Cuba’s Political Prisoners and the Myth of Sisyphus
HAVANA TIMES – Opposing the government in Cuba is quite complicated, and I hope that anyone reading this from another part of the world doesn’t think we’re trying to act tough. Only those who have experienced living under a dictatorship can understand how hard it is to go against the prevailing system.
Anything that might happen to a dissident in another country pales in comparison when it comes to a dictatorship, because their actions don’t just affect them — they affect their family members and anyone associated with them.
While in other places someone who challenges the system might find the doors closed to anything related to it, in a socialist dictatorship practically everything is tied to the system. This means the person has almost no opportunity to earn a living, as doors will be closed to them everywhere.
Moreover, in this scenario, it’s not just the dissident who suffers, it applies to anyone who supports them, whether family or not. And they must stay alert to any stranger who approaches, because that person might be a secret agent.
If they manage to survive all of this, they live under the constant threat of being imprisoned simply for protesting publicly, something allowed in many other parts of the world.
What’s been happening lately is that those who stand firm in their convictions begin a cycle of going in and out of prison, because they refuse to bow their heads after being released for any reason, and so they end up back behind bars.
The clearest example came recently, with the release of dozens of political prisoners at the beginning of the year thanks to the efforts of the now-deceased Pope Francis — many of whom were re-imprisoned just weeks after their release.
Young Andy Garcia Lorenzo, who served four years in prison for taking to the streets during the July 11, 2021 protests in Santa Clara, was not one of those who benefited from the “amnesty” because he was close to completing his sentence.
It’s worth noting that his siblings were forced into exile due to pressure from the dictatorship, but he remains on the island, enduring everything with unwavering resolve.
During his time in prison, he undertook several hunger strikes to protest isolation and the conditions of incarceration. His family reported that he was subjected to torture and mistreatment by prison authorities and kept in punishment cells under degrading conditions.
In 2022, he was transferred to a higher-security prison, until he was recently released, though no one knows for how long, as it depends entirely on his behavior.
In a country where nearly everything is unjust, from basic product prices to phone rates, it is the ultimate injustice to be imprisoned simply for demanding the fundamental rights of any citizen.
One person who was released thanks to Pope Francis, only to be re-imprisoned, is Jose Daniel Ferrer, the most well-known Cuban opposition figure. He is currently in critical condition, as he is on a hunger strike and his family has reported that he is being beaten regularly in Mar Verde prison, in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba.
He was already physically weak due to stomach ailments and had not received adequate medical care. On top of that, he has been denied family visits on more than one occasion.
The message is clear: either he agrees to leave Cuba for good, or he will continue to be tortured and beaten, with the very real danger that they might go too far and kill him. That’s the harsh dilemma he faces.
Ferrer has been a thorn in the dictatorship’s side for years, a man who refuses to bow to the government’s demands. That is why his image has grown enormously in the among the population, despite ongoing attempts to silence his case.
He has spent over 12 years in prison (eight years following the “Group of 75” crackdown in 2003, six months between 2019 and 2020, a little over three years until this past January, and now another couple of months). For this current detention, neither he nor his family have received any official documentation stating the terms of his provisional imprisonment. In effect, he is being held hostage, in a legal limbo.
What’s more, during his wife’s most recent visit, she was threatened with imprisonment as well and told that their underage son would be taken away and placed in a state institution. Still, she reaffirmed that she would not bow down.
The greatest source of strength in his case, and in the cases of the nearly one thousand political prisoners still in Cuba, is the support of family. It is incredibly painful to see a loved one suffer, but they endure it because they know it is for a just cause.
Many who have left the country, besides being physically broken, did so to spare their families further anguish and to prevent retaliation against them. From exile, they continue the fight for Cuba’s freedom.
The cumulative effect of all this bitterness inevitably wears down both physical and mental strength, and it’s understandable that some choose forced exile, but not to abandon the fight.
This doesn’t even consider the traumatic effects on children who grow up amid all this repression and witness firsthand the abuse their parents endure.
This is why a call for solidarity is directed at the world’s governments and international organizations, to prevent an even greater tragedy now that the dictatorship has no ideology left to cling to and is ruling only through terror.
It all resembles the myth of Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the hill over and over again. But even if it doesn’t appear so on the surface, that example of Jose Daniel Ferrer resonates with his fellow citizens and increasingly exposes the dictatorship.