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<font size=4><u>
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/pj150410.html">Cuban
Prisoners, Here and There<br>
</a></u></font><font size=3>by Michael Parenti and Alicia Jrapko
<br><br>
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/pj150410.html" eudora="autourl">
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/pj150410.html<br><br>
</a>For more than half a century Western political leaders and their
corporate media have waged a disinformation war against socialist
Cuba. Nor is there any sign that they are easing up. A recent
example is the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an inmate who died in a
Cuban prison in February 2010 after an 82-day hunger strike.<br><br>
Zapata's death sparked an outcry from Western capitalist media and
official sources, including of course the United States. Almost
without exception, in literally thousands of reports, the corporate media
portrayed him as a "political prisoner" and a "political
dissident" -- without offering any supporting specifics. In
March 2010 the European Union voted to condemn Cuba for his
demise.<br><br>
Since 2004, Amnesty International has treated Zapata Tamayo as one of
Cuba 's 75 "prisoners of conscience," without offering evidence
to buttress this assertion. Like the Western media, Amnesty failed
to specify what were the political activities that had led to Zapata's
imprisonment.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/death-cuban-prisoner-conscience-hunger-strike-must-herald-change-2010-02-24">
An Amnesty International article</a> (24 February 2010) stated that in
May 2004 Zapata Tamayo was sentenced to three years in prison for
"public disorder" and "resistance." According
to some reports he launched his hunger strike not only to protest his
conditions of detention but to demand a personal kitchen in his cell, a
television set, and a cell phone, amenities that were not likely to
materialize.<br><br>
Zapata was subsequently tried several times on charges of assaulting
guards and "disorder in a penal establishment." The
offenses began to add up. At the time of his fast he was facing a
total sentence of 36 years. Again Amnesty made no mention of any
political activities.<br><br>
Cuban doctors attempted to keep Zapata alive with intravenous feedings
and other stratagems. One psychologist testified that she tried to
convince him to cease the hunger strike and try to register his
grievances by other means. Zapata's mother remarked that her son
had the best Cuban doctors at his bedside and she thanked them for their
assistance. Later she would change her story and claim that he was
a "dissident" who had been mistreated.<br><br>
According to the Cuban writer
<a href="http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2010/02/28/nacional/artic01.html">
Enrique Ubieta Gomez</a>, Zapata was a common criminal who was convicted
of "unlawful break-in" (1993), "assault" (2000),
"fraud" (2000), and "public disorder" (2002).
One of his serious transgressions occurred in 2000 when he attacked
someone named Leonardo Simón with a machete, fracturing his skull and
inflicting other injuries.<br><br>
Ubieta Gomez concluded that Zapata had been involved in a wide range of
criminal doings, none of which were remotely political. He was in
jail for breaching the peace, "public damage," resistance to
authority, two charges of fraud, "public exhibitionism,"
repeated charges of felonious assault, and being illegally
armed.<br><br>
Despite this extensive rap sheet Zapata was paroled in March 2003, eleven
days before the arrests of the 75 so-called "prisoners of
conscience." Later that same month he was charged with another
crime and imprisoned for parole violation.<br><br>
To repeat: while his 2003 arrest happened to come within days of the
imprisonment of the 75, Zapata was never part of that group. The
Cuban government never accused him of conspiring with -- or accepting
funds and materials from -- a foreign power, charges that were leveled
against the 75. <br><br>
Contrary to what was claimed by the Spanish news agency EFE, Zapata's
name does not appear on the list of the 75 Cuban prisoners drawn up by
the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2003.<br><br>
Since 2003, at least 20 of the 75 have been released due to health
problems, shrinking the number still incarcerated to 55 -- a level of
humanitarian leniency not likely to be emulated in the US criminal
justice system. Apparently this news has yet to reach the US
media. As of 17 March 2010 the
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/world/americas/17briefs-Cuba.html">
<i>New York Times</a></i> still referred to the "imprisonment of 75
dissidents." Even more recently (5 April 2010) an NPR
commentator referred to the "75 dissidents being held in Cuba 's
prisons." <br><br>
The Cuban government argues that to describe the 75 (or 55) as being
"prisoners of conscience" or "political dissidents"
is to misrepresent the issue. They were never tried for holding
dissenting views but for unlawfully collaborating with a hostile foreign
power, receiving funds and materials from the US interest section, with
the intent to subvert the existing political system in Cuba.<br><br>
Many countries have such laws, including the USA. As Arnold August
points out, the US Penal Code, under
<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_115.html">
Chapter 115</a> entitled "Treason, Sedition, and Subversive
Activities,"
<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002381----000-.html">
Section 2381</a> stipulates that any US citizen who "adheres
to" or gives "aid and comfort . . . within the United States or
elsewhere" to a country that US authorities consider to be an enemy
"is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned
not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than
$10,000." So too, Cuba has legislation directed at those who
are funded by hostile foreign powers.<br><br>
In comparison to the media's tidal outcry on behalf of Cubans imprisoned
in Cuba, consider the coverage accorded the five Cubans imprisoned in the
United States. During almost 12 years of incarceration, the
<a href="http://www.thecuban5.org/">Cuban Five</a> have been largely
ignored by the corporate media and consequently remain mostly unknown to
the US public.<br><br>
The Five possessed no weapons and committed no act of terror, sabotage,
or espionage. Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino,
Antonio Guerrero, and Rene Gonzalez came to the United States during the
1990s to infiltrate and monitor the terrorist activities of private
right-wing groups of Cuban exiles. The information they gathered in
their undercover work was forwarded to the Cuban government which in turn
passed much of it on to the US government with the understanding that the
two nations were now supposedly cooperating in a war against
terrorism.<br><br>
In 1998 after receiving evidence of impending terrorist activities
planned against Cuba, the FBI went into action. But instead of
arresting the right-wing Cubans who were planning the attacks from US
soil, the feds apprehended the five Cubans who were working at uncovering
such plots.<br><br>
The five were tried in a federal court in Miami, home to over half a
million Cuban exiles. Miami is a community with a long history of
hostility toward the Cuban government -- a record that a federal
appellate court in the United States later described as a "perfect
storm" of prejudice, designed to make a fair trial
impossible.<br><br>
The Cuban Five were kept in solitary confinement for 17 months, denied
their right to bail and the right to a change of venue. After the
longest trial in the history of the United States, they were sentenced by
a jury in Miami to four life sentences plus 77 years collectively.
The US public outside Miami heard next to nothing about this case -- in
striking contrast to the lavish treatment later accorded to Zapata
Tamayo.<br><br>
<br><br>
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