Cuban dissidents detained in Havana hours before planned protest

Cuban officials arrested at least three members of the political opposition Tuesday ahead of a protest art performance seen as the first major test of the government's tolerance for dissent since the declaration of detente with the United States.

Expatriate artist Tania Bruguera returned to Cuba Friday with plans to set up an open microphone for anyone to speak on the Plaza of the Revolution, a square overlooked by the president's office, military headquarters and huge portraits of revolutionary heroes Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

Looks like people are testing the waters in Cuba to see if there is any new tolerance coming from the government, From what i read there doesn't seem to be any.

Link

a reply to: Ancient Champion

Like Tienanmen Square all over again. It seems the Communist Government of Cuba has become very similar to China.

a reply to: Ancient Champion

Is it just me or is it odd that the US government pretends that this is disturbing for how a government treats their people, while turning a blind eye too their own arrogance and lawlessness as to how they have been slowly taking away the rights of their own?

Sorry, people of Cuba, but my emotions are stuck with what my government is doing to it's own!

Happy New Year and See ya on the other side!

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: Ancient Champion



Is it just me or is it odd that the US government pretends that this is disturbing for how a government treats their people, while turning a blind eye too their own arrogance and lawlessness as to how they have been slowly taking away the rights of their own?



Sorry, people of Cuba, but my emotions are stuck with what my government is doing to it's own!



Happy New Year and See ya on the other side!

I was wondering when someone was going to come in saying but the US but the US but the US.

originally posted by: Ancient Champion

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: Ancient Champion



Is it just me or is it odd that the US government pretends that this is disturbing for how a government treats their people, while turning a blind eye too their own arrogance and lawlessness as to how they have been slowly taking away the rights of their own?



Sorry, people of Cuba, but my emotions are stuck with what my government is doing to it's own!



Happy New Year and See ya on the other side!

I was wondering when someone was going to come in saying but the US but the US but the US.

I gave you my reasons didn't I?

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: Ancient Champion

originally posted by: seeker1963

a reply to: Ancient Champion







Is it just me or is it odd that the US government pretends that this is disturbing for how a government treats their people, while turning a blind eye too their own arrogance and lawlessness as to how they have been slowly taking away the rights of their own?







Sorry, people of Cuba, but my emotions are stuck with what my government is doing to it's own!


Happy New Year and See ya on the other side!

I was wondering when someone was going to come in saying but the US but the US but the US.

I gave you my reasons didn't I?

Does that make it ok? No it doesn't. All i hear is excuses.

While the Cuban people fight to gain their freedom, as an American I am fighting to prevent losing mine!

Does that make more sense to you?

Edit: Far from an excuse, but an opinion based upon reality versus emotions.......

originally posted by: seeker1963
While the Cuban people fight to gain their freedom, as an American I am fighting to prevent losing mine!



Does that make more sense to you?

I understand that, But why go to threads that have nothing to do with the US and say the same in each thread. I understand emotions can get the better of us.

originally posted by: Ancient Champion

originally posted by: seeker1963
While the Cuban people fight to gain their freedom, as an American I am fighting to prevent losing mine!



Does that make more sense to you?

I understand that, But why go to threads that have nothing to do with the US and say the same in each thread. I understand emotions can get the better of us.

Do you not think that Cuba and the recent negotiations with the US are relevant? I truly wish the people of Cuba and the rest of the world FREEDOM from government oppression!

Sadly, I have been called an "ignorant moron" for doing nothing more than explaining why I can't allow my emotional tide to run with this story.......

Remember when the US instituted "Free Speech Zones"?

I do, and that is all I am trying to say. It seems like we as human beings are taking up too many causes to help others while ignoring the devil in our own back yard.

Anyhow, I wish the people of Cuba the best! Fight for what you want! Once you get it? Take a look at how Americans got complacent and gave up what they inherited........

a reply to: starwarsisreal

Like Tienanmen Square all over again. It seems the Communist Government of Cuba has become very similar to China.

Cuban commies like Chinese commies? Big reach.

But if its socialism you are really referring to, what do you call the government bailout of banks and corporations in 2008? That wasn't welfare, now was it…

I hadn't seen this post, and posted it in another thread. Was not aware that the same topic could not be posted anymore in 2 different forums, but anyways, will add the info I gave here.

Amidst Obama's supposed deals with Cuba there have been many claims made by a lot of people that "things are changing in Cuba for the better" and those who don't see this are haters.

Well, Some Cubans in Cuba itself tried to test whether or not there have been positive changes in Cuba, and the following is what happened.


December 31, 2014 8:14 AM ET

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera had a plan to test just how tolerant Cuba had become of dissident voices.

She planned a performance at Havana's Revolution Square for Tuesday afternoon. She would provide a microphone and Cubans were encouraged to speak about their vision for the island.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro spoke to Bruguera on Monday and asked her why she was planning the performance.

"It's just to tell people in the street come and share with us your doubts, your happiness - whatever you think right now about what is happening in Cuba, and what is the idea of Cuba that you want?" Bruguera said.

Bruguera's performance would be the first event to really challenge the Castro regime's tight control of political dissidence, since Cuba and the United States announced their intent to normalize diplomatic relations.

Before the performance, Cuba's arts council issued a statement saying that after long conversations with Bruguera, they had decided not to support a performance of Yo también exijo, or I also demand.

The council said the performance was "unacceptable" in such a symbolic space and especially because of the "vast media coverage and the manipulation which the performance has received by counterrevolutionary media."

Ultimately, authorities blocked the performance from ever happening. According to 14ymedio.com, a news site run Cuban dissidents, Bruguera was arrested on Tuesday.

The site spoke to Yoani Sánchez, one of the site's contributors and Cuba's best known dissident, who said her husband Reinaldo Escobar was released from jail on Tuesday and he saw Bruguera at the same facility wearing a "gray prison uniform."

Diario de Cuba, a news outlet run from Spain, spoke to Bruguera's family who said Cuban state security agents knocked on Bruguera's door for hours before arresting her.

The news site reports that the plaza where the performance was going to take place was surrounded by police. One painter, a photographer, a former political prisoner and two journalists with Diario de Cuba were arrested as they made their way to the performance.
...

www.npr.org...

The performance was going to be made at the Revolution square in Havana a site where there is no car traffic, and the site is not a major hub of businesses, it is simply the area where fidel had been making speeches and other "revolutionary" events have been held. All that these Cuban activists were going to do was ask other Cubans to go there and tell it as they saw it, whether other Cubans thought that there were positive changes happening in Cuba and what changes they thought should occur.

Not only was the event stopped, but the area was surrounded by Cuban police so that no regular Cuban would even think about going there and try to pick up after the idea of Tania Bruguera.

Of course, Tania, and the other Cuban artists were branded "counter-revolutionaries" and were arrested. Although Tania and most of the other Cuban artists were released her passport and her cell phone were confiscated. 14ymedio reporter Victor Ariel Gonzalez is still being detained, in Guanabacoa.

www.14ymedio.com...

Several other Cuban activists were also detained. Here is an account from Yoani Sanchez.




Several activists and Reinaldo Escobar, editor-in-chief of '14ymedio', arrested


The director of this news outlet, Yoani Sánchez, is under house arrest

14ymedio, Havana | Diciembre 30, 2014

Contacted by phone at her home, the director of 14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, explained the circumstances of the arrest of her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, and of several other people this Tuesday in Havana. She is under house arrest. Patrol car No. 507 is stationed in front of the building where she lives, while four plainclothes offices are controlling the building entrances. Sánchez has confirmed that in the evening hours of Tuesday a second patrol car has been stationed in the back of the residential building.

Reinaldo Escobar was arrested when he left the building where he lives in the company of the activist Eliécer Ávila, founder of the group “Somos Más” (We are More). Both were handcuffed and put in a patrol car waiting in front of the building in the Havana neighborhood of Neuvo Vedado. Reinaldo’s daughter, Luz, who was with her father, has not been arrested, but a State Security agency told her, “We are not going to let you leave.” The same official visited Luz Escobar’s home yesterday to warn her not to go near the Plaza of the Revolution today, where the artist Tania Bruguera has scheduled a performance titled “Tatlin’s Whisper #6” for 3:00 in the afternoon, to demand freedom of expression for Cuban’s citizens.

Activist Omar Fayut of the opposition group Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU) was able to reach the Plaza of the Revolution together with other leaders from this group. He has confirmed to 14ymedio from the Plaza that there are tens of people gathered, some of them from opposition groups and others are young people who learned about the demonstration this past weekend when they were gathered at G Street, a popular spot for hipsters in Havana.
...

www.14ymedio.com...

CUBAN people were gathering at the event and it was of course stopped by the Cuban authorities. This is the "new change coming to Cuba"?

I also gave an update that Cuban artist Tania Bruguera was arrested today again by Cuban authorities and will be posting more info as it becomes available.

The news is still not being given in English, but in Spanish what we know so far is that she was arrested today again because Tania had called for a press conference in Cuba. Since the Cuban government didn't want this press conference to occur, they arrested Tania.

Obama sure knows how to pick good anti American values.
Just like we now have a 5 million dollar bounty on the Gitmo detainee he let loose.

Oops! U.S. Offers $5 Mil Reward for Al Qaeda Terrorist it Released From Gitmo

There is a systematic effort to appease any and all enemies. Neville Chamberlain looks like a JV player in the lets ruin the world games compared to this Administration.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

Yep, you are right about that, and it's biting them back. It's obvious the Obama administration had lost a lot of support and now they are trying to gain back as many people as possible, and to them it doesn't matter what they have to do.

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
Obama sure knows how to pick good anti American values.
Just like we now have a 5 million dollar bounty on the Gitmo detainee he let loose.

Oops! U.S. Offers $5 Mil Reward for Al Qaeda Terrorist it Released From Gitmo

There is a systematic effort to appease any and all enemies.

I would argue there is a "systematic effort" to molest the facts to fit the BS..

I would also argue, you should read your own links now and then..

Now we learn that the U.S. government is secretly admitting that it erred in at least one case, the release of a Saudi national named Ibrahim al-Rubaysh. In late 2006 the Bush administration repatriated him back home under a Saudi Arabian “rehabilitation” program that supposedly reformed Guantanamo Bay jihadists but instead has served as a training camp for future terrorists.

originally posted by: Indigo5


There is a systematic effort to appease any and all enemies.

I would argue there is a "systematic effort" to molest the facts to fit the BS..
...


Do you have any comments on the "systematic effort to molest the facts to fit the BS" about Obama trying to do this AFTER the majority of Congress and the Senate became Republican?... Why didn't he "try" to do this before if he really wanted this to occur?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

If your question is literal...the news and multiple sources across the board have well documented the efforts and talks that led to this decision. President Obama did not wait for Congress to go to the GOP, he waited until the talks with Cuba...which involved both GOP and DEM senators and congressman came to appropriate agreement.

a reply to: Indigo5

I think both Castro and Obama were playing the election results.

They had to wait and see to weigh the advantages.