Raul Castro, Think Again

Raul Castro, Think Again / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on May 1, 2014

The months keep passing, and Angel Santiesteban — the only "common
prisoner" to whom the political police have offered "freedom" in
exchange for his renouncing his political position, witnessed in a video
— continues punished, victim of constant inspections and deprived of
passes to which by law he has a right; nor do they permit him to go to
the dentist or the barber.

Now, this "common prisoner" was chosen among the 100 Freedom of
Information Heroes by Reporters Without Borders. Those who took him to
jail should be writhing in shame; also those who have been and are
complicit with their silence.

Why does the Regime fear him so? Because if it considers him a common
prisoner, nothing they undertook against him make sense, besides being
illegal.

Angel remains incarcerated, and he considers it an honor; the Review of
his trial remains ignored and his attorney disqualified. From whatever
point you try to understand this unjust sentence, the one who loses is
the dictator Castro, because being a "common prisoner" he treats him —
for all purposes — as a political prisoner, by which we can imagine that
he wants to aggravate his situation "converting him" now into an enemy
of the Revolution and traitor to his country.

If they make this official, they will only admit that Angel is a
political prisoner, and there will be in evidence — once again — the
true nature of the Castro dictatorship. It is also true that the
democratic governments that make deals with Cuba at the cost of the
sacrifice, suffering and blood of Cubans, don't care at all. These
governments and the Castro dictatorship will pass, because everything
passes. But they will remain forever in history.

Raul Castro, think again; you can still correct this injustice–and all
those that are committed against the more than one hundred political
prisoners. Do not do it for Cuba or for your victims; you as well as
your brother demonstrated amply that no one and nothing matters to you,
that only power interests you; do it for your children and
grandchildren, those who throughout life are condemned to carry your
last name and your stigma. Because the moment will come in which
everything will fall into place, although you and your brother perhaps
will no longer be–regrettably–and will be saved from facing Justice.

It is not only incomprehensible that the dictatorship is the most
tolerated of the world, but no one ever will be able to understand why a
"Revolution" that never spared bullets and violence so fears the words
and opinions of an intellectual, of peaceful opponents and of decent
women who bear as a "weapon" a gladiolus.

The only certainty is that history will not absolve them.

The Editor

Follow the link to sign the petition for Amnesty International to
declare Cuban dissident Angel Santiesteban a prisoner of conscience.
https://secure.avaaz.org/es/petition/Para_que_Amnistia_Internacional_declare_prisionero_de_conciencia_al_disidente_cubano_Angel_Santiesteban/?fbss

Translated by mlk.

1 May 2014

Source: Raul Castro, Think Again / Angel Santiesteban | Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castro-think-again-angel-santiesteban/