The Courage of a Few Covers the Shamelessness of Many in UNEAC / Angel Santiesteban

Francis Sanchez

With infinite pleasure I received the text of the intellectual Francis Sanchez “Smoke Signal for freedom.” With concern, because we are not naive, we are aware that this text of his, with his point of view, will be considered by the culture officials and the political police, as another sign of his incorrigible rebellion, “another stripe for the Tiger”  as our beloved, and physically gone, writer Guillermo Vidal said.

Bravely, Francis has exposed his reasons for distrusting my prosecution and trial and the entire campaign undertaken against me. Hardly aware of what happened, Francis has come to the logical conclusions from the most biased knowledge of the events, except that Francis has displayed his boldness and put his finger on the sore spot.

He begins the text with a Hemingway-like sentence: “Today is Angel Santiesteban.” That they have violated my due process, my most elemental legal rights, in an arbitrary and insolent way, before the eyes of the rest of the artists, accepting their silence, is the worst thing that could do against themselves. Tomorrow there will be others, perhaps some of those who signed the letter “against violence” to climb the ladder, ingratiating themselves with power, cowards, and so many other negative reasons, and then they will see their lives consumed under the silence of many and the opposition of few, where I will find myself, of course, defending their rights. And I will do it for them and for myself.

I will repeat once again that no conclusive evidence was offered against me, except my handwritten copy of a government newspaper and according to the graphologist, as shown by “the height and tilt of my letter: I am guilty.” And a friend of my ex-wife — whom I’d been separated from emotionally and physically for more than two and a half years — as was reported at the trial, what he knew with respect to what he’d heard from her, which makes him an “ear-witness,” (that is, it’s hearsay) which is the same as nothing. However, for my part I presented five authentic compelling witnesses, who were rejected after the hearing. All of the investigative file, the appeal, the review, plus the video of the false witness, are found on the Internet so that everyone can draw their own conclusions.

However, many chose not to look, because anyway what are they going to do? Not to support the government but to put themselves in a good position and to continue to receive the gifts of power, and on the other hand, not to exacerbate their fears of the fury of the regime and the hardships involved.

I greatly appreciate that another writer raises his voice for Justice, regardless of whether it is in my favor, we are gaining in civic conscience and that is what’s important. I will wait for others to be honest and lose their fear, that’s the reason, the real demand for which I am imprisoned, because I lost the fear of suffering. There is an intangible quote that grips us when we say what we feel, and that is much greater and more gratifying that the suffering, when it is overcome.

Surely, the times of freedom are coming. The sleeping elephants wake up and discover their memory, are ashamed of their past and present, begin to live for the future and their honesty.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton prison settlement. January 2014.

17 January 2014