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Saturday, April 06, 2013

Prison Diary IX: A People Who Avoid Their Government

Prison Diary IX: A People Who Avoid Their Government / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on April 5, 2013

The prisons barracks are overcrowded with prisoners who, for the most
part, have committed the crime of "embezzlement." They have stolen State
assets, which according to "socialist legality" belong to the people,
public good managed by the Castro brothers for more than fifty years,
plunging the country into poverty.

A contradiction: if the goods belong to the people, and they, due to
hunger, take an infinitesimal part of their property, they commit no
offense and therefore they should not be punished.

In any event, this is only in theory; in practice they are serving time
for it, while complaining about the impossibility of surviving on the
wages of their work.

"If I don't take what I consider I've earned by my efforts, I can't feed
my family. In my case I did it because I wanted to buy a pair of shoes
for my daughter for her fifteenth birthday," a man with teary eyes told
me. Another approached to tell me that he is in prison for selling at
satellite dish, the dish only, not the receiver, eyes wide as if looking
into the abyss. "They exaggerated in the search they made of my home.
When they searched a neighbor, looking for drugs, it wasn't so
exhaustive; in my case, because of the lack of information, they are
worried about people seeing images of freedom."

A great part of this mass of "embezzlers" are directors of companies,
buyers, warehouse managers… anyone who has within their reach some item
that can sell, buy, rent, and profit from that will then serve to
acquire the elements vital to the lives of their children.

In a corroded, worn-out society, where young people, the children nobody
wanted, only think about leaving the country or stealing to survive,
it's logical to think that the prisons are overcrowded with the worst fed.

The dictatorship ignores the demands of a society to have, in the
political and economic order it offers its citizens, most of all its
young people, a reality that guarantees present and future prosperity.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

La Lima Prison, March 2013

3 April 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-ix-a-people-who-avoid-their-government-angel-santiesteban/

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