The Other Gitmo: Where's the Outrage?
'By Mary Anastasia O'Grady
1,016 words 7 October 2005
The Wall Street Journal A17 English
(Copyright (c) 2005, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
La Nueva Cuba
October 17, 2005
Conditions at the prison at Guantanamo are inhumane. Inmates are deprived
their right to religious worship, receive scant nutrition and suffer
constant verbal and physical abuse from guards. It's a humanitarian outrage.
I refer, of course, to Castro's Guantanamo Provincial Prison in Cuba proper,
the prison across the fence from the U.S. naval base compound holding the
terrorists. Fidel's lock-up makes the U.S. prison look like a five-star
tropical resort.
Torture, deprivation and isolation of political prisoners at the "other"
Guantanamo -- or at any of Fidel's gulags across the island -- are no
secret. They've been loudly denounced by prisoners' families and reported by
Cuba's independent journalists. But foreign journalists have paid little
attention. It seems they're too busy shredding their hankies over whether
enemy combatants at the naval base have enough honey glaze on their chicken.
International apathy toward the plight of the political prisoners is just
what Fidel Castro counts on. As the dissident movement has expanded in the
past decade, El Maximo Lider has found it necessary to strike at it with
excessive force from time to time. But when his repression becomes too
public, he has to back off.
A hunger strike at the Guantanamo prison, which ended earlier this week,
makes the point. Political prisoners Victor Arroyo and Felix Navarro stopped
eating on Sept. 10 and 13 respectively, to protest the extreme cruelty
administered by Guantanamo prison director Lt. Col. Jorge Chediak Perez and
"rehabilitation" expert Juan Armesto.
As the strike headed toward a fourth week, dozens of Cuban human rights
advocates from all over the island were on their way to the prison in a show
of solidarity. On Sept. 29, the EU called on the government to "improve the
conditions of detention of these individuals and other political prisoners
who are being held in circumstances that fall below the U.N. Minimum
Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners."
On Monday, as the strikers showed no sign of relenting, Fidel blinked. The
two men were removed from Guantanamo. Mr. Arroyo was taken away in an
ambulance because he was so feeble, while Mr. Navarro traveled by car.
Sources on the island say that Mr. Arroyo is now at the prison hospital in
Holguin and Mr. Navarro is at the prison hospital in Bayamo.
In an honest world, the cases of Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Navarro would have
raised an international outcry a long time ago. The men were arrested along
with more than 70 others in the regime's March 2003 crackdown on
journalists, opposition leaders, librarians and writers. All were taken into
custody, given summary trials and handed extreme sentences.
A review of the 53-year-old Mr. Arroyo's arrest record shows the regime's
pathetic paranoia. One example: In 2000 he was jailed for possessing some
toys that he planned to distribute to poor children. The charge? "Hoarding
public goods." His real crimes are for things like being director of the
Union of Independent Cuban Journalists and Writers and managing one of the
most important independent libraries in the country. In March 2003, Mr.
Arroyo was working as a journalist in Pinar del Rio, when he was detained.
On April 7, 2003, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for "acts against
state security."
Mr. Navarro, who is 52-years-old, has an equally "dangerous" profile. An
educator for some 20 years, in 1999 he founded the Pedro Luis Boitel
Democracy Movement, which led to numerous arrests. His April 2003 conviction
for "acts against state security" won him a 25 year sentence.
Mr. Navarro's identification with the heroic Boitel explains a lot about the
prisoners and about Fidel's decision to yield to their strike. Boitel was a
close prison friend of Armando Valladares, who spent 22 years in Cuban
gulags. In his memoir, "Against All Hope," Mr. Valladares wrote of Boitel
that he was "the most rebellious of Cuban political prisoners." In 1972, he
had gone on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions. After 47 days of
no food Boitel was gravely ill. But it was Castro's decision to deny him
water that sealed his fate. He died on day 53.
Later, according to Mr. Valladares, the prisoners learned that Castro had
given the order to "get rid of Boitel so he wouldn't make anymore
[expletive] trouble." In a telephone conversation from Miami this week, Mr.
Valladares reminded me that through it all "the international community kept
silent."
Like Mr. Valladares and Boitel before them, Messrs. Arroyo and Navarro
protested Guantanamo's filth, beatings, bad food, lack of water and use of
common criminals to terrorize political prisoners. And like their
predecessors, their complaints were met with violence.
In December 2003, Mr. Arroyo's opinions earned him a savage beating by three
jailers, who also slammed a door on his leg to cripple him. In September
2004, when he was told his cell would be searched, he asked to be present to
ensure that nothing would be planted. For that request, the food that had
been brought by his family was confiscated and his few belongings trashed.
He was then placed in a "punishment cell," which is a solitary confinement
cell too small to lie down in, with no windows and a steel door. He was kept
there for 15 days. Mr. Navarro was also thrown in the punishment cells for
objecting to inhumane conditions.
The men wrote letters to the government to draw attention to ruthlessness of
Armesto and jailer Chediak Perez, but to no avail. That's when they took up
the mantle of Boitel.
Castro didn't respond until it looked like the strikers might embarrass him
by dying. On Tuesday, Mr. Arroyo's sister reported that Cuban officials in
Holguin promised him "a just treatment." But the fact that it had to go so
far before the Castro would agree to basic humanitarian principles reveals
much about the dictator that so many Americans admire.
Alex J. Cruz
Press Secretary
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Florida, 18th Congressional District
9210 Sunset Drive, #100
Miami, Florida 33173
Phone: 305-270-1111
Cell: 202-225-8200
Pager: 877-704-9087
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-05-10-1710.htm
'By Mary Anastasia O'Grady
1,016 words 7 October 2005
The Wall Street Journal A17 English
(Copyright (c) 2005, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
La Nueva Cuba
October 17, 2005
Conditions at the prison at Guantanamo are inhumane. Inmates are deprived
their right to religious worship, receive scant nutrition and suffer
constant verbal and physical abuse from guards. It's a humanitarian outrage.
I refer, of course, to Castro's Guantanamo Provincial Prison in Cuba proper,
the prison across the fence from the U.S. naval base compound holding the
terrorists. Fidel's lock-up makes the U.S. prison look like a five-star
tropical resort.
Torture, deprivation and isolation of political prisoners at the "other"
Guantanamo -- or at any of Fidel's gulags across the island -- are no
secret. They've been loudly denounced by prisoners' families and reported by
Cuba's independent journalists. But foreign journalists have paid little
attention. It seems they're too busy shredding their hankies over whether
enemy combatants at the naval base have enough honey glaze on their chicken.
International apathy toward the plight of the political prisoners is just
what Fidel Castro counts on. As the dissident movement has expanded in the
past decade, El Maximo Lider has found it necessary to strike at it with
excessive force from time to time. But when his repression becomes too
public, he has to back off.
A hunger strike at the Guantanamo prison, which ended earlier this week,
makes the point. Political prisoners Victor Arroyo and Felix Navarro stopped
eating on Sept. 10 and 13 respectively, to protest the extreme cruelty
administered by Guantanamo prison director Lt. Col. Jorge Chediak Perez and
"rehabilitation" expert Juan Armesto.
As the strike headed toward a fourth week, dozens of Cuban human rights
advocates from all over the island were on their way to the prison in a show
of solidarity. On Sept. 29, the EU called on the government to "improve the
conditions of detention of these individuals and other political prisoners
who are being held in circumstances that fall below the U.N. Minimum
Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners."
On Monday, as the strikers showed no sign of relenting, Fidel blinked. The
two men were removed from Guantanamo. Mr. Arroyo was taken away in an
ambulance because he was so feeble, while Mr. Navarro traveled by car.
Sources on the island say that Mr. Arroyo is now at the prison hospital in
Holguin and Mr. Navarro is at the prison hospital in Bayamo.
In an honest world, the cases of Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Navarro would have
raised an international outcry a long time ago. The men were arrested along
with more than 70 others in the regime's March 2003 crackdown on
journalists, opposition leaders, librarians and writers. All were taken into
custody, given summary trials and handed extreme sentences.
A review of the 53-year-old Mr. Arroyo's arrest record shows the regime's
pathetic paranoia. One example: In 2000 he was jailed for possessing some
toys that he planned to distribute to poor children. The charge? "Hoarding
public goods." His real crimes are for things like being director of the
Union of Independent Cuban Journalists and Writers and managing one of the
most important independent libraries in the country. In March 2003, Mr.
Arroyo was working as a journalist in Pinar del Rio, when he was detained.
On April 7, 2003, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for "acts against
state security."
Mr. Navarro, who is 52-years-old, has an equally "dangerous" profile. An
educator for some 20 years, in 1999 he founded the Pedro Luis Boitel
Democracy Movement, which led to numerous arrests. His April 2003 conviction
for "acts against state security" won him a 25 year sentence.
Mr. Navarro's identification with the heroic Boitel explains a lot about the
prisoners and about Fidel's decision to yield to their strike. Boitel was a
close prison friend of Armando Valladares, who spent 22 years in Cuban
gulags. In his memoir, "Against All Hope," Mr. Valladares wrote of Boitel
that he was "the most rebellious of Cuban political prisoners." In 1972, he
had gone on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions. After 47 days of
no food Boitel was gravely ill. But it was Castro's decision to deny him
water that sealed his fate. He died on day 53.
Later, according to Mr. Valladares, the prisoners learned that Castro had
given the order to "get rid of Boitel so he wouldn't make anymore
[expletive] trouble." In a telephone conversation from Miami this week, Mr.
Valladares reminded me that through it all "the international community kept
silent."
Like Mr. Valladares and Boitel before them, Messrs. Arroyo and Navarro
protested Guantanamo's filth, beatings, bad food, lack of water and use of
common criminals to terrorize political prisoners. And like their
predecessors, their complaints were met with violence.
In December 2003, Mr. Arroyo's opinions earned him a savage beating by three
jailers, who also slammed a door on his leg to cripple him. In September
2004, when he was told his cell would be searched, he asked to be present to
ensure that nothing would be planted. For that request, the food that had
been brought by his family was confiscated and his few belongings trashed.
He was then placed in a "punishment cell," which is a solitary confinement
cell too small to lie down in, with no windows and a steel door. He was kept
there for 15 days. Mr. Navarro was also thrown in the punishment cells for
objecting to inhumane conditions.
The men wrote letters to the government to draw attention to ruthlessness of
Armesto and jailer Chediak Perez, but to no avail. That's when they took up
the mantle of Boitel.
Castro didn't respond until it looked like the strikers might embarrass him
by dying. On Tuesday, Mr. Arroyo's sister reported that Cuban officials in
Holguin promised him "a just treatment." But the fact that it had to go so
far before the Castro would agree to basic humanitarian principles reveals
much about the dictator that so many Americans admire.
Alex J. Cruz
Press Secretary
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Florida, 18th Congressional District
9210 Sunset Drive, #100
Miami, Florida 33173
Phone: 305-270-1111
Cell: 202-225-8200
Pager: 877-704-9087
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-05-10-1710.htm
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