After passing through the rigorous routines of the Military Tribunal and the Military Prosecutors Office, the Provincial Tribunal of Holguin sentenced three officials of the National Revolutionary Police to prison terms between three to four years. A few months ago, these guards had been active in San German, in the Eastern province of Holguin, but have been moved to a center 700 kilometers from Havana, according to local sources.
The outlaws are Captain Vladimir Aldana, chief of the Police Unit, the 1st Tenant Alexander La ‘O Aguilera, Sector Chief (in the photograph, wearing police uniform), and another official by the name of Jerson, a functionary from the Order of the Interior. The accused had presumptively overruled charges (in exchange for gifts) against a truck driver who ran over a woman on a public road more than a year ago. The woman, who asked me not to reveal her name, told me that she filed complaints in the fiscal and tribunal levels of the province, and upon noticing the carelessness of the competent authorities, she decided to file more complaints to the National Fiscal Office, which resulted in a more rigorous investigation and the sentences of those previously mentioned.
The three violators of the law were suspended from their military ranks, and based on the information I have, during this past August it was presumed that Vladimir Aldana had received a savage beating at the hands of common prisoners (as a way of evening things out) with which he shares a cell with in the Closed Regime Encampment known as “Los Naranjos”, more than 20 kilometers from the outskirts of San German. The local citizens of San German frequently complained about verbal abuses, physical abuses, and the audacious way the prisoners were treated in the police unit, just as much by as the former Police Chief (Aldana) as by former Sector Chief (La ‘O).
In addition to these complaints, there are unconfirmed accusations of supposed acts of corruption on behalf of these three officials and other functionaries which have not yet even been reprimanded and continue active.
But every devil has his day, my grandmother Maria would say.
Translated by Raul G.
21 September 2011
