The Lie of Lies / Luis Felipe Rojas

“We have never lied to the people. The unity of our people is not based on the worship of an individual or of the cult of personality of a certain individual. It is based on a solid and profound political conscience. The relationships of the direction of our Revolution and the people are based on conscience, based on principles, based on proven loyalty, and among other things, based on the fact that we have never lied to the people”.

– Fidel, July 18th 1985.

That’s what the cover of Granma looked like this past May 11th in order to justify the death of a human being from Santa Clara just a few days prior. But it turns out that not telling a lie means not to speak it. When, in your country, while you try to sleep at night you are haunted by the images of your beaten friends, of women who have shared a lump of bread and a bit of watered down soda with you, or have slept next to you on a train while trying to move from one place to another or to help someone in need, then the truth dies or is injured. The photos which come along with this post were taken in Caimanera, Guantanamo, and Bayamo. And while all the women are not beaten, nevertheless they are testimonies of just how much humans are hurt when a totalitarian government wants to impede the flood of freedom which inevitably rushes upon them.

Yisel Flores, Maria Alfonso Cordova, and Elisa M. Reiner are three dissidents toward the regime; they reside in the municipality of Caimanera in an enclave which is special because of its location near to the American Naval Base of Guantanamo. On January 27th they were brutally beaten under the orders of the so-called State Security, the National Revolutionary Police, and their paramilitary gangs known as the Rapid Response Brigades.

The beatings of Caridad Caballero Batista, Martha Diaz Rondon, or Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger have also been denounced in this blog.

Yakelin Garcia Jaenz was beaten in Bayamo this past February just for opposing the imprisonment of her husband, Ariel Arzuaga Pena, and while attempting to respectfully commemorate the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. The windows of her home were destroyed by the mobs, while absolutely nothing happened to the aggressors. Today, Ariel awaits a trial with the prosecutor requesting a sentence of 8 years in jail.

The government continues, the lies flow, and truth awaits at the bend of the road.

Translated by Raul G.

May 22 2011