Remembering on Christmas Eve those in prison for acts of conscience: A Call to Action

"Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."- Hebrews 13:3

Prisoners of conscience are observing Christmas Eve in terrible conditions in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam, and many other places around the world. It is impossible to list them all here but it is important to remember them. Here are a few that represent the many who remain unnamed.

Political prisoner in Nicaragua Amaya Copens, age 23

Amaya Coppens, a fifth year medicine student at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de León in Nicaragua has been arrested and accused of "terrorism." She was detained on  September 10, 2018 along with Sergio Alberto Midence Delgadillo by hooded police that used violence to detain them, and take them away in a van. Her "crime" is being outspoken against the violence visited on peaceful protesters and belonging to the University Coalition for Democracy along with the Justice (CUDJ) and the Civic Alliance and Social Movements Network. She is the eighth member of the CUDJ to be arbitrarily detained in what is a campaign of harassment and repression against a dozen university organizations working together at the national level for a free Nicaragua. She faces a political show trial with a Sandinista judge in February of 2019. She was just 23 years old at the time of her arrest and has been held in prison since then.

Political prisoner in Cuba Eduardo Cardet, age 50

Eduardo Cardet Concepción is a medical doctor, a husband, and a father of two small children. He is widely respected in his community. He is a person of impeccable moral character. Despite all of this, he was beaten up and arrested in front of his wife and children on November 30, 2016. That was his last day in freedom, he has continued to suffer beatings in prison, and was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object. Both he and his family have been additionally punished, and visits and calls denied for months at a time. In March of 2017 he was sentenced to three years in prison, and Amnesty International recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. Eduardo Cardet is a democrat, a human rights defender, and speaks his mind openly. Because of this he had been a victim of regime harassment in the past. Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016 while Cardet was outside of Cuba. He was interviewed by international media and gave a frank assessment of Fidel Castro's political legacy and said that there was nothing positive. Refusing to mourn Fidel Castro's death is punishable by prison in Cuba, and offering a nonviolent political alternative to the existing system is grounds for prison in the Castro regime.

Opposition deputy Juan Requesens in custody for 133 days without a hearing (PanAm Post)

Former student opposition leader and opposition deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Requesens, has been a steadfast, moderate, non-violent opposition leader to the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  The Maduro regime has manufactured charges that the opposition leader planned the assassination of Nicolas Maduro and is seeking to sentence him to 30 years in prison. He is 29 years old, married and father to two young children.

Partial lists provided by internal human rights groups indicate that there are at least 120 political prisoners in Cuba, 576 political prisoners in Nicaragua, and 288 political prisoners in Venezuela spending the holiday season behind bars.

People of good will have a responsibility to do what they can. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in an address to the European Parliament on December 17, 2002 explained that "[t]he cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized."

More than a dozen human rights and pro-democracy organizations from Latin America, Europe and the United States have made a request during this holiday season that bishops, priests, pastors, rabbis, and men and women of good will to engage in all possible efforts with the authorities to obtain an amnesty of all political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. 

Please join us in speaking up for these and other political prisoners and remember, that helping them in a utilitarian sense we also help ourselves, that more importantly we must do this because it is the right thing to do. The great Czech dissident Václav Havel explained back in 1990 that "[t]he salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility."

It begins with you. Will you do your part?




1. Please  ask your pastor, rabbi, or priest to pray for the freedom of political prisoners during their religious services during this holiday season.

2. Please write letters to religious leaders in your community to request that the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua free their political prisoners.

3. Please use the following hashtags to spread this message.

#LiberenLosYa
#FreeThemNow
#FreedomForPoliticalPrisoners
#LibertadParaLosPresosPoliticos
#CubaNicaraguaVenezuela
#NavidadSinPresosPolíticosEnCubaVenezuelaYNicaragua. #ChristmasWithoutPoliticalPrisonersInCubaVenezuelaAndNicaragua  

How the Castros stole Christmas in Cuba

Reports over the past three years demonstrate a pattern of repression during Christmas in Cuba that should raise concern. The latest involve children physically assaulted and toys seized by the political police to prevent them being given to children on Three Kings Day. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the Free Cuba Foundation has had to address the issue. Back in 2000 we held a press conference to protest the seizure of toys and clothing for Cuban children and also the beating and arrest of Cuban dissident Victor Rolando Arroyo who was storing the toys and clothes. Below is the statement that Free Cuba Foundation released at the time. Sadly, things haven't improved since then. Victor was imprisoned on March 18, 2003 and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and spent nearly the next 8 years in prison only to trade prison in Cuba for exile in Spain.

Victor Rolando Arroyo

Free Arroyo and Return the Toys

Free Cuba Foundation, January 18, 2000

The Free Cuba Foundation held a press conference January 17 at 11:30am at the Graham Center west wall located on the University Park Campus at Florida International University denouncing the Cuban government's Scrooge-like arrest and prosecution of Victor Rolando Arroyo for gathering and distributing toys to poor Cuban children.

"If the Cuban government claims that they have mobilized the Cuban people out of the humanitarian motive that a boy be reunited with his father, then how can it explain impeding toys obtained legally in Cuba for distribution to economically disadvantaged children?" asks John Suarez of the Free Cuba Foundation. "Free Arroyo and return the toys and clothing so that they can be distributed to those in need," concludes Mr. Suarez.

Last Saturday Victor Rolando Arroyo's residence was searched by State Security and 150 toys were confiscated, and he was immediately arrested. He had already distributed over a 100 toys, and his home was being used as a distribution center in Pinar del Rio for The Millenium's Three Wise Men Project. A project initiated in Cuba by the Cuban non-governmental organization Corriente Martiana. Arroyo was tried on Friday and sentenced to 6 months in prison for "hoarding toys."

"Victor Rolando Arroyo will spend 6 months in prison for gathering and distributing toys to poor children in Cuba according to a Havana court if we do nothing," declared Xavier Utset. Arroyo has 72 hours to appeal and they run out this afternoon at 3pm. "It's both ironic and sad that on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the year 2000 we have to be defending the right of a man to engage in acts of charity without being imprisoned," said John Suarez.

The Free Cuba Foundation, an FIU student based organization, gathered toys, and clothing for The Millenium's Three Wise Men Project. For additional background information on the organization and the project visit http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf.

Attached is the declaration read by Mr. Suarez in English. Xavier Utset read it in Spanish.

FREE ARROYO AND RETURN THE TOYS

Press Conference

Free Cuba Foundation
Monday, January 17, 2000

This statement is not a political statement, nor was our participation in The Millenium's Three Wise Men Project remotely political. We are here today to demand that Víctor Rolando Arroyo be released, and that the toys confiscated by Cuban State Security be returned to him so that they can be finally delivered to the poor children of Pinar del Rio in Cuba. We believe that interactions between the Cuban people can and must transcend politics. That is why we as individuals, and as an organization embarked on supporting this project initiated in Cuba by the civic group Corriente Martiana.
In Cuba it is almost impossible for families without hard currency to buy toys and gifts for their children. Corriente Martiana initiated a national and international campaign to collect toys and clothing and distribute them to the neediest children on the Day of the Three Wise Men which is traditionally January 6. The aims of Corriente Martiana (which we share) in carrying out this project are the following:

First - To provide a moment of happiness to the neediest children and families in each community, without discrimination of any kind, by distributing the gifts that may be collected through charity.

Second - To foster evangelization by enclosing a message explaining the significance of that day according to Holy Scripture and Cuban cultural and religious traditions.

Third - To revitalize a traditional feast day in our culture.

What we say today echoes the declarations made by Corriente Martiana in Cuba on January 10. We call to reason, justice, and the law to prevail in this case, and that the confiscated toys be returned to the city of Pinar del Rio and that the 6 month prison sentence leveled against Víctor Rolando Arroyo be dismissed. Finally, that these toys be delivered to the poor children without any political taint.
If the government claims that they have mobilized the Cuban people out of humanitarian motives for the sole purpose that a boy be reunited with his father, then how can it explain impeding toys obtained legally in Cuba for distribution to economically disadvantaged children?

According to Prof. Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez Valdés, of Corriente Martiana the days leading up to January 6 toys and clothing were distributed in the towns of Bahía Honda, Cabañas, Guanajay and El Cano, without incident but the evangelization was limited due to a lack of equipment to reproduce the evangelical message on paper.

The arrest and trial of Arroyo, and the confiscation of over 140 toys in Pinar del Rio was the exception. We demand that justice be done. That an act of charity, by people of goodwill on both sides of the Florida Straits, not end in such an ugly manner. Imprisonment for an innocent man and children denied toys on the Day of the Three Wise Men. Free Arroyo and return the toys and clothing so that they can be distributed to those in need.