U.S. expresses outrage over `assault' on Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald
The U.S. State Department has told Cuba it deplores last week's
``assault'' on blogger Yoani Sánchez, one of the toughest of several
expressions of support for the Havana writer.
Sánchez and fellow blogger Orlando Luis Pardo said they were beaten
Friday by presumed state security agents to keep them away from a
``march against violence.'' Blogger Claudia Cadelo and another woman
were detained in the incident, but without violence.
``The U.S. government strongly deplores the assault,'' said a State
Department statement issued late Monday. ``We have expressed to the
Cuban government our deep concern . . . and we are following up with
inquiries to [the three bloggers] . . . regarding their personal
well-being and access to medical care.''
Sánchez' husband, Reynaldo Escobar, told El Nuevo Herald she's walking
with a crutch and taking medicines for a backache, the result of being
thrown head-first into a car and punched in the back by the three men in
plainclothes who detained her for 20 minutes. There was no word on
Pardo's health.
Cuba's government-controlled mass media has made no mention of the
incident, which received wide coverage abroad because of Sanchez's fame
as the prize-winning author of the blog Generación Y, which regularly
criticizes the ruling system.
``The Cuban authorities are using brute force to try to silence Yoani
Sanchez's only weapon: her ideas,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, head of
the New York-based Americas section of Human Rights Watch. ``The
international community must send a firm message to Raúl Castro that
such attacks on independent voices are completely unacceptable.
``This brazen attack makes clear that no one in Cuba who voices dissent
is safe from violent reprisals,'' Vivanco added.
The Human Rights Foundation, an independent group also based in New
York, decried the ``blatant attempt by the Cuban government to silence
independent thought and speech'' and added: ``Does the Cuban government
realize the preposterous irony of violently assaulting citizens who were
on their way to protest violence?''
Seven U.S. senators from both parties, meanwhile, issued statements
Tuesday condemning the incident, with New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez
calling it ``yet another indication that despite all the hoped-for
change on the island, the regime continues to rule with an iron fist
that crushes any seed of free speech or human rights.''
``This is yet another outrageous and unacceptable example that appeasing
the Castro regime will not work,'' said Florida Republican George
Lemieux. Florida Democrat Bill Nelson called Sánchez ``a symbol of
courage.''
Also condemning the incident were Democrats Frank Lautenberg of New
Jersey, Ted Kaufman of Delaware and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
Earlier, during an interview with Radio Martí, Florida Republican Rep.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart branded the violence against Sánchez and Pardo as
``repugnant'' and said it was ``Cuba's answer'' to gestures by President
Barack Obama to establish a new relationship.
U.S. expresses outrage over `assault' on Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez -
Cuba - MiamiHerald.com (11 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1327702.html
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