Uncommon Sense

Prisoner: Dictatorship wants me dead

Normando Hernandez Gonzalez

Normadno Hernandez Gonzalez is serving a death sentence in the Castro gulag.

Officially, he may be serving a 25-year sentence handed down in 2003 because of his work as an independent journalist, but the reality is, the dictatorship wants him dead.

Hernandez is dying a slow, painful death, brought on by the poor living conditions, including the awful food, in the gulag, and compounded by his captors' neglect of his many health problems.

The dictatorship wants him dead.

A year ago, a doctor attempted to treat Hernandez's intestinal problems but screwed it up so badly, that he needs to have his lower intestines reconstructed, according to his wife, who also passed on her husband's fears that his guards want him dead. Recently, Hernandez was transferred to a prison hospital to have tests run on a bad throat. Hopefully, the dictatorship, whether intentionally or by its doctors' malpractice, won't take this opportunity to silence Hernandez permanently.

Guards cut off prisoner's contact with family

The Castro dictatorship has been ripping families apart for more than 50 years. Few know that better than Cuba's political prisoners, who have been taken away from their loved ones for only wanting a free nation for themselves and those who will follow them.

So when the dictatorship - specifically, the guards in its prisons - want to strike an especially painful blow, they aim right for the heart, and the love of the prisoners for their children.

There is no other way to explain a recent round of harassment suffered by political prisoner Ricardo González Alfonso. Independent journalist Álida Viso Bello reports that guards at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana have made it a habit of blocking his ability to telephone his family. Either a guard fails to show up to escort him to the phone or once they get there, no one has the key needed to unlock it from its location.

Viso report that the harassment started after Reporters Without Borders named González, a journalist and poet, its Journalist of the Year.

González, imprisoned since the "black spring" of 2003, is serving a 20-year prison sentence. He is suffering from a variety of ailments, including migraine headaches, hypertension, chronic bronchitis, glaucoma and a bad liver.

Group of 75 prisoner Reinaldo Labrada Peña is released

Cuban political prisoner Reinaldo Labrada Peña, jailed since the "black spring" of 2003, was released from prison Thursday, after completing a 6-year prison sentence. He is the first member of the Group of 75 arrested during the crackdown to finish his sentence.

"My years in prison have been of hostility, of suffering and of pain, torn apart from my family and my children," Labrada said. "But my struggle has not ended. Prison was just a stop on the road."

The Castro dictatorship in 2006 had given Labrada a chance to be released early, but the price - he had to denounce his fellow dissidents - was too high.

A Cuban human rights group said Labrada's release should not be seen as a sign of conciliation or goodwill by the dictatorship, since Labrada had completed his sentence.

Read my Political Prisoner of the Week profile of Labrada here.

Cuban rights group: At least 67 dissidents prosecuted in '08

An unofficial Cuban human rights group this morning offered a dismal by-the-numbers look at the toll taken by the Castro dictatorship in 2008 - Raul "Little Brother" Castro's first full year in charge. Here's a sampling:

• At least 67 dissidents were jailed or prosecuted because of their political opposition to the regime. Of those, 51 were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 2 months to 5 years.>/li>

• Fifteen dissdents were jailed after being convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger," which means they were imprisoned "without actually commiting a crime under Cuban law."

• There were more than 1,400 temporary detentions during which the secret police interrogated and threatened dissidents because of their opposition activities.

• Twenty-five independent journalists are currently imprisoned in Cuba.

Read the whole report here.

Political prisoner given 6 more years in jail

Cuban political prison Yoendreis Márquez Moya, already serving a 4-year sentence for being a "pre-criminal social danger," has had 6 years added to his sentence, according to a report posted at Payo Libre.

His wife told independent journalist/human rights activist Juan Carlos González Leiva that Márquez, 25, was tried and convicted Dec. 24 on charges of "contempt" and "resistance."

Two weeks earlier, on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, Márquez had gotten into trouble with his captors at Tacón de Contra Maestre prison by talking loudly about human rights and distributing writings about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As retribution, Márquez was tossed into a small, dirty punishment cell.

And then once again tried and adjudicated unjustly because of his desire for a free Cuba.

Márquez, a member of the Frank Pais November 30 Democratic Party, has been imprisoned since July 2006.

Report: Fidel Castro in a coma

Diario Las Americas reports that the decaying dictator is in a coma and hooked to a respirator.

Hopefully, his suffering will soon end, because as long as he is drawing breath, artificial or otherwise, the suffering of the Cuban people continues. His death will not free Cuba, but it is a necessary first step and worthy of notice.

Visitors from the Great White North

Greetings to readers of Small Dead Animals: The Roadkill Diaries, most of whom seem from Canada, who landed here via this link.

Welcome, and please, learn more about Cuban political prisoners here.

2 Cuban political prisoners transferred

Two Cuban political prisoners, Pablo Pacheco Ávila and Félix Navarro Rodríguez, have been transferred from one maximum security prison to another maximum security prison in the hell that is the Castro gulag.

No information was available on the reasons for the transfer.

We hear rumors that a dictator has died

Just got a call from a guy who knows a guy who has family in Cuba, and the scuttlebutt is that the decaying dictator Fidel Castro has finally died.

My guy said his guy's family reports that workers at Cuban tourist hotels are being ordered not to leave their workplaces, in order to keep them off the streets.

Maybe it's just a rumor, and maybe it's time to put the champagne and beer on ice.

Stay tuned ...

Castro's gulag is bad for your health

The health of Cuban political prisoner Julián Antonio Monet Borrero has recently worsened, according to a dispatch posted at Payo Libre.

Independent journalist José Ramón Pupo Nieves reported that Monet, who is serving a 3-year prison term, is suffering from chronic laryngitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis and asthma — conditions aggravated by a recent 46-day hunger strike.