The veteran Cuban political dissident Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello78, will be honored with the prestigious International Women of Courage Award (IWOC) awarded by the United States Department of State.
Roque is among a dozen women who will be recognized on March 4 at the eighteenth edition of the IWOC Award, in a ceremony at the White House, with the presence of the secretary of state Antony J. Blinken and the first lady Jill Bidenreported this Friday a statement of American dependence.
Roque said in one interview with news agency AP what It will not be able to receive the award because since 2018 it has been “regulated” by the Cuban regimewhich prevents you from leaving the country and processing your passport.
“I certainly feel very happy with this award. “I am very grateful to the United States embassy in Cuba that carried out the proposal,” she expressed. “At least it’s a way of saying ‘You have spent 35 years working for Cuban democracy’”.
The State Department highlighted that the Cuban opposition member has been “an outstanding defender of human rights and religious freedom in Cuba for more than four decades, during which he founded and directed several prominent human rights and democracy organizations.”
He recalled that Roque, “one of the oldest members of the historical opposition that fight for greater freedoms in Cuba”, She was the only woman among the 75 people imprisoned during the Black Spring in 2003. and received a sentence of 20 years in prison, part of which she served before being released for medical reasons in 2004.
After his release, he “continued to advocate for human rights by maintaining contact with political prisoners, documenting fraudulent court hearings, and providing material support to activists and their families.”
The statement from the US Foreign Ministry states that “as a result of its human rights work, the Cuban government has harassed and monitored her daily for decades.
Throughout her 35 years of activism, Roque has protested against the Cuban government and its one-party system, facing accusations of being a US agent and facing two terms of imprisonment.
An economist by profession, he challenged the Cuban government in 1997 by founding the Internal Dissidence Working Group, known as the “Group of Four,” along with Félix Bonne, René Gómez Manzano y Vladimiro Roca.
The dissidents ended up being tried by a court, which sentenced Roque to three and a half years in prison, on charges of attacking state security and sedition.
After his release in 2000, he continued his activism, and in 2002 he formed the Assembly to Promote Civil Society.
In the interview for AP, Roque described the current situation in Cuba as “dismal”, as a consequence of the serious economic crisis that the country is going through. “The people of Cuba do not have food, they do not have medicine, they do not have transportation, they do not have water, they do not have electricity, everything is they do not have, they do not have, they do not have. And the dictatorship is still there,” he stressed.
The opposition attributed the increase in emigration to difficult social and economic conditions, with more than half a million people who have left the island between 2022 and 2023.
The prominent dissident lamented the impact of the migratory exodus on the articulation of the opposition, stating that mass emigration has weakened efforts to build a unified opposition in Cuba.
Likewise, he criticized the lack of unity in the Cuban opposition in the past, but pointed out the significant change since the July 11, 2021, when the Cuban people rose up demanding economic improvements.
“I think that everything ended on July 11,” he said. “It was something shocking that the people themselves, but alone, without the need for a leader, without the need for an organization, took to the streets and caused the dictatorship to shake.”
The IWOC Award “recognizes women from around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in standing up for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and men. girls, in all their diversity, often at great risk and personal sacrifice.”
Since March 2007, the State Department has recognized more than 190 women from 90 countries with the award.
