venerable leaders such as Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who unlike Ortega, has not compromised his principles or allowed himself to be used as a political tool by the dictatorship.

El Cafe Cubano supports this view, saying:

This past Sunday in ‘Santiago de Cuba, a city in the Eastern province of Cuba, women pro democracy activists were savagely beaten and verbally attacked in the streets by Cuban State Security agents after they attended mass in the Basilica of El Cobre, a Catholic shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Charity, where they prayed for the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners and for the freedom of Cuba.'
The Catholic Church silent and looking the other way…

No doubt, the Cuban diaspora will continue to follow developments and provide cyber support for The Ladies in White.

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco
Source: Global Voices

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