Release of 11 draws parallels to Mariel
The 11 prisoners that Cuba has freed beyond the 52 dissidents has
aroused concerns that Raúl Castro may be trying to tarnish the image of
`true political prisoners.'
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
They are an odd bunch, the 11 prisoners that Cuba has freed or said it
would free, beyond the 52 peaceful dissidents that the Raúl Castro
government initially promised to release.
Seven were convicted of attempted hijackings to escape Cuba -- one in
which 13 people were wounded by a hijacker's hand grenade. One is
serving a 30-year sentence for a plot to kill Fidel Castro.
Another said he was engaged in opposition activism, but other dissidents
reject his claim. Only one is a true political prisoner. Two are unknowns.
MARIEL MODEL
It's not clear why or how the Castro government picked the 11 for
release. Seven were already freed and sent to exile in Spain, and the
other four are expected to follow soon.
Part of the answer may be that Cuba classifies crimes such as hijackings
as ``counterrevolutionary crimes.'' Human-rights groups in turn consider
those crimes to be ``political'' and add almost everyone convicted of
them to their lists of ``political prisoners.''
But the selection of the 11 has aroused concerns that Castro may be
trying to tarnish the image of true dissidents, much as his brother
Fidel did by inserting several thousand common criminals among the
125,000 Cubans who left on the Mariel boatlift in 1980.
``The government is creating a `negative sample' to discredit Cuba's
political prisoners,'' said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban
Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana.
Some of the 11 ``are people involved in acts of violence, just like they
did during Mariel,'' said Havana dissident Martha Beatriz Roque. ``In
some cases those leaving Cuba are the dregs.''
Castro promised in July to free the 52 dissidents still in prison from a
2003 crackdown that jailed 75 peaceful opponents. So far, 39 were freed
and sent to Spain. Another 13 are refusing to leave the island, and
remain in prison.
A few weeks later, the government let it be known that it would also
free ``all other prisoners,'' but gave no details.
THE FIRST SEVEN
The first in the group of 11 who were freed and sent to Spain last month
were:
• Rolando Jimenez Posada: A 41-year-old lawyer and dissident journalist
from the Isle of Youth, he was the only true ``political prisoner'' in
the group and was listed by Amnesty International as a ``prisoner of
conscience.''
A former official of the Interior Ministry, in charge of Cuba's domestic
security and foreign intelligence services, he was convicted in 2003 of
revealing state secrets and ``disrespect'' for Fidel Castro. He was
sentenced to 12 years in prison.
• Arturo Suarez Ramos: Served nearly 24 years of a 30-year-sentence for
piracy for the 1987 hijacking of a passenger plane in Havana in which 13
people were wounded when a fellow hijacker detonated a grenade. Police
shot him dead.
Suarez, 46, was on a list of 19 ``political prisoners'' who were to be
freed and sent to Canada in 1998, but the Ottawa government excluded him
because of the violence during the hijacking, Sánchez said.
• Ciro Pérez Santana: The 60-year-old was jailed for 34 of the past 40
years for common and ``counterrevolutionary'' crimes, he told El Nuevo
Herald.
Arrested in 1970 for deserting the army, he was sentenced to five years
but while in prison was involved in ``fights and other common crimes''
that kept him in jail for nearly 19 years, Pérez said.
After his release in 1989 he feared he would be arrested again for his
``activities against the régime,'' Pérez claimed, so he and a friend
stole two pistols from a police station and hijacked a boat from
Nuevitas in 1994.
Government patrols opened fire on the boat and wounded one crewman,
Pérez said. He was sentenced to 31 years for piracy, illegal possession
of firearms and battery. The term was cut to 20 years.
• Domingo Osuna Mederos: He was convicted of piracy and sentenced to 15
years for an attempt by six people in 2000 to hijack a navy boat in a
fishing village near his home in western Pinar del Rio province.
Osuna, 54, has been active in opposition activities while in prison and
considers himself to be a dissident.
• Juan Francisco Marimón: The 48-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in
prison after he and 11 others, including a cousin, tried to steal a
fishing boat in their native Pinar del Rio province in 2003.
Police were waiting for the group, the boat never left land and no
violence or threats were used in the attempt, said the cousin, Juan
Carlos Marimón, who served five years in prison for the attempt.
Yet the official charge against Juan Francisco was ``terrorism,'' the
cousin told El Nuevo Herald, a definition he called ``capricious and
politically biased.''
Juan Carlos said he and his cousin ``both feel that we are dissidents,
or government opponents.''
• Juana María Nieves Mena: Now about 29, she was a teenager when she and
about five others, including a cousin, tried to hijack a fishing boat in
Matanzas in 1999. Police had been tipped and were waiting for the group,
Sánchez said. She was sentenced to 15 years for piracy.
• Misael Mena Fernández: The cousin of Juana Maria was convicted of
piracy ``with injuries'' and sentenced to 17 years.
THE OTHER FOUR
Cuba's Catholic church has identified the four other prisoners to be
freed, who are not in the group of 52, as the following:
• Adrian Alvarez Arencibia: The 44-year-old is serving a 30-year
sentence for espionage and ``other crimes against the security of the
state'' that his father said stemmed from a 1985 plot with two fellow
soldiers to kill Fidel Castro.
Arrested in 1985, he was brought before a military tribunal in 1992,
making him the longest-held ``political prisoner'' in Latin America and
perhaps the world, Elizardo Sánchez said.
• Ramón Fidel Basulto García: He was sentenced to 30 years for piracy as
part of a group of seven Cubans armed with a pistol, a machete and a
hammer who hijacked the Havana harbor ferry Baraguá in 1994.
A policeman assigned to the ferry jumped overboard and drowned during
the attempt but the vessel, with about 100 passengers aboard, ran out of
fuel and was recaptured by Cuban security officials.
• Jose Luis Ramil Navarro: A mystery man, Ramil is not on any of the
lists of ``political prisoners'' compiled by human rights activists.
• Joel Torres González: Another unknown who appears on none of the lists
of ``political prisoners.''
On Friday, the Catholic church announced the government will also
release three other men: Ridel Ruíz Cabrera, sentenced in 1997 to 20
years for piracy and illegal possession of firearms; Marcos Soto Morell,
sentenced in 1990 to 35 years for piracy and escape; and Rolando Damas
Domínguez, not on any political prisoner lists.
Sánchez has tried to walk the line between pointing out the differences
between hijackers and dissidents. But, he added, ``this way of mixing
the 52 -- all of them prisoners of conscience -- with other prisoners
allows the régime to give the world an erroneous image. They would be
giving a negative image of dissidents.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/08/v-fullstory/1914463/release-of-11-draws-parallels.html
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