Vivanco highlights the lack of an independent judiciary and the enforcement of a penal code worthy of the Inquisition through condemning only on suspicion.
But more than suspicions sustain the regime. My case is a clear example of how justice is handled, charges and evidence are invented, and false witnesses are bought to convict and send to prison a writer to silence him, a writer who decided to take off the mask and expose what is happening in Cuba through a blog: The Children Nobody Wanted. To freely express what I want for my family and my country IS NOT A CRIME although the prosecutor’s calligraphy expert doesn’t like because I write with “some” tilt, and draw my letters a very suspicious size. However, my “suspicious” handwriting has been recognized in Cuba and internationally. And today the world echoes my unjust conviction.
And this global cry for justice for me also has an impact on all of my colleagues, also unjustly persecuted, harassed and imprisoned. The international spotlight turns on a ruthless regime and my case becomes secondary.
The lack of imagination that has been invested in inventing my case clearly shows the impunity with which the government violates all human rights. But the world is now taking notice and denouncing it.
I said and I repeat: at the gates of the prison, I feel that I won the game, because if a government has had to cheat to silence my voice and send me to prison thinking they are going to silence me it is proof of their defeat. Neither imprisonment nor beatings will silence my voice. I will continue fighting for freedom and democracy for Cuba from wherever I am. I am innocent. The dictator knows it, the world knows it. And I face whatever comes with complete dignity and my head high.
Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, Cuban writer
Translator’s note: The announcer in the following video from Channel NTN24 says that Human Rights Watch (HRW) has commented on Angel’s case. The person interviewed in his home is one of the supposed witnesses to Angel’s “crime,” where he claims he was not, in fact, a witness to the events that supposedly took place: “No, I didn’t see anything.” The mob scene is a “repudiation rally” outside the late Laura Pollan’s home, headquarters of the Ladies in White. At the end of the video the director of HRW for the Americas says that everything is planned and controlled by the regime.
February 2 2013