Campaign Fact Sheet

• Sting, the lead singer of The Police, has been an outspoken humanitarian, denouncing abuses of human rights in countries such as Chile and South Africa. He has participated in concert tours on behalf of Amnesty International such as the “Human Rights Now!” tour and the “Conspiracy of Hope” tour.

• In 1988, Sting released the song “They dance alone" which was about the plight of the mothers, wives and daughters of victims Chile’s Pinochet regime. Because they could not protest vocally, these women would pin photos of their relatives to their clothing, and dance publicly in silent protest of the government. This campaign derives its name from a lyric in that song which says, “They dance with the invisible ones”.

• Recently Cuba’s foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque said emphatically at a press conference that Cuba does not have any political prisoners despite the fact that Amnesty International currently recognizes at least 69 of them. In this way, Cuba's Castro regime tries to make its victims invisible.

• In April, the official web site of The Police published a note stating “The band initiated discussions of a free concert in Havana.” Furthermore the note states “All three band members have a long-standing and genuine interest in Cuban music, having visited & performed with local musicians in the past.” Several news organizations subsequently reported that, in fact, a Havana concert is scheduled for December, though no official announcement from The Police has been made.

• To date, Sting, and the of the other two members of The Police (Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland), have not denounced the human rights situation in Cuba or publicly advocated on behalf of the political prisoners there.

• In Cuba there is group of women known as the Ladies in White who have won the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights. Like their Chilean predecessors, these women are very limited in how they can protest the incarceration of their loved ones who are political prisoners.

• The purpose of this campaign is to appeal to Sting and his fellow band mates to take up the cause of human rights in Cuba, as they have done for other countries in the past. We are asking that they use their opportunity to perform in Cuba as a platform to advocate on behalf of Cuba’s political prisoners. We are asking that they continue their great work as humanitarians by denouncing abuses of human rights regardless of the country where they occur. We are asking them to support the Ladies in White in their struggle. We are asking them to help us make Cuba’s invisible ones visible for the world to see.