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To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
March for Freedom and Justice in Cuba carried out in Washington DC. Americas Society/Council of the Americas discuss Payá legacy. CFC stands in solidarity with a free Ukraine. A "March for Freedom and Justice in Cuba" was held on February 23, 2023, by the Center for a Free Cuba, Cuba Decide, the Patmos Institute, and the podcast “Cubans in Washington, DC”, to draw attention to the anniversaries of the murder of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo by prison guards on February 23, 2010, and the shooting down of two civilian aircraft of the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue by Havana in an act of state terrorism on February 24, 1996 killing Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre.
Other victims of Castroism, including the Cubans killed on October 28, 2022 when a boat carrying refugees was ambushed and sunk north of Bahia Honda by a Cuban coast guard cutter, were also remembered by protesters. It is unfortunate that the U.S. Embassy in Havana has echoed the regime talking point that this massacre was an “accident.” It is reminiscent of the attempted whitewash of the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown by President Obama in December 2014 that called a premeditated act of state terrorism “a tragic circumstance.” More photos and videos will be shared next week. Also on February 23rd in Washington DC at 12 noon the Americas Society/Council of the Americas hosted a discussion on "Cuba and the Struggle for Freedom: A Book Talk with David Hoffman and Rosa Maria Payá" that is required viewing, and is available online. It is important to recall that the Castro dictatorship has a long history of carrying out extrajudicial executions targeting nonviolent dissidents.
Prior to the start of "March for Freedom and Justice in Cuba" demonstrators, including CFC members, gathered in solidarity with Ukrainian protesters outside of the White House and expressed their support.
Source: Simon Molina Herrera via Twitter On February 24, 2023, the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) joined together with writers, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders to condemn Russia's invasion, stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in their struggle to remain free and independent in a petition circulated by Article 19, on the one year anniversary of the expanded war. The Center is circulating a petition for the creation of an International War Crimes Tribunal against Vladimir Putin that has gathered over 950 signers, and remains open for signature, and before the war started called on the Biden Administration to impose sanctions on Russia to dissuade Putin from expanding his war in Ukraine. Lamentably, the Center's call went unheeded. On the same day at Florida International University a silent vigil organizedby the families of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre, the four men killed by the Cuban government in an act of state terrorism on February 24, 1996, was held. In the evening, at our Lady of Charity in Coconut Grove, a special mass was held for the four martyred members of Brothers to the Rescue.
On February 21, 2023, President Joe Biden gave an important speech in Warsaw, Poland on the stakes in the struggle against Russia's invasion in Ukraine where he recognized that the: "Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased. They must be opposed." We hope that his Administration will embrace that same spirit in dealing with the brutal dictatorship in Cuba that is backing Putin's invasion of Ukraine, China's takeover of Hong Kong and threats against Taiwan, and its appetites involve subverting democracies in the region, creating an oligarch class, while most Cubans remain in poverty, and allying with other terror sponsor states such as Iran, North Korea, and Syria to advance their respective anti-democratic agendas.
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