Los tienen bien puestos
Some folks in Cuba have brass ones:
Anti-government graffiti appears in Santiago de Cuba
HAVANA, April 5 (Roberto Santana Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) - Anti-government graffiti saying "Down with Fidel" and "Down with the Dictatorship" appeared in Santiago de Cuba last week.
Independent journalist Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez said he saw the graffiti on March 29 on San Pío Street. He said the authorities immediately removed the graffiti. He said the messages "were even clearer" after the cleansing.
Espinosa Rodríguez said several dissidents were subsequently arrested on suspicion of being the authors of the graffiti.
Brass ones is right because expressing yourself in Cuba can land you in jail for a long, long time. It is illegal in Cuba to criticize the government. It is illegal to spread "false news that threatens international peace" (that means pretty much whatever the prosecutor wants it to mean). Writing graffiti is illegal here too but only because it defaces property, not for the content of the message. The Cuban penal article that makes it illegal to criticize the government (and even social organizations) does not distiguish between forms of expression. It makes the content itself criminal.
If you read the entire Cuban penal code (it isn't very long) you will discover that almost anything you do or fail to do could be charged as a crime. There is even an article that makes it a crime if you fail to inform on anyone you know who has expressed or manifested counterrevolutionary sentiments. The laws of a country say a lot about the nation and its aspirations. The Cuban penal code makes it clear that in Cuba you are at the mercy of the nearest government official.
The Penal Code is here:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/law-penal-code.cfm
Big brass ones, thanks for the link Boccaccio, I've been looking for that one.
Wow!
I see this as a major step. Small acts like these can frequently snowball into revolutions. I just hope we see more and more of it rather than have it fizzle out.
Anyone else think it's interesting that "Abajo Fidel" was a phrase of choice? I know it is a popular phrase, but with the whole baseball thing and all ...
Hey Val, It reminds me of the first chapters in "The Pionera and the Mango Revolution. Maybe its the beginning of the end like in the book. "Que Dios me escuche!"