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The Santiesteban Case: A Crude Judicial Hoax / Angel Santiesteban

Ángel Santiesteban pointed to his "oddly" slanted handwriting. The sign says: In this house we don't vote. We toss it out.
Ángel Santiesteban pointed to his “oddly” slanted handwriting. The sign says: In this house we don’t vote. We toss it out.

Literature and Justice

The award-winning writer Angel Santiesteban is imprisoned unjustly for his confrontational attitude to the Castro regime.

On Wednesday, February 27, at the headquarters of the Estado de Sats project there was a farewell to Angel Santiesteban Prats, the award-winning writer. The next morning, he will present himself to serve the prison sentence imposed on him.

That same day, on asking my opinion as a lawyer, I began to know the details of his case. When I started to read the documentation, the conviction that I was in the presence of a crude judicial hoax took hold of me.

The center of Santiesteban’s misfortunes is his ex-wife Kenia Rodriguez Guzman. She wants to emigrate, but as a loving mother she wants to do so together with Eduardo, the son of her union with Angel. For this she needed his authorization; but he does not want to leave Cuba nor be separated from his offspring, so he refused permission and expressed his willingness to assume custody of and care for the boy when she left.

It was then that the former wife, who on top of everything suffers from psychiatric disorders, offered to make accusations that involved him in criminal proceedings. On a first occasion, the complaint for an offense of threats failed, as the prominent writer was acquitted.

In July 2009, Kenya accused her former husband of trespassing into her home and beating her in the face. With the passage of time, she “enriched” her statement, saying he had stolen her family jewels and, almost a month later, that he had raped her and tried to murder her by suffocating her with a pillow. There was also talk about an alleged attempt to burn down Kenia’s house.

In short, the authorities discarded the additional complaints of the woman as unfounded. Naturally, the question arises: If we reach the conclusion that she lied about the alleged theft, murder and rape, then why not admit the probable falsity of the other complaints that she made!

This would follow not only from the contradictory testimony of the complainant, but also other elements of the case. Eduardo‘s teacher testified to a conversation with him: At first, the child accused his father to her, but then began to cry and on the teacher asking why he was crying, the boy told her that his mother told him to lie against Angel.

Alexis Quintana deserves special mention. This individual, in his alleged status as the only eyewitness, was the star of the havoc that Santiesteban, according to what Quintana said, tried to wreak in Kenia’s home. However, in a video presented to the Court, Quintana acknowledged that he had seen nothing, and that his statement was lies, made at the insistence of the woman, and that he received gifts in payment for it.

These two statements are very important, not for their relationship with the facts of the case (with which they have no direct link), but for what they bring to the lack of credibility of the complainant. If she does not hesitate to influence others — including her own son!– to formulate false statements against the object of her hatred, why wouldn’t she herself lie!

Three witnesses testified to having been with the defendant in another place at the time of the alleged incidents. The Court, in rejecting these witnesses, invokes the statement of the minor child Eduardo. However, he said later he spent the afternoon only in his father’s house, so that his statement did not in any way contradict the other three witnesses, who were ignored in a Olympian manner.

Given the absence of incriminating evidence, the courtroom, to back up the version of the complainant, called a handwriting expert. Like the charlatans that follow Lombroso to “demonstrate the responsibility” of an accused person, studying the shape of his ears or the prominence of his chin, so the supposed expert dared to swear before the Court that Santiesteban was guilty… based on his handwriting!

After forcing Angel to copy by hand an entire page of the garbage published by the official newspaper Granma, a lieutenant colonel in the Interior Ministry rose to assert nothing more and nothing less than… The size, form and slant of his handwriting constituted irrefutable proof the he was guilty of the charges.

In short, the Court, based on the statements of an enemy of the accused (who is also a mental patient), and the “handwriting expert,” declared Santiesteban guilt of the crimes of housebreaking and serious injury.

Article 287.1 of the Penal Code, which establishes penalties of three months to one year, or a simple fine, was used to describe the first of two violations; however for this crime the court set the illegal sentence of two years in prison, double the maximum allowed! For the serious injuries, which call for a sentence of between two and five years, the court imposed the upper limit. Suspicious supreme severity for an intellectual lacking a criminal record!

With respect to those bodily injuries, their seriousness was established based on the supposed perforation of an eardrum, causing hearing loss. But in the medical certificate not a single word is said about it. Thus, even if one considers some aggression on Angel’s part, there was reasonable doubt that this event cause the injury suffered by Kenya, who was even hit by a vehicle.

Another curious fact: Although this was supposedly a common — not a political — case, the appeal was heard by the Court for Crimes against State Security. The delay of years undergone in the conduct of this case and the whole set of circumstances already mentioned, lead us to assume that Angel Santiesteban is being pursued for the rebellious stance he took against the regime.

National and international public opinion must interest itself in this case.

Rene Gomez Manzano
Attorney and Freelance Journalist
Havana, March 4, 2013

21 May 2013

Cuban Hospitals Don’t Offer Complete Service / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

The poor hygiene threatens the health of the patient

The Julio Trigo and The Dependent Hospitals don’t offer full service. Doctors choose to give basic treatment to avoid complications due to lack of hygiene and the poor condition of patient rooms.

An unnamed doctor “Julio Trigo” says that he has been forced to send patients for home treatment. “I should not be so, but the hospital is horrifying conditions, cockroaches walking through walls, this is a disaster!” Says the doctor.

Julio Trigo Hospital is the main one for the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo and The Dependent Hospital is one of the main hospitals for the municipality of Cerro. They have lost the confidence of the residents of the two areas, according to  the comments of delegates (one delegate from Cerro and one from Arroyo Naranjo) from each municipality, who did not want to be identified.

An unnamed doctor at “Julio Trigo” says that he has been forced to send patients home for treatment. “I should not be so, but the hospital conditions are horrifying, cockroaches walking along walls, this is a disaster!” Says the doctor.

Marielena Garcia, 45, accompanying a patient explains she was waiting for her mom to get better to take her from the hospital to finish the treatment at home. “I was sitting on the side of the bed and a cockroach dropped on my face. The beds are dirty, you even get the smell of urine, you have to bring several sheets to avoid complications of infection,” says Garcia.

An unnamed doctor at The Dependent Hospital says that all the patients who come to the hospital complain about dirt. “It’s a risk to send the patient home, but better than the complications with bacteria,” said the doctor.

Alfredo Gonzalez, 32, says that in the middle of 2012 he went to The Dependent Hospital with a deep machete wound and almost lost his leg to an infection acquired from instruments that weren’t disinfected.

Maria Rodriguez, 48, says she’s complained about the management, but never had the chance to see the hospital director in person.

The country has refurbished hospitals in the capital, but after a year many are back to the previous bad condition. The chairs, the beds and the drinking fountains reflect the care of the people and the workers.

20 May 2013

Blue Heart — You Can Fund It / Miguel Coyula

Commentary by Miguel Coyula starts at about 5 minutes into the video.

The following text is taken from Indiegogo, a crowdfunding site that is supporting Blue Heart. Miguel lives in and works from Cuba.

Here is the link to help fund Blue Heart.

THE FILMMAKER:

Miguel Coyula was born in Havana, Cuba in 1977. His work is focused on blending different genres and formats into new ways of storytelling by exploring digital technology. Always working outside the film industry made his first feature Red Cockroaches (2003), for less than $2,000. The film was described by Variety as “a triumph of technology in the hands of a visionary with know-how…” and went on to gather several awards in the international film festival circuit. In 2009 Coyula was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to develop his next film, Memories of Overdevelopment, a follow-up to the Cuban classic Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968). The film premiered on Sundance in 2010 and went on to gather 20 awards during its festival tour. The International Film Guide chose it as the best Cuban Film of the year.

DIRECTOR´S STATEMENT:

Blue Heart is a film about the individual’s inability to escape its environment, as well a discussion about the violent nature of a revolution and its consequences. It is also an exploration of the boundaries of human behavior in a dysfunctional family. This is a foray into a dark future from an uncertain present. continue reading

I have always been interested in science fiction films that serve as a possibility to explore the strangeness of an alternate reality with specific social and political repercussions that are rooted in real events. This allow for a deeper and more meaningful reflection on the world we live in.

However, political science fiction can incur in a didactic approach. One must never make a film about a subject matter that you love or hate, otherwise it becomes a propaganda film. One must only make the film if you are not convinced 100% in either direction.

Beyond stating ideas with intellectual coolness, the film concentrates on visceral storytelling where atmosphere, and feelings and are the most immediate focus.

The story uses several elements from transmedia storytelling, where the narrative flows in a variety of formats, which include fiction from a variety of genres, newscasts, animation, web-browsing, commercials, documentary. I intend to use the digital medium to full advantage by manipulating every single image. The goal is to work the smallest details, which on a low budget becomes difficult to manage on sets. An open mind to use the world that surrounds you and find a way to weave it into your narrative is a priceless advantage of independent filmmaking. For example the Occupy Wall Street was a real event; which was adapted to the narrative of the film by inserting actors in a documentary environment, plus heavy manipulation of the images and green screen to achieve the right mood.

THE STORY:

Dr. Nicholas Fredersen faces a difficult situation after his Human Genetic Engineering project at DNA21 comes to a full stop when the practice is declared illegal in the United States. However Octogenarian leader Fidel Castro, with the aid of Chinese money sets out to build a superior New Man that will transform the crumbling Cuban Socialist system into a model society. A few years later Cuba is ravaged by pollution and acid rains, becoming economically dependent on Chinese Investments of ever-growing oil drilling in the deep seas. Inheriting the worse of communism and capitalism, the country has become a corrupt dystopia on permanent crisis. The New Men turn out to be powerful but uncontrollable and dysfunctional in several ways. Outcasts of the system that created them, they set out to destroy the very fabric of society with devastating consequences. When the US government discovers that Dr. Nicholas Fredersen has been collaborating with the Cuban government in this enterprise. Tensions between the two countries begin to complicate.

This is the world Tomás lives in. He is a widowed, middle aged photo-journalist who lives with his teenage son David, an introverted teenager who escapes into the alternative reality of his drawings. One day, while taking pictures in ruins, Tomás finds Elena, an enigmatic young woman who casts a spell on him. He takes her home and this creates initial frictions with David, who later grows equally fascinated by her. A triangle develops as the tensions between the three characters escalate, in parallel to the national crisis. Gradually they both connect and explode as Elena might be linked with the terrorist group.

RISKS AND CHALLENGES:

We have most of the cast in place and ready to go. A science fiction film of this scale on such a budget is a thrill of a challenge and like any other great adventure, a must do for me. The focus is to complete principal photography within 3-4months of shooting. The rest will be all up to the post-production time. I sometimes take a long time to complete editing, but I have always completed every film project I have undertaken because of patience and obsessive tenacity: Two things to make up for the lack of a larger budget. Time is essential to create a solid film.

We Are a Community With Our Own Voice / Ignacio Estrada

Havana, Cuba. For years Mariela Castro Espín Has tried to take credit for numerous  efforts on behalf of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) community in Cuba. Forgetting that this community has its Own Voice.

These uncertain efforts have won her international awards and recognition, before she has even achieved what is now her most ambitious project. Which is to declare to those who do not know the Cuban issue, that the project authored by Mariela had been initiated by her late mother Vilma Espin.

The constant appearance of Castro Espín before the national and international media are not showing, much less is giving voice to, the (LGBT) Cuban community. On the contrary, they are only providing an opportunity for the voice of the daughter of current Cuban President, Raul Castro Ruz, enthroned in an ill-fated Revolution that has only managed to put the community that she pretends to lead at a disadvantage. continue reading

Despite the uncertain official efforts, and the institutionalized homophobia on the island and preached for over fifty years by those who believe in the formation of the New Man, the reality that is felt today is different; the ability to feel the dissatisfaction of this community before the failed promises and to the constant violation of our rights.

Already more than five projects of Cuban civil society working in the LGBT area independently and those who do not join official institutions. Among those worth mentioning are the Cuban Observatory for LGBT Rights, the Cuban LGBT Platform, the Chui Tuix Community Integration Project, Rainbow Project, Open Doors Foundation, the Cuban League Against AIDS among others.

These new citizen initiatives organize other days in favor of the fight against homophobia; lead from different points of view projects focused on the education of their peers in their most basic rights and the defense of those rights; and in turn they are not supporters of the existing government speech so far.

Despite the constant negatives for the legalization of these initiatives by the Cuban Ministry of Justice, the work continues and its leaders haven’t accomplished any legalization in any Cuban institution. For which they are labeled as mercenaries or paid by the empire, which is easy to disprove with more than conclusive evidence.

Mariela Castro is not a recognized voice, much less the voice of our constantly growing community. They accept feeling manipulated by the official campaigns that do not intend to vindicate the LGBT rights.

New publications circulating in the Cuban streets, free of political contamination, which highlight the work for various projects in support of the urgent need to claim each of the usurped rights of the Cuban LGBT community. These initiatives of these publications flourish at the time when they are trying to show the world that in Cuba if there is a Community with its Own Voice and there is no need for intermediaries or spokespeople who are committed to the guilt of those who, in 1959, tied us to the lie and even now are trying to force us to force us to live with it.

By Ignacio Estrada

20 May 2013

Insufficient Qualifications / Regina Coyula

Presenter Aleanys Jáuregui

Cuban television is not characterized by the quality of its domestic programming so I review the movie schedule to see if anything interests me. The only ones I follow are the pirated ones: Grey’s Anatomy, Suits, and Dirty Sexy Money; this latter despite its late night schedule.

But sometimes, by chance, by pure chance, I stumble on programs produced by  Cuban TV, which produces little, bad and late, and luckily fills in with the canned. In a fatal chance I’ve seen some scenes of a horrible thing called Santa Maria of I Don’t-Know-What that shows on the soap opera hour; but the other day I endured with a stoicism worthy of a better cause a humor (?!) program made by women. They were competing, there was a really condescending jury, raising their cards with their ratings.

Bad taste, vulgarity, lack of grace, lack of originality; and an example of all of the above, the host of the program. In the Federation of Cuban Women and the Cuban Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC), institutions that concern themselves interchangeably with female integrity and raising cultural values, should not have seen More Women (with the “more” [plus] sign that I don’t find on the keyboard), this monstrosity of “more” for which I can not find enough adjectives on the keyboard.

20 May 2013

New 2013 Meteor Exercise / Ignacio Estrada

Havana, Cuba: The May rains have already started throughout the country and the in June hurricane season begins, extending until November.

The Cuban authorities and Civil Defense have recently launched the 2013 Meteor Exercise, preparation intended to corroborate the availability of all the factors involved in times of natural disasters. It is clear that this organization is run by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and which have a structure from the nation top to bottom.

Authorities of the Institute of Meteorology say the hurricane season for Cuba and the Caribbean this year be a big one. So they predict that the island will be hit by any of these phenomena. The solidarity of the national response is immediate with things like this, far different from the government indolence that abandons countless families of disaster victims like this.

They are only there to lend a gaze to the eastern provinces and especially to Santiago de Cuba so that we can see a false reality of a city totally recovered.

The Civil Defense and the authorities in power more than ensure the preservation of human life. They have the obligation to provide to Cuban population with secure decent housing. We recall that the situation of the state of the buildings on the island is one of the problems that constantly checkmates the Cuban family.

The drought is palpable on the island and the lack of rain is well-known, but it is necessary to take urgent measures to preserve not only human lives as I said earlier but to put all of our goods in safekeeping. And to take as one of the main measures not walking around in places that are underpinned by danger of collapse.

It is our duty in this season for the sake of the Cuban family to preserve our lives. Not to highlight the role of the authorities but to comply with the first right of every man. Always remembering that our nation needs people committed to build the immediate future for our children and our future families if they can enjoy safe homes that can be a garrison in these catastrophes.

By Ignacio Estrada

20 May 2013

The “Revoliquera” Experience (Reloaded) / Regina Coyula

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 3.53.53 PM

I put up this post this past Friday, but the WordPress goblins made it disappear. With my scarce connection time and my barely adequate technical knowledge, I wasted a copious amount of time looking for responses in a forum, and along the way, restoring this post. Management having failed, I’ll do this the old way: by repeating it.

The Revoliquera* Experience

If I ask a youth with occasional internet access which page referring to Cuba he visits, almost certainly he’ll respond with Facebook. It doesn’t matter that it’s not Cuban. The social network par excellence keeps him up to date with his artists and favorite athletes and let’s him meet up with his school friends, who today can be the same in Miami as in Madrid or Moscow.

But if I consult a young fan of technology or video games, or who is just growing out of his first childhood, the more sure is that he’ll answer that his favorite page is Revolico, the site of national sales & buying, born from the lack of a physical space inside Cuba to accommodate a classified ad.

It’s impossible to walk down the street and not see bills posted on phone poles announcing electronic musical concerts or house parties. On bus walls appear printed announcements of exchanges, nor does a car attract any attention with a cardboard box behind the windshield with hurried letters that read: “FOR SALE”. The yellow pages of the telephone book increasingly recognize the emerging private services sector, but even there the space is insufficient to insert a perishable or offensive ad. Here is where the online note triumphs.

No matter the real estate market, where the false image of an enormous (and overpriced) residential listing is for sale, poking around on revolico.com reveals that Cubans aren’t too interested in whether or not the government is going to build socialism; but meanwhile, each provides their own management style, and for some it doesn’t seem to be going badly. The productive forces of this country are in the starting blocks waiting for the starter’s gun to go off, and Revolico is becoming pre-competition training.

And if you don’t have access to the internet, that is no longer a problem. Inside a weekly or monthly 500 GB pack you can find an offline version of the popular site that now permits even the opening of links to photos; “It’s exactly the same as seeing it on the Internet,” a neighbor told me who copied her own version from me last week. As it is often forbidden to access Revolico from work and school, or the page won’t open and is redirected to the searcher, disturbed souls have posted alternative addresses and proxies that lead to the revoliquera (messy) experience.

Office services, translations, language classes, wedding dress rental, jobs, loans with interest, clowns, quotes … that amalgam makes up the pages of Revolico, a much better known site within Cuba than Generation Y, and more visited than CubaDebate.

Translator’s note: “Revoliquera” is an adjective roughly meaning “messy” created from the word “revolico” which in Cuban slang means “a mess”; it is the name of the Cuban site that is the equivalent of “Craigslist.”

Translated by: JT

13 May 2013

“Catch and Release”: El Sexto (Danilo Maldonado) Arrested on Saturday, Released on Sunday, His Work Confiscated / Lia Villares, Danilo Maldonado

Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 1.52.26 PMSaturday [18 May 2013]

El Sexto is raided at his home this afternoon at 1:15 pm, according to Alexandra his wife and owner of the apartment, who learned of it through an email from her dad who lives downstairs and saw men and women in uniform and in plainclothes, accompanied by 2 neighbors from the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution], and a major from MININT [Ministry of the Interior], in all about 5 people, they showed him a search warrent and confiscated his laptop, spray paints and all the works they found and took him away in a patrol car. As of now with destination unknown.

Translator’s note: This post and the following ones (now with earlier time stamps) together form a report on El Sexto’s (“the Sixth” — Danilo Maldonado) arrest, the search of his home and the confiscation of his belongings.

18 May 2013

My Confiscated Works and the Scene of the Crime (Part 1) / El Sexto – Danilo Maldonado

El Sexto – Danilo Maldonado
– 8 mini cards in the name of Danilo Maldonado – 1 Canon camera – 1 Thinkpad laptop – 15 virgin discs – 76 yellow cards with the writing “I determine” 4 signed by El Sexto – 4 recorded discs – 2 recorded discs with photos and video. [Identifies Danilo as “unemployed”]
37 spray paints, multiple colors and brands – 4 templates to paint – A dossier of the Salbutomal (asthma medicine) project – 1 book of curriculum vitae – 3 DVDs – 3 canvases (of paintings)
1 Samsung cellphone – 14 cards with paintings and sketches – 15 canvases with paintings, 2 Voices Magazines, 4 photos with counterrevolutionary elements
[same as above]

20 May 2013