International assistance to pro-democracy dissident movements is necessary for their survival.
Describes how he accomplished the “impossible mission” of getting a United Nations body to take note of human rights violations by the Castro regime.
“The Cuban regime ...loves to say that Cuba is paradise ..., but once you see a video of someone being beaten on the street or a group of policemen entering someone’s home to smashit, you know what they are saying is not true.”
“Che Guevara . . . felt a profound contempt toward his enemies and he made a virtue out of cruelty.”
Talks about his arrest during the Cuban “Black Spring” of 2003.
“I started defending my brother, and I ended up defending all the political prisoners and all the people whose rights had been violated.”
How he lost half his weight and became a paraplegic while in prison.
“Technology that didn’t exist before now provides reliable evidence of what is really happening in Cuba.”
Explains why he has been inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, José Marti, and Martin Luther King.
“For all those countries under dictatorships . . . . You are not alone.”
“We are not going to cure you because you are a black counter-revolutionary.”
“The saddest thing is that the world knows, even the allies of the Cuban government, just how evil it is.”
Explaining his view that Veneuzuelans are democratic by nature.
Explaining the daily suffering and humiliations of life under a repressive government.
Detailing use of new technologies by both the Chavez government and the opposition movement.
Explains that international pressure on behalf of pro-democracy dissidents has an important psychological effect on the persecutors.
Distinguishes between the Castro regime’s military assistance to Marxist guerrilla armies overseas and democratic countries’ assistance to nonviolent pro-democracy movements.
“International organizations like the UN essentially end up being an instrument used by the Cuban government.”
“This is a fallacy, that having economic relationships bring freedom and democracy.”