Displaying Those Who Watched Us

Displaying Those Who Watched Us / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila
Posted on November 2, 2014

14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, Warsaw, 23 October 2014 — Recently, a wide
cross section of Cuban civil society and opposition has been invited to
Poland. The program has included a broad array of activities; including
a visit to a jail and the governmental palace, meetings with important
political figures, debates and lectures.

What has struck me most was entering the archives of Polish Communist
State Security. I had only seen such a degree of paranoia and
meticulousness in movies, like the classic "The Lives of Others."

But this time was different. We found ourselves face to face with 90
kilometers of documents, hundreds of thousands of records, operative
cards, photos, video tapes, personal profiles, and information about
collaborators and people under surveillance.

These records prove that in all the Russian communist colonies there
existed similar repressive agencies that turned into the biggest and
most sophisticated institutions of their time. The surveillance and
repression of thought was the activity to which those countries devoted
the most resources.

The National Remembrance Institute leads investigations to purge the
responsibilities in thousands of crimes committed by State Security
against Polish citizens, always under the guidelines of the infamous
Soviet KGB.

The information that these documents hold even today can be vital for
many people who aspire to occupy public office, now that new democratic
institutions usually ask those in charge of the archive to investigate
if in the past such-and-such a person collaborated with State Security.

The documents also reveal that practically no one escaped security
surveillance. Priests, artists, intellectuals, diplomats, business
owners, all foreigners and even the Communist leaders themselves were
spied upon. To that end they used the most advanced techniques of the
time, like steam machines to unseal and then reseal letters, microphones
inside of homes, hidden cameras and personal tracking, among others.

Even Fidel Castro himself had his file in the archives of the Polish
State Security, even when cooperation was very tight between all the
repressive bodies of the Soviet bloc, including Cuba.

In spite of all that Mafioso and apparently infallible machinery, the
people knew how to find their way and free themselves from so much sick
perversion and, in the majority of cases, undertake a road towards true
development, with a foundation in a government of law and in open and
democratic politics.

The gray days dominated by fear and sadness were left behind to give way
to a multitude of colors in the plazas of cities like Warsaw and Cracow,
converted into reference points for constant growth and improvement.

I am absolutely convinced that one day in the not-too-distant future we
will show delegations from all over the world the archives and
installations of State Security in Cuba. Officials and collaborators of
the repressive apparatus will be like naked kings before the astonished
gaze of new generations formed in pluralism and respect for others in
order to rebuild the nation.

Translated by MLK

Source: Displaying Those Who Watched Us / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila |
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