Félix Bonne Carcassés (1939–2017) was a Cuban engineering professor and dissident, best known for his 1997–2000 imprisonment as a member of the pro-democracy "Group of Four".

The Group of Four

In 1997, Bonne,

Marta Beatriz Roque Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello (born 16 May 1945) is a Cuban political dissident. She is an economist by training and the founder and director of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists. Agence France-Presse described her in 2007 as Cuba's "l ...

Vladimiro Roca Vladimiro Roca Antúnez (21 December 1942 – 30 July 2023) was a Cuban dissident and leader of the Cuban Social-Democratic Party. A member of the "Group of Four", he was imprisoned from 1997 to 2002 after co-authoring a paper calling for democ ...

, and René Gómez Manzano founded the Internal Dissidence Working Group. They then published a paper entitled "The Homeland Belongs to All," which discussed Cuba's human rights situation and called for political and economic reforms. They also called for a boycott of elections in Cuba's one-party system and for investors to avoid Cuba, giving several news conferences to discuss their concerns. A ''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

'' columnist described Bonne and Roca's criticism carrying extra weight as "the only known black dissidents in Cuba", stating that "Given Castro's claim that the revolution has ended racial discrimination, he can ill afford to let well-educated blacks challenge him, even as gently as the four defendants had done." Bonne and the other members of the group were arrested and detained for nineteenth months. They were then tried for sedition in March 1999 in a one-day trial closed to foreign press. Gomez Manzano was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. The defendants became known as the "Group of Four". The United States, EU, Canada, and the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

all called for their release. Amnesty International again declared the four prisoners of conscience, "detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association", and called for their immediate release. Bonne was released early without explanation on 13 May 2000, having served just under three years in prison. Other members of the Group of Four were released shortly thereafter. In November 2000, the four published another essay, entitled "Social Facets", as President

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

attended a summit in Panama. The essay stated that Cuban education was designed to indoctrinate children, that many children were malnourished from food shortages, and that foreigners in Cuba were allowed privileges—such as cars, computers, and cell phones—that ordinary Cuban people were not.

Later activism

In July 2005, Bonne was detained in another crackdown on dissidents, again, along with Roque and Manzano. On May 20, 2005 Bonne opened his house to The Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society. On 11 March 2010, Bonne pledged to go on a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

"to the death" if hunger-striking dissident journalist

Guillermo Fariñas Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (born 3 January 1962) ("El Coco") is a Cuban doctor of psychology, independent journalist and political dissident in Cuba. He has conducted 23 hunger strikes over the years to protest various elements of the Cuban g ...

died from his own fast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonne, Felix Living people Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Cuba Cuban engineers Cuban dissidents Cuban democracy activists Cuban prisoners and detainees 1939 births