Wilman Villar Mendoza: Another Case? / Luis Felipe Rojas

Wilman Villar Mendoza. Photo from UNPACU

The Cuban government is a monster which has locked itself in a crystal valve and swallowed the key. The death of Wilman Villar Mendoza, product of a hunger strike in demand that his prison sentence be revised, is a clear example. The Castro regime has cut all communications between its citizens and the institutions which are supposed to watch over them. There is no possible way for a citizen, without ‘connections’, to win a case in the Supreme Court.

The armies of the current General-President avoid, at all costs, that he (Castro) and all his close collaborators lose their status of ‘untouchables’, of astronomical beings which can only be seen driving by in luxurious cars. And not to mention, no one knows the telephone numbers of the mansions they live in.

I waited until Saturday, after I read the reports published about the death of Wilman Villar, to jot down these ideas. Even with how tragic the news is, the government’s response did not surprise me in any way. The first thing they did was to dust off all responsibilities from the national health system (publicly). In reality, are all doubtful deaths which occur in Cuban hospitals published on the pages of the official state paper, Granma?

For the government of our country, Wilman was a delinquent.

An essential step to socially discredit anyone is vilifying the person, criminalizing them. Up to now, I have not heard of any dissident of the dictatorship (it doesn’t matter is they are affiliated to an independent group in the country or not) who has not been “awarded” with the insults of the propaganda machinery of the Cuban Communist Party. This happens as soon as the person decides to publicly state that they think differently than the regime. Hours prior to falling in disgrace, the most common of Cuban mortals could have given their entire life to try and fix the country, but if he or she is considered a dissident of the tropical Stalinist ideas, then they go on to form part of the leper list, ideologically speaking.

It’s very possible that by the time you all read this post, the declarations of some relatives and neighbors of Wilman Villar may have already been posted, where they say how he had a poor conduct and contributed little to society. As if a guarantee given by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution is enough to exempt one from social insults. One does not have to have black skin to be abused. Marginalization dresses itself in whatever clothes the segregationist system deems necessary.

Habemus Papam? Now I know that the table for His Holiness is served, and in what a way! The government will show, on that date, nearly a thousand peaceful dissidents arrested and their bodies marked by the scars of karate punches and the boots which have kicked them and stepped over them. A people willing to participate in the most violent of repudiation mob attacks which are instantly demanded of them. And, the body of Wilman Villar Mendoza, which they, the manipulators of our national reality, will try to hold us responsible for. We are ready, your Holiness Benedict XVI.

Translated by Raul G.

23 January 2011