Shadow on the sun for Cuba's forgotten prisoners

Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA CARRO
Shadow on the sun for Cuba's forgotten prisoners

By Judi McLeod

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Without the US-based Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA CARRO,
Alejandrina Garcia de la Riva, would suffer alone.

It was the coalition who obtained via telephone, recorded, transcribed
and translated to English in the US, the testimony of a frightened woman
living without her husband in Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Alejandrina Garcia de la Riva is the wife of Cuban prisoner of
conscience, Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero, who is serving a 20-year sentence
in the provincial prison of Kilo Cinco y Medio in the province of Pinar
del Rio.

She suffers mental distress in knowing that her husband is now in
solitary confinement, having been accused of having a "sharp pointed
object" in his cell.

"I wish to condemn events that took place on September 23, 2006, when
prison authorities locked up my husband, Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero, in a
punishment cell or "tapiada" (prison cell with no windows or light)
because, according to a high authority official called "Osmany", a sharp
pointed object was found in his cell," de la Riva told the Coalition of
Cuban-American Women.

Choosing to extinguish Marrero's light is an added heartache for his
already worried family. Solitary confinement has broken many. In the
graphic terms of the
West, solitary confinement is known as "the hole".

An inspection had been carried out on the same day of the accusation
against the prisoner. This inspection took place at the entire prison
Barrack # 8, where Marrero is confined.

"I must clarify that prison guards carry out a search when only all the
prisoners are moved away in a hallway distant from their belongings,"
said de la Riva. "In addition, when family members visit their loved
ones in prison every inch of our bodies is searched and the prisoners
are thoroughly searched as well. During a prison visit nothing that
might inflict injuries to any of the prisoners is allowed."

Head prisoner officials "Osmany" and "Alejandro" of Barrack # 8 informed
Marrero's wife by telephone that her husband will be prosecuted once
more...that he will be taken before a tribunal for the common crime of
keeping a sharp object to his cell.

"I hereby inform national and international public opinion that I make
prison authorities at Prison Kilo Cinco y Medio responsible for
introducing sharp objects inside the prison compound. This is as
manipulative tactic implemented by the Cuban government and by Cuban
State Security in order to bring legal action against my husband once
more," said de la Riva. "Diosadado Gonzalez Marrero is a peaceful man
imprisoned for his independent ideas. If he has never practiced violent
acts and is confined alone, there is no reason why he would possess a
sharp object in his cell."

But the manipulation, intimidation and harassment don't stop there.

Immediately after, on Sunday, September 24 de la Riva's house was
surrounded by forces of the Communist Party of the "Committees of the
Defense of the Resolution", of the Federation of Cuban Women, who
carried out what she described as "a mob attack" or "act of repudiation"
to prevent anyone from visiting her home on that day.

"My children and I endured this violent attack that began the night of
Saturday, September 23, 2006 until Sunday, September 24 at 3:30 p.m.

No one was able to come to the home to comfort the wife and children of
a prisoner abruptly moved into solitary confinement.

According to Amnesty International, eleven people remain in detention
following a government crackdown on dissidence around the time of the
Ibero-American Summit' in Havana in November 1999. Ammesty International
is concerned that nine of them are prisoners of conscience and that the
two others are possible prisoners of conscience, all of whom may be
subjected to harsh prison sentences.

"Prior to and following the summit, some 260 dissidents, including human
rights defenders, political opponents and journalists, were detained.
All were released without charges except for eleven people, all of whom
are reportedly peaceful opponents of the government. "

In a world where the media eye is trained on the prisoners of Guantanamo
Bay, there is not much attention paid to the plight of Cuba's prisoners
of conscience languishing seven years later in prison.

Life goes on in Cuba, a destination for throngs of tourists who vacation
in the tropical sun. But there is a shadow on the sun for the all but
forgotten Cuban prisoners and their ever-waiting families.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/judi-mcleod100506.htm