Torture and/or Torment

Torture, cynicism, martyrdom

Written by Yadaimí Domínguez

Last Friday, on March 12th, the Declaration of the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP) was published on the first page of the daily Granma, in response to the Resolution of the European Parliament.  Of course, the wording of that resolution is unknown to the majority of Cubans since the news we get in the national media is censored, thus restricting any critical analysis of it by those who have no other source of information.

Thanks to a colleague of mine, I was able to read the aforementioned Resolution and I agree that the death of Orlando Zapata could have been humanely prevented. Throughout this man’s peaceful struggle, the Cuban people were given no news about his medical condition, at least not by the official media. Citizen journalism played the key role in bringing this story to the various news agencies and to international public opinion. Only after the physical disappearance of Zapata Tamayo and after the prominence the news got in the international media and on the Internet was it decided to inform the Cuban people about the case in a distorted way, which showed not even a modicum of respect for his memory and for the inconsolable grief of his mother.

What a thorough cynicism the national press displays when it talks about the condemnation of the European Parliament!  To refer to an example I know very well, I will mention the utter shamelessness with which the State Security made up a crime that my brother had allegedly committed. A few servants who call themselves judges impose false sentences, knowingly lying, and get away with it! Not to mention the insolence and the arrogance of the prison guards!

I do not know to what extent the ANPP is ignorant of the practice of torture in our country.  Perhaps the subhuman conditions of lightless cells in Villa Marista are not torture for those who remain in them for a minimum of 24 hours?  Can it be that the hundreds of people, many of whom are innocent, who undergo investigation, is not a kind of martyrdom?   ¿Why have scores of men made false statements just to leave this hell? To deny a prisoner water to stop him from a hunger strike, is that not torture?  To use an air compressor that brings the cold air from outside into a six by nine foot cell, in the middle of February, where my brother was dressed in only his underwear, is that not torture?  To be beaten by a guard who is never punished, what does that mean?  Perhaps it is not cynicism that a doctor issues a diagnosis of contusions, with treatment by analgesics and anti-inflammatories, and later says that he made a mistake? What should we call the fact that just last January, 26 patients died in the Mazorra psychiatric hospital?

An intelligent and effective way to defend oneself is to attack somebody else. There are a number of questions that could be asked, although it is not for being an unknown that I don’t know the answers.   But, I am convinced of something, and that is that I will never accept that some functionary can tell me, looking me in the eyes, that in Cuba torture does not exist.   My brother, a case that has touched my life, was unjustly imprisoned, and that is the worst torture of all.

Translated by ricote