Free Republic

The Obama administration is calling on the Cuban government to free a political prisoner -- one of the dozens released from prison a year ago as a rapprochement gesture, only to be re-arrested a few months later. Vladimir Morera Bacallao, 53, is reportedly near death due to the hunger strike he started behind bars in October. Morera Bacallao, a labor activist, was arrested in April in the run-up to the regime's sham municipal elections for posting a sign outside his home stating: "I vote for my freedom and not in an election where I cannot choose my president." A month...

Politics: President Obama removed Cuba as a state sponsor of terror Friday, forgetting the dictatorship's long record of killing, smuggling and, yes, terror. If this is the new standard, why not just scrap the list entirely? The lifting of Cuba from the list of nations that support terrorism was a farce that may well come back to the haunt the United States. After all, the ruling Castro regime that benefits from it in the name of normal relations with the U.S. and new access to World Bank loans is the same regime that once tried the first 9/11, aligning itself...

Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá was buried Tuesday as police dragged off and allegedly beat at least 40 supporters who shouted “Freedom!” after his funeral mass, in a clash watched by a large and impassive crowd in Havana. Relatives and supporters voiced new allegations that Payá was killed in a car crash caused by another vehicle, but a Madrid newspaper reported the Spaniard at the wheel of the car carrying the dissident told police the accident was his fault. Police detained 40 to 50 dissidents, and beat some of them severely, as more than 300 people left the El Salvador del...

Oswaldo Paya sits in his living room in Havana's Cerro district. The door is locked and the window shutters are closed. Pictures of his three children hang on the wall next to a framed award certificate -- the Sacharov Prize the European Union's parliament awarded him for his commitment to human rights. Paya sways nervously back and forth on his rocking chair. He wipes his brow with a handkerchief. "It'll start in a moment," he says. The Cuban national hymn blasts from loudspeakers outside as he gives an interview to European journalists. Paya gets up and peers through a gap...

Yesterday's (May 13) Wall Street Journal (no link) has a lengthy, front page article on the Varela Project, a petition campaign seeking a referendum on political reform in Fidel Castro's island prison, and its creator Oswaldo Payá. The project, named after a 19th Century Catholic priest and independence advocate Felix Varela, seeks to take advantage of Article 88 of Cuba's constitution which permits any citizen who collects 10,000 signatures to petition the National Assembly for a referendum on any subject. Payá and his volunteers have gathered more than 20,000 signatures and submitted a pared-down list of 11,020 to the National...