OEA/Ser.L/V/II.48 SIX
REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF CHAPTER
IV RECENT
EVENTS INVOLVING POLITICAL PRISONERS A.
The dialogue concerning the release of political prisoners
1.
On December 8, 1978, representatives of the Cuban community in exile (the
Committee of 75) and representatives of the Cuban Government concluded and
signed an agreement on the problems of the political prisoners, reunification of
families and the possibility of individuals of Cuban origin or nationality, who
live in other countries, visiting the island.
2.
That part of the Final Act of the agreement concerning release of the
political prisoners provided the following:
The Government of the Republic of Cuba announced that it will take steps
to release, under a pardon, three thousand prisoners sentenced for crimes
against the security of the State or the integrity of the country and six
hundred sentenced for violations of legal provisions on emigration. The
Government of the Republic of Cuba shall authorize the departure from national
territory and transfer to the United States of America or other countries, in
accordance with the wishes of the individuals released, of all those confined
for crimes against the security of the State and the integrity of the country,
and members of their immediate family who express a desire to go abroad. A
minimum of four hundred of such individuals will be released each month. The
Government stated that the only individuals who will not be included in these
benefits will be individuals responsible for extremely serious crimes during the
period of tyranny or members of terrorist groups.
All condemned women without exception, will be released.
The Government of the Republic of Cuba stated that, pursuing a policy it
has followed for some years now in an effort to resolve the personal, social and
family situation of numerous individuals who were led into counterrevolution by
the Government of the United, it shall allow those individuals once confined for
crimes against the security of the State but now free and who wish to go abroad,
to leave the country along with any members of their immediate family who so
desire. These individuals and their families may travel to the United States or
any other country as soon as they receive the corresponding permits from the
competent authorities of those countries.
The representatives of the Cuban Community abroad pledged to conduct the
necessary negotiations with the authorities of the United States Government to
obtain entry visas for the United States for those former prisoners and their
family members and for those individuals now in prison and members of their
family who wish to do so.
3.
One hundred thirty-eight of the jailed political prisoners, supposedly
affected by the “dialogue,” have rejected it through a statement to the
“People of Cuba, those in exile and the world.” The statement contains four
provisions:
We, the undersigned, political prisoners who without compromising our
principles have withstood for almost twenty years the most disgraceful and
abusive prison system in the history of the Americas, in an unyielding posture
of rebellion, consolidated by a chain of martyrs and a large measure of blood,
sacrifice and humiliation, informed and convinced that the question of our
possible release is being used as a deceitful manipulation that seriously
compromise those in exile and affects us very directly, use this means, on this
memorable date in our country's history, to explain our position in clear and
precise terms.
ONE: We argue for the freedom of all political prisoners, without
exception, and for the reunification of Cuban families. For this, all that need
be done is the following: a) order that the doors of all Cuban prisons be opened
so that women and men, from each and every prison, who have suffered so much,
may be reunited with their families, and b) authorize Cubans living within the
national territory or abroad, to enter and to leave the country, as they have
been requesting or as they may request in future, in order to join their
respective families either temporarily or permanently. However, none of these
measures should require dialogue of any kind. The Government must speak with
concrete acts if it wishes to correct, in any way, its policy of breaking apart
the Cuban family. He who has been the cause of sorrow and hatred in Cuban homes
and has divided and arbitrarily kept Cuban families apart has little moral
strength with which to call for dialogue.
TWO: We repudiate the dialogue between the Castro Government and the
supposed representatives of the Cuban exile; a dialogue which our experience
with the horror, torture and chicanery characteristic of the regime has shown us
to be nothing more than a farce mounted by Mr. Castro in order to deceive the
Cuban people and the world in general. In a very special way, it is an attempt
to deceive and divide the Cubans in exile, with empty words of peace and
conciliation; in fact, it is a subtle effort to create hostilities among the
Cubans who, unable to live under despotic conditions in the fatherland, sought
refuge and built homes in other lands.
THREE: We also repudiate any type of dialogue or compromise that
represents freedom at the price of backing down; no one, absolutely no one, no
individual or members of the Cuban emigration, is authorized to negotiate our
release with the Cuban government in exchange for concessions on our part. Our
release must be unconditional, in keeping with our historic position, upheld
with singular stoicism. Correspondingly, none of those individuals may claim
responsibility for our release on the day it occurs.
FOUR: If Castro and his Government believe that the price paid by the
political prisoners is small, with the martyrs, disabled, insane, mutilated,
entombed, those who have served their sentence only to be resentenced, the
heroic women, who have grown old from the beatings and being behind bars, but
are still proud; in other words, if they believe that this is a small price,
paid with so much sacrifice and human pain, they may do whatever they wish. We
are certain that we still have enough moral reserves to remain firm and
determined in the face of oppression, as we have stood for almost twenty years.
WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE OUR FREEDOM, BECAUSE WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE OUR
PRINCIPLES.
4.
Huber Matos was part of that group. From exile, he commented on the
situation, in particular on the situation of one of these political prisoners,
Silvino Rodríguez Barrientos; he said the following:
I was part of that group along with other comrades who have already left
that group. But some still remain, approximately over one hundred and twenty
from a group of one hundred and thirty-eight. These are comrades who are in a
tight situation, closed-in, let us say, as regards prospects for freedom,
because in a public statement, they opposed the entire dialogue farce. That was
comical. If Castro is the one who has the jails, by being the owner of the jail,
once he says they are free they can leave; they can go abroad; he does not have
to call upon anyone to act as the prodding stick, in order to act out this face.
Because these comrades opposed the dialogue, they opposed Castro's policy with
regard to the release of the political prisoners; hence, they have angered
Castro. As for the specific matter of one colleague, Silvino Rodríguez
Barrientos, he is a prisoner at Boniato. He is one of the most outstanding of
the group of one hundred thirty-eight and is in a difficult situation for that
reason. Moreover, he is a prisoner who has been on the verge of being murdered
on several occasions; he has been threatened more than once. The guard said
“we have orders to shoot you if you maintain an attitude of resistance or
speak with them; so there are orders to shoot you.” We had to counsel Rodríguez
Barrientos because we were in the same group; we advised him on how to get
through those days when there were instructions to shoot him. In the final
analysis, the days passed and he survived the momentary danger. But he was
always singled out as one of the elements to be kept down, as in my case. The
backing that I had from many people abroad, congressmen, governors, saved my
life. But Rodríguez Barrientos has remained anonymous until now, totally
anonymous, and they could take reprisals against him tomorrow. There is more:
the Communists regard him as my brother because we spent many years together
working; we faced all manner of problems together, harassment and beatings. Now
I have left and here I am talking, and they cannot take immediate reprisals
against me, unless Castro is preparing to murder me on some street corner; that
does not worry me. But they can take reprisals against him as he remained there,
he remained in the jail and I would not be surprised if by this point they had
beaten him to a pulp or had committed some atrocity against him.
Furthermore, that comrade, brother, and friend is one of the leading
personalities in the group of Catholic activists. He is one of the leaders, and
he had problems. He has been beaten because the fanatical Castroites at one time
snatched a crucifix from him and he fought with them; the incident ended badly
for him. Every time there is a fight with the guard, the prisoner loses, because
if you mix with two of them, and generally there are two, four come, eight come,
sixteen come. The truth is I do not have his faith; I am not a man who believes
in much. I believe that if God has the power he should have, Castro would not be
there doing so much harm to Cubans.
5.
Obviously there is no single uniform position on the matter of the
dialogue within the exile community.
The intense disagreement among the various positions has caused the
deaths of two members of the Committee of 75, the first in Puerto Rico and the
second in New Jersey. The first was Carlos Muñiz Varela, 26 years old, a Cuban
exile and president of the Varadero Tours Company, which organizes visits to
Cuba for the Cuban Community in Puerto Rico. The second is Eulalio Negrin, 37,
Director of the New Jersey Cuban Social Club, the purpose of which was to
reunify Cuban families. Last March a bomb exploded in that club and on November
25, 1979, Negrin was murdered as he stepped from his car. The Omega Seven, an
anti-Castro Group, claimed responsibility for the assassination.
6.
The Commission received a denunciation concerning coercion of political
prisoners with respect to the “dialogue.” That denunciation states the
following:
Despite the ordered releases and despite the so-called “dialogue,”
the Cuban Government continues to coerce political prisoners, forcing them to
make statements in favor of its political plans for reconciliation with the
United States, under penalty of refusing to release them. For this, members of
the Department of State Security visit prisons and concentration camps, where
they threaten those confined, dictate the contents of letters or oversee
interviews with foreign journalists, set up for that purpose. Other forms of
coercion are as follows: a) to require them to reply on a form if they have
received medical attention; a negative response, although no such attention may
have been received, constitutes an obstacle to freedom; b) to force them to wear
the uniform of common prisoners; in Combinado del Este alone, more than 150 have
refused to do this, including the Spanish prisoner Odilio Alonso Fernández,
condemned to 30 years, 17 of which he has served. He has tumors on the head as a
result of blows received. His release, as well as that of former Commander Eloy
Gutiérrez Menoyo, has been requested by the Spanish Government although not
granted.
When forming the small groups that have been released to date, Castro's
Government decides who will be released and the order of preference, without
taking into consideration the prisoner's state of health, age, or the physical
breakdown of women and men who have served or are about to have completed
serving, 20 years of imprisonment. B.
The pardons that resulted from the “dialogue”
The Commission has received information to the effect that 3,600
political prisoners have been pardoned, the majority during 1979, in keeping
with the “dialogue” between the Government of the Republic of Cuba and
representatives of the Cuban community in exile.
2.
The Commission takes note of the efforts made by the Cuban Government to
improve the situation of human rights, especially the release of 3,600 political
prisoners. Notwithstanding this, the Commission will continue to try to obtain
the release of approximately 1,000 political prisoners, many of whom continue to
serve thirty-year sentences.
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