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A
smear campaign
Cuba tries to discredit dissidents
Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2003 in
The
Miami Herald.
Cuba's smear campaign against Elizardo Sánchez
reveals more about its own desperation than about
the longtime human-rights activist. The regime
wasn't satisfied with locking up 75 dissidents
on prison terms totaling 1,454 years. Now, it
is angling to finish the job by attempting to
discredit the few critics it didn't jail -- most
likely because, like Mr. Sánchez, they
are internationally prominent. Who is next? Vladimiro
Roca and Oswaldo Payá?
A pathetic book written by regime lackeys and
published by the Communist Party paints Mr. Sánchez
as a state-security snitch. Now Cuba wants us
to believe that its secret police would want to
burn an asset who provided ''important information''
about diplomats and other foreign officials, mostly
from the United States and Spain. What bunk.
None of this is new, of course, particularly
for the Cuban dissidents who have been persecuted
and infiltrated by state-security agents for decades.
Most dissidents learned long ago not to keep any
secrets. They know that state security will find
out in any case, and will use whatever they find
against them. In Cuba's arbitrary legal system,
virtually anything can be deemed illegal.
Consider the indictments of the recently sentenced
dissidents. Their ''crimes'' include publishings
articles abroad and having fax machines and politically
incorrect books. We know, too, from the accounts
of the victims, that state-security moles sow
doubts and pit dissidents against each other.
We also know that from the courtroom theatrics
of three such moles who recently testified against
dissidents whom they had befriended in order to
betray.
If anything, Cuba's secret police have obtained
copious information about Mr. Sánchez's
activities and visitors via bugs, phone taps and
surveillance. They needn't have bothered. As head
of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, Mr. Sánchez has spoken
out openly against abuses and provided critical
information on Cuba's political prisoners for
decades. He also has paid the price for breaking
with the regime, having served four years in prison
in the early 1980s.
Yes, in Kafkaesque Cuba it's hard to know for
sure who works for state security. But that repressive
machine ultimately will wither before the power
of those who speak the truth.
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