Appeasement of freedom-snuffing tyrants must come with a heavy price.

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Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta is a hero, as a journalist, as a Cuban and as a man. Despite the cruelties he suffers as a political prisoner in the castro gulag, he has maintained and strengthened his dignity.
Miscelaneas de Cuba has published photographs of Herrera while he was on furlough to attend services for his 13-year-old [...]

A couple of photos I found online tonight offer plenty of reasons to remain optimisic about the struggle for liberty in Cuba, and to avoid the self-pity it might be easy to fall victim to in the absence of anything resembling progress.
This one was attached to a report by independent journalist Aini Martín Valero about [...]

Dear Granma:
My name is Marc Masferrer, and I would like a job as a reporter.
Here is a sample of my work. I hope it reflects the revolutionary fervor and worldview you try to bring to your readers each day. I also attached a photo, which I downloaded while using a computer at the Hotel Nacional. [...]

José García Paneque
Via e-mail, the Coalition of Cuban-American Women delivers some disturbing news about imprisoned independent journalist Dr. José Luis García Paneque:
Cuban prisoner of conscience, Dr. José Luis García Paneque, who is forced to share a barrack with dangerous common prisoners in Las Mangas Prison will declare himself on a hunger strike if the criminals [...]

I have been stewing over the story of Andreivi Castillo Pérez, since I first posted on it over the weekend at my blog, Uncommon Sense.
With their rhetoric, President Bush and other officials have at times, been eloquent in their support of Cuban liberty. But at the same time, the United States undermines its moral authority [...]

As long as raúl castro is dictator, there will be no room at tourist hotels for these Cubans.

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For all his crudity and devotion to his power and that of the dictatorship he heads, raúl castro has demonstated a mastery of public relations in his short tenure as "president." It's all words really, these pronouncements allowing Cubans to have cell phones and stay at tourist hotels — only a small percentage of Cubans [...]

Caridad García Pérez's home
Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" is one of the giants of the Cuban opposition.
For more than 17 years, Antúnez was a political prisoner, withstanding the worst the dictatorship could throw at him. His guards tried over and over to break Antúnez, beating him and throwing him in punishment cells. But all they [...]

"He's lying."
— Martha Beatriz Roque, in an interview with AFP about to fidel castro's claim that the dictatorship has not violated the rights of Cuban dissidents imprisoned during the "black spring" of March-April 2003.
AFP was unable to reach these Cubans for comment.

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Cuba owes China a lot.
For instance, if not for China, Cuba, not China, would be the world's No. 1 jailer of journalists, and maybe, just maybe, that might be too much for international defenders of the castro dictatorship to ignore.
So it's no surprise that the castro dictatorship today defended Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan protesters and [...]

Singer Miguel Ulises dedicates his song, Señora Libertad ("Lady Liberty"), to Oscar Biscet and all political prisoners around the world.
It gave me chills.
Watch it here.

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It's not a surprise but still worth noting that among the basic liberties denied Cuban prisoners of conscience are their religious rights.
BosNewsLife reports:
Religious rights of prisoners of conscience are "systematically violated in Cuban prisons," despite a transfer of power on the Communist-run island, according to a new report released Tuesday, March 18, by a major [...]

Members of the Ladies in White demonstrate last week on behalf of their imprisoned loved ones. (Associated Press photo)
Some 75 Cuban journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents were arrested and imprisoned during the "black spring," which started five years ago this week. Fifty-five of them remain in raul castro's gulag. (The 56th, Oscar [...]

Some 75 Cuban journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents were arrested and imprisoned during the "black spring," which started five years ago this week. Fifty-five of them remain in Raul Castro's gulag. (The 56th, Oscar Elias Biscet, was actually arrested in December 2002, and during the "black spring" was convicted and sentenced to [...]

Margarito Broche Espinosa
Next week, you will see here and, hopefully elsewhere, a lot about the fifth anniversary of the Cuban "black spring" of 2003, when the dictatorship arrested and imprisoned some 75 journalists, librarians, human rights and democracy activists and other dissidents.
While most of the focus will be on the 55 who remain in the [...]

That must have been some workshop Florida International University had planned for Cuban independent journalists this past Monday. Because judging by the reaction of the Cuban secret police — the arrests or other harassment of at least five journalists planning to attend via a teleconference at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana — you would [...]

A CBS News story lays out the economic woes caused by Cuba's dual currency system and other mismanagment by the Castro dictatorship, and discusses possible remedies. The story was fairly reported and written and is worth a read.
Missing from the discussion, however, was a mention of a grassroots campaign, organized by a feminist group, to [...]

The amoral insensitivity that many in the world, especially at the United Nations, hold when it comes to totalitarianism never surprises me.
The disappointments are too many to be surprised any more:
Cuba sitting on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
A U.N. diplomat calling the American embargo "a major threat" to human rights in Cuba.
The U.N. General [...]

Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday will single out Cuba for its atrocious record on Internet, labeling the island as one othe world's "Internet enemies."
RSF has details:
Reporters Without Borders will launch the first International Online Free Expression Day on 12 March, when it will also organise its second “24-hour online demo against Internet censorship,” urging Internet [...]