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By Angel Polanco, an independent journalist in Cuba, as
told to Editorial Board Member Susana Barciela. Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2003 in
The Miami Herald.
HAVANA -- The number of Cuban dissidents arrested since last week is up to
95. Of those, two remain under house arrest and another 18 have been released.
That leaves 75 detained, all held incommunicado and without charges. Cuban
authorities have said that these arrests are related to the dissidents' supposed
''conspiracy'' with the U.S. Interests Section here. The word is that the
dissidents will be charged under the ''gag'' law, which provides for up to
20-year prison terms.
Among the detained are some 25 independent journalists. Ricardo González
Alfonso, editor of the recently created independent magazine De Cuba, was one
first arrested and longtime journalist/poet Raúl Rivero one of the last.
The Cuban government's intent was to use the Iraq war smoke screen to attack
the growing dissidence, especially the independent press because it has evolved
tremendously. More than 100 journalists and dozens of independent media agencies
now operate in Cuba. They worked with computers, faxes, cell phones. Some with
video and digital cameras published their pieces on the Internet. Quality
improved daily.
REPORTING CUBA'S REALITY
Some of us even took a Florida International University journalism
correspondence course and were visited by a FIU professor. Indeed, the last
meeting at U.S. Interest chief James Cason's house was a workshop on journalism
ethics. I was among the 34 independent reporters there discussing professional
and quality issues.
Cuba's independent press was covering the island's reality, so that the
entire world could know the truth. That motivated the Cuban government to action
-- to attempt to behead the opposition and independent press.
Other incidents helped, too. A group of dissidents recently met with
European Union Commissioner Poul Nielson in Havana to discuss the possible
inclusion of Cuba in the Cotonu Agreement. That EU agreement would provide trade
and aid benefits, but requires certain democratic and human-rights conditions of
participant countries. Cuban dissidents argued against Cuba being offered those
benefits, for now.
Cuba hasn't met any of those conditions -- there's no freedom of expression
or assembly, and look at all the political prisoners, including Oscar Eliás
Biscet. [Biscet has been detained since December. Only a month after his release
from serving three years on charges of disrespecting patriotic symbols, he was
arrested on his way to visit other dissidents.]
Then there was the hunger strike by a dissident group led by Martha Beatriz
Roque to call for Biscet's release. Cuban authorities signaled that Biscet might
be released if the group ended the strike. But the dissidents responded: Release
Biscet -- and then we'll stop.
That hunger strike awakened great unity among the varied dissident groups --
and apparently bothered the authorities, as well. Roque is the only woman among
the dissidents still in jail.
A VIRULENT RESPONSE
Ultimately came the virulent and unexpected reaction: this massive wave of
searches, seizures and detentions. The ransacking operations were conducted by
counter-drug squads. At the house of Diosdado González Marrero, of the
Peace, Democracy and Liberty Party in Matanzas, agents seized even the pig feed.
How that feed is related to the alleged U.S. conspiracy is a mystery -- unless
authorities are expecting an invasion of pigs.
Why wasn't I picked up? You'd have to ask the Cuban authorities that. In
July I was subjected to a devastating search; everything from my files and tape
recorder to cash was seized. Perhaps now I was spared because I'm disabled.
Polio left me a bad left leg. I've been detained 10 times, and I can't use the
jails' ''Turkish toilets.'' So I don't eat, and by the fourth day they usually
have to take me to a hospital. Maybe a disabled political prisoner wasn't
convenient. That doesn't mean that they won't jail me; they have no morals.
In reality the Cuban government manufactured a pretext for attacking the
pacifist opposition. Now the dissident solidarity is monolithic. Regardless of
political opinions or group, we are all collaborating -- all of us ready to run
the same risk as those imprisoned. | 
