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HAVANA, November 7 (Reinaldo Cosano Alen /
www.cubanet.org) - Officials of the
Pedernales detention center, located in Holguin province, are punishing blind
activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva for protesting the arbitrary confinement to
which he is being subjected.
After Gonzalez shaved his head, moustache and beard, the prison officials
took away the blind man's razor blade, switched his bed with a narrower one with
a wooden slab for a frame and placed another prisoner in his cell who is said to
be a religious pastor, but whom Gonzalez suspects to be an agent or collaborator
of the political police.
"This time I found Juan Carlos in better spirits," said Maritza
Calderon, wife of the activist, who added that Gonzalez had told her that he was
very resolute and that no one would change his ideas.
Mrs. Calderin also said that the warden of the prison, an official named
Saguo, met with her when the visit ended.
"The warden told me that Juan Carlos' case had turned into a state
matter because I was sending information and denunciations abroad, for which
they could apply Law 88 (known as
The Gag Law) to charge
me with collaborating with the enemy," Calderin stated.
The official of the Interior Ministry also told Mrs. Calderin that he knew
that she was
visiting embassies for the purpose of spreading those denunciations and
news.
"This official assured me that he had photographic proof of my visits
to embassies and added that I had to cease that kind of activity. I replied that
defending my husband is my legitimate right, but that if the government gave me
a few minutes on Radio Rebelde or on the television program Round Table I would
not have to resort to other means. He responded that they have opened a police
dossier on me for these actions. I replied that come what may, I will defend my
husband and may God guide my steps", Mrs. Calderin recounted.
Gonzalez heads the Cuban Human Rights Fundation and has been imprisoned
since March 4, 2002 for carrying out a peaceful protest together with seven
other activists who are also jailed. The act of disobedience was carried out in
the provincial hospital of Ciego de Avila in protest over the beating that
police agents inflicted on the independent journalist Jesus Alvarez Castillo.
The independent reporters Lexter Tellez Castro and Carlos Brizuela, who covered
the news of the protest, were also confined in jail as a result of these acts.
No trial has been held for Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva nor has any trial date
been set,
although the prosecutor's office in Ciego de Avila is seeking six years
imprisonment for the blind activist. Since September 4 Gonzalez has carried out
a series of fasts to call for the immediate release of the ten jailed activists
connected to the events of March 4 in the Ciego de Avila hospital.
Versión
original en español
Related
LAW 88 -
Cuba: back to
darkness / Andres Oppenheimer / Free Cuba Foundation
Jailed
blind activist protests in prison
Blind
Christian Human Rights activist beaten and imprisoned in Cuba / Christian
Solidarity Worldwide
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