The world needs to know about imprisoned Cuban opposition member Sara Martha Fonseca

Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo: She is a Cuban woman who has more courage in her diminutive pinkie than the brawniest male Castro thug who spends his time beating up defenseless women for the Castro dictatorship. Cuba’s women in the opposition have proven to be some of the most valiant and courageous human rights activists in recent history, and the world should know who they are.

Via Uncommon Sense:

Cuban activist Sara Fonseca needs you to know her name

3057_img_1737 Sara Martha Fonseca

A frustration intrinsic to writing about human rights abuses in Cuba is that it is impossible to recount each and every instance where the Castro dictatorship and its agents have targeted a member of the peaceful opposition with repression. Each activist, each independent journalist, each dissident who is harassed, threatened, beaten and/or arrested is deserving of the protection offered each time their name is published on this blog and the many others dedicated to sharing their stories with the world.

But as relentless as the Castro regime is in attacking its opposition, so will this blog — and others, I am certain —  in doing the best we can to hold that regime accountable and to let it and its victims know they will never be forgotten. And that includes those Cubans whose names we will never know.

The names we do know are important and need to be repeated as often as neccessary, because that is the best way to personalize what is happening in Cuba today, to make real the connection between events on the island and the outside world. And that is the best way to make those stories much more difficult to ignore.

So that is why I again introduce you to Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo.

For more than a year, Fonseca has been one of the more visible Cuban opposition activists, carrying out high-profile protests at the University of Havana, the Old Capitol building and other demonstrations. In turn, the regime has targeted her and her family, arresting and detaining them on several instances.

This past Saturday, police and other Castroite goons targeted Fonseca, her family and other activists who had gathered their home with an “act of repudiation.” Not satisfied with just tossing insults and threats, the thugs broke in, savagedly beat them and then took them to jail.

Most were later released, but as of Monday evening Fonseca and her husband Julio León Pérez remained in police custody.

Chances are they will be released soon, maybe as soon as Tuesday, once the regime is satisfied it has made its point clear. But what also is possible is that the authorities have lost their patience and are ready to make an example of Fonseca, to jail her indefinitely and/or sentence her to a long prison term. There are reports the regime may prosecute them on trumped-up charges of “assault” and “disrespect.”

There is not a lot anyone, in Cuba or overseas, can do to save Fonseca from her predicament. But those of us with blogs or Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds do have a voice, we do have a pulpit, and should use them on her behalf, and on behalf of all Cubans brave enough to be in the vanguard of the struggle for freedom. Otherwise, their lives are that much more at risk.

The support makes a difference to Cuban freedom fighters, and it also holds the potential of convincing the Castros that their repression comes with a high cost.

We do have the ability and the capability to stand up for Sara Martha Fonseca, and to let her and her captors know she will never be forgotten.

It may always be impossible to remember by name each victim of the Castro regime, but we owe it to all of them to try.

In a related story, eight Cuban human rights activists have been arrested by the regime for protesting the vicious beating and imprisonment of Sara Marta Fonseca and her husband. Here are their names:

Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera y Yaimara Reyes Mesa, of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights; Mariblanca Ávila Expósito, of the Eastern Democratic Alliancel; Eriberto Pons Ruíz, of the Cuba Independence and Democracy movement; René Rouco Machín and Yosvani Martínez Lemus, of the Juan Wilfredo Soto García Movement; and Julio León Fonseca, president of the Cuba Pro-Human Rights Party.