To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Two Cubans forcibly exiled to Poland, and Cuban woman faces six year prison sentence for nonviolently participating in July 11th protests
Hamlet Lavastida is interviewed on Polish television shortly after landing at the Warsaw airport. (Courtesy)
Cuban artist and dissident Hamlet Lavastida was arrested on June 26, 2021, and forcibly exiled together with writer and dissident Katherine Bisquet to Poland on September 25, 2021. Part of the price for Lavastida's release was Bisquet also going into forced exile. Bisquet had been under house arrest.
Neither was allowed to say goodbye to their families.
Hamlet Lavastida was one of six identified by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience on August 19, 2021, the others are Maykel Castillo Pérez, Thais Mailén Franco Benítez, Esteban Rodríguez, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and José Daniel Ferrer García. They are prisoners of conscience because they are jailed for their political beliefs.
Thais Mailén Franco, arrested on April 30, 2021, was released on September 21, 2021. The other four remain jailed.
Others remaining behind in Cuba are facing stiff prison sentences for their nonviolent protest. Cuban prosecutors want to sentence Lady in White Sissi Abascal Zamora to a six year prison sentence for nonviolently participating in the July 11th protests.
Castro regime wants to jail Sissi Abascal Zamora for six years
Scott Simon writing for NPR highlighted the cases of Katherine Bisquet, and Hamlet Lavastida, and that they were " among at least 55 artists and writers that PEN America says are imprisoned, or under house arrest or surveillance since this summer's mass protests against the Cuban government." He also brought attention to the dictatorship's "new Decree-Law 35 makes online criticism of the state a cybercrime."
The Castro regime does not release information on arrests, prison population size, and officials lie about it when asked, but other sources give partial estimates together with concrete data. 14ymedio, the press outfit founded by Yoani Sanchez, estimates more than 5,000 detained. Cubalex, a human rights NGO, identified 1,081 detained or missing Cubans, related to the protests that began on July 11th, in their database as of September 27, 2021 at 7:32pm.
Havana Times, September 27, 2021
Banished from Cuba: Hamlet Lavastida and Katherine Bisquet
Hamlet Lavastida and writer Katherine Bisquet
HAVANA TIMES – On Saturday September 25th, artist Hamlet Lavastida and writer Katherine Bisquet boarded a plane, after suffering prison time, home arrest, blackmail and police harassment for over three months. Escorted by State Security to get all of the paperwork they needed and on their way to the airport, without time to say goodbye to their families and friends, they headed to Poland on a one-way trip.
Lavastida came to Cuba after finishing an artistic residency in Germany, on June 21st. Like everyone who travels to the country, he went to the place where he had to self-isolate because of COVID-19. On the seventh day, State Security went looking for him and took him to their headquarters at Villa Marista, where he was held for three months, supposedly because he was being investigated for Incitement.
According to Bisquet, the political police forced them both into exile as the only way to release Hamlet. “From the very beginning of Hamlet’s unusual arrest, and during the 90 days that he had been jailed under a baseless investigation, I, Katherine Bisquet, writer and activist, have been a target of harassment, coercion, illegal detention (home arrest for 65 days), psychological torture, illegal arrests and threats of being taken to trial by State Security.”
Lavastida is a visual artist that has challenged the Revolution’s discourse with his work and his own symbols, including the figure of Fidel. Bisquet has also become an uneasy person for the Government with her work and activism, especially since she took part in the sit-in at the San Isidro Movement headquarters, in November 2020. Both have suffered repression and harassment, as if they were criminals.
“Me leaving the country was the currency for his release,” Katherine explains, and adds that “many people linked to Hamlet, both friends and family, were subjected to this same pressure of blackmail.”
The Cuban government can’t hide its fear of artists. It has been exposed in the world’s eyes: it’s a government that represses, drives into exile and condemns anyone who thinks differently, at its own fancy. Over 800 people are still in Cuban jails, arrested for taking part in the July 11th protests, when so many Cubans took to the streets to demand Freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment