Cuba's independent journalists, including the 30 or so imprisoned in Fidel Castro's gulag, don't get much recognition or support from their "colleagues" in mainstream American press — which says a lot about the Cuban prisoners, and even more about American reporters and editors. Castro and his dictatorship have protrayed the journalists and other imprisoned dissidents as "mercenaries" for the American government, while American journalists — many of whom just adore the dictator — help him get away with such lies by not practicing even the most basic of beginning reporting.
If they could break away for just 15 minutes from the Paris Hilton "story," they might realize what they have missed.
Independent journalists Oscar Sánchez Madan and Fabio Prieto Llorente could use the attention this week.
It didn't make sense when Cuban independent journalist Oscar Sánchez in April was arrested, convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger," and sentenced to 4 years in prison. So it is equally a mystery why, as Opositor Cubano reported this week, a judge last month reduced the sentence to 3 years.
In a recent letter, Sánchez said he has been housed at Combinado del Sur prison in Matanzas with dangerous common criminals, and that he has lost weight because of his poor diet and suffered skin problems because he has not been able to receive adequate sunlight while in prison.
However, Sánchez said he remains committed to the cause of Cuban liberty.
In worse shape, physically, is Fabio Prieto.
Clara Lourdes Prieto Llorente told journalist Tania Maceda Guerra that her brother has been at a prison hospital in Havana since May 21, suffering from chronic pulmonary obstruction, emphysema, hypertension and other ailments.
Fabio Prieto was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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