Ángel Carromero speaks to the Cuban exile community about what happened on July 22, 2012

On the third anniversary of Laura Inés Pollán Toledo's untimely death, Ángel Carromero speaks to the Cuban exile community about what happened on July 22, 2012

Ángel Francisco Carromero Barrios presented his book tonight (October 14, 2014) on the July 22, 2012 attack that killed Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante. 

He was introduced at the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies by Ofelia Acevedo and Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo to packed room of primarily Cuban exiles.
 

No More Che Day Student Initiative

Cubans suffer the weight of the myth created by the mega-operation of intelligence of exportation called Cuban Revolution, that has turned murderers like Che Guevara into global youth icons. - Rosa María Payá Acevedo  Iberoamerican Vanguard Summit Octuber 14, 2013.

No More Che Day 2014

October 9th marks the day in 1967 when an icon of hatred and political intolerance met his end violently in the jungles of Bolivia. It is easy to understand why the dictatorship in Cuba celebrates his memory and death but it is not so easy to understand why UNESCO does. The Argentine Maoist's legacy is a lamentable one that spread death and repression across the Americas and Africa:

Che Guevara was an admirer of Mao Zedong and his formulation of guerrilla warfare is adapted from the Chinese leader. Che published influential manuals Guerrilla Warfare (1961) and Guerrilla Warfare: A Method (1963), which were based on his own experiences and partly chairman Mao Zedong's writings. Guevara stated that revolution in Latin America must come through insurgent forces developed in rural areas with peasant support. His international legacy of glorifying violence through an erroneous analysis of guerrilla warfare, based on his experiences led to bloodbaths in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chiapas, Congo, Angola and decades of military dictatorship and political violence. Nevertheless it could have been worse. Another disciple of Mao Zedong who adapted his theories was Pol Pot, who unlike Che achieved power in 1975 after a guerrilla struggle in Cambodia. He carried out a radical revolution modeled after Mao and ended by killing 25% of the entire population of his country: Cambodia.

In 2010 the Free Cuba Foundation had as a guest speaker Félix Ismael Rodríguez, the CIA agent responsible for capturing Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. This year we will distribute posters and fliers exposing the facts about Ernesto "Che" Guevara as part of No More Che Day organized by the Young America's Foundation that exposes who he was: 

"Che Guevara was an international terrorist and mass murderer. During his vicious campaigns to impose Communism on countries throughout Latin America, Che Guevara trained and motivated the Castro regime's firing squads that executed thousands of men, women, and children. "

We will make the case for boycotting those who use Che as an "icon" of rebellion at the same time we'll advocate rejecting the Che icon in favor of embracing more authentic figures of resistance such as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

Gandhi, King and Payá: Three Resistance Icons Worth Honoring

International Day of Nonviolence, Gandhi and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong

"An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment." - Mohandas Gandhi

Logo by Siuham Tse

Yesterday, members of the Florida International University community wore yellow and some carried an umbrella in solidarity with protesters in Hong Kong. The Umbrella Movement is nonviolent in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. Occupy Central with Love and Peace on September 30, 2014 issued the following call to action:

 The courage, determination, peacefulness and orderliness shown by the spontaneous democratic occupy movement in Hong Kong in the past few days, have written a glorious page in the development of Hong Kong’s democracy. The Hong Kong people’s demand for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to step down and the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) to withdraw its framework for fake democracy is loud and clear. In order to consolidate the results we have achieved, the students and Occupy Central With Love and Peace (OCLP) urges all Hong Kong people to join us in guarding the main thoroughfares of our major sites of democracy: Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

Incidentally, today is the International Day of Nonviolence, recognized as such by the United Nations in honor of Mohandas Gandhi's birthday on October 2, 1869.

Fairy sure its a montage of Gandhi with an umbrella

 The spiritual legacy of Bapu seen on the streets of Hong Kong 145 years after his birth demonstrates the continued relevance of nonviolence and hope for humanity at such a difficult time.

Showing solidarity with the Umbrella Movement at FIU

 Last  Friday, the world renown Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei opened an exhibition with seven installations called @Large Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz exploring human rights, freedom of expression and the plight of victims of repression. Among the 176 individuals he profiled in the installation Trace there is a Cuban prisoner of conscience whose name is Iván Fernández Depestre.

This should be a reminder to all people of good will that we are in this together. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16, 1963 explained it powerfully in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea.

 The people of Hong Kong are risking all for their freedom and need your solidarity. Please do what you can and take action. Below is a life feed from Occupy Central in Hong Kong, China.