Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez
Imprisoned Cuban journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez last month won a small victory in his continuing struggle with his captors to preserve his human rights, and proved again he is a hero.
Maseda, who suffers from high blood pressure, and 17 other inmates at the Agüica prison in Matanzas province, were lined up for a visit to the prison doctor, when a guard instead directed them to a bivouac area considered to be a punishment area, according to a letter written by Maseda and reviewed by independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceria.
Maseda said as much, but the guard said it wasn't, they were just using the area to isolate prisoners waiting for medical care.
Maseda was not convinced, telling the guard, according to the letter:
"You can euphemistically call it what you want, but it is a punishment area because there is no light, no water, it is dirty with bad smells, and you can barely breathe because of the stale air. At night, there are thousands of mosquitoes that won't let you sleep. You take to that area inmates who are discipline problems and who cause bloodshed or get into fights. I am not going to the bivouac. You are doing this to annoy prisoners and to prevent them from receiving medical care."
Maseda said he then turned around and returned to his cell, and that guards never asked for an explanation for his actions because they knew he was right.
The transfer of the inmates to the bivouac, wrote Maseda, was "a violation of the prisoners' rights," especially when what they needed was to see a doctor.
Speaking truth to power on behalf of the powerless, through stories, photographs, etc., is one of the bedrock precepts of journalism.
It is heartening that even in Castro gulag, one of the truly hellish places on Earth, there are journalists like Maseda remaining true to that ideal.
And what makes Maseda heroic is that he is not doing for himself, but for his fellow prisoners.
Read my 2006 profile of Maseda, here.
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