Jan. 23
Over the last few days, the media and representatives of certain
governments traditionally committed to anti-Cuba subversion have
unleashed a new campaign of accusations, unscrupulously taking advantage
of a lamentable event: the death of an ordinary prisoner, which
possibly only in the case of Cuba, is converted into news of
international repercussion.
The method utilized is the same
one as always: fruitlessly attempting, through repetition, to demonize
Cuba, in this case through the deliberate manipulation of an incident
which is absolutely exceptional in this country.
This
so-called political prisoner was serving a four-year sentence after a
fair legal process during which he was at liberty and a trial in
accordance with the law, for a brutal physical attack on his wife in
public and violent resistance to arrest by police agents.
This
man died from multi-organ failure due to an acute respiratory
infection, despite having received appropriate medical attention,
including specialized medication and treatment in the intensive care
room of Santiago de Cuba’s principal hospital.
Why did Spanish
authorities and certain members of the European Union hasten to condemn
Cuba without any investigation into the incident? Why do they always
utilize pre-fabricated lies in the context of Cuba? Why, in addition to
lying, do they censor the truth? Why is the voice and truth about Cuba
openly denied the smallest space in the international media?
They are acting both cynically and hypocritically. How would they
describe the recent manifestations of police brutality in Spain and a
large part of “educated and civilized” Europe against the indignados
movement?
Why is there no concern over the dramatic situation
of overcrowding in Spanish jails with a high immigrant population – in
excess of 35% of total prisoners in the country – according to the most
recent report by the ACAIP prison union, dated April 3, 2010?
Who has made any effort to investigate the death in July of 2011 in the
Spanish penitentiary of Teruel, of Tohuami Hamdaoui, an ordinary
prisoner of Moroccan origin after a hunger strike of several months? Who
has reflected the fact that he has insisted he is innocent?
Has the Chilean spokesperson slandering us by asserting that the dead
man was a political dissident on his 50th day of hunger strike lost his
memory and sense of reality? He must remember his days as a student
leader linked to Pinochet’s troops, who massacred Chileans and
instituted disappearances and torture throughout the Southern Cone via
Plan Condor, while there have been no statements about the harsh
repression of students peacefully demonstrating in defense of the human
right to universal and free education. Is he one of those who supported
re-labeling the Pinochet dictatorship a military regime in school
textbooks? Has he made any statement about the repressive and arbitrary
Anti-Terrorist Law implemented against Mapuche prisoners on hunger
strike?
The United States government, the principal instigator
of any effort to discredit Cuba in order to justify its policy of
hostility, subversion and the economic, political and media blockade of
Cuba, could not be missing from this campaign.
The hypocrisy
of spokespersons for the United States, a country with a poor human
rights record at home and abroad, is staggering. The UN Human Rights
Council has acknowledged frequent serious violations in this country of
women’s rights, in the treatment of persons, racial and ethnic
discrimination, inhuman conditions in prisons, neglect of inmates, a
differentiated racial standard and frequent judicial errors in imposing
capital punishment, and the execution of minors and the mentally ill.
This is compounded by abuses of the migratory detention system, deaths
along the militarized southern border, atrocious acts against human
dignity and the killing of innocent civilians by U.S. army troops in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, not to mention
arbitrary detentions and acts of torture perpetrated in the illegally
occupied Guantánamo Naval Base.
It is barely known that three
people died in the United States last November 2011 during a mass hunger
strike of prisoners in California. According to testimonies from
prisoners in adjoining cells, prison guards offered no assistance
whatsoever and ignored their cries for help, as opposed to the abusive
practice of force feeding hunger strikers.
A few weeks
previously, African American Troy Davis was executed despite a large
body of evidence demonstrating legal errors in his case. The White House
and the Department of State did nothing about this case.
A
total of 90 prisoners have been executed since January 2010 to date in
the United States, while a further 3,220 remain on death row. The
government frequently brutally represses those who dare to expose
injustices within the system.
This new attack on Cuba is
clearly politically motivated and has nothing to do with legitimate
concerns for the lives of Cuban men and women. It is fuelled by the
complicity of the financial-media corporations such as the Prisa Group
and the corporation running CNN en Espanol, in the finest style of the
Miami Mafia. It is irrationally accusing the Cuban government without
having made any investigation into the facts. Condemnation and judgment
are made a priori.
It is apparent from the immediate and crude
response of authorities and the apparatus in the service of media
aggression against Cuba that they did not even take the trouble to
confirm the information. The truth is unimportant if the intention is to
fabricate and sell a false image of alleged flagrant and systematic
violations of civil liberties in Cuba which could one day justify an
intervention in order to “protect defenseless Cuban civilians.”
The attempt to impose a distorted image of Cuba meant to indicate a
notable deterioration in human rights, to construct an allegedly
victimized opposition dying in prison, where health services are denied,
is evident.
The humanist vocation of Cuban doctors and health
personnel, who spare no effort or the country’s scant resources – to a
large extent the result of the criminal 50-year blockade imposed on the
Cuban people – to save lives and improve the health standards of their
own people and in many other nations is well known.
Cuba is respected and admired by many peoples and governments who recognize its social undertakings at home and abroad.
Deeds speak louder than words. Anti-Cuban campaigns will not inflict
any damage on the Cuban Revolution or the people, who will continue
improving their socialism.
The truth of Cuba is that of a
country in which human beings are most valued: a life expectancy rate at
birth of 77.9 years; free health coverage for the entire population; an
infant mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births, a figure exceeding
that of the United States and the lowest on the continent along with
Canada; a literate population with full and free access to all levels of
education; 96% participation in the 2008 general elections; and a
democratic process of discussion of the new economic and social
guidelines prior to the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.
The truth of Cuba is that of a country which has taken its universities
and schools to penitentiaries holding inmates who had fair and impartial
trials, who receive the same wages for work undertaken, and enjoy high
levels of medical attention without any distinction in terms of
ethnicity, gender, creed or social origin.
It will be
demonstrated yet again that lies, however much they are repeated, do not
necessarily become truths, because, as José Martí stated, “A just
principle, from the depths of a cave, can do more than an army.”
Translated by Granma International
