The Associated Press today finally reported in English about the arrest of Juan Almedia Garcia, the son of the recently dead revolutionary comandante Juan Almeida Bosque, who along with the Castro brothers and Che Guevara installed the system that has terrorized the island for more than 50 years.
If it was anyone else, yes, I would be prepared to call him a political prisoner. Almeida was arrested last week, apparently after protesting that the government was blocking him from traveling overseas for medical treatment. By the broadest definitions, that would make him a political prisoner.
But Almeida was the son of privilege, and considering his own record as an official with the Cuban Interior Ministry, I am not comfortable just yet throwing him in with the hundreds, if not thousands, of Cubans who have done a lot more than him to be labeled as "political prisoners." So far, he is not worthy.
If being a member of the elite but falling out of favor with those at the top was a criteria for being a "political prisoner," then we would have to include former vice president Carlos Lage and former foreign minister Pedro Roque, and that's not going to happen!
I wonder what else is at work. What are the behind-the-scenes machinations? Who is settling scores with whom, now that Almeida's powerful father is dead? What are Almedia's true motivations?
Or is the dictatorship just embarrassed that a member of its elite doesn't trust the Cuban health care system?
Too many questions so for now, to answer my question, Juan Almeida Garcia is not a political prisoner.
UPDATED, 2:30 p.m. — Via Twitter, Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez reports that Almeida has been released.
“I am asking to leave the country,” Almeida said in a phone interview with the Associated Press an hour after his release. “I am not a dissident.”
UPDATED, Dec. 1, 2009 — John Suarez offers an insightful analysis of the Almeida case, and what it says about Cuba.
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