Prison Diary LI - Punishments Without Crimes, Slaves of the Revolution

Prison Diary LI: Punishments Without Crimes, Slaves of the Revolution
Posted on August 22, 2013

"I am being punished without their having proved that I committed a
crime." That phrase is most common among prisoners who approach me.
Suspicious, only after reading the prosecutor's request and the sanction
of the court, I believe them. No proof is needed for a punishment,
that's the reason te processes are so weak. They just assess your
social-political behavior, and then make the final assessment, and as
the powers in Cuba are not divided and everything comes from the
totalitarian regime, they simply follow orders to take off the street
those who don't show confidence in and unconditional support for the
dictatorship, criminals or not, evidence or not.

Government policy is that it is better to have them prisoners, working
without pay, or to give a paltry symbolic salary to a few, and in this
way to possess an army of working slaves, always on hand. I suspect
there's another reason — and God forbid — which is if there is a war
they can offer them freedom in exchange for fighting, and I'm sure that
"troops" would accept, no matter the political issue, the reason or
personal gain, which is none other than the immediate release.

One of the latest who told me he was unjustly punished, after giving me
his legal papers and reading them, I learned had been condemned for
receiving a 200 dollar bonus, which was sent from abroad by the owner of
the firm that he worked for, as a year-end bonus.

In his work, as an economist, they found no violated. After a thorough
audit the statistics were found in perfect order; even so he was
sentenced to seven years in prison. A man over fifty years old, who
never had a reprimand in his work sheet, on the contrary, however,
nothing was worth so much sacrifice, so much offered for such an
insufficient and ridiculous salary.

The sanctioned such as these abound in the barracks, incredible
allegations, improbable processes, and painful penalties.

A reality that would be laughable if it were the cause for so much fear
and pain in the separated Cuban families.


Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Prison 1580, July 2013

21 August 2013

Source: "Prison Diary LI: Punishments Without Crimes, Slaves of the
Revolution | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-li-punishments-without-crimes-slaves-of-the-revolution/