Cuban dissident movement

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short descriptionTemplate:Use dmy datesTemplate:Politics of Cuba The Cuban dissident movement, also known as the Cuban democracy movement or the Cuban opposition, is a political movement in Cuba whose for aim is to start a democratic transition in Cuba. It differs from the early opposition to Fidel Castro which occurred from 1959 to 1968, and instead consists of the internal opposition movement birthed by the founding of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1976.<ref name="fiu"/> This opposition later became an active social movement during the Special Period in the 1990s, as various civic organizations began jointly calling for a democratic transition in Cuba.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The movement is made up of various actors, from conservative democrats who favor free market economics to centre-left socialist sympathizers. All activists typically agree on the need for expanding democratic rights, and some level of legal free enterprise.<ref name=griffith>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scholars Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, Alfredo Prieto claim that their 2019 polling shows few Cubans are familiar with dissident leaders or propositions, mostly because top dissidents focus their efforts on demanding the release of friends and relatives from jail, and not on organizing mass movements for general freedoms. They also claim being a dissident is difficult to do in public, because a public dissident group would be "quickly and firmly repressed by security forces".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to the Harvard International Review, dissident groups are weak and usually infiltrated by Cuban state security. Media is totally state-controlled, thus dissidents find it difficult to organize and "Many of their leaders have shown enormous courage in defying the regime. Yet, time and again, the security apparatus has discredited or destroyed them. They do not represent a major threat to the regime."<ref name="suchlicki"/>

Some dissident groups in the Cuban diaspora received both funding and assistance from the U.S. Intelligence Community during the Cold War, which has caused the Communist Party of Cuba to allege that all dissidents are part of a United States strategy to covertly destabilize the Party's control over the country.<ref name=":0" />

Background

Democratic decline

Template:Main Soon after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro announced in a speech given on April 9, 1959, that the elections which were promised to occur after the revolution were to be delayed. On May Day, 1960, Fidel Castro would outright condemn elections as corrupt, and cancel all future elections.<ref name=Democracy>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the beginning of 1959, Cuban printers unions began demanding that newspapers which were critical of the government add a "coletilla" ("clarification") next to articles that rebuked critical comments in the articles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By the end of 1960, according to political scientist Paul H. Lewis, all opposition newspapers had been closed down and all radio and television stations were under state control.<ref name="Lewis"/> In nearly all areas of government, loyalty to the regime became the primary criterion for all appointments.<ref name="Staten-Cuba"/>

On July 26, 1963, Fidel Castro declared that military conscription would be applied universally to all males between ages 16 and 44.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Homosexuals as well as other "deviant" groups who were excluded from military conscription, were forced to conduct their compulsory military service in work camps called "Military Units to Aid Production" in the 1960s, and were subjected to political "reeducation".<ref name="Hirschfeld-since1898"/><ref name="Machos, Maricones, and Gays"/><ref name="World Police Encyclopedia"/> Some of Castro's military commanders brutalized the inmates.<ref name="Machos, Maricones, and Gays1"/>

Human rights in contemporary Cuba

Template:Main According to a 2006 Human Rights Watch report, the Marxist-Leninist Cuban government represses nearly all forms of political dissent.<ref name="hrw2006"/> This control is accomplished by various means:

  • The media is operated under the Cuban Communist Party’s Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which "develops and coordinates propaganda strategies".<ref name="10 most censored countries – The Committee to Protect Journalists"/>
  • A Human Rights Watch 1999 report on Cuba notes that Cuba has penalties for anyone who "threatens, libels or slanders, defames, affronts (injuria) or in any other way insults (ultraje) or offends, with the spoken word or in writing, the dignity or decorum of an authority, public functionary, or his agents or auxiliaries". There are even harsher penalties for those who show contempt for the President of the Council of the State, the President of the National Assembly of Popular Power, the members of the Council of the State or the Council of Ministers, or the Deputies of the National Assembly of the Popular Power.<ref name="HRW Cuba 1999 III"/>
  • There is a three-month to one-year sentence for anyone who "publicly defames, denigrates, or scorns the Republic's institutions, the political, mass, or social organizations of the country, or the heroes or martyrs of the nation".<ref name="HRW Cuba 1999 III"/>
  • Cubans are not allowed to produce, distribute or store publications without informing the authorities.<ref name="HRW Cuba 1999 III"/>
  • Social dangerousness, defined as violations of socialist morality, can warrant "pre-criminal measures" and "therapeutic measures".<ref name="II. CUBA'S INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS"/>
  • Regarding institutions, the Human Rights Watch report notes that the Interior Ministry has principal responsibility for monitoring the Cuban population for signs of dissent.<ref name="HRW-Cuba1999-VIII"/>
  • In 1991, two new mechanisms for internal surveillance and control emerged. Communist Party leaders organized the Singular Systems of Vigilance and Protection (Sistema Unico de Vigilancia y Protección, SUVP). Rapid Action Brigades (Brigadas de Acción Rapida, also referred to as Rapid Response Brigades, or Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida) observe and control dissidents.<ref name="HRW-Cuba1999-VIII"/> The regime also "maintains academic and labor files (expedientes escolares y laborales) for each citizen, in which officials record actions or statements that may bear on the person's loyalty to the regime. Before advancing to a new school or position, the individual's record must first be deemed acceptable".<ref name="HRW-Cuba1999-VIII"/>
File:Press conference, Havana.jpg
Jorge Luis García Pérez assailed the Cuban thaw as a capitulation to the Castro's regime

The island had the second highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world in 2008, second only to the People's Republic of China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press organization.<ref name="cpjcensus2008"/> The 2009 paper Can Cuba Change? in the National Endowment for Democracy's Journal of Democracy states that about nine-tenths of the populace forms an economically and politically oppressed underclass and "Using the principles of democracy and human rights to unite and mobilize this vast, dispossessed majority in the face of a highly repressive regime is the key to peaceful change".<ref name="cancubachange"/> Working people are a critical source of discontent.<ref name="cancubachange"/> The only legal trade union is controlled by the government and strikes are banned.<ref name="cancubachange"/> Afro-Cuban dissidents have also risen, fueled by racism in Cuba.<ref name="cancubachange"/>

In 2012, Amnesty International warned that repression of Cuban dissidents was on the rise over the past two years, citing the Wilmar Villar hunger strike death, as well as the arrests of prisoners of conscience Yasmin Conyedo Riveron, Yusmani Rafael Alvarez Esmori, and Antonio Michel and Marcos Máiquel Lima Cruz.<ref name="Amnesty denounces detentions of Cuba opposition"/> The Cuban Commission of Human Rights reported that there were 6,602 detentions of government opponents in 2012, up from 4,123 in 2011.<ref name="Cuban group says political detentions rose dramatically in 2012"/>

In 2024, Cuba was described as one of only four "authoritarian regimes" in the Americas by The Economist's 2024 Democracy Index alongside Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The military of Cuba is a central organization; it controls 60 percent of the economy and is Raúl Castro's base.<ref name="cancubachange"/>

History

Emergence

While an anti-Castro opposition had existed since 1959, it concluded around 1968, with the total consolidation of political authority by Fidel Castro. The rise of a human rights focused opposition within Cuba occurred later with the founding of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights in 1976.<ref name="fiu"/>

In 1987, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, headed by Elizardo Sánchez, demanded a plebiscite and gathered 11,000 signatures for their request. This marked a major shift among dissidents, to start demanding total political change, rather than minor political reforms.<ref name=griffith/>

In 1997, a collection of dissident scholars including Félix Bonne, René Gómez Manzano, Marta Beatriz Roque, and Vladimiro Roca, kown as the "gang of four", authored a paper titled The Homeland Belongs To Us All which demanded free speech and plural elections. The "gang of four" were immediately arrested, and spent several years in prison.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Black Spring

Template:Main During the "Black Spring" in 2003, the regime imprisoned 75 dissidents, including 29 journalists.<ref name="longblackspring"/><ref name="Black Spring of 2003: A former Cuban prisoner speaks"/><ref name="rsf"/><ref name="rsf2"/> Their cases were reviewed by Amnesty International who officially adopted them as prisoners of conscience.<ref name="amnesty2003"/> To the original list of 75 prisoners of conscience resulting from the wave of arrests in spring 2003, Amnesty International added four more dissidents in January 2004. They had been arrested in the same context as the other 75 but did not receive their sentences until much later.<ref name="Cuba: Newly Declared Prisoners of Conscience"/> These prisoners have since been released in the face of international pressure. Tripartite talks between the Cuban government, the Catholic Church in Cuba and the Spanish government were initiated in spring 2010 in reaction to the controversial death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February 2010 following a hunger strike amid reports of massive abuse at the hands of prison staff. These negotiations resulted in a July 2010 agreement that all remaining prisoners of the 'Group of 75' would be freed. Spain offered to receive those prisoners who would agree to be released and immediately exiled together with their families. Of the 79 prisoners of conscience 56 were still behind bars at the time of the agreement. Of the total group, 21 are still living in Cuba today whereas the others are in exile, most of them in Spain. The final two prisoners were released on 23 March 2011.<ref name="Fecha histórica: concluye liberación de prisioneros del Grupo de los 75"/>

June 2010 letter to United States Congress

Template:See also

On Thursday, 10 June 2010, seventy-four of Cuba's dissidents signed a letter to the United States Congress in support of a bill that would lift the US travel ban for Americans wishing to visit Cuba. The signers include blogger Yoani Sanchez and hunger striker Guillermo Farinas, as well as Elizardo Sanchez, head of Cuba's most prominent human rights group and Miriam Leiva, who helped found the Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of jailed dissidents. The letter supports a bill introduced on 23 February by Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, that would bar the president from prohibiting travel to Cuba or blocking transactions required to make such trips. It also would bar the White House from stopping direct transfers between US and Cuban banks. The signers stated that:

We share the opinion that the isolation of the people of Cuba benefits the most inflexible interests of its government, while any opening serves to inform and empower the Cuban people and helps to further strengthen our civil society.<ref name="google"/>

The Center for Democracy in the Americas, a Washington-based group supporting the bill, issued a press release stating that "74 of Cuba's most prominent political dissidents have endorsed the Peterson-Moran legislation to end the travel ban and expand food exports to Cuba because in their words it is good for human rights, good for alleviating hunger, and good for spreading information and showing solidarity with the Cuban people. Their letter answers every argument the pro-embargo forces use to oppose this legislation. This, itself, answers the question 'who is speaking for the Cuban people in this debate?' - those who want to send food and Americans to visit the island and stand with ordinary Cubans, or those who don't. If Cuba's best known bloggers, dissidents, hunger strikers, and other activists for human rights want this legislation enacted, what else needs be said?"<ref name="74 of Cuba's Leading Dissidents Urge Congress to End Travel Ban and Increase Food Sales to Cuba">Template:Cite press release</ref><ref name="democracyinamericascivil"/> The Center also hosts English<ref name="democracyinamericas"/> as well as the Spanish<ref name="democracyinamericas4"/> version of the letter signed by the 74 dissidents.

Dissidents

Independent bloggers

The Foreign Policy magazine named Yoani Sánchez one of the 10 Most Influential Intellectuals of Latin America, the only woman on the list.<ref name="Foreign Policy Espanol: Los 10 intelectuales mas influyentes de iberoamerica"/> An article in El Nuevo Herald by Ivette Leyva Martinez,<ref name="El Nuevo Herald: The wall of the dissidence"/> speaks to the role played by Yoani Sanchez and other young people, outside the Cuban opposition and dissidence movements, in working towards a free and democratic Cuba today:

Template:Centered pull quote

On 29 March 2009, at Tania Bruguera's performance where a podium with an open mic was staged for people to have one minute of uncensored public speech, Sánchez was among people to publicly criticize censorship in Cuba and said that "the time has come to jump over the wall of control". The government condemned the event.<ref name="reuters3"/><ref name="miamiherald"/> Sánchez was then placed under surveillance by the Cuban police.<ref name="Yoani sends a thank you note to her spies" />

Notable people

File:Radio Republica.jpg
Antonio Rodiles, Jorge Luis García Pérez and Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat in 2017

Political organizations

Template:Further There are a number of opposition parties and groups that campaign for political change in Cuba. Though amendments to the Cuban Constitution of 1992 decriminalized the right to form political parties other than the Communist Party of Cuba, these parties are not permitted to engage in public political activities on the island.Template:Citation needed

Hunger strikes

File:Pedro-Luis-Boitel.jpg
Pedro Luis Boitel, a poet who died on hunger strike<ref name="cadal"/>

On 3 April 1972, Pedro Luis Boitel, an imprisoned poet and dissident, declared himself on hunger strike. After 53 days on hunger strike without receiving medical assistance and receiving only liquids, he died of starvation on 25 May 1972. His last days were related by his close friend, poet Armando Valladares. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the Cólon Cemetery in Havana.

Guillermo Fariñas did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the extensive Internet censorship in Cuba. He ended it in autumn 2006 with severe health problems, although still conscious.<ref name="RWB"/> Reporters Without Borders awarded its cyber-freedom prize to Fariñas in 2006.<ref name="Cyber-freedom prize for 2006 awarded to Guillermo Fariñas of Cuba"/>

Jorge Luis García Pérez (known as Antúnez) has done hunger strikes. In 2009, following the end of his 17-year imprisonment, Antúnez, his wife Iris, and Diosiris Santana Pérez started a hunger strike to support other political prisoners. Leaders from Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina declared their support for Antúnez.<ref name="Additional Latin American Leaders Join in Solidarity with Antúnez"/><ref name="Young Uruguayans Support Antúnez, Cuban Political Prisoners"/>

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an imprisoned activist and dissident, died while on a hunger strike for more than 80 days.<ref name="bbcnews"/> Zapata went on the strike in protest against the Cuban government for having denied him the choice of wearing white dissident clothes instead of the designated prisoner uniform, as well as denouncing the living conditions of other prisoners. As part of his claim, Zapata was asking for the prisoners conditions to be comparable to those that Fidel Castro had while incarcerated after his 1953 attack against the Moncada Barracks.<ref name="letters"/>

In 2012, Wilmar Villar Mendoza died after a 50+ day hunger strike.<ref name="Jailed Cuba dissident dies in hunger strike"/>

Funding

Cuban dissident groups have received millions in funding from the USA government and are considered by the Cuban government to be part of the United States strategy for Cuba to destabilize the country.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Reuters in 2022:

"In any nation, [having people who act as foreign government agents] is illegal, That is precisely what the United States is trying to promote in Cuba today . [The U.S.A is] depressing the standard of living of the population and at the same time pouring millions of US taxpayer dollars into urging people to act against the [Cuban] government,"<ref name=":0" />

See also

Template:Portal

References

Template:Reflist

Opposition groups

Template:Cuba topics

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Cuban_dissident_movement&oldid=657089"