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NEWS
" I'd rather die in my homeland”- an interview with
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez.
SANTA CLARA, CUBA – April 25 (Yoel Espinosa Medrano /
Puenteinfocubamiami.org) – On April 22nd, marking the first anniversary of
the release from prison of the emblematic former Cuban political prisoner
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, Cubanacan Press interviewed him at his home
in Placetas, Villa Clara.
Q: How do you feel today?
A: Well, for me every day that passes by is a journey of pain because
my homeland is been suffering under the dictatorship of the Castro brothers
for almost 50 years and hundredths of innocent people suffer under inhumane
conditions in Cuban prisons.
Q: What does it means to you the time you’ve spent so far outside
prison bars?
A: As everyone knows Cuba is a big prison. Being in the streets does
not mean you live freely. I left a small prison and now live in a bigger one.
This period is a continuation of the struggle for human rights and the much
needed changes the island needs through a transition to be able to
implement a true democracy.
Q: You spent 17 years behind bars for a supposed crime of ¨oral
enemy propaganda¨, what did these years of incarceration meant to you?
A: To be exact, I spent 17 years and 38 days in the dungeons. I was
locked in maximum security prisons furthest from my hometown. Despite all
the beatings and atrocities that I was subjected to, I think of it as a
school where I suffered in my own skin the atrocities people have to live in
totalitarian regimes as this one. But I was able to bear it based on the
example of Pedro Luis Boitel, the support of Berta Antunez and Martha
Beatriz Roque Cabello, just to mention three names among many more.
Q: Some experiences from jail?
A: I carry inside me the pain of not being able to attend my mother’s
funeral, she was killed by officer Boris Luis Arribas, and prison guards
forbade my presence at her funeral as retaliation for my position as a
defender of human rights inside the prisons. On a positive note, I can point
out the founding of the Political Presidio Pedro Luis Boitel in 1995, along
with political prisoners Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, Rafael Ibarra Roque,
Prospero Gainza Aguero and others who are already in exile.
Q: What's the difference between the fight behind bars and the
challenge as a member of the civil society?
A: The reason of the fight is the same; achieve true democracy and
freedom for the island. The fight from prison is more difficult, repression
is greater. All prisoners who maintain a dignified posture, compared with
the de characterization of the regime, are people who deserve the greatest
respect and admiration of the world. In prison you never feel secure, just
your beliefs, principles and example of other brothers give you strengths to
go forward. As for the fight in the streets I think that inspired by the
examples of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, through non-violent
methods, civil disobedience and civic resistance are the forms of struggle
to lead against the dictatorship at the moment.
Q: Recently there have been some changes in relation to certain
restrictions for the Cuban population. Do you thing it can be the beginning
of substantial changes within Cuba under the command of Raúl Castro?
A: I do not believe that changes have been made, in my view they are
economic measures that have nothing to do with the general population. I
think we can envision changes when they respects the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, as it begins to exist freedom of laws in the island and
when political prisoners are released unconditionally. Then and only then we
could talk about substantial changes.
Q: How do you assess national events since your release?
A: Obviously, there is an upsurge in anti-human rights defenders; I
have suffered more than 10 brutal beatings and several arrests. Many
brothers of struggle have also run my own fate. Let me take this opportunity
to ratify my support to all political prisoners, who are an embarrassing
page in the history of this dictatorship. Also, I want to ratify my
solidarity with the Ladies in White, and with our brothers who were recently
beaten in Havana and Santa Clara respectively.
Q: As is well known, you are a very sick person and several
countries have opened their doors to you for medical treatment. What are you
going to do?
A: Yes, it is true that there are many people interested in my health
status, but I am firm in my principles and I do not accept the blackmail
imposed by the State Security to travel for medical treatment with the
status of Final Exit. If I can not return to my homeland I rather die here
and the responsibility will fall on the Castro government.
Well, thank you very much for this interview Antúnez.
Thank you.
Reporting from Santa Clara to the Information Bridge Cuba Miami Yoel
Espinosa Medrano of Cubanacan Press. Translation: Puente Informativo Cuba
Miami.
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