Violent acto de repudio mob attacks Yoani’s husband
From Newsmax:
HAVANA -- The husband of an acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob Friday after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife to a street corner debate.
As he promised earlier on his blog, Reinaldo Escobar went to the intersection of Havana's 23rd and G avenues for the proposed discussion. On Thursday, Escobar's wife posted President Barack Obama's responses to her written questions on Cuba-U.S. relations on her "Generacion Y" blog.
Escobar was waiting with at least two companions when he got into an argument with another man. What appeared to a prearranged group of government supporters then moved in, screaming obscenities. They hit him and slapped him in the head and pulled his hair and shirt, but never knocked him down.
Soon, Escobar and the others were surrounded by men thought to be state security agents who protected them as they walked about two blocks. All around, Cubans pushed and screamed "Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!" and "Get out worm!" slang for Cuban-American exiles.
At one point, a band organized as part of a nearby street festival joined the mob, marching through flower beds on the median of a boulevard. The music added an odd soundtrack to a tense situation.
After about 10 minutes, Escobar and the others were placed in unmarked cars and driven away.
Ahead of Escobar's arrival Friday, Cuba's Young Communists Union organized a street book fair on the same corner, blocking off traffic.
It was unclear if the security agents who came Friday where the same ones who presumably assaulted his wife, Yoani Sanchez, two weeks earlier. After the incident, Escobar challenged the alleged assailants to a verbal duel.
Sanchez answered the phone at the couple's apartment moments after Friday's bedlam, but hung up without confirming where her husband was taken. Pro-government "acts of repudiation" against dissidents happen a few times a year. Usually, state security gives opposition activists a ride home after a few minutes to keep things from getting too violent.
"This street is Fidel's!" the mob shouted. They eventually chanted the name of the current president, Raul Castro, who replaced Fidel in February of 2008.
Read the rest of the article here, and there is more in Spanish at El Nuevo Herald, and Penúltimos Días.
OF COURSE THE PUSSY WHO HAD THE COJONES TO HIT RAYNALDOS WIFE.....NEVER ARRIVES. I WONDER WHY?
I published a blog entry last night when I learned of the assault on Reinaldo at:
http://stjacquesonline.blogspot.com/2009/11/intimidation-of-cuban-bloggers.html
I split the composite image Reinaldo has on his blog into two sections and included small red arrows pointing to him so that everyone could follow the violence.
But I also found out something very interesting today that almost caught me by surprise. What is happening in Cuba is being watched very closely elsewhere in Latin America, and especially in Nicaragua, where the opposition to Ortega and the FSLN staged a huge march today. I wrote another blog entry on this event, which is up at:
http://stjacquesonline.blogspot.com/2009/11/successful-outcome-to-protest-march-in.html
And which follows up another I published yesterday. In today's post I included a translation into English of a blog post from La Prensa (Managua) journalist Luciano Cuadra on "Why We Are Marching."
Luciano dedicated an entire paragraph to what happened yesterday to Reinaldo Escobar in Cuba as a motivation for the marchers.
En español:
También nos expresamos hoy en solidaridad con Reinaldo Escobar, el esposo de la bloguera cubana Yoani Sánchez; quien fue atacado ayer por una turba a la cubana, por que quiso debatir con ideas con el agente castrista que atacó a Yoani hace unos días. Así de grande es el pavor de los cobardes cuando alguien les amenaza con desenfundar las palabras y batirse con ellos en un duelo a muerte intelectual. ¡Increible! Temen que muera su cerebro. No comprendo.
In English:
We also express ourselves in solidarity today with Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of the Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez; who was attacked yesterday by a Cuban crowd, because he wanted to debate ideas with the Castrista agent who attacked Yoani some days before. How great is the fear of cowards when someone threatens them with the drawing of words and beating them with those words in an intellectual duel to the death. Incredible! They fear that their brain will die. I do not understand.
I think it is worth noting that what is happening in Cuba is not only being followed elsewhere in Latin America, it is also motivating those opposed to the Latin American Left and their policies.
Reinaldo, Yoani, et al. are more important than many people might believe.
StJacques
StJacques Online: A Freedom Blog