The same ruthless arbitrariness that has left so many government opponents in the Castro gulag, applies to those lucky enough to be let out of their cells before their sentences are complete. At any moment, for any reason, or no reason at all — except that you're still fighting against the communist dictatorship — the secret police can knock on your door or pull you off the street, and return you to prison.
It happened earlier this week to Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco.
Prieto, who is now about 40 years old, was arrested in November 2004, convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger," and sentenced to 4 years in prison. At the time of his arrest, Prieto was an activist with the National Liberal Party of Cuba, and within days of his imprisonment, he resumed his opposition activities by declaring a hunger strike.
Earlier this year, with about 7 months remaining on his sentence, Prieto was granted a "conditional release," or parole, if you will. Presumably, those conditions included renouncing his prior "pre-criminal socially dangerous" ways. That is, go back to accepting your life as a slave of the dictatorship.
That was unacceptable for Prieto, who had left the National Liberal Party and joined up with the Samuel Martínez Lara National Pro-Human Rights Party and had participated in several acts of civil disobedience against the regime. That apparently violated the terms of his parole and on this past Wednesday, four State Security officers went to Prieto's home and took him back to prison.
Prison officials told Prieto's wife that he would remain in jail until he completed his original sentence.
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