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End the cruelty
Posted on Fri, Sep. 03,
2004 in The
Miami Herald.
Our opinion: Push Cuba
to free Raúl Rivero and other dissidents
Blanca Reyes doesn't understand why her
husband, poet Raúl Rivero, is in
prison. We don't either. Nor can we stand
by silently while the Cuban regime harasses
and punishes him capriciously during his
imprisonment. Like Ms. Reyes, we denounce
this treatment and call on the international
community, particularly writers and intellectuals
like him, to demand Mr. Rivero's release.
Cuba never should have railroaded him or
74 other dissidents last year. But that
is what totalitarian dictatorships do. They
spare no violation of human rights to silence
the messengers of truth. Mr. Rivero's ''crime''
was to expose the lies, writing abroad and
garnering worldwide prominence. He was sentenced
to 20 years.
Now his jailers apparently have decided
to increase his punishment. On her visit
to see him last week, Ms. Reyes was told
that her husband wouldn't be given the medication
she brought for him. This included inhalers
and medicine for his pulmonary emphysema
and the vitamins his specialist prescribed.
Mr. Rivero suffers from circulatory ailments,
too. The jailers even refused to allow Mr.
Rivero to have sunglasses.
In a phone call this week, Mr. Rivero told
his wife that prison authorities had decided
to cancel their conjugal visit scheduled
for Sept. 11. This followed a heated exchange
with a guard, whom Mr. Rivero refers to
as ''Alexei,'' who made disparaging remarks.
''They are trying to humiliate him to break
him,'' Ms. Reyes said.
Mr. Rivero, 59, already has lost 80 pounds
in prison. The food there, his wife says,
wouldn't be eaten by pigs. The heat is intolerable.
But he still writes.
Cuba should have released Mr. Rivero along
with other political prisoners suffering
serious ailments recently allowed to go
home. The international community should
demand that the regime release Mr. Rivero
and others unjustly imprisoned and abused.
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