Tania Díaz Castro, UPECI / CubaNet
HAVANA, September - Two years ago I heard of an event so aberrant and
incredible that I, in fact, didn't believe it.
On November 2, 1999, relatives gathered at the municipal funeral home in San
Luis, Pinar del Río province, for the wake of a Mr. Ferrer.
The dead man had had sporadic brushes with the authorities since the
Revolutionary government came to power in 1959. Most recently, in 1995, he had
been sentenced to several years of house arrest for his links to human rights'
groups in the province.
While Mr. Ferrer's wife, three sons and other relatives were at the wake,
three State Security agents came in with a floral offering in which could be
read the inscription: "To Ferrer, from his fellow officers in the
Department of State Security."
Relatives protested, and were told by the officers that Ferrer had
collaborated with them for years, and that the family had to accept the flowers.
Mr. Ferrer's oldest son and widow kept up their protest and the agents left
after someone threw the flowers out on the street.
During the argument, Mr. Ferrer's oldest son, a physician, told the agents
that all the time his father had been ill none of his supposed fellow workers
had surfaced to offer support or scarce medicines.
The family later protested to several government dependencies but received
no response.
At the time I heard this story, it seemed almost absurd, and I chose not to
report it. I'm reporting it now after hearing a similar story about Jesús
Yanes Pelletier, someone I knew very well as a defender of human rights.
Both Yanes and Mr. Ferrer were victims of "something" perplexing.
Versión
original en español
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