11 Titans, 11 Hopes / Antunez

Librado Linares García
Librado Linares García

Librado Linares García, Doctor Oscar Elías Biscet, Ángel Moya Acosta, Diosdado González Marrero, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, Iván Hernández Carrillo, Héctor Maceda Gutiérrez, José Daniel Ferrer García, Guido Sigler Amaya and Pedro Argüelles Morán are 11 Cubans who represent much to our country and who are writing—through their dignified stance—one of the most beautiful and courageous pages of these 50+ years of tyranny.

They know what they are exposing themselves to, and they know—through their own experience—what their oppressors are capable of; in fact, their sentences now respond to the huge crime of peacefully defending the rights and freedoms of their compatriots. The regime is presently enraged by them because these men refuse to accept exile as the condition to recover that which is theirs by right: their freedom. The deadline that the dictatorship established—in conversations with Cardinal Ortega—for their release is now long overdue. What will the regime do with them? Only God—and the criminals who keep them jailed—know that. No matter what happens, we remain convinced of two facts: first, that the strength and resolve of these 11 Titans will not be defeated, and, second, that we will not abandon these brothers to their fate, and will strengthen our fight to get them out of Dante’s inferno.

Translated by T

7 February 2011