Fans Call On 'The Police' For Liberty Of Cubans
Ileana Varela
Reporting
(CBS4) MIAMI The Police is set to make a stop in South Florida in their
world tour. There is also talk they may perform in Cuba, and that has
some local groups taking action, hoping the group also encourages action
in the island.
Henry Gomez and Alberto de la Cruz are both huge fans of Sting and the
Police. They are also both bloggers who advocate democracy in Cuba, and
when they heard their favorite band might be performing in Havana, they
had an idea.
"We really want to appeal to Sting, The Police and their better angels
to do what's right," said Gomez, of Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty.
What they want is for Sting and The Police to take up the cause of
Cuba's political prisoners, people such as human rights activist Dr.
Oscar Elias Biscet, who is serving a 25-year-sentence.
"The Cuban political prisoners right now are largely being ignored by
the media and the world, and we want to bring that to light that they
are not invisible, that they do exist," said his partner Alberto de la Cruz.
The bloggers have launched an awareness campaign to coincide with the
band's concert in Miami July 10th. They call it the Campaign for the
Invisible Ones, a name taken from the lyrics of a song Sting wrote in
honor of the Chilean mothers whose sons and daughters disappeared during
the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.
Sting was also vocal against the apartheid government of South Africa,
and in 1986 The Police reunited for the Conspiracy of Hope Tour,hosted
by Amnesty International, which has long campaigned against human rights
abuses in Cuba--particularly the jailing of political dissidents.
Despite this, Cuba insists it has no political prisoners.
"The Castro regime is trying to make them invisible, and we're trying to
make them visible."
The publicist for the band won't comment on the Campaign for the
Invisible Ones, saying only, "We are examining the possibility of
performing in Havana and will announce something whenever we're in a
position to do so."
As part of their awareness campaign the Cuban American bloggers plan a
candlelight vigil here outside Versailles Restaurant the day before the
concert. They will have one candle for each of the 300 political
prisoner believed to be imprisoned in Cuba today.
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