DENUNCIATION

DENUNCIATION
2008-07-07.
René Gómez Manzano

Havana, July 7, 2008.- Since days past, the Castro's totalitarian régime
announced the adoption of repressive measures about the 4th of July,
anniversary of the Independence of the United States, the only country
that has always—and up to now—invited members of the Cuban dissidence to
the reception organized on the occasion of the national holiday.

It is known that in Cuba it is very difficult to make travels between
provinces, so many independent organizations and coalitions take
advantage of the presence in Havana of many activists residing away from
the capital who are invited to the 4th of July celebration, in order to
hold meetings in the days around that date.

The Communist authorities manipulate that fact, and try to make believe
that this fact is due to instructions supposedly given by the American
diplomats. Using this pretext, they have unleashed an extensive
repressive wave which has affected dozens of pro-democracy activists,
and which is documented by organizations specialized in that field, such
as the Council of Relators on Human Rights (Consejo de Relatores de
Derechos Humanos) and the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación
Nacional).

Part of that repressive wave was the detention I suffered that day
during about four hours and a half.

This 4th of July I agreed to hold a meeting at half past two (2:30
P.M.), in the lobby of the Inglaterra Hotel, in front of the Havana
Central Park, with Mrs. Julie Middleton, a distinguished activist of the
well-known World association of the civil society known as CIVICUS.

This lady, who was born in Canada, was making at that time a tourist
visit to Cuba, on her honeymoon, together with her honorable husband,
who is a citizen of South Africa. After chatting for a while and having
some coffee, we left the hotel at three fifty (3:50 P.M.), because they
were scheduled to board a bus going to Varadero beach at four o'clock
(4:00 P.M.).

When we were still at the hotel's portico, I was approached by the agent
of the Specialized Police badge number 37610, who asked me to exhibit my
identity card. I briefly explained to the foreign friends that this was
hardly a casual fact; that probably it was one more act of the
aforementioned repressive wave; I then said to them that in case of
remaining there with us, they would, in all probability, be losing their
bus, and that so they should think nothing of leaving the place, which
they finally did.

I remained for about a quarter of an hour near that repressive agent and
another one who wore olive-green fatigues, near the intersection of the
Prado and San Rafael streets. Once that time elapsed, I was moved to the
zone of the Central Park located in Neptuno Street, between Prado and
Zulueta. In the conversations held by the aforementioned agents through
their walkie-talkie, I could listen when they informed, referring to me,
that I was a citizen detained for being a "jinetero".

For those who ignore present-day Cuban popular argot (which, by the way,
is amply used by our policemen), I can explain that the feminine common
name "jinetera" is a neologism which is euphemistically used to refer to
prostitutes. In that context, its corresponding masculine name
("jinetero") is generally used to designate the go-between or "pimp" who
exploits those public women.

After standing in the aforementioned public zones for almost an hour, a
patrol car finally arrived at the place, and I was transported in it to
the precinct of the National Revolutionary Police located in the corner
of Zulueta and Dragones streets, in the same municipality of Habana
Vieja (Old Havana). Before being put into that vehicle, I suffered a
publicly held personal search, and the agents handcuffed my hands on my
back.

Against all this I energetically protested, so I loudly expressed my
disagreement with those acts, as well as with the fact of my detention
itself and with the circumstance that—as the crewmen of the patrol car
repeated—my detention was due to me supposedly being a "jinetero", a
slander to which I responded that all the repressive action was solely
due to being an oppositionist to the totalitarian régime.

At my arrival at the police precinct, they took off the handcuffs as
well as most of the personal belongings I had with me, and I was locked
up in a cell. There I coincided with dissident Héctor Julio Cedeño
Negrín, leader of the Liberal Party of Cuba, who told me that he had
been arrested in the neighborhood of the offices of the Spanish Embassy,
in Cárcel street, between Zulueta and Prado streets, at about a half
past ten that morning. Our stay there lasted until about eight twenty
(8:20 P.M.), when we were set free.

I must strongly denounce the extreme disrespect of not only asserting
the supposed condition of "jinetero" to a 64-year old University
graduate, but also the accusation of being a "jinetera" (that is, a
prostitute) implicitly made to an honorable newly-wed lady who was even
accompanied by her distinguished husband… I must also point out that,
according to the characteristics and circumstances of the arrest, it was
obviously one more of the covered operations perpetrated that day by the
Cuban political police (which, by the way, didn't show its face during
the whole process of my detention) with the purpose of impeding the
arrival of the biggest possible number of dissidents invited to the 4th
of July's celebration.

I must underline that, at least in my case, that goal was not attained,
for although—logically—I arrived late at the reception—the beginning of
which was scheduled for half past seven—, I showed up there all the same
and I had the possibility of informing a good number of Cuban friends as
well as several citizens of different foreign countries gathered there
about what had taken place.

In short, all this happening is only one more link in the chain of
outrages and abuses perpetrated by the totalitarian Castro's régime, the
main victims of which continue to be the prisoners of conscience which
remain in jail for the mere fact of having spoken their minds.

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=16069