Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
Policemen and dissidents in the pilgrimage for the Virgin of Charity,
Central Havana, September 8, 2011
Let's suppose that there exists a country where the people could
affiliate themselves to the political party which reflects their own
ideals, where the government — of an opposing party — does not dedicate
itself to attacking all those who think differently.
Let's suppose that on Earth there is another country in which the act of
delinquency is not punished beyond the sentence decreed by tribunals,
and that the reincorporation of these individuals is not utilized as a
pennant to be used each time the rulers wish to play the image of
excellent social actors.
But… to be left without employment and without receiving an explanation
as to why, being excluded from every social assistance plan, being
singled out by the accusing fingers of neighbors, etc. These are only
three of the hellish paths which Cuban dissidents are condemned to walk
as soon as they step out of the line to speak the truth against those
who govern.
The manipulation of ideological stubbornness can enjoy the luxury of
carrying out propaganda with the social rehabilitation of citizens, only
if these individuals do not challenge their political interests. The
pages of national newspapers fill up with reports of young ex-convicts
turned into social workers, paramedics, or repairmen. With this, they
try to shine light on the kindness of the tropical socialist system, but
it would be ideal if we could, in those same mediums, hear about the
attacks against people who have been penalized and, in their time behind
bars, have decided to support political prisoners, to join the
condemnations of human rights violations and, once extinguishing the
penal sentence, join the ranks of the non-violent opposition.
There are more than enough examples of those who, in jail cells, have
collaborated with a dissident so that their journalistic work arrives in
good hands, that a family letter or a denouncement of a beating against
a prisoner of conscience goes beyond the prison walls. Sure, there have
been those who have lent themselves to beat or harass a dissident in
prison, but there have also been those who have defended one of those
who have been sent to the dungeons just for defending universally
recognized rights.
According to the communist Cuban propaganda, the internal dissidence is
full of treacherous thieves. But the real corruption, the violators of
so many rights, and those who embezzle the exchequer stem from the
Communist Party, the revolutionary elite, and the "organizations of the
masses", but it does not matter when it comes time for the the public
taunts, the assignations, and the expositions.
It is a two-faced methodology, the defining trait of a system which
abhors informative transparency.
Translated by Raul G.
This article was written by Luis Felipe Rojas and published in Diario de
Cuba on October 14th, 2011.
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