A Cuban Doctor Pays A High Price for Truth

A Cuban Doctor Pays A High Price for Truth.
By: Mary Anastasia O’Grady.
March 31, 2006

In the early morning hours of Nov. 29, uniformed Cuban police raided the
Havana home of medical doctor Dariel "Darsi" Ferrer.

"In front of my sick wife and my four-year-old son, they confiscated a
laptop, a printer, various bottles of medicine and all the papers they
could find," Dr. Ferrer reported on the Web site Cartadecuba.com. Nearly
four hours later the marauders marched off with the doctor's property,
leaving him with a citation to appear at the police station the next day.

Dr. Ferrer had sinned against the Revolution: He is an Afro-Cuban
medical professional who, noting the country's abysmal state of health
care, established an independent health and human rights clinic. "We
have dedicated ourselves to offering free medical attention to those in
need and visiting extremely poor communities where scarcities strike
marginalized Cubans daily, to offer health services, give medicine,
clothing and toys and to share the suffering of those beings," Dr.
Ferrer reported.

The 36-year-old doctor's selfless dedication to others would win praise
from any government genuinely concerned about the welfare of citizens.
However, in Cuba, his work scandalizes the state. It has rewarded him by
shutting him out of the official medical community and refusing to allow
him any form of gainful employment. Along with his wife and son, he has
been regularly harassed and terrorized by the government's infamous
"repudiation squads," organized mob violence unleashed against
non-conformers. The Nov. 29 visit was the first time the regime sent
uniformed agents to his home to allege a crime.

Dr. Ferrer is a victim of what human rights observers say is the one of
the most brutal crackdowns in the island's history, one that has
received little notice in the U.S. "Why now?" one might ask. Perhaps it
is in preparation for the day when, as Cubans like to say, a "biological
solution" will end Castro's reign. Perhaps it is because Cubans have
grown bolder in recent years, increasingly expressing dissent openly.

Certainly, there is more civil disobedience, ranging from silent,
prayerful marches by women whose loved ones are political prisoners to
public statements from medical professionals like Dr. Ferrer. Pilfering
from the state has reportedly increased too.

French jurist Christine Chanet, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's
"expert" on Cuba, acknowledged the wave of repression this month. Though
Cuban officials have refused her access, she noted that her sources
report, "in 2005 more people were arrested and given disproportionate
sentences for expressing dissident political opinions." Since she is
French and a UNHRC bureaucrat, however, Ms. Chanet blamed the brutality
on the U.S. By supporting Cuban democrats, she explained, the U.S.
"provide[s] the Cuban authorities with an opportunity to tighten
repression against them."

That is the kind of international "help" that long-suffering Cubans have
had to get used to, leaving them with the feeling that they are but
pawns in the petty, jealous U.N. game of challenging U.S. hegemony.
However, while the French bureaucrat is busy scoring points in the
salons of Geneva, Dr. Ferrer is struggling to stay alive. His is a
particularly brave struggle.

Like hundreds of José Six-Packs who have joined Cuban resistance
movements, Dr. Ferrer's lack of celebrity is a real disadvantage.
International recognition can provide some protection to a dissident.
But up to now, he has been a faceless soul behind the Tropical Iron
Curtain, with a family to care for and living on practically nothing.
Fidel already knows he has nothing to fear from the likes of Ms. Chanet,
so the cost of crushing Dr. Ferrer is very low.

Dr. Ferrer's race also works against him. Independent thinking is heresy
for any Cuban but Afro-Cubans are taught to be especially grateful for
-- and obedient to -- the Revolution. They are supposed to signal to the
world that though they may appear poor, malnourished and oppressed, they
are actually living contentedly on Master Fidel's plantation. Dr. Ferrer
has not been playing the game.

Another reason to silence the doctor is his honest, professional
assessment of Cuba's deteriorating medical system. What Dr. Ferrer and
the doctors working with him at the clinic have observed and publicly
denounced is the polar opposite of the health-care paradise that Fidel's
illusionists have worked years to promote. The collapse of this last
"justification" for totalitarian government -- something that shamefully
even former Secretary of State Colin Powell once praised Castro for --
makes Fidel's 50 years of failure impossible to deny.

This makes Dr. Ferrer's work exceedingly dangerous but despite the
persecution, he works tirelessly for the sick, the poor and the
imprisoned. The clinic writes "respectful letters" to high-ranking
government officials, raising concerns about public health issues and
proposing solutions. In a July 2005 document called "Health Authorities
and the Complicity of Silence," Dr. Ferrer complained of the deaths of
dozens of children in recent months owing to increased cases of
transmittable diseases. He expressed concern that meningitis, dengue
fever, hepatitis and leprosy could become epidemics. Clinic workers pay
special attention to HIV/AIDS patients, particularly shut-ins, and
advocate for the medical needs of political prisoners and for victims of
medical negligence.

With thousands of medical professionals on assignment overseas to
advance Castro's do-gooder image with Ms. Chanet and her ilk, Cubans are
hurting. But so what? As former Brigadier Gen. Rafael Del Pino, who
defected in 1987, observed in his 1990 book "Proa a La Libertad,"
("Toward Freedom"), Fidel has another agenda. He "was of the idea that
any person whose health is returned or who receives education will at
least never be his enemy, even if that does not turn them into an ally,"
the general wrote, referring to the rationale behind sending doctors and
teachers to Nicaragua in the 1980s. This strategy continues today. Only
now, Dr. Ferrer has made it clear that Cubans themselves do not enjoy
the same "good will." For that, he is being intolerably abused by the
regime.

Published in: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 31, 2006; Page A17

Dr. Ferrer is the Director of Center for Health and Human Rights “Juan
Bruno Zayaz” in Havana, Cuba.
Address: Calle San Bernardino 265 entre Serrano y Durege, Reparto Santo
Suárez, Municipio Díez de Octubre, Ciudad de la Habana. Cuba. Código
Postal -10500.
E-mail: centrosalud_dh@yahoo.com

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