Martha Beatriz Roque

Martha Beatriz Roque

Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello (born May 16, 1945 in Havana ) is a Spanish- Cuban economist and human rights activist as well as a former political prisoner (recognized by Amnesty International ).

Early life

Roque is the daughter of Spanish immigrants from the Canary Islands. In addition to Cuban citizenship, she has also had Spanish citizenship since 2011. A sister who emigrated to the USA in 1960 and is now 82 years old saw her for the first time in 55 years in March 2016.

She studied economics at the University of Havana , where she received her first degree in 1976 and was later accepted as a member of the economics faculty.

Political activities

Roque lost her job as a university professor in 1989, shortly after giving a lecture criticizing the controversial shooting of the revolutionary hero and popular general Arnaldo Ochoa , who had previously been convicted of high treason and drug trafficking in a show trial.

Instituto Cubano de Economistas Independientes "Manuel Sánchez Herrero" (ICEI)

In response to the government's lack of transparency in dealing with the economic crisis, which began after the end of decades of international support for Cuba, mainly from the Soviet Union (see article Special Period in Cuba ), she founded the Instituto Cubano de Economistas Independientes "Manuel Sánchez Herrero" in 1994 " (ICEI, German: Cuban Institute of Independent Economists) to" show the real situation in Cuba and fight the disinformation. "

In December 2001, the ICEI launched its own website - the first dissident organization's website to be filled with information from Cuba. A week later, access to the site was permanently blocked by the Cuban authorities.

Document “La Patria es de Todos” and first sentence

In 1997, together with three other government critics, she formed the “Working Group of the Internal Opposition to Analyze the Socio-Economic Situation in Cuba”, which dealt with the discussion of the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba , and finally in June the document “La Patria es de Todos “(German: The fatherland belongs to everyone) published. The four signatories were arrested three weeks later for “conspiracy against the sovereignty of Cuba”, held in custody for over a year without charge and finally in March 1999 for “acts against the security of the state” and “incitement / sedition” (Spanish: “sedición “) Sentenced to between three and a half (Roque) and five years in prison. Amnesty International investigated the case and recognized the four as prisoners of conscience, the organization campaigned for their release. In May 2000, the four were released conditionally.

In 2002 she wrote an open letter to the former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter , in which she asked him for talks with prominent political prisoners and non-governmental Cubans for his upcoming visit to Cuba, as well as to advocate Castro for a constituent assembly asked for the democratization of the country.

Conviction in the "Black Spring" 2003

In March 2003, she went on hunger strike to demand the release of incarcerated doctor and human rights activist Oscar Elías Biscet . A week later, she was the victim of a shocking wave of international arrests against human rights and democracy activists, as well as independent journalists and librarians, who were subsequently sentenced to long prison terms in an urgent procedure . Roque was the only woman in the "Group of 75" and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the country" (see article Black Spring (Cuba) ). In particular, contacts with diplomats from the US interest group in Havana were viewed negatively. Another main subject of the charges was the dissemination of information through the ICEI website. After international protests and months without medical care, she was initially transferred to a military hospital and released on parole on July 22, 2004 after surviving a heart attack for health reasons.

Asamblea Para Promover la Sociedad Civil (APSC)

In October 2002 she was elected President of the newly founded "Assembly for the Promotion of Cuban Civil Society", an umbrella organization of 365 dissident associations across the country.

In May 2005, under her chairmanship, the first and only general assembly of the APSC was held on the outskirts of Havana, attended by around 200 opposition members and some diplomatic representatives from Western countries, while other observers were turned away by the government and several delegates were arrested and prevented from attending were. This first meeting of the opposition, held with the tolerance of the authorities, was also the largest of its kind since the 1959 revolution. Attempts at a similar meeting were prevented in 1996 by the temporary arrests of most of the leading dissidents. The event, at which a video message from US President George W. Bush was played and the deceased Cubans in exile Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart were each honored with a minute of silence, was particularly rewarding because of the close cooperation with groups based in the USA like the Cuban-American National Foundation , the Veterans' Association of the Storm Brigade 2506 and the US government, clear criticism from large sections of the Cuban opposition who stayed away from the meeting. The most prominent Cuban dissident at the time, the Christian Democrat Oswaldo Payá, declared : "This assembly does not represent the majority of the opposition." Four months later, the government confiscated the private property where the meeting was held to prevent it from happening again. The APSC has not appeared as a functioning organization since around 2007 and is now meaningless.

Further actions since 2005

On July 14, 2005, the French national holiday, Roque organized a protest demonstration in front of the French embassy in Havana against France's political rapprochement with Cuba, during which she was arrested together with around 30 demonstrators, but unlike other participants, she was released after just one day was left.

After secret service workers surrounded the house of opposition member Vladimiro Roca in October 2009 and sealed off the dissidents, including Roque, who had gathered there for a planned meeting, the group went on a hunger strike that lasted for several weeks. Roque, who suffered from heart failure and diabetes, joined in and maintained the protest for 40 days, in the face of which several Cubans in exile wrote an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI. petitioned for protection for Roca and Roque from further reprisals.

In August 2011, she and other opposition activists began a hunger strike outside a prison on the outskirts of Havana, underscoring her call for her to regain her full civil rights and the release of two little-known political prisoners.

In September 2012, a group led by Martha Beatriz Roque and Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” went on a hunger strike, initially 13 and shortly afterwards 30 Cuban dissidents. The declared aim was that the authorities comply with current Cuban laws in their dealings with political opponents: Specifically, they demanded the overdue release of the opposition member Jorge Vázquez Chaviano in the province of Villa Clara after serving a year of imprisonment for illegal economic activity, and the restitution of the Security forces confiscated or destroyed personal property of a dissident family in Palma Soriano and an investigation into the circumstances of a fire in the apartment of an opposition couple in Havana. Roque told journalists that she wanted to carry out the hunger strike to the last resort and receive neither medical care nor artificial nutrition. After Vázquez Chaviano had first ended his protest, who had been served with a court order for his early release, Roque and the other hunger strikers also ended their protest eight days after it began.

Repressive measures suffered

In addition to arrests, the Cuban government has repeatedly used violent means against Roque. She has been the victim of physical attacks several times, including by known employees of the Cuban security forces, and has had to endure numerous acts of repudio and other acts of intimidation initiated by representatives of the authorities . Roque has repeatedly been the target of discrediting and defamation campaigns by the Cuban state media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and media abroad cooperating with the Cuban regime, most recently in September 2012, when her hunger strike was described as merely fake and its stated goals were deliberately misrepresented. She was regularly slandered as a US undercover agent - the Cuban regime uses the bellicose phrase “ mercenary ” as a standard for Cubans who openly represent oppositional positions. The fact that Roque is in talks with diplomats from the United States (and other countries) is presented, for example, as evidence that they receive instructions from them regarding actions to be taken. For the media reports, audio and video recordings made covertly by the Cuban State Security Service were repeatedly used, including telephone calls repeatedly recorded in violation of your privacy or statements by doctors in apparent violation of their confidentiality. However, the truth of the crimes alleged in these campaigns speaks against the fact that no charges have been brought against Roque in Cuban courts since her conviction in 2003. For example, acting as an agent in the state media would constitute a serious crime for the United States.

In November 2011, Roque signed an open letter from around 300 opposition members to the Cuban exile and chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen , in which she asked for help in creating international awareness of the growing repression against the Cuban government the opposition asked. Roque and Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) were the most prominent signatories, while numerous well-known activists did not take part in the initiative.

Martha Beatriz Roque is one of the most active reporters on repressive measures taken by the Cuban government against non-violent oppositionists. To this end, she regularly allows herself to be interviewed by foreign media, in particular by Cuban journalists in exile , through whom her reports reach many Cubans living abroad as well as more and more Cubans living on the island. She is also a frequent user of the Internet service "Háblalo Sin Miedo" (German: Say it without fear), which was set up in 2011, a semi-automatic information platform on which messages spoken from Cuba by telephone on an answering machine can be called up in a blog as original audio documents. She also writes opinion articles and analyzes at irregular intervals, which are widely disseminated, especially on the Internet.

Fidel Castro personally referred to Roque as a “counter-revolutionary leader” in speeches.

From 2003 to 2016, she was denied the basic right to leave her home country. Before she could finally start a trip to the USA in March 2016, the authorities told her that she was only allowed to leave and re-enter once.

Current viewpoints

In view of the Cuban economic system, in which citizens can be officially forbidden from any gainful activity, Roque, unlike other opposition activists, takes the position that the acceptance of Cuban or non-Cuban material support from abroad is legitimate. On the special occasion of the severe hurricane damage in autumn 2008, however, Roque and Vladimiro Roca asked the US government under President George W. Bush to relax the regulations on money transfers and visits to relatives for at least two months.

In August 2010, together with 164 other prominent dissidents, she signed an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, in which the role of the Cuban Catholic church leadership in the release of political prisoners was criticized: They had been involved in arranging for the forced deportation to leave the country of the dissidents who had been dismissed since the early summer of 2010 acted in the interests of the government instead of asking the dissidents themselves for their opinion and letting it flow into the negotiations.

In July 2011 she was one of the first signatories of the document "El Camino del Pueblo" initiated by Oswaldo Payá , a draft for necessary steps for a peaceful and orderly democratic change in the political system in Cuba, taking into account all political currents.

Awards

• In 2002 she received the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Prize for Scientists from the New York Academy of Sciences . However, the Cuban government refused to allow her to leave the country for the award ceremony in New York.
• In 2007, Roque was one of a total of 181 officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at the French suggestion .

Web links

• Homepage of Martha Beatriz Roque: Martha Beatriz Roque Info , accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
• Amnesty International: Imminent Arbitrary Detention: Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, April 24, 2007, accessed November 18, 2011
• Twitter messages from Martha Beatriz Roque: @marthabroque
• Human Rights Committee of the National Academy of Sciences : Case Info: Martha Beatriz Roque , undated, accessed November 18, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Luisa del Rosario: Una hija de emigrantes canarios, candidata a Nobel de la Paz in: Canarias7 from June 23, 2007, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Trece disidentes cubanos inician una huelga de hambre para exigir al Gobierno que cumpla la ley con la oposición , In: RTVE Noticias from September 11, 2012 (Spanish)
3. ↑ Paroled Cuban dissidents get special permission to travel, in: The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 23, 2016, accessed January 10, 2017 (Spanish)
4. ↑ Martha Beatriz Roque Believes That The US Should “Straighten Out” The Normalization With Cuba (EFE / 14ymedio), in: Translating Cuba from March 4, 2016, accessed on January 10, 2017 (Spanish)
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Biography of Martha Beatriz Roque in: Carta de Cuba o. D., accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Adriano Farano: Martha Beatriz Roque, Cuban determination  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Café Babel of August 23, 2006, accessed November 18, 2011  
7. ↑ Vanessa Bauza: Dissident Web Site Spotlights Economy in: Sun Sentinel of December 9, 2001, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
8. ↑ Cuban dissidents launch worldwide web site ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Cubanet of December 10, 2001, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English) 
9. ↑ Reporters without Borders: Government forbids the sale of personal computers press release of March 29, 2002, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
10. ↑ La Patria es de Todos of June 27, 1997 in: Carta de Cuba , accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
11. ↑ Amnesty International: Cuba: Briefing on the trial of 4 prisoners of conscience of March 3, 1999, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English) with other documents cited there
12. ↑ Amnesty International: Further information Prisoners of conscience / Arbitrary arrests / Legal concern of March 16, 1999, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
13. ↑ Amnesty International: Annual Report 2001 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 18, 2011 
14. ↑ Carta de opositora Roque Cabello a ex Presidente de EE UU Jimmy Carter in: CubaEncuentro of April 26, 2002, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
15. ↑ Amnesty International: Cuba: "Essential measures"? Human rights crackdown in the name of security full version dated June 2, 2003, accessed November 18, 2011
16. ↑ Indictment and judgment ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated April 4, 2003, accessed on November 18, 2011 (in English translation) 
17. ↑ Amnesty International: Cuba: Annual Report 2003  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 25, 2011  
18. ^ Cuba refers European parliamentarians in the country in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 21, 2005, accessed on November 18, 2011
19. ↑ ^{a b} Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil: Acta de la Primera Reunión General , document of the 1st General Assembly, signed on July 7, 2005, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
20. ↑ Cuba allows dissidents to meet in Havana  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Epoch Times Deutschland of May 21, 2005  
21. ↑ Vanessa Arrington (AP): Cuba Confiscates Land Where Dissidents Met in: Newsday from August 19, 2005, accessed via Cuba Verdad on November 18, 2011 (English)
22. ↑ David Rennie: 'Two-faced French sell out Cuban dissidents' in: Daily Telegraph of July 26, 2005, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
23. ↑ No opening in Cuba in: DW World of November 18, 2009, accessed on November 18, 2011
24. ↑ Cubans in exile ask Pope for support for dissidents ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Liborius.de of November 18, 2009, accessed on November 18, 2011 
25. ↑ Martha Beatriz Roque se declara en huelga de hambre in: Misceláneas de Cuba of August 9, 2011, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
26. ↑ Peter B. Schumann: Repression in Cuba: Arrests and House Arrest Against Oppositionists , in: Deutschlandfunk, September 22, 2012
27. ↑ Cuban dissidents go on hunger strike ( Memento from September 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), In: Stern Online from September 11, 2012
28. ↑ Martha Beatriz Roque y otros doce disidentes cubanos, en huelga de hambre ( Memento from September 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Video on YouTube in which Roque justified the hunger strike (Spanish)
29. ^ Roque, Antúnez y otros 29 disidentes finalizan la huelga de hambre , in: Diario de Cuba of September 18, 2012 (Spanish)
30. ↑ Amnesty International: Fear for safety / Fear of arbitrary detention: Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello of April 24, 2007, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
31. ↑ Propinane “gran golpiza” a disidentes in: CubaEncuentro of September 28, 2011, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
32. ↑ "Fidel fashionistas" agreden a disidente cubana in: El Universal on 27 April 2006, accessed on 18 November 2011 (Spanish)
33. ↑ Desenmascara Cuba farsa de huelga de hambre de asalariada de gobierno de EEUU ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , message dated September 26, 2012 adopted by Radio Habana on the website of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Spanish) 
34. ↑ Video busca descreditar a Marta Beatriz Roque por aguacate , TV report in: Univisión 23 of September 26, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012 (Spanish)
35. ↑ ^{a b} Juan Fernández López: Del almuerzo a la huelga (+ video) , in: Cubadebate from September 25, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012 (Spanish)
36. ↑ Cuba: Martha Beatriz Roque y terroristas en Miami on YouTube , accessed October 3, 2012
37. ↑ Los vínculos de Martha Beatriz Roque con el terrorismo II on YouTube , accessed on October 3, 2012
38. ↑ Ley cubana no autoriza intervenir llamadas telefónicas , in: Martí Noticias of September 26, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012 (Spanish)
39. ↑ Manuel Henríquez Lagarde: La huelga de Martha Beatriz y los síntomas de la resurrección , in his blog Cambios en Cuba from September 14, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012 (Spanish)
40. ↑ Opositores piden apoyo a la congresista Ros Lehtinen por aumento de lareprión en Cuba in: CubaEncuentro of November 8, 2011, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
41. ↑ Homepage of Háblalo Sin Miedo accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
42. ↑ Cuba Democracia Y Vida Homepage of a website in Sweden that frequently publishes articles by Roque, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
43. ↑ Fidel Castro: Special Address by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Fidel Castro Ruz (...) of April 25, 2003, accessed on November 18, 2011
44. ↑ Iliana Lavastida and Jesús Hernández: Martha Beatriz Roque: "Vine a Miami a decir lo que pienso", in: Diario Las Américas of March 12, 2016, accessed on January 10, 2017 (Spanish)
45. ↑ Tracey Eaton: Interview with Martha Beatriz Roque ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (first half of 2011), accessed November 18, 2011 (Spanish) 
46. ↑ Cuban dissidents ask Bush to relax the embargo  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: net tribune of September 4, 2008, accessed on November 18, 2011  
47. ↑ Disidentes se quejan sobre “lamentable” actuación Iglesia en Cuba  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Mundo.com of August 20, 2010, accessed November 18, 2011 (Spanish)  
48. ↑ Opositores de todas las tendencias firman un consenso y exigen un plebiscito in: Diario de Cuba of July 13, 2011, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish)
49. ↑ 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Awards message on the homepage of the New York Academy of Sciences from February 25, 2002, accessed on November 18, 2011 (English)
50. ↑ Propuesta Martha Beatriz Roque para el Premio Nobel de la Paz on Martha Beatriz Roque's homepage from May 12, 2007, accessed on November 18, 2011 (Spanish / French / English)