Cuba Customs Returns my Confiscated Belongings

Cuba Customs Returns my Confiscated Belongings
July 3, 2014
Isbel Diaz Torres

HAVANA TIMES – This past Tuesday, well before the established waiting
time of one month had elapsed, I went to Terminal 2 of Havana's Jose
Marti International Airport to demand the return of my belongings,
arbitrarily confiscated days before following my arrival from the United
States, where I had taken part in the LASA Conference.

Waiting for more than two hours there was ultimately worth my while, for
all of the electronic devices they had confiscated were returned to me
(after their contents were inspected).

Coincidentally, the US Supreme Court has just ruled that the police will
require a court order to inspect the contents of the cell phones owned
by those arrested, and this ruling is likely to be applied to other
electronic devices, such as portable computers.

If this is to apply to people who have been detained by authorities, I
imagine the protection afforded to those who have committed no crimes
will be greater still. I wonder what Cuba's political police, accustomed
to doing and undoing things as it pleases, think of this. What will our
politicians, who sing praises to Cuba's "intangible" democracy, say of this?

Of course, I am not so naive as to believe that this protective measure,
announced by the US media, will be all-encompassing or that it will
always be respected. US authorities have violated the rights of their
citizens (and those of other countries, including presidents) on more
than one occasion. They are the leaders in espionage.

Nevertheless, the important thing here is the existence of legal
instruments designed to protect individuals, tools with which one can
use in a lawful process, or that can serve as a point of departure for
demanding one's rights.

As we know, Cuban authorities do not respect the privacy of regular or
electronic mail. They tap the phones of people who are of interest to
them, even when these have committed – and probably will not commit –
any crimes. They openly record the activities of people and groups and
engage in other similar activities.

I know these practices aren't novel anywhere in the world, but that
doesn't mean we should stand by and allow governments to stick their
noses in our private lives. We should condemn this when the USA spies on
Brazilian politicians or when the Cuban government is guilty of the same
thing with LGBT activists.

Cuba can invoke the valid argument that it is besieged by the greatest
military power in history, a country that huge sums to destabilize the
island from within and without.

But this argument becomes vacuous when it is used, day after day, to
justify all of the abuses of Cuba's security forces, in connection with
activities that aren't remotely linked to the subversive plans of the US
government.

Without a doubt, this reveals the vulnerability of Cuba's political
system, which has been losing its legitimacy in a process that has been
progressively unfolding over the past few decades.

As for me, I have not yet exhausted my demands. I submitted a
"complaint" (this is the term employed by the customs bureaucracy, even
though my tone was not one of complaint at any moment – I merely
demanded my rights) in connection with the fact I was given no
explanation as to why my cell phone was rudely taken from me, and with
other facts that have yet to be clarified.

As for the "confiscated" documents, I will have to go back a different
day to get an official answer on that matter, because that particular
process isn't handled in the same place.

I am dying to find out whether they will acknowledge their
institutionalized homophobia, evident in the argument that the contents
of my documents "tarnished the country's morals and customs."

I thank everyone for following this situation, which may not have the
shock-value of other Internet news, but which has been painful and
humiliating for me.

Source: Cuba Customs Returns my Confiscated Belongings - Havana
Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=104644