Fidel Castro and the Cuban government believed that they had created a tabula rasa, that they had wiped out the Cuban opposition, which was very untrue. [They were confident] because they dislodged almost all of the leadership of the opposition and the independent press, the independent labor leaders throughout the nation. But what the Cuban government did not expect was the appearance of a feminist movement [The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco)] so strong, so courageous that it was rapidly made visible because of their humanitarian principles, not their politics.
They themselves said that they only fought for the liberty of their imprisoned husbands. They would modestly march holding a gladiolus flower, the purity of a white dress and that really moved the world. To the degree that this movement in 2003, 2005 or 2006 was awarded the European Union’s Sakharov Prize.
[As Manuel was trying to recall, the Ladies in White were awarded the Sakharov Prize in 2005].
It was one of the movements in Cuba that really rose to prominence very quickly. And it is a solid movement inside of Cuba with other characteristics, other visions for the future, and it’s still there and those 10 or 12 women that assembled in Havana for the first time now have grown to almost 300 throughout the island.
[Fidel Castro (1926 – ) led the Cuban Revolution and seized power in 1959. He established a communist dictatorship in Cuba and led the country until 2008. The Ladies in White is a civil society organization founded by the mothers, spouses and daughters of dissidents who were imprisoned by Cuban authorities during the “Black Spring” crackdown in March 2003. They practice nonviolent resistance against the repression of civil liberties on the island of Cuba and support political prisoners. A typical Ladies in White protest involves attending Catholic Mass each Sunday and conducting peaceful street marches afterward. The gladiolus flower became the symbol of the Ladies in White movement. The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is awarded by the European Parliament to individuals and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedom.]
Why? What happened with the Ladies in White that made the Group of 75 [nonviolent dissidents who were arrested during the March 2003 crackdown known as the Black Spring] visible, why is it that they would travel across the whole island?
Because the government, to punish the prisoners who were from Havana, would send them to Santiago; the ones from Camagüey were sent to Pinar del Rio; the ones from Pinar del Rio were sent to Guantanamo. So the women had to travel.
The ones from Santiago had to travel to Havana; the ones from Havana had to travel to Guantanamo; and that movement of the women throughout the island in trains, buses, however they could go, allowed continuous news transmissions of the Cuban regime’s jailing of these men who only desired freedom, who only wanted to express themselves.
They only wanted a forum to publicly debate the interests of the country, and I believe that if any movement has been strong, it has been the Ladies in White.
You can have a lot of visibility, a lot of international importance but if there is no impact inside the island, nothing happens. Nothing happens because freedom is earned by the people and it is earned by oppressed people. Free and open countries, democratic ones, can provide support but do not give freedom to anyone.
Freedom must be earned by the people first and that’s why I think that the impact must be internal above anything else. I am thinking of a few of us who achieved celebrity status at an international level and that doesn’t resolve the problem. The problem gets resolved inside the island. And that’s why I always think that those fighting inside the island right now are the truly important ones.
Born in 1951, Manuel Vázquez Portal grew up in the early days of the Castro regime. He received a degree in philology and worked for several years as a teacher. Afterward, he served as a literature advisor in the Ministry of Culture and a journalist with a state-owned media outlet. Through his work, he discovered first-hand how the regime used media and literature as propaganda and banned anything that challenged government ideology. Disillusioned with the regime’s censorship, Manuel focused his talents on children’s literature, a field that offered more flexibility for creativity and imagination.
In 1995, Manuel joined an independent news agency called Cuba Press, and in 1998, he helped form a similar organization called the United Workers Group. In 2003, Manuel was arrested along with 74 other nonviolent dissidents as part of a massive government crackdown known as the Black Spring. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his criticism of the regime. While incarcerated, Manuel worked with fellow political prisoners to organize protests against the prison guards and hunger strikes.
Also during this time, Manuel smuggled his diary out of prison with its descriptions of the conditions he and fellow prisoners endured; his testimonies were published for the outside world under the title Written Without Permission. The Committee to Protect Journalists presented Manuel the International Press Freedom award in absentia for his efforts to expose the regime’s treatment of political prisoners..
In 2004, Cuban authorities transferred Manuel from prison to a hospital; years of abuse and malnutrition had caused his health to deteriorate. Much to his surprise, Manuel was released and went into exile. He brought his family to the United States where he continues to champion a free and democratic Cuba.
Cuba, an island nation of 11.4 million people in the northern Caribbean Sea, is a totalitarian state.
Fidel Castro led the 1959 Cuban Revolution and ruled the country for 49 years before formally relinquishing power to his younger brother Raul in 2008. Raul Castro is the current head of state and First Secretary of the Communist Party, which is recognized by the Cuban Constitution as the only legal political party and “the superior leading force of society and of the state.” Raul Castro has said that he will step down from power at the age of 86 in 2018.
Cuba was a territory of Spain until the Spanish-American War. The United States assumed control of the island until 1902, when the Republic of Cuba became formally independent. A fledgling democracy was established, with the U.S. continuing to play a strong role in Cuban affairs.
In 1952, facing an impending electoral loss, former president Fulgencio Batista staged a successful military coup and overthrew the existing government. While his first term as elected president in the 1940s largely honored progressive politics, universal freedoms, and the Cuban Constitution of 1940, Batista’s return to power in the 1950s was a dictatorship marked by corruption, organized crime and gambling. He held power until 1959 when he was ousted by Fidel Castro’s rebel July 26th Movement.
While promising free elections and democracy, Castro moved quickly to consolidate power. By 1961, Castro had declared Cuba to be a communist nation.
Castro’s communist government nationalized private businesses, lashed out at political opponents, and banned independent civil society. As Cuba aligned itself with the Soviet Union, Cuban-American relations soured, including a U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union came close to war, after the Soviets installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, prompting a U.S. naval embargo.
Since the revolution, Cuba has remained a one-party state. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the evaporation of Soviet economic support, Cuba loosened some economic policies, became more open to foreign investment, and legalized use of the U.S. dollar. By the late 1990s, Venezuela had become Cuba’s chief patron, thanks to the close relationship between the Castro brothers and Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez.
The regime continues to exercise authoritarian political control, clamping down on political dissent and mounting defamation campaigns against dissidents, portraying them as malignant U.S. agents. In a massive crackdown in 2003 known as the Black Spring, the government imprisoned 75 of Cuba’s best-known nonviolent dissidents.
The Cuban government does not respect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, movement, and religion. The government and the Communist Party control all news media, and the government routinely harasses and detains its critics, particularly those who advocate democracy and respect of human rights. Frequent government actions against dissidents often take the form of attacks by regime-organized mobs. Prison conditions are harsh and often life-threatening, and the courts operate as instruments of the Communist Party rather than conducting fair trials.
Cuba relaxed its travel laws in 2013, allowing some prominent dissidents to leave and return to the country. It continues to experiment with modest economic reforms but remains committed to communist economic orthodoxy.
In Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report, Cuba was designated as “not free” and is grouped near the bottom of the world’s nations, with severely restricted civil rights and political liberties.
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