I was having a terrible day. We arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital at 6:30 that morning to check in for surgery slated to begin two hours later. It wasn't until 3:45 that afternoon that the OR finally became available. Now, in my humble opinion, if you must have complex surgery, University of Miami's Jackson Memorial [...]

Prayers for Sonia Garro's health and safety... Sonia Garro, a female pro-democracy activist and member of the Ladies in White, was imprisoned on March 18th of this year. According to Garro's sister, she has been receiving numerous death threats at the women's prison of "El Guatao", where she remains incarcerated without charges or trial. She [...]

A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications. Every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and [...]

Remember way back when Rahm Emanuel, and others, said you can't let a crisis go to waste? In 2009 the U.S. and Egypt co-sponsored the free speech restrictions in the Human Rights Council... Americans are reacting in shock after the U.S. Embassy in Egypt apologized to the Muslim world for "abuse" of free speech--after it [...]

Photo from ACLJ's Jay Sekulow on Facebook: Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani greets his family as he leaves prison after 1,062 days in Iranian jail God watch over Youcef Nadarkhani and his family, as we have seen the practice of street justice override the authorities and courts in that part of the world. Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian [...]

Watching the Republican National Convention this evening; listening to the speeches, I at times found myself wiping away tears caused by a gut wrenching response to words affirming our great America experiment in a government of the people, and by the people.  I cry easily, I know some might think it corny, but I'm the daughter of [...]

From Pantalla Cubana: The new opponents, with the internet as their main weapon. In Spanish. And this photo, from Por El Levantamiento Popular en Cuba ripped from the video:

Capitol Hill Cubans: Cuban pro-democracy activists Gertrudis Ojeda Suárez and Yoandris Ricardo Mir are each facing two-year prison sentences. Their crime? "Defecating on Fidel Castro's mother." No joke. That's what the official documents stated at a judicial proceeding against them in the eastern town of Banes. The truth is that the couple hung anti-Castro signs [...]

From Capitol Hill  Cubans: 200 Political Arrests in Just Two Weeks Thursday, August 16, 2012 According to the independent news agency Hablemos Press, the Castro regime has conducted over 200 political arrests between August 1st-14th alone. Among these were 38 members of the Ladies in White. Additionally, the agency is calling on Amnesty International to [...]

Rafael Meneses Pupo, a human rights activist from the Eastern Democratic Alliance, from Los Negritos neighborhood in Banes, Holguin province, affirmed that the regime forces of the political police and State Security have refused him his right to travel to the municipality of Antilla, in the same province of Holguin. The authorities admitted that this [...]

Diario de Cuba: As noted by Capitol Hill Cubans, the participants all remain detained. They are: They are: Lázaro Mendoza García, Jorge González Echendia, Luis Enrique López Torres, José Antonio Pompa López, Ernesto Márquez Herrera and Wilfredo Piloto.

MIAMI, Florida – The individual who accompanied the Swede Jens Aron Modig at his press conference in Cuba about the Payá case has been identified. “Gustavo ´Tavito´ Ricardo Machín Gómez, a Coronel in the Cuban intelligence agency (DI) is the person who was seated next to Modig during his press conference,” affirmed Luis Domínguez, blogger [...]

NEWS US-bound Cubans pour into Panama through Colombia Led by smugglers armed with knives and machetes, Mayra Reyes and 14 other Cubans sloshed through swamps and rivers and suffered hordes of mosquitoes as they struggled across the notorious Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, the only north-south stretch of the Americas to defy road-builders. Cuban [...]

CUBA. DESPUÉS DEL ASESINATO DE OSWALDO PAYÁ: ¿QUIÉN SERÁ EL PRÓXIMO OPOSITOR ASESINADO POR LOS HERMANOS CASTRO. VIDEO CON TESTAMENTO POLÍTICO DE JUAN FRANCISCO SIGLER AMAYA EN CASO DE SU EXTRAÑA MUERTE http://baracuteycubano.blogspot.com/2012/08/cuba-despues-del-asesinato-de-oswaldo.html Cuban opera singer challenges "jealous" bureaucrats over closed theater http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/cuba-theater-reform-idINL2E8IU8AZ20120801 Opinion: What Really Happened to Cuban Dissident Oswaldo Payá? http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/08/01/opinionthe-legacy-oswaldo-paya/ Spaniard held [...]

Everyday we hear of more beatings, more arrests, and more stories of  heroic men and women risking their lives in the name of freedom. Jailed Cuban dissident rushed to hospital after long hunger strike By Juan O. Tamayo Dissidents in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba reported Monday that jailed activist Frank Montero, who [...]