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Sunday, October 02, 2011

Glass House / Rebeca Monzo

Glass House / Rebeca Monzo
Rebeca Monzo, Translator: Espirituana

On Wednesday, September 28th, the newspaper Granma published on its
front page an editorial titled: New Injustice of the United States
against the Five Heroes.

René González, one of the five Cuban spies jailed in the US, will be
released this coming October 7th after having served and suffered in its
totality the brutal and unjust sentence imposed on him, says the newspaper.

That is the first manipulation. What the editorial does not say is that
the sentence includes the three years of supervised release, which
logically must be served in the territory where the crime was committed.
That would actually be the TOTALITY of the sentence.

It is logical that Judge Joan A. Leonard, of the Southern District of
Florida, denied the motion filed by René, in which he requested his
return to Cuba to join his wife and daughters.

The Judge's decision in no way constitutes a deliberate additional
reprisal, as the editorial states.

It is not moral in our country to speak of abusive treatment, solitary
confinement and extended periods of psychological torture, precisely
here, where prison sentences of up to twenty-five years have been
imposed on people whose only crime has been to express their ideas
publicly. Let us recall the so-called Black Spring, when seventy-five
independent journalists were unjustly imprisoned after surprise raids of
their residences in which typewriters, pens, papers and other personal
effects were impounded as weapons. Neither should we forget the three
adolescents who were executed after an expedited summary trial, for
attempting to hijack a boat in the bay of Havana, without having
inflicted any abuse or injury to its occupants.

To speak of inhuman treatment applied to these five heroes, when they
have enjoyed hygienic cells, clean clothes, computers, visits from their
families and the occasional famous actor, and have even played chess
matches on the Internet with young people here on the island, seems like
a mockery. I think we should stop throwing rocks at our neighbor,
knowing, as we do, that our house is made of glass.

Translated by: Espirituana

September 29 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=11997

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