The Bullies That Castro Sent to Panama

The Bullies That Castro Sent to Panama / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on April 25, 2015

For a few seconds you could see the video on Telesur of the blows given
by the official Cuban delegates in Panama. I managed to see, and it's
the gesture I remember the most, a man who, above the rest, attacked
with his fist, exercising brutal force, and I remembered that on
November 8, 2012, when I was in front of the Acosta police station,
members of Cuban State Security beat me for demanding freedom for
Antonio Rodiles, who was detained in jail there.
Beating Cuban dissidents is a daily practice. They can't avoid doing
what they always do. It's their instinct, their Castrista education.

Mysteriously, those seconds of the image of the altercation that Telesur
showed were not repeated. A call from their politicians censured them.
For its part, Cuba, through its media of communication, affirmed that
the disturbance was started by the opposition, but it's not what the
cameras picked up.

When the Cuban Book Fair took place in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2002, the
same thing happened. The Cuban envoys packed the room for the
presentation of "Free Writing" and attacked the exhibitors.

We know it's the way the rulers and their stooges think. They operate
without any political conscience, only for the gifts they receive from
those in power.

And what is happening in the media reports of the Obama-Castro
conversations doesn't make me suspect the Cuban side, because they are
who they are, and nobody can change them. I distrust the North American
side; I ask myself what they really are looking for, because I haven't
seen an iota of progress nor interest from the Dictator, except that of
hanging onto power with the money he thinks he will earn once the
embargo is lifted.

If it's a matter of consistency, I don't see a positive path for these
erroneous negotiations because they were conceived, from their birth, as
a deformed and retarded creature. While Washington and Havana lose time
in delayed conversations, Cuban dissidents continue to resist unjust
incarceration and the constant beatings.

I don't know if Obama will abandon us or not, but I'm convinced that God
remains on our side.



Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Border Control Prison, Havana. April 2015.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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