There are no "common criminals" in Fidel Castro's jails. No prisoner who has ever stood before a Castro "judge" has ever received a fair trial whatever his alleged offense. Even those who "confessed" must be presumed to have done so under duress. All Cuban "courts" are star-chambres and anterooms to the torture chambers.
All "judicial" acts committed by this outlaw de facto regime over the last 48 years are unconstitutional, from the witch trials at the beginning of the Revolution to the latest sentence handed down by a Castro "tribunal."
Everyone in a Cuban jail is a political prisoner.
No need to parse that, though there are many who fall into Castro's trap and actually define political prisoners according to his rules.
Manuel, I remember clearly that I was attending the "trial" of a friend who was caught in the act of leaving Cuba on a raft. The man before him was a slim mulatto, who looked famished, and he was there beacause he was caught "stealing" oranges from a grove. He said that he had stolen the oranges because the revolution has stolen everything else from him, and it was the only way he had to get back to them. He was given 5 years in prison for taking about 10 oranges and wrapped them in his shirt.
ReplyDeleteAny action against the government is political, even if it entices to steal one single orange from a tree. Everything that one does nor does not do in Cuba has a political slant to it.
manolo si te dedicaras a poner mas noticias como estas y menos reviews de tus adversarios tendrias un blog de mucha mejor calidad. Cuba te necesita Manolo. Escribe por los que no pueden hablar , por los presos o por el pueblo cubano
ReplyDeleteGracias
Fantomas , concientizando a Manolo
Sept 19, 2007
That is so damn sad, to think that someone was so hungry he had to organize some oranges and it got him thrown in jail.
ReplyDeleteManuel I think you may be right, all are political prisoners, for the smallest thing will land you there
Charlie:
ReplyDeleteI know of an even more terrible instance of the regime's disdain for the dignity of man which finds no parallel except in the Europe of the 18th century, where men and even children were executed for stealing a loaf of bread.
It happened some 20 years ago. I must still have the clipping in my file cabinets and it might be worthwhile to spend half a day looking for it. The article concerned a 12-year-old boy who was literally executed on the spot for "stealing" a mango from a special reserve. This reserve was "special" because 40 years ago Castro ordered 90 percent of Cuba's mango trees to be chopped down in order to diversify agriculture. The diversification failed and the mango trees nearly became extinct on the island.
The boy was literally picked off by a sharpshooter while climbing the mango tree.
It is difficult to convey the idea of just how trivial a mango was before the Revolution. They were literally to be had for the picking and most withered on the vine because they went unpicked.
If you had told anyone then that some day mangos would become as rare as black swans in Cuba and that a child would be killed for desiring one, no one would have believed it.