Uncommon Sense

Normando Hernández: "I am stronger"

Normando Hernández and I have a few things in common.

We are about the same age. He turned 38 this past Sunday, I am 40.

We both are journalists. We both love our work.

We both are Cubans. We both love our country.

But there is one big difference between us, a distinction that makes me unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath as him.

Normando Hernández, a political prisoner in Fidel Castro's dungeon, has balls of steel.

I may gripe about the long hours, and recalcitrant reporters who don't do exactly what their editor tells them. Some days, it's so much, I consider changing careers.

His work, if the world does not come to his rescue, may cost him his life.

But regardless of everything the dictatorship throws at him — and those are some truly cruel and awful things — and regardless of the toll it has taken on his body, remains committed to his profession.

To his cause.

To his country.

I only write about it, from the comfort of my home in America.

Hernández lives it, and one day, it may kill him.

There really is no comparison.

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But as long as Hernández is alive, his sufferings are only making him stronger.

That's the truth. Hernández says so.

A new article, posted today at Bloomberg.com, offers some details on his poor medical condition — he is in a Cuban military hospital, suffering from tuberculosis and a myriad of other ailments. And describes international efforts, primarily in Costa Rica, to win his release.

It was one of the best English-language accounts, to date, of what this brave patriot has suffered. (I blogged about it earlier today at Babalú.)

The most revealing, the most inspiring part of the Bloomberg article were two paragraphs quoting a letter from Hernández recently smuggled out of Cuba:

"Friends who are familiar with what I have endured and continue to endure and with my precarious state of health might think I'm crazy or going mad upon hearing this declaration, but I assure you that's not the case,'' Gonzalez wrote. "In all truth, I am stronger than ever. The killers of free expression who imprisoned me 55 months ago haven't desisted for a single second from trying to destroy me physically and emotionally. They haven't achieved their goal, nor will they. Though they may destroy my physical body, the only thing they will accomplish is rendering immortal a spirit that prefers death over a life without decorum.

"I have endured months of isolation hundred of kilometers from my home, held in inhuman conditions, forced to sleep on top of reinforced concrete, without a mattress, cruelly exposed to mosquitoes, cold, and rats, and deprived of contact with any other human being, except for my jailer,'' he continued. "The direct and indirect provocations have never gone away, they come from all sides, from State Security agents, jailers, thugs, other prisoners, and lackeys, and the only thing these poor devils have accomplished is to reaffirm my idealism, my patriotism, and make me a slave of my own dignity.''

Obviously, none of us are worthy.

The case for Oscar Biscet

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., explains why she nominated Cuban political prisoner Dr. Oscar Biscet, for the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

Born into Castro’s despotic regime of brutal human-rights abuse, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet has spent nearly the last 20 years fighting for a freedom he has never known; a freedom the Cuban people have been denied for far too long under the tyrannical rule of the Castro brothers. It is a freedom which I believe should be supported and recognized by honoring Dr. Biscet with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Just as I nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions towards advancing human liberty through non-violent means, I truly believe Dr. Biscet is unique in his contributions and human qualities and worthy of our nation’s highest civilian honor.

Selflessly assuming the battle our ancestors took up years ago to bring justice and democracy to the island of Cuba, Dr. Biscet is an icon of personal bravery and humility in the face of overwhelming force. Just as Colonel Antonio Maceo battled tirelessly for Cuba’s independence against the Spaniards, Dr. Biscet is the “Titan de Bronze” of our generation of freedom fighters against the Castro regime. No longer wielding the machetes of Colonel Maceo’s time, Dr. Biscet has replaced physical force with peaceful strength, yet the battle remains the same.

Under Castro’s dictatorship, 11 million Cubans continue to live in daily fear, oppression, and hunger. Dr. Biscet himself has been victim to continuous beatings and torture at the hands of the Castro regime. He was arbitrarily detained 26 times in 18 months before his most recent sentence of 25 years, and yet he continues to sacrifice his own personal liberty for the sake of the freedom of the Cuban people. His peaceful courage against the explicitly violent acts of Castro’s regime offer a spirit of power and solidarity that binds Cubans, on the island and around the world, in his fight toward justice and democracy.

Deeply inspired by such venerable leaders as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama, Dr. Biscet’s integrity and allegiance to the Cuban people reveals him to be a symbol of unity and peace in his own right. Despite numerous opportunities to leave the island, by the request of the regime, Dr. Biscet insists he will never abandon his country. Declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, he represents the strength and perseverance of the Cuban opposition — the Cuba of tomorrow. Dr. Biscet symbolizes the hundreds of other political prisoners languishing in the cells of Castro’s jails, as well as the countless other individuals fighting for the freedom of Cuba’s people.

In 2003, President Bush described Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Vaclav Havel with the following words, “Unintimidated by threats, unchanged by political power, this good man has suffered much in the cause of liberty and he has become one of liberty's great heroes.” I believe the same can be said of our Titan de Bronze, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. For this reason, I have asked the President to give every consideration to the high honor of bestowing him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This medal will not only recognize the invaluable efforts of Dr. Biscet on behalf of the Cuban people, but work to demonstrate the United States’ sincere solidarity with the aims of our freedom-seeking friends.

Read more about Biscet, here.

Notes from the gulag, 10/24/07

A few quick headlines, courtesy of CubaNet:

— Political prisoners at the Kilo 5 1/2 prison in Piñar del Rio are demanding that officials provide a proper diet and other care to their compatriot Normando Hernández González , who since September has been in a Havana military hospital. "State Security agents are trying to assassinate  him," said political prisoner Nelson Molinet Espino.

— A Cuban human rights group is calling for the release of political prisoner Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta, who is suffering psychologically because of his imprisonment. "It is an extremely worrisome situation," said human rights activist Juan Carlos González Leiva. "It is a crime that Villarreal Acosta is in La Pendiente prison in Santa Clara. ... He is having a nervous crisis and he is being denied medicines. He is not going out to get sun. Common prisoners are psychologically torturing him, and stealing his food, towel and soap.

— And back at Kilo 5 1/2, political prisoners Eduardo Díaz Fleitas and Diosdado González Marrero are continuing their protest against poor conditions at the prison. "They are refusing to shave, and have adopted a rebellious attitude in order to reclaim their rights, said González's wife, Alejandrina de la Riva. "The water is contaminated. The food is rotten. They are denied religious assistance. And the medical care is inadequate."

Bush seeks to break information blockade in Cuba

As he prepares to mount a defense of the U.S. embargo in Fidel Castro's Cuba, President Bush is set to announce Wednesday what AFP described as "two modest initiatives aimed at exposing Cubans to more sources of information 'if the Cuban regime will allow it to happen,' an administration official.

The president will say that he is prepared to allow non-governmental organizations and religious groups to provide computers and Internet access "to a Cuba in which there are no restrictions on Cubans' Internet access."

And he will invite young Cubans to take part in a scholarship program as long as they can "freely participate," the official said.

Asked why Washington was confident that Cuba's government would stand aside, the official replied: "I don't think any of us are naive about the nature of the regime."

These would be modest steps, but long-term, if allowed to work — and that is a big "if" — they might be effective in breaking the decades-long information blockade the dictatorship has enforced on the Cuban people. The investment may be modest, but the payoff could be invaluable for the future of the country.

A third part of what AFP reported Bush will proposed today, promises similar returns. He wants to create an international "freedom fund," that would help a democratic Cuba rebuild after decades of communist disaster.

How exactly the fund would work — and where it would get its money — was not revealed. But it is that type of assistance, and not continued trade with a communist regime, that Cubans need to eventually better their lives.

One last note: There was nothing in the AFP report that suggests Bush is prepared to relax limit on travel and remittances by Cuban Americans to family members on the island; or repeal the wet-foot, dry-foot policy for Cuban refugees. There's also nothing in an Associated Press story.

Why I am in prison

Fabio Prieto Llorente

Fabio Prieto Llorente is a man, born with the freedom to think and express himself as he wishes. That he is Cuban, and that he is prison for thinking and speaking as he wishes, does not change that. In fact, as he writes in an essay published at CubaNet this morning, prison had only maked his resolve stronger:

In 1998, when I was interviewed by State Security for the first time, they told me:

"Fabio, here everybody is at the same level. Anybody who sticks their head out, we cut it. Think like you want but don't say it. Because if you say it, you are looking for trouble."

That is why they finally condemned me for 20 years, because I kept talking. I keep saying what I think because nobody can cancel my existence.

For more, read the rest of his essay here, and my commentary at Babalú.

What will Bush say?

President Bush on Wednesday is scheduled to make a major policy speech on Cuba.

Nothing yet has leaked on what he will say, but Phil Peters at Cuba Triangle has some interesting speculations.

Read my earlier thoughts, here.

Fariñas under house arrest

Guillermo Fariñas

There are many reasons to admire Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas. He is an outstanding journalist but also, as he again showed today, an outstanding Cuban, one of the finest and bravest patriots in the opposition to dictatorship and tyranny.

Fariñas, according to Marti Noticias, was under house arrest tonight, after he was picked up by police for urging residents in Villa Clara not to vote in today's municipal "elections." In the current environment on the island, when the dictatorship is trying to make a big public relations splash with its "elections," there are few acts more patriotic than a Cuban encouraging his fellow citizens to stay away from the polls.

Fariñas told Radio Marti that at about noon today, a police Lt. Col. Ramon Alvarez ordered him into a police car, and drove him around the city. The whole time, according to Fariñas, he was treated professionally before being dropped off at his home.

There, Alvarez told the journalist that he was under house arrest, and that his home was being monitored by police officers standing on adjacent street corners. Also on alert were the neighborhood snitches with the Committee in Defense of the Revolution and the Association of the Combatants of the Revolution.

Meanwhile, the man ultimately behind Fariñas' detention, keeps mumbling away.

The results are in

With zero percent of the precincts reporting, we project the communists win again.

Julio César Álvarez López, Political Prisoner of the Week, 10/21/07

UPDATED, April 7, 2008

Álvarez has been released from prison.

Julio César Álvarez López

A sliver of my optimism that Cuba one day will be free, comes from knowing that there have been many in the machinery of the Castro dictatorship who, at risk of great peril, have examined — or perhaps discovered — their consciences, rejected the regime and taken up the banner of freedom. Whatever their motives or the nature of their conversion, they stand as credible witnesses to the evil of tyranny.

Which is why, like Julio César Álvarez López, so many of them are now in jail.

Álvarez, a lieutenant in the Cuban counter-intelligence service, was convicted in 1992 of passing state secrets and "insubordination," and sentenced to 19 years in prison. According to Amnesty International, Álvarez had given to three Cuban dissidents the names of State Security agents who had infiltrated opposition groups. (The three dissidents — Víctor Reinaldo Infante Estrada, Carmen Julia Arias Iglesias and Dr. Omar del Pozo Marrero — were tried with Álvarez, convicting of exhanging "counter-revolutionary" views with the spy, and sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths.)

Not much is available online about Álvarez, now 38, or his imprisonment. Payo Libre reports that he suffers from hypertension, a common ailment in Cuban prisons.

About the time of his trial, Cuban independent journalist Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez Amaro wrote about Álvarez, and how he is at peace with what he did:

How difficult would it be for a 23-year-old young man to choose between the forces of good and evil. Even though ... he's not a Christian. He would make a decison, perhaps without full consciousness of its repercusions. At such young age, everything looks simpler, and you only think clearly behind the dark and pestilent bars of a prison cell. It was then when Julio Cesar ALvarez Lopez, ex-officer of the Cuban counterintelligence, reaffirms having done the right thing: ending his double morality, and bring(ing) a clean and honest being into light, joining those who are his true brothers, those who want the democratization of their country in a paceful manner.

Julio Cesar is in front of the military tribunal, stripped of his rank. Julio Cesar. His executioners, pardon, judges are accompanied by hate. He furtively glances at his mother, who is crying, but he has chosen. He does not want to hear the screams of the prosecutor, calling him traitor. He is not. He will never betray his country. He stands firm, his head high. The members of the tribunal stand, and he is ordered to do the same. "You have been sentenced to 19 years of incarceration for insubordination and revealing secrets, according to statute 332 of 1992."

Almost immediately, this courageous man with the dignity of a giant, was transferred to Kilo 8. In there, in that prison, known to all in the Cuban opposition as the most cruel and inhumane, Julio Cesar faces daily all the habitual psychological pressures inflicted on every political prisoner.

"Listen, Julito, are you going out to proclaim the revolutionary slogans?"

"Of course not. That's why I am here."

One of the surest indicators of the repressive nature of the Castro regime is the jailing of political prisoners. To illustrate that reality, Uncommon Sense each week profiles one prisoner. There also is a Political Prisoner archive on the right 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.

Broken glass and broken legends

In response to some delicious news from Venezuela, friend — of mine and of a free Cuba — Gary Harmon offers a fitting denunciation of Ché Guverara and those who would worship at his blood-drenched altar:

Would he describe the shooter as “an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded” glass-blastin’ machine?

Or would he vilify the shooter(s) who shattered the glass monument to himself, Castro’s executioner?

No need to stretch for moral equivalence here. Che is an “iconic revolutionary” and the shooter a “vandal.” Che is described as a “cold-blooded killer” as though that were a matter in some dispute.

He is the guy, after all, who declared, “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.”

Of course, his last words were, “Don’t shoot!” I’m Che! I’m worth more to you alive than dead!”

He was wrong about that, too.

Far from me to brag, but I have wonder whether the "vandals" were graduates of the Ché Guevara Re-Education Program.

Before

After

Here's another excellent commentary.