Posted on Fri, Apr. 04, 2008l
On March 18, 2003, the Cuban government carried out an incredibly
underhanded and cowardly act. It began what is now known as Cuba's Black
Spring. The act itself -- arresting 75 nonviolent, democracy-oriented
activists -- demonstrates the regime's unwillingness and inability to
entertain democratic principles. However, the way the government went
about the arrests is the most telling of its cunning and hypocrisy. It
chose to conduct the arrests while the world's attention was focused on
the U.S. entry into Iraq.
Five years later, in complete senility, Fidel Castro, or his ghost
writers, continued to justify the arrests in his latest ''reflections''
as posted in Granma on March 18. He falsely states that those he calls
''mercenaries'' of the U.S. government were given access to attorneys
and trials. Not only did the 75 receive summary trials in kangaroo
courts, but their detention was carried out in remote locations
purposely at great distances from their families.
Ask Raúl Rivero or Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who were among the few
released, if being held for months at a time in solitary confinement
with constant deprivation of food and medicine does not constitute torture.
Those who have been released have yet to be exonerated of the trumped-up
charges against them, and most have been forced to leave the country as
a condition of their freedom.
The activists arrested during Cuba's Black Spring constituted key
elements among the peaceful movement of opposition that grows on the
island. Their backers were not U.S. dollars, their backers were the
people of Cuba who signed petitions such as the Varela Project, attended
their meetings and valiantly confronted the dictatorship in peaceful
demonstrations.
Whether Castro is alive or dead, behind the scenes or disengaged, this
latest statement solidifies that he will remain unchanged. He is a
heartless and shameless dictator, convinced, despite his senility, of
his own greatness at the expense of his people's well-being.
FRANCISCO ''PEPE'' HERNANDEZ, president, Cuban American National
Foundation Miami
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