Uncommon Sense

Honor Cuban prisoners' sacrifice by reading this story

Orlando Zapata Tamayo died so you could read this story.

Guillermo Farinas almost died so you could read this story.

And the former Cuban political prisoners quoted suffered for more than seven years in the Castro gulag so you could read this story.

Honor them, and do yourself a favor, and take a 5 or 10 minutes, or however long it takes, to read this story.

And then pass it on to everyone you know so that everyone will know one of the world's worst horror stories and why there are those of us committed to making sure their stories are told, and those who are responsible, are held to account for their crimes.

The hardest life: surviving Cuban jail

BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO
[email protected]

PEDRO PORTAL / EL NUEVO HERALD STAFF

Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya arrives in Miami from Havana on Wednesday, July 28, 2010.

Boiled plantain-flavored water as soup. A greasy scoop of bland, yellowing beef fat as a side dish. A stew dubbed ``the giraffe'' because ``you had to stretch your neck to find something in it.'' A hairy heap of ground pig eyes, cheek, ears, and other unidentifiable parts served as a main course.

The meal, nicknamed patipanza, is one of the typical dishes served in Cuban prisons, according to political prisoners freed and expatriated to the Spanish capital under an agreement negotiated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government.

``They didn't even bother to take the hairs off the animal's skin and it stank,'' says Mijail B�rzaga, 43, who spent seven years in four Cuban prisons.

In the Havana prison El Pitirre, where he spent two years, the food was more edible than in the others, B�rzaga said, but the portions of rice, watery picadillo and pea stew served to the prisoners kept getting smaller and smaller.

``The guards would steal from our portions, they would steal from the prison ministry to feed their families and to sell in the black market,'' B�rzaga said. ``To steal from a man in prison who can't do anything about getting himself nourishment is denigrating -- the lowest point of humanity.''

Often there was dirt at the bottom of the boiled concoctions. Other times, worms and bugs in the food.

``Kafka couldn't have written it worse,'' said Ricardo Gonz�lez Alfonso, an independent journalist sentenced to 20 years after his arrest in the Black Spring of 2003.

Two of the released prisoners in Spain -- Jos� Luis Garc�a Paneque and Normando Hern�ndez -- suffer from life-threatening illnesses due to malnutrition and confinement. So does Ariel Sigler Amaya, a healthy athlete when he was imprisoned in 2003 and now in a wheelchair, his body decimated. Flown from Havana to Miami this week for medical treatment, Sigler is being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

In Madrid, all of the ex-prisoners interviewed by The Miami Herald said they suffer from some type of severe digestive disorder. One is under psychiatric care because he suffered a severe post-traumatic stress episode at the hostel where some of the Cubans are being temporarily housed in an industrial suburb of Madrid.

Read the whole thing below the fold.

 

 

Ariel Sigler has an answer for Fidel Castro

The decaying dictator Fidel Castro today accused the United States of "torturing" a convicted Cuban spy imprisoned here.

For former Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya's response, just look at what more than seven years in Castro's prison did to him:

Former Cuban political prisoner starts a blog

The Cuban independent journalist Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, released earlier this month after more than seven years in the Castro gulag, has started a blog, "Diary of a Cuban Exile."

In just a few days, the world has started to learn even more of the true character and courage of the men the Castro dictatorship imprisoned during the "black spring" of 2003, and who have been released under a deal between the regime, Spain and the Catholic Church.

It will be exciting to see the freed journalists, like "Paneque," and other dissidents, will use blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and other tools not at their disposal in Cuba before they were jailed, to resume their personal struggle, and their nation's struggle, for freedom.

Cubans say, 'YES!' to 'freedom and life,' NO! to 'socialism or death'

Oswaldo Paya and his Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) have a simple yet powerful way to respond to one of Fidel Castro's favorite slogans, "Socialism or death!"

FREEDOM AND LIFE!!!

To spread the message, Paya has posted a couple of videos in which Cubans, including several recently political prisoners and their family members, make clear on which side they stand.

 

 

 

These videos are amazing testaments to the courage and character of the former political prisoners and their families. After more than 7 years in Castro's prisons, they are as committed as much as ever to "freedom and life" for Cuba. Of course, without that commitment, without that faith — especially on the part of the prisoners — I doubt they would have survived. After watching these videos, I am just as convinced that the future of a free Cuba is bright.

To learn more, go here.

Hunger-striking Cuban political prisoner admitted to hospital

Julian Antonio Mone Borrero

Cuban political prisoner Julian Antonio Mone Borrero has been admitted to a hospital in Santiago de Cuba because of the effects of a hunger strike he started July 1 to demand his release, according to a report posted at Payo Libre.

In an interview with independent journalist Caridad Caballero Batista, Mone said he is innocent and is being unjustly imprisoned.

Mone, president of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Human Rights Movement, in September 2008 was sentenced to 3 years in prison on a charge of "attacking."

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For more news and information about Cuban political prisoners, follow Uncommon Sense on Twitter @marcmasferrer

Doctors: Poor medical care in gulag made Sigler sicker

Ariel Sigler Amaya's doctors Thursday confirmed what anyone who has been paying attention should already know:

He is a very sick man because of the lack of adequate medical care in the Castro gulag.

"Ariel possibly has structural damage to his spinal column, as well as a polyneuropathy that has been previously reported," said Dr. Alberto Ramos.

"A lack of medical attention may have led to a state of physical deterioration," said Dr. Orlando Rodr�guez.

Please pray for Sigler's doctors as they work to restore his body to the same strength as his spirit.

Ariel Sigler Amaya

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For more news and information about Cuban political prisoners, follow me on Twitter @marcmasferrer

Former Cuban political prisoner starts hunger strike

Vladimir Alejo Miranda

Former Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Alejo Miranda has started a hunger strike to demand the return of some items of his that were seized by Cuban customs official.

Alejo, who was most recently imprisoned from December 2007 to October 2009, started his protest July 21 after he did not receive a package intended for him that contained a digital camera, DVD player, medicines and clothing, according to a report posted at Payo Libre.

Alejo, head of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Popular Human Rights Movement, said he thinks State Security is trying to show its "absolute dominion" over opponents of the Castro regime.

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For more Cuba-related news and information, follow Uncommon Sense on Twitter @marcmasferrer

Former Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya gives us all reason to smile

Ariel Sigler Amaya (AP photo)

The first of many extraordinary moments in this pivotal year in the history of the struggle for Cuban liberty occurred in January, when the Castro dictatorship granted a furlough to political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya so he could attend the wake for his mother, the inestimable Gloria Amaya González.

We had read and heard reports about the poor health suffered by Sigler and other political prisoners, but from that sad and solemn event came some of the first photographic proof what many of them were suffering right then in the Castro gulag. The images were horrifying.

In the more than seven months since, and in the six weeks since his release from prison on a "medical parole," Sigler's condition has stayed the same, if not worsened. Which is why today he found himself receiving a hero's welcome at Miami International Airport, before being admitted to a hospital to receive the care he so desperately needs.

More images of a very sick man have emerged, and everyone should see them — even if they make you cry. But the photo that best captures today's events is the picture above.

Sigler is a very sick man, paralyzed by the malnutrition that is epidemic in the Castro gulag, and recovery is not certain. The beating he received last week from Cuban police as he and his family demanded an exit visa to leave the island did not help.

Yet today he found it in himself, and in the support and love of those who greeted him at MIA, the power to smile.

At that moment, I am certain, he was feeling the cure-all that is the elixir of the freedom that defines his new — but hopefully only temporary — home.

But he also is very sad, and not just because of the physical pain he might be feeling.

"I feel a mix of happiness and hurt," Sigler said at the airport. "Happiness because this is a free country. A country where in reality human rights are respected. Happiness because this beautiful country has taken me in to try to re-establish my health.

"And hurt because in reality I am a patriot."

Still, Sigler, a former heavyweight boxer, remains in the fight.

"Down with the dictatorship. Down with the Castro tyranny. Down with the assassins Castro," he yelled as the crowd echoed him.

Through our own anger, sadness and shock at seeing his current condition, Sigler's resolves gives all of us reason to smile, too.

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For information on how you can contribute to the Ariel Sigler Humanitarian Fund, to help defray his medical and other expenses, go here or here.

And for photos of Sigler and his extraordinary family in action in the struggle for Cuban liberty, go here.

The Boxer is still in the fight

Ariel Sigler Amaya, after his arrival at Miami International Airport, July 28, 2010. (AP photo)

Former Cuban political prisoners are going on the record

This website, based in Spain, has posted audio interviews with several of the recently released political prisoners.

José Ubaldo Izquierdo

José Gabriel Ramón, former prisoner, interviews the recently released Arturo Pérez de Alejo

The recently released Pablo Pacheco and Mijail Barzarga

Omar Ruíz Hernández

Jesús Mustafá

To learn more about these men, click on their names on the right sidebar.