Dr. Marcelo Cano Rodríguez is one of at least six physicians imprisoned in the Cuban gulag because of their opposition to the Castro dicatorship, according to Amnesty International.
Apparently, not all Cuban doctors agree that revolutionary health care is all that it is cracked up to be. Cano, national coordinator of the Independent Medical Association, was arrested in Las Tunas on March 25, 2003, during the "black spring," as he investigated the arrest of another physician, Dr. Jorge Luis García Paneque.
Cano's anti-government activities, prosecutors said, included visiting prisoners and their families as a member of the unofficial Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation and for maintaining ties with the international human rights group Doctors Without Borders.
Cano was convicted under Article 91 of the penal code and Law 88 — broad measures the regime has used to try to silence dissent — and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The other physicians recognized by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience, besides Cano and García, are Oscar Elías Biscet González, Orlando Fundora Alvarez, Luis Milán Fernández and Ricardo Silva Gual.
One of the surest indicators of the repressive nature of the Castro regime is the jailing of more than 300 political prisoners. To illustrate that reality, Uncommon Sense each week profiles one prisoner. There also is a Political Prisoner archive on the left sidebar. To suggest a prisoner for a profile, send me an e-mail. For profiles of imprisoned Cuban journalists and related information, read the March 18 Project.
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