Friday, April 16, 2004
Amnesty International lists some of the people a real documentarian might have interviewed were they truly examining the state of affairs in Cuba:
Anyone thinking of watching Stone's film should read the whole page, and the other documents that Amnesty has compiled about Cuba.
- Bernardo Arevalo Padron: Since 28 November 1997 Bernardo Arevalo Padron has been serving a six-year sentence for showing 'disrespect' towards President Fidel Castro and Vice-President Carlos Lage. When interviewed by a Miami radio station, he called them ''liars'' and accused them of failing to keep the commitments they had made to democracy at an earlier Ibero-American Summit.
In April 1998 he was reportedly beaten by two guards at Ariza High Security Prison after they accused him of distributing anti-government propaganda. As a result of the injuries to his head, he has reportedly suffered from memory problems. He is also said to be suffering from lumbago and high blood pressure as a result of which doctors have recommended that he should not do physical work. Despite this, his failure to do such work was the reason reportedly given by the authorities to deny his conditional release. Bernardo Arevalo Padron is the founder and director of the independent press agency known as Prensa Linea Sur, Linea Sur Press.
- Vladimiro Roca Antonez:(32) In a document entitled 'La Patria es de Todos', 'The Country is for Everyone', Vladimiro Roca, Rene Gomez, Felix Bonne and Marta Beatriz Roque criticized the position taken by the fifth congress of the Communist Party, called on people to abstain in the elections and requested foreign investors not to invest in the island. The four were arrested on 17 July 1997 and convicted of 'other acts against state security' relating to a charge of 'sedition' for which they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months for Marta Beatriz Roque to five years for Vladimiro Roca. Vladimiro Roca was finally released from prison on 5 May 2002; the other three had been freed in May 2000. He had reportedly been denied conditional release and held in isolation in a punishment cell for much of his time in prison. According to statements made by his wife, Magaly de Armas, Vladimiro Roca's state of health was poor because, as well as arterial hypertension, he was suffering from a chronic lung illness.
Vladimiro Roca is the son of Blas Roca, one of the founders of the Partido Comunista Cubano, Cuban Communist Party.
- Julia Cecilia Delgado:(27) released on 19 October 2001 after serving ten months of a one-year sentence for 'disrespect' reportedly imposed because she had tried to participate in a peaceful march calling for human rights in Cuba. When she left prison, Julia Cecilia Delgado described the conditions in Manto Negro Prison as ''subhuman in all senses. The water given to the prisoners is contaminated with sewage water. The majority of the prisoners are suffering from dermatitis, diarrhoea and vaginal infections.'
Anyone thinking of watching Stone's film should read the whole page, and the other documents that Amnesty has compiled about Cuba.
