Political Prisoner Fears For His Life
Saturday, 24 November 2007 (23 hours ago)
By BosNewsLife News Center
Forces linked to government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro have detained
activists and pastor.
HAVANA, CUBA (BosNewsLife)-- An evangelical pastor and several other
human rights workers have been detained in Cuba shortly after security
forces broke up a meeting commemorating political prisoners in the
capital Havana, BosNewsLife learned from activists Saturday, November 24.
"Cuban government repressive forces brutally beat members of families
who live in a poor neighborhood in Havana and destroyed the furniture
and personal belongings of a human rights defender. The activists
arrested are threatened with being prosecuted," said Juan Carlos
Gonzalez Leiva, a blind Christian lawyer who leads the Cuban Foundation
of Human Rights and the Human Rights Rapporteur Council in Cuba.
He said the problems began late Thursday, November 22, when over 30
officials of "the Cuban political police and Cuban State Security
violently invaded," the San Miguel del Padron area of Havana.
They were seen "ransacking the home of 30 year- old activist, Juan
Bermudez Toranzo, where a vigil on behalf of…all Cuban political
prisoners was taking place." Police, he said, "brutally beat all
families and neighbors present, including women and children."
ACTIVIST "DRAGGED"
He added the activist "was dragged along with his two year-old son from
his bedroom to the street outside where he was thrown into a patrol car
with other activists of the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights." The
situation of the baby was not immediately clear.
Pastor Yordis Ferrer, who leads a Pentecostal congregation, and four
activists were taken away at a local police station where they remain
"under investigation," Gonzalez Leiva said. He said Ferrer was
detained, when he "came to the aid of Juan Bermudez Toranzo's wife Nery
as repressive forces where beating her up."
Cuban State Security officials reportedly advised "Nery to begin looking
for a lawyer since formal accusations are on the way for those
arrested," added well-informed Gonzalez Leiva, who himself has been
detained for his involvement in human rights activities the authorities
regarded as undermining state security.
The other detainees were identified as representatives of the Cuban
Foundation of Human Rights, including Osmar Osmani Balman del Pino, a
delegate of the group in the municipality of San Miguel del Padron and
fellow officials Jose Luis Rodriguez Chavez and William Cepero.
STAGING PROTEST
Relatives and family members staged a protest outside the police station
to demand their release, BosNewsLife learned. "These dedicated human
rights defenders are in prison only for their activities on behalf of
the rights of poor Cubans who, like them, live in impoverished
neighborhoods" Gonzalez Leiva explained in a statement.
Bermudez Toranza founded an independent labor union supporting Cubans
who try to make a living despite being prohibited by the government from
obtaining a license to work. In addition he has been involved in
providing aid to impoverished children.
His latest activity, a vigil for political prisoners, came on the heels
of news that 41-year old jailed journalist Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta is
fearing for his life. "I'm letting it be known that my state of health
is failing at an extremely dangerous pace. My physical well-being
remains under the Sword of Damocles, and I could die," he said in
transcript obtained by BosNewsLife.
"My days are slowly coming to an end because of the various dangerous
illnesses from which I suffer: high blood pressure, a right bundle
branch block in my heart, hypertensive retinopathy, a heart murmur, a
pyloric-duodenal prolapse, chronic dermatitis, asthma, cervical
arthritis, lumbo-sacral arthralgia, vitiligo, kidney and liver
disorders, and an obvious immunological deficiency. I'm extremely
underweight, which is quite worrisome," he said.
TWENTY YEARS
Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison
during the March-April 2003 crackdown on dissidents and is confined in
the same compound with "dangerous convicts" condemned to death and to
life imprisonment, investigators and activists told BosNewsLife earlier
this year.
Herrera Acosta is among over 20 journalists who were arrested in the
March 2003 government-led crackdown on dissidents and still being held
in prison. Mostly accused of being "mercenaries in the service of a
foreign power", they were handed down sentences from 14 to 27 years in
prison.
However, the journalist said that although, "I am very physically weak,
I'm strong spiritually. I know nothing is in vain..." Cuban leader
Fidel Castro has denied human rights abuses and the existence of
dissidents in the country. He has described those detained as
"mercenaries of the United States."
The 81-year-old Fidel Castro is recovering from a series of intestinal
surgeries that forced him to temporarily hand over power to his brother
Raul Castro in July 2006. Officially he is still president, while his
brother the 'acting president'. Dissidents suggest it remains to be seen
what a post-Fidel Castro Cuba would look like.
http://www.bosnewslife.com/americas/cuba/3291-evangelical-pastor-and-activists-detained-in-
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