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Friday, February 26, 2010

Cuba redefines torture

Posted on Thursday, 02.25.10
ORLANDO ZAPATA TAMAYO
Cuba redefines torture
BY MIRIAM LEIVA
leivachepe@gmail.com

HAVANA -- Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on Feb. 23 as a result of a hunger
strike he maintained for more than 80 days to demand adequate treatment
for his status as a prisoner of conscience. He staged many other strikes
since March 20, 2003.

Arrested during the repressive wave called the Black Spring in March
2003, he was not among the 75 defendants given summary trials with
sentences of up to 28 years' imprisonment. He was sentenced to only
three years, but not through kindness or justice. He should have been
released four years ago.

In reality, he never committed a crime, because he only defended his
right to express his ideas -- the release of political prisoners,
prosperity for the Cuban people and love for his homeland.

From his arrival in prison, the sadism of the self-style ``world's most
democratic [regime] and most respectful of human rights'' picked on this
young black man, a humble mason and plumber born on May 15, 1967.
Solitary confinement, beatings and abuses did not shatter his dignity.
Successive accusations while in prison led to trials without a defense
attorney that ended in compounded sentences of 35 years at the time he
was assassinated. He went through several prisons because of the
protests he staged with other prisoners of conscience like him and
political prisoners, despite the isolation to which they were subjected.

No one is tortured in Cuba, the government boasts! But are cruel
treatment, the absence of medical attention, the lack of medications,
the bad food, the scant and contaminated water, the nonexisting hygiene,
the crowding with common and highly dangerous prisoners, the shouts, the
insects and rodents not considered physical torture?

Being cloistered in a 2-by-3-meter cell without a window or ventilation,
with a hole in the ground for one's bodily functions and a trickle of
water (when available), having neither food nor water, experiencing
dampness and cold or intense heat, depending on the season, seem like
exquisite torture.

Being deprived of letters or telephone calls, of books, newspapers and
writing utensils tops off the treatment in Cuban prisons. The denial of
family visits as punishment, after many months of waiting, is routine.

Reyna Tamayo, Orlando's mother, has toured Cuba from one prison to
another. She demanded humane treatment for her anguished, yet tough, son
from the prisons' authorities, the Ministry of the Interior, the
government and the judiciary. She learned about the new trials after
they had been held and the new sentences after they had been imposed.

She traveled thousands of kilometers in almost seven years, carrying
food and clothing acquired with great effort, only to return home with
most of it because authorities limited the allowable weight or denied
her visits. How that humble black Cuban woman was tortured. In a country
where ``there is no racial discrimination and we all are equal!''

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was transferred from Camagüey to Havana as he
expired. The clamor of the peaceful opposition, the solidarity of the
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, as well as the
denunciations by international public opinion moved the egotistical
totalitarians. Since 2004, they have managed to keep inmates from dying
in prison by granting them parole or medical treatment in prison before
they reach total debilitation.

Miguel Valdés Tamayo died on Jan. 9, 2007, in a Havana hospital because
of a heart condition that was aggravated by his imprisonment. He had
been granted parole months earlier. He was the first martyr among the 75
detainees. He was also black and poor.

Orlando was removed from the National Hospital for Inmates, in the
Combinado del Este maximum-security prison, and taken to much-publicized
Hermanos Almeijeiros Hospital hours before his death, so he could die in
a civilian facility of the highest level, a facility to which he had not
been taken in a timely manner.

Of the 75 original ``Black Spring'' prisoners of conscience, 53 remain
in prison. Most suffer from serious illnesses, contracted in prison.
Many have been threatened with following the path of Miguel and Orlando.
There are about 200 political prisoners and Cuba occupies a shameful
fourth place for the number it holds: 531 for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Genocide -- ``a grave lesion to the physical or mental integrity of the
members of a group,'' according to the 1948 United Nations Convention --
has been institutionalized in Cuba. Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada
army barracks, causing the deaths of many. He served only 21 months in a
prison where he cooked lobster, smoked cigars, welcomed visitors,
received books and correspondence, was photographed and interviewed by
journalists. During the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban
Congress granted him amnesty.

Miriam Leiva is an independent journalist in Havana.

Cuba redefines torture - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com (25 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/25/1498896/cuba-redefines-torture.html

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