Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
Just a few days ago, the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations asked
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, to join the
demands of protestors around the world who demand freedom for 5 Cuban
intelligence officials who all reside in US prisons. The diplomat
Rodolfo Reyes has pleaded this in the same exact spot where, just a few
years ago, Cuba denied the entrance of Manfred Novak, the international
torture inspector and whose position is similar to the one Mrs. Pillay
now holds, into the country. Both the denial of letting Novak into Cuba
and the petition issued to Pillay can be taken as acts of provocation.
Why did they deny Mr. Novak the right to enter Cuba's prisons of
Guantanamo province, where methods of torture known as "the rocking
chair" and "Shakira" are employed in order to break down both political
and common prisoners? Why does the Cuban government carry out what it
considers to be a just demand, pleading to Mrs. Pillay to tend to the
case of the well-known agents and not for others like Ana Belen Montes
who did testify about their acts of espionage and even worked with the
North American justice system?
A few days have passed since here in Holguin they celebrated the
so-called International Colloquium for the Five, a political event in
support of the Cuban intelligence officials who were caught in US
territory. Streamers, signs, marches, concerts and parties were how they
tried to entertain (us hyper-disconnected Cubans, natives of the Eastern
provinces) to protest for the freedom of the constantly promoted Cuban
agents. After all the planned festivities, the delegates who
participated stuffed themselves with hope and solidarity as they marched
off to their "indignant" worlds, leaving the rest of us here alone,
among the ashes of this poverty.
Translated by Raul G.
29 November 2011
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