Author: Susannah Vila

To the extent that the Castro brothers are, as Blog for Cuba writes, “afraid of women wearing white,” it's due to more than just the uniform color of their outfits or their weekly marches through Old Havana.

The Damas de Blanco (Ladies wearing White) protests come on the heels of a flutter of international condemnation incited by the hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death last month. An official resolution was passed in the European Parliament, and a petition calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners that was posted to a blog less than a week ago has already been signed by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. Meanwhile, yet another hunger striker is hospitalized in Havana after refusing asylum.

Wednesday's crackdown by Cuban police was the first in two years on the political group, which is made up of the daughters, wives and mothers of imprisoned political dissidents. They're commemorating the seventh anniversary of 2003's “Black Spring,” in which 75 dissidents were arrested, by marching every day in the Cuban capital.  In the most violent of the reactions to these protests, the women were reportedly attacked by a mob of pro-government Cubans and forced onto a bus by authorities.

We are protesting peacefully and we are not going to get on the bus of a government that has kept our family members in prison for seven years…

said the group leader, Laura Pollán, just before she was forced off the street and onto the bus. Repeating Islands quotes an AFP report, saying:

As police were taking the women away, Margarita Rodríguez, a housewife in a crowd of some 300 pro-government demonstrators, shouted: ‘Board them by force, it’s what they deserve. This is a provocation.'

This was the least of the slurs directed at the Ladies in White by the Castro supporters who flanked the marchers and pushed them towards the bus. In reaction to the violent antagonism among Cubans of different political viewpoints, Yoani Sanchez writes:

I shudder to imagine a Cuba where physical – and legal – attacks against people, for their political affiliation or ideological leanings, continue. What a sad country we will have if the authorities continue to consider it normal to ‘teach a good lesson' to anyone who contradicts the official viewpoint. To me, a society that passively stands by as peaceful women with gladioli in their hands are bullied, as happened yesterday, is quite sick.

At Havana Times, Yusimi Rodriguez recounts turning a corner in Old Havana and realizing that this was not your everyday “Damas” march:

Coming down the street was a group of approximately twenty women dressed in civilian clothing and chanting slogans.  Around them flocked several reporters filming and taking pictures.  I suppose these were mainly or entirely foreign reporters.

At first I didn’t know what was happening until somebody told me it was about the Ladies in White. But none of the women I saw were wearing white, nor could I understand the first slogans they chanted.  But suddenly, at the closest spot I could reach, they began to shout, ‘Whoever doesn’t jump is a Yankee'…The women in the demonstration itself did indeed jump.  One even ran forward jumping with her two feet at the same time.  Finally that group went by and I was able to see —for the first time since I’d heard of them— the Ladies in White: a group of between fifteen and twenty women dressed in white. They all proceeded in silence and carried gladiola flowers. Around them were several uniformed police.

Rodriguez also notes the marked organization of the anti-government protesters:

I find it striking that these community women, who are not police or agents, have been able to become organized so well and interrupt the Ladies in White so quickly.  Could it be that they all come from the same neighborhood?  How did they find out about the march?   Was it publicized?  I was also surprised they were only women. Undoubtedly it would have looked very bad if men had faced up to the Ladies, especially if it was true that there was some pushing and shoving in the heat of moment, as someone said.  Between women it’s something else, there are more equal conditions.  Both sides were made up only of women: those from the community and the Ladies in White (who, by the way, are also Cuban women and therefore part of the broader Cuban community).

“One thing is clear these manifestations against the ladies in white at clearly organized by the regime,” writes Julio de la Yncera in a comment at Havana Times.

On Wednesday night, Cuban television aired a round table discussion about implicating international meddlers in the domestic unrest.  In this case, the government may be more on target than it would like: as bloggers and other online activists are showing, anger over human rights abuses within (and without) the island is swelling, and more people are watching to see what will happen next.

The death of the first Cuban political prisoner to die on hunger strike since 1972 is eliciting a combination of speechlessness and outrage on the web.

In an apt expression of this, Orlando Luis Pardo of Boring Home Utopics posts a series of solid black images, one after another, instead of words.  Yoani Sanchez has posted a video she made of the prisoner's mother waiting outside the hospital where her son died.  In it, Reina Luisa Tamayo calls her son's death a “premeditated murder.”  This is a sentiment that others have echoed. “The Castro Brothers Have Returned to Murder!!!!” goes the headline of a widely tweeted post at El Tono De Voz.

Orlando Zapato Tamayo began the 86 day long strike on December 3rd, 2009, after a prison guard in the eastern province of Holguin beat him so brutally that the hematoma left on his head needed to be operated on.  Initially, the director of that prison denied him water for 18 days, causing kidney failure. When he was transferred again, he contracted pneumonia. His last move was to the maximum security prison in Habana where he died.

Along the Malecon writes: in 2003 “he joined dissidents who were staging a hunger strike to try to pressure the socialist government to release prisoners. But then many of these protesters later wound up in jail themselves.”

The next year Zapato Tamayo was sentenced to 3 years of prison for contempt, public disorder, and disobedience.  Once in prison, his term was extended to 36 years for “acts of disobedience.”

Former prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis García Pérez, reports Radio y Television Martí, said that this event “has caused enormous dismay throughout the country, not just among the opposition but also the whole population.”

It seems that some bloggers are hoping help make García Pérez' prophecy a reality.  As Uncommon Sense writes, ”this is not a time for regrets but for action, to follow Zapata's example and continue the struggle against those who murdered him and for Cuban liberty.” A commenter at Diario de Cuba writes:

“Atencion estamos convocando una marcha mundial para el 13 de marzo del 2010 en favor de la libertad de todos los presos politicos cubanos, asi como la condena por la muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo.”

“Attention we are organizing a global march on March 13, 2010 for the release of all Cuban political prisoners, as well as a conviction in the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.”

Twitter has updates on this proposed action. Blogger Yoani Sanchez has also proposed a (presumably virtual) prayer chain for the morning of Zapata Tamayo's funeral.

On the other hand, the official leaning Cuba Debate (which is also on Twitter) republishes a post from La Isla Desconocida:

Tienen razón al decir que fue un asesinato, pero los medios esconden al verdadero asesino: los grupúsculos cubanos y sus mentores trasnacionales. Zapata fue asesinado por la contrarrevolución.

They are right to say it was murder…but the media are hiding the real murderer: small Cuban groups and their international mentors. Zapata was murdered by the counterrevolution.

The party line, then, has a web presence too.

According to CNN Spanish reporter Daniel Vottio, there are guards surrounding the Tamayo household where the wake is being held.  Sanchez tweets that dissidents are being kept from leaving their homes; her and others' movements seems to be generally restricted.

Two other Cuban prisoners of conscience, Ariel Sigler Amaya and Normando Hernández González are also imprisoned and in poor health. What this augurs for them, and for Cuban civil society, is to be determined.

As is the case with many of the Obama administration's accomplishments during its first year, advancements in relations between the US and Cuba have been subtle.  Yet small changes in policy may mean bigger shifts in behavior, especially when it comes to Cuban-Americans and the voting booth.

Bloggers in Miami and Cuba are buzzing over the news that US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart will not run for reelection in the fall.  Diaz-Balart, a Republican, is a staunch supporter of the trade embargo against Cuba, and he took his resignation speech as an opportunity to highlight his role in codifying the blockade. As a senior member of the House Rules Committee, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, and the Co-Chairman of the Florida Congressional Delegation, Diaz-Balart's absence will definitely be felt.

In an excellent write up of what's been reported so far about Diaz-Balart's district (the 21st), Blue in Miami notes that the retiring Congressman's brother will most likely leave his own House seat–representing the 25th–to run for the vacated spot. ”I used to think it was natural to run for re-election in the district you already represent, especially if you're running unopposed, but I guess that's not true if your poll numbers are slipping,” they write.

The 21st is seen as a more favorable district for Republicans than the 25th.  But Blue in Miami says that there is a definite opportunity for Democrats to pick up both seats.

“Demographically, this district is no longer safe for Republicans,” writes Down With Tyranny.  And Reuters quotes a Cuban-American businessman as saying: ”There are a significant amount of Cuban Americans who are voting with their feet,” in reference to the effects that the recent easing of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans who wish to visit the island may be having on their politics.

The blogosphere is definitely interpreting this event as a sign of the political winds. One commenter at Penultimos Dias says:

“Jamás comprendí por qué necesitábamos dos Díaz-Balart en el Congreso

“I never understood why we needed two Diaz-Balarts in Congress.”

And Havana Times paints the news as a sign of just how retrograde the embargo is, writing: “The US economic blockade on Cuba has lasted about a half century and one of its biggest supporters, Miami Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, threw in the towel on Thursday.”

There's no way to know for sure if the small steps taken by the Obama administration is making Cuban-Americans rethink their stance on the blockade, but it will be interesting to watch these races for any sign of a leftward shift in the Cuban emigre portion of the electorate.