Babalu Blog has an English translation of a recent interview conducted with former Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet.
Read and understand why so many praying and working for Cuba's freedom have placed their hope in him.
Simply put, the man is a giant and a hero.
Havana – Locked up in a minuscule prison cell in total and perpetual darkness, the only sound he could hear was the echo of his thoughts and the murmur of his prayers. He did not have the faintest idea of how much time had passed since he had last been able to see the light of the sun.
The last time he was taken out of such isolation – consumed, infinitely filthy, and on the brink of death – Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet found out the punishment had lasted a little over five months; a nightmare where not even surrender was an alternative.
Not many years have passed since then, and Dr. Biscet continues to recover physically and psychologically at his home in this city where he battles against ghosts with the same courage that – since the late 80s – characterizes his struggle against the Cuban government. He is an emblematic figure in the opposition, and a member of the famous “Group of 75,” who in the spring of 2003 were arrested and subjected to summary trials. They were released last March through the mediation of the Catholic Church, and with great international pressure as a backdrop.
As a person born in 1961, how do you recall your childhood during those first years of the revolution?
Well, in those days, practically everyone was with the regime. They were hopeful that things would turn out good. It was also a time when there was much misinformation, the people didn’t know with any certainty what had happened, and even less what was going to happen. But there was hope…
How did this perception begin to change?
As I got older, I began to notice, for example, the way people were being persecuted for things such as religion… I remember this because I had some friends that were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and their families suffered much. Later, towards the late 80s, I wasn’t older than 17 when they showed me that Cuba had a military to defend the country. However, my friends and I also found out that this military was fighting in other countries, in wars that had nothing to do with our own security… After time, it proved to be correct…
What brought about your affiliation with the opposition?
From before the fall of the Soviet Union, I knew that something was going on in the communist world thanks to clandestine writings. Nothing official, but it was reliable information nevertheless. All of this took place while I was studying medicine. Through that channel, my friends and I began to notice that something was brewing. Little by little, we began to organize ourselves informally to meet and talk about this, until the beginning of the 90s when my militancy in these anti-establishment groups became too noticeable.
And you began to be persecuted…
Yes, and also arrested. I was put in jail many times, but for short periods, until my detention in 2002 when they beat me and fractured one of my feet. I spent a long time without a trial. The charges they had against me were not that serious, and I could have been released in about 3 years. But then they considered me part of the group of 75 and “adjusted” my sentence to 25 years for, according to them, working for a foreign power, when in reality my work was advocating human rights. Right now, the fact that I am talking to you could be enough for them to once again detain me and accuse me of meeting with someone from a foreign entity… but I am not worried, I am already mature in this cause…
What went through your mind when suddenly you got a 25 year sentence after being imprisoned for only short periods of time?
Well, look, when I heard the sentence I laughed because I knew that in reality, I was not going to be imprisoned for 25 years for a simple reason: the regime is in its final days. There is so much terror that the people do not act, but there is more fear in the government because they know their time is running out.
How do you remember the last eight years [in prison]?
I was mistreated very often. I was tortured. One of the tortures used in the Cuban prisons is solitary confinement in miniscule dungeons, which are totally isolated and dark. They held me there once for five uninterrupted months, without coming out for even one second. I'd have to relieve myself right there, next to the water I drank and the little food I received once a day, barely enough to keep me alive.
What other type of torture were you subjected to?
They would lock me up with mental patients who they would deprive of their medication, in order to make them go crazier. There were known cases of these patients killing those near them in their sleep. I remember it now and it still feels like a nightmare. They would also commonly handcuff men to their hands and feet, thrown face down on the floor for 24 or 48 straight hours… and electric shocks to the genitals.
To what do you attribute your release and the release of the rest of the political prisoners from the group of 75?
Perhaps the change in command… since before then they already knew it was a political error to keep us imprisoned, but Fidel’s pride is immense, and because of that he refused to release us. With the change in power, and the worsening of the economic crisis in Cuba, the new president knew that he had no other alternative than to demonstrate a little good will before the international community and that is why he consented to release us. It is not because they recognized that our imprisonment was an error, but because of an economic interest…
What is your opinion regarding the assertion by government officials that those of you in the opposition are invisible in Cuba, that no one knows who you are?
They lie… it is part of the terror promoted by this totalitarian dictatorship. Perhaps the people do not know us personally, but they know we exist. It is possible they do not know who we are, but the most important thing is that they know that this movement is alive. Before I was imprisoned in 2002, I went to the town where my wife is from and visited a little more than a dozen homes. A little later, agents from State Security showed up at those homes to threaten those families. Of course, if you ask the average Cuban if they know who we are, perhaps they will say no because of the terror that is so deeply rooted within them.
Part of the conditions for your release was that you had to leave the country…
We can say that it was brought up to me. It was presented as some grand opportunity to have a change of scenery… At various times, the option to leave the country was suggested by people in the government as well as friends, each for different reasons, of course. But I have never considered it an option, nor will I do it.
Why didn’t you leave?
Because this is my country, because I am struggling for a just cause, so that Cubans will have the human rights due them, so that they have liberty… After struggling so much for this, now I am going to abandon it? Impossible… I’m going to stay here, and I will continue this struggle until my last day.
How do you carry out your struggle now, when surely you are being watched more than before?
I am in a recuperation phase, physical as well as psychological. They released me on March 12, and I had to undergo surgery on my mouth because in prison all my teeth fell out. Nonetheless, I have dedicated myself to begin reconstructing the struggle to continue doing this. I know I am risking my life, but that is what I have been doing now for more than 20 years. Perhaps here the government will not shoot you in the street, but they do arrange fatal accidents. Remember that this is a totalitarian regime, like that of Hitler, or of Stalin.
Don’t you feel you are safer now more than ever because of the notoriety you have acquired?
That could be, but the only one I trust in is God. The government has committed so many arbitrary acts.
While in prison, during those days you describe, did you at any moment think of surrendering?
No, that never crossed my mind. Even in the most extreme moments, God was there to sustain me, and He has given me the strength to resist.
Do you have an optimistic view of the future?
Yes, that is why I’m here, because my hope is in the Cuban people.
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