Denuncias / Reports

Newly discovered North Korea propaganda footage sheds light on how the Communist regime trains state security agents on how to identify and silence Christians.

If not for a North Korean government training video, the testimony of Cha Deoksun’s life would never have been known. Produced to train state security agents how to identify and silence those who promote religion inside North Korea, the film denigrates anyone who practices religion. “This video illustrates very clearly why it is so important for Christians everywhere to pray for North Korea and Christians there," Todd Nettleton, host of VOM Radio and an author of the history of Christianity in North Korea, said. According to the film, Deoksun received Christ in China and returned to North Korea to share her faith. Cha lost her faith in the government during the Great Famine in the 1990s when she illegally crossed the border into China and found God at Seotap Church and then became a  believer who was inspired to return to North Korea and form an underground church.

Incredibly, the propaganda film gives many details about the life of this courageous Christian. It states that during North Korea’s “Great Famine” in the mid-1990s, when an estimated 2.5 million people died, Deoksun was a strong revolutionary whose faith in the government had wavered. After visiting a woman in the northwest to ask for help, she illegally crossed the border into China in search of her uncle. But instead of finding her uncle, who had died, Deoksun found the Seotap Church, where she heard the gospel for the first time. The video says she became a “fanatical believer” who was inspired to return to North Korea and form an underground network of Christians inside the country.

• A press release distributed by the OCDH in Madrid informs that Luis Barrios Díaz, 37 years old, died on Sunday afternoon due to medical neglect at the hospital La Covadonga, Havana. [Comunicado de Prensa en español después del texto en inglés]
• OCDH estimates that Cuba has more than 1,000 political prisoners and remembers that, under the UN Mandela Rules, the provision of adequate medical services to prisoners is the responsibility of the State.

Madrid, Nov.21.– The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) reported this Monday the death of a political prisoner imprisoned for demonstrations against the government on July 11, 2021supposedly after the prison authorities would not give him the medical attention he needed.

Since last August, Barrios Diaz has been suffering from respiratory problems. The Observatory explained that, because of health problems, he was admitted to the infirmary of prison 1580 in San Miguel del Padrón and then transferred to the hospital. “The doctors of La Covadonga hospital informed the prison authorities that it was necessary to urgently process admission to the hospital due to the ill health of the prisoner but they decided to return him to prison, claiming that They do not have the fuel to guarantee permanent surveillance of political prisoners decision that led to his worsening health condition and death,” the press release detailed.

This is the press release in Spanish:

The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the decision to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Iranian woman human rights defender Narges Mohammadi. In 2015, Mohammadi was imprisoned for standing against the death penalty but released for health reasons in October 2020 before being arrested again on November 16, 2021. Mohammadi has been sentenced to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it gave the Peace Prize to Mohammadi, “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs.”

Se cumplen dos años del 11J y las cárceles de Cuba siguen atestadas con 661 presos de conciencia del 11J que sólo se manifestaron pacíficamente, y todos y sus familias, incluyendo menores y mujeres, son torturados sin piedad.

Dos años del #11J y la represión sigue creciendo mes a mes

Este mes de junio, otros 16 Convictos de Conciencia engrosan nuestra lista de presos políticos. Desde enero de 2023, la media de presos políticos que entran en nuestra lista es de 19 al mes, algo que multiplica por 4 la media de prisioneros políticos con las que se nutría nuestra lista antes de los eventos del 11J. Aún siguen saliendo casos que estaban presos desde el 11J. En muchas otras ocasiones son nuevas razias ejercidas por el Gobierno cubano ante manifestaciones posteriores al 11J. Entre la lista de Convictos de Conciencia, es decir, aquellos condenados de conciencia cuya pena actual es detentiva, hay 661 casos que se causaron de forma directa el día 11 de julio de 2021. Esas personas sufren el peor calvario, pues todos son torturados, como demostró nuestro Primer Estudio Integral de la Tortura en Cuba. Por medio de la monitorización de 181 casos, entre los que 168 se tomaron aleatoriamente, se demostró que en Cuba todos los presos de conciencia y/o políticos son torturados inmisericordemente, cada día. Este informe se hizo público el 30 de mayo pasado.

El informe señala como los menores, los jóvenes, las mujeres y el colectivo LGTBI son algunos de los grupos más torturados en prisión, donde el 80% de los presos sufren al menos 5 tipos de tortura y no pocos hasta 15 tipologías de tortura. Los informes fueron entregados a diversos mecanismos de Naciones Unidas y la CIDH en forma de denuncia y pueden ser leídos en un formato resumido (Fact Sheets: ES / EN / FR / IT / PT / CS) o en el formato completo (ES / EN / FR / IT / PT / CS).

José Daniel Ferrer, el Gandhi de Cuba