"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
