Castro Regime Censors Blog Calling Raul Castro Responsible For UMAP

Castro Regime Censors Blog Calling Raul Castro Responsible For UMAP* /
Diario de Cuba
Posted on February 9, 2016

Diario de Cuba, Havana, 9 February 2016 — A blog on sexual diversity,
Proyecto Arcoiris (Rainbow Project), housed in the government-run
blogging platform Reflections, has been censored by the regime after
addressing UMAP and publishing a text attributing the responsibility for
it to Raul Castro, according to the Global Voices international network
of bloggers.

Those responsible for censorship alleged that the blog broke the rules
for participation on the site and that the text "defamed the
Revolution," explained blog author Yasmine Silvia Portales Machado to
Global Voices .

The censored paragraph from the Rainbow Project blog that refers to the
Military Units to Aid to the Population (UMAP) is hosted here; but
currently readers get a message that says "This site has been archived
or suspended."

The fragment is part of the text "Cuba's Mariela Castro and Historical
Reparations," published in December in Havana Times by activist and
member of the Rainbow Arc Jimmy Roque Martinez.

Roque called on the General Raul Castro to apologize and accept
responsibility for the internment of homosexuals in the UMAP camps.

From his point of view, not accepting responsibility and not
apologizing for such acts "are proof of the homophobia" of the current
leaders of the island and a sign that they are not repentant.

In the article, the activist says the General and others who are "still
alive" as "those maximally" responsible for the camps where dissidents,
religious and gay people were defined.

"It's been 50 years since the creation of UMAP said Roque and not a
single official has apologized to the people."

He also said that "the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR)
from that time is now the country's president," referring to Raul Castro.

"It is now time for them to apologize for that act of penalization,
exclusion and punishment to which they subjected thousands of
homosexuals and Cubans with 'improper conduct'," said the activist.

Roque demanded that "those responsible, every single one of them, must
recognize their error, and ask for a real apology directly to the
victims and their families, as the only way of historical reparation."

The state platform Reflections groups blogs written from the island and
is the only one from the island that provides this service. It is
managed by the Youth Computer and Electronics Clubs (JCCE), under the
Ministry of Communications.

Reflections is accessible from abroad, although it is not possible to
create a blog from outside the island, nor to manage it from abroad even
if it was created in Cuba. Operating a blog on Reflections requires that
the blogger access the blog from a JCCE site.

Source: Castro Regime Censors Blog Calling Raul Castro Responsible For
UMAP* / Diario de Cuba | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/castro-regime-censors-blog-calling-raul-castro-responsible-for-umap-diario-de-cuba/