The official line from the Castro dictatorship is that Juan Wilfredo Soto García died from "natural causes." That could be true, of course, because in Cuba under Castro, the police beating a dissident is as natural as it comes.
But the party line has been undermined by witnesses who have stepped forward to tell what they know about Soto's death. The party line is being undermined by the truth.
For instance, there is Mario Lleonart Barroso who says he spoke to Soto after he was beaten and before he was readmitted to a hospital in severe pain.
“His face showed an immense pain," Lleonart told El Nuevo Herald, "and I recall him saying, ‘They killed me. "
Santa Clara dissident Guillermo Fariñas said he had spoken with about 15 people who claimed to have seen at least one policeman beat a handcuffed Soto with a rubber truncheon Thursday morning at the downtown Vidal Park.
Soto was talking with friends during a regular morning gathering at the park, not protesting, when a policeman approached only him, asked for his ID documents and ordered him to leave. Soto argued, the policeman cuffed him and then beat him, according to Fariñas’ version.
A police officer passing by in a patrol car then told the others that he knew Soto suffered from various ailments and ordered that he be driven to the Arnaldo Milian Castro Hospital, where he was treated and released, Fariñas added.
Lleonart, a pastor in the town of Taguayabon, 20 miles from the central Cuba city of Santa Clara, told El Nuevo Herald that he was in Santa Clara Thursday morning when he spotted Soto, a friend and fellow Baptist who lived in Santa Clara.
The dissident was going home from the hospital aboard a “bicitaxi” – a pedal-powered three-wheeler – and stopped to ask the pastor to notify his friends that police had beaten him at the Vidal Park, the pastor noted.
“Just now they beat me savagely in the park,’’ the pastor quoted Soto as saying. “They handcuffed me and beat me with truncheons on the back.”
There are other witnesses, ready to testify not to what they saw but ready to risk their own lives to ensure that justice prevails in Soto's death. Fariñas said there are numerous dissidents ready to go on hunger strike if by July 26 the dictatorship does not properly investigate what happened to Soto.
One activist is unwilling to wait.
Jorge Luis Artiles Montiel on Monday started a hunger strike to demand not only an investigation of what happened but to win assurances from the Castro dictatorship that the police will quit reacting violently against the opposition, "especially women, who in recent years have been hardest hit by the police."
Hunger strikes against the Castros are dangerous because the regime cares about protesters' health only to the extent that such demonstrations might affect its own interests. Also, Cuba needs courageous men like Artiles to survive and lead.
But Artiles is deserving of respect because of his willingness to step up and demand justice on behalf of Soto.
It is an example that more Cubans on the island — and those of us who support the Cuban freedom movement overseas — must heed.
Justice, and Soto's memory, demand it.
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Why red?
From now on, the words "Castro" and "Castros" and all its derivations will appear in red, to symbolize the blood of those murdered by their regime.
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