Good Faith or Bad Intentions?

Written by: Yadaimí Domínguez

Since Monday 14 June, a colonel in the Ministry of the Interior (MINIT) who, according to him, is named Lazaro Martin Diaz, began to visit my brother in the hospital at Combinado del Este. The details of the first conversation they had I will not reveal, given that Jamil gave his word that it would not be published.

Visits of this officer continued. His insistence that my brother should take yogurt, juice, milk or ice cream “seemed” to be his goal, but even so we have our doubts. Not Yamil nor we, his family, have any confidence in the good intentions of the officials of this body. What is this man trying to do with his request? The review of case # 11 / 2008 of the Provincial Court of Havana, which unfairly punished my brother, is a right that any citizen has as a RIGHT in the whole length and breadth of legal science. Meanwhile, unless his demand is met, he does not intend to abandon his peaceful protest.

This Colonel, on presenting himself to Yamil, said he should look on him as a father, and hinted that if he abandoned his position he could be enjoy better prison conditions, and as a citizen of the United States he wouldn’t necessarily have to complete his ten year sentence in Cuba, maybe just five years, when he could be released on probation. What kind of offer is this for a man who should not be punished. What are they trying to hide and what do they fear to extend that attitude to Yamil? I doubt that, at any time, this official has watched over my brother as if he were his son, because a father does not ask a child to pay for a crime he did not commit. A father never asks a son to abandon his word because that is the definition of a man.

On Friday, June 25, the colonel met with Yamil again but this time the “conversation” was much more tense. He said that Yamil’s hostile attitude was not going to break this government. What hostile attitude is this colonel talking about? Who said that demanding a right with good reason and with it justice is an attempt to break the government?

I keep all the paper and digital documents that are filed in the case of Yamil, and all the letters and inquiries we’ve made to the domestic courts since my brother was arbitrarily arrested at an International Port on October 13, 2007. Some of the documents, especially those that express the obvious injustice against Yamil, appear in the Legal Documents section of this blog. Mr. Colonel has not harassed my brother any more. Don’t take advantage of the weakness of the human condition in which Yamil finds himself to achieve his particular purpose.

When you are sure of what you are defending, when you know your rights and assert them above all, when the truth is in your hands, then there is no room for fear or coercion. Let those who lie tremble, let all the liars who defend their positions at any price tremble. The case of Yamil Dominguez is for many one of the major violations of human rights in Cuba in recent times.

Why instead of harassing my brother doesn’t he suggest and order a family visit with him, whom we haven’t seen for a month?

Why doesn’t he take care of the urgent orders for a medication (NUTRICON) so necessary for Yamil but “sold out in the hospital”?

Why, when he has the ability which we know he has, doesn’t he intervene in the streamlining of the review procedures of the case?

With these actions, he would more closely be able to pretend to be a father with a son. You can offer your small contribution to this miscarriage of justice and so achieve your claimed objective of getting Yamil to start eating.

We have walked on the paved roads. We bring trust but then they disappoint us, and we are already tired. Therefore we need to walk carefully. We know that beneath any stone, a toad may be hiding.