UPDATED, Aug. 13, 2013 - Jorge Liriano was released from prison on Aug. 13, 2013.
UPDATED, Nov. 24, 2011 — Jorge Liriano was returned to prison after his parole was revoked.
UPDATED, April 7, 2011 — Jorge Liriano was released from prison on March 25, 2011.
|———|
I don't know what kind of work Jorge Alberto Liriano Linares did before he landed in a Cuban prison. Or what "crime" he committed or how long he has been jailed. Punch his name into Google and no such biographical information is found; his name doesn't even show up on lists of Cuban political prisoners.
In prison, however, Liriano, a member of the Christian Democratic Party and Pedro Luis Boitel Political Prisoner organization, has distinguished himself as a journalist, or more precisely, a witness to the horrors of the Castro gulag. He doesn't report on what is happening to him, only to what is happening to his fellow prisoners. Punch his name into Google and what you will find are numerous accounts of life and death in the Castro gulag, with Liriano as the primary source.
Most recently, Liriano reported on an upswing in violence by a "death squad" of guards towards inmates at the Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey. In March, "32 inmates were victims of savage beatings and terrifying torture, most with injuries to the head," Liriano said.
Liriano also describes how some prisoners were stripped of their clothes and "crucified" by being handcuffed to the bars of their cells for three days without food or water.
"This is the cruel, unusual fate of prisoners confined in more than 200 prisons and forced labor camps sustained by the island's regime, due to the hostile policy of the government, an authoritarian government that for half a century in power has recognized in theory the rights of the people, but does not guarantee the protection and implementation thereof. That is why in the Kilo 7 prison thousands of prisoners ... areterrified and living with the permanent anguish of trying to survive without being beaten, tortured or killed unjustly " Liriano said.
A good site for keeping up with Liriano's reports is Martha Beatriz Roque's blog.
One of the surest indicators of the repressive nature of the Castro regime is the jailing of several hundred 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.
Recent Comments