Letter to the Department of State Security / Yamil Domínguez

September 23, 2010

“Year 53 of the Revolution”

To: Department of State Security

By this means, I Yadaimí Dominguez Ramos, a resident of Calle 4 No. 119 between 1st and 3rd, Miramar, Playa, Ciudad de La Habana, need to inform you of the situation of my brother Yamil Ramos Domínguez, U.S. citizen, who, after the 120/2010 Judgment of the Supreme People’s Court ruling annulling his sentence, and is still deprived of his liberty pending a reinvestigation.

The delay in the case of Yamil Domínguez, a sui generis case, which ignored all of his civil rights and the Constitution of the Republic, is inadmissible. Behind bars should be those criminals, not those who for political reasons, abuse of power, lack of knowledge of the laws and/or poor interpretation of them and for the worst reasons of a human being — envy — acted in bad faith and in their actions, ridiculed the judicial system and the image of fairness preached by the Cuban State. On 13 October my brother will have served three years of unjust imprisonment. A man who did not impair the security of this country, nor intended to do so. He entered Cuban territorial waters, going directly into an international port, with all documentation in order and under adverse weather conditions, because he cold not avoid it. Furthermore, as stated in his report, the First Deputy Minister of Justice, Yamil offered no danger if you take into account his constant trips to the country, four of them via Cancun, a key issue that should have been considered when confiscating his own boat, which occurred three months before trial. This savagery is significant, because clearly it was the intentions of the Organ of State Security, as it were, to punish Yamil before he even appeared at trial.

From the start of this tragedy, we went to each and every one of the bodies of the country, and most often to the Ministry of the Interior, but only found deaf ears, which at that moment could have prevented things from reaching this point, compromising the prestige of the judicial system. Excellent work has been done by the Ministry of Justice, following the present Request for Review of the case, particularly the report of the First Deputy Minister, to promote such review. Also worth mentioning the work of the Criminal Division of the Supreme People’s Court in Case 120/2010.< Today Yamil Domínguez remains in the hospital ward of the Military Security Carlos J. Finlay, after a hunger strike that lasted 107 days and which he was forced to take in the face of the silence and the nerve of all those responsible for the unjust imprisonment, and the cynicism of those who attended our claim, without flinching before the obvious injustice. He suspended his strike only when he began to see the first steps of the desired Justice in the aforementioned report of the first deputy minister. Yamil still continues today in prison, while the Ministry of Interior seeks and tries to glean some information which may destroy his innocence. We fear that he may begin again to reject food, given that according Judgment 120/2010 the charges against him were to be dropped but he has had to remain in prison, deprived of all his rights, when he should at least be on our home until the end of the court process. When a family continues down the path without tiring, exhausting each and every one of the domestic courts, when deciding to make public internationally the vile fact, when a young person is forced to undertake three hunger strikes, on the final one deciding to go all the way, then the least we deserve is respect and, on the basis of this, that the case be decided on its merits. Yamil is an educated man, honest, principled and with values, which has earned him the admiration of those who have had the opportunity to meet him. Others, who do not know him directly, also appreciate his personality and conviction, and have offered to fight from their position, for truth and justice. This case has been politicized from the beginning and manipulated in the court, where we never imagined that the fraud and lies would get so out of hand. Now the Supreme Court gave the opportunity to the Ministry of Interior to "solve" what should have been done three years ago. Hopefully those in charge of the case will not make the same mistakes as those made from the first, and will recognize the flagrant injustice that was committed against Jamil and, consequently, his family and thereby clean up the image of the organization they represent. Our great thinker, José Martí, said, "Give in to justice and the unjust will just fall away." From such a beautiful thought, we can say that Yamil will recover his freedom and all that he was forced to lose, but it is necessary to hurry because time is the only thing that he will never recover. We only hope that a wide investigation would lead to the conviction of the unforgivable mistakes of the perpetrators of such hideous injustice, while a good man continued to be deprived of the beauty of life. The extended time will only serve to distort the truth and fall into the same vacuum and fraud already incurred over this entire time. Yamil is not alone. Thousands of people are with him. The more his imprisonment is prolonged, the more people will join us. Today we have the valuable opinion of the People's Supreme Court, aided by the Ministry of Justice. The TRUTH is one and is with us. "In justice allow no delay: whatever impedes its completion, turns against itself." José Martí. Yadaimí Domínguez Ramos. Originally posted October 6, 2010