Cuban Journalist Ricardo Gonzalez On Hunger Strike
Miami Family Says His Health Is Deteriorating
Arrested In March 2003, Sentenced To 20 Years In jail
Reporting
Eliott Rodriguez
For nearly 7 years, Ricardo Gonzalez has been jailed in one of Cuba's
most notorious prisons for the simple crime of being a journalist and
reporting uncensored news. Ricardo, 58, also had the audacity to run a
small independent library.
CBS4's Eliott Rodriguez met Ricardo in September of 2002 when he visited
Cuba on assignment for CBS4 News. One of Eliott's stories was a report
on Cuba's independent libraries and he stopped in unannounced at
Ricardo's home.
An independent journalist, Ricardo was the Cuba correspondent for the
Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders. He also edited the magazine
"De Cuba", the first non-government magazine in Cuba since Fidel Castro
took power in 1959.
An avid reader, Ricardo believed that news and books should not be
censored. His small library offered all types of books. There were
novels, history books, dictionaries, religious books, you name it. Most
of the books were from personal collections or donated by foreign
diplomats living in Cuba.
Seven months after Eliott Rodriguez interviewed him, Ricardo was
arrested as part of a nationwide round-up on dissidents. He was charged
with undermining Cuban independence by accepting money for his articles
and library from Cuban exile groups. He was put on trial, convicted and
sentenced to 20-years in prison.
Ricardo's sister, Olga, who lives in Miami watched the tape of Eliott's
interview with her brother, who has been in prison for almost 7-years
now. Ricardo is on a hunger strike, Olga told Eliott, and his health is
deteriorating as each day passes.
"Due to the humidity, he has migraine headaches constantly," his sister
said. "He's had bronchitis for a year, and four operations, three of
them the same year."
Ricardo is being held at Cuba's notorious Combinado del Este prison,
where prisoners of conscience—those who like Ricardo refuse to wear
common prison uniforms—are kept in the worst possible conditions. "The
ceiling in his cell is covered with nylon because it leaks so much,"
said Olga. "He has a hole in the ground for a toilet. The conditions are
deplorable."
Ricardo's sister is spearheading a campaign, which includes a YouTube
video urging the Cuban government to free her brother. To this day, she
cannot believe that publishing articles and running a library could
warrant such a harsh punishment.
"These six years in prison have deteriorated his health greatly," she
said. "He has suffered so much for his beliefs. He will never be the
same person that I once knew."
Ricardo will never be the same physically, but he is a man whose
principals have never changed.
Cuban Journalist Ricardo Gonzalez On Hunger Strike - cbs4.com (8
December 2009)
http://cbs4.com/national/Ricardo.Gonzalez.Cuban.2.1356968.html
No comments:
Post a Comment