Destaque Internacional / International Highlights - Year XII - No. 312 - Madrid - San José de Costa Rica - Santiago de Chile, Nov. 12, 2010 - Director: Javier González. This is an interactive editorial. Please, send your suggestions & opinions to caballeroalvarado2006@yahoo.es To be removed from our Address Book, please, send a message with the word "Remove" on the Subject line. Thanks in advance.
Cuba: Big Bad Wolves, Little Red Riding Hoods and Tiny Stones
Recent generations of former Cuban political prisoners have been given the vocation to play the role of modern-day Davids, always ready to fight by straightforwardly denouncing things that Big Bad Wolves, Little Red Riding Hoods and collaborationist Shepherds are willing to cover up or remain silent about
1.
Cuba has witnessed new generations of political prisoners who, in spite of being born into and educated by the Revolution, have rejected it after knowing it from within, and, as a consequence, have been thrown into jail for their opposition. Thus, from behind bars in high-security prisons, they have persevered in their moral resistance against their Communist jailers, and by so fighting they have become tiny but very annoying stones inside the boots of the Castrist Wolves.2.
The stones were tiny. However, they were hard enough to halt the march of the Wolves who were forced to take off their boots temporarily in order to shake them off and try to toss the stones as far away as possible.3.
In their effort to take off the boots and get rid of the tiny stones, unfortunately the Wolves were helped by the Shepherds, especially by Cardinal Ortega, from La Habana. Those Shepherds took advantage of the halt in order to make up the Wolves' skin, thus temporarily transforming them into innocent Little Red Riding Hoods.4.
Almost all tiny stones were tossed across the other side of the Atlantic, namely into Spain. As they fell on Spanish soil, they started to speak up - to the surprise of many - revealing truths much to the discomfort of the Wolves, Little Red Riding Hoods and collaborationist Shepherds.5.
"Our liberation was part of Castro's strategy to lessen the pressure both inside and outside Cuba". Such were the warning words of former prisoner Fidel Suárez to the leaders of the European Union, in an attempt to stop the latter from being fooled by measures of political make-up. Mr. Suárez spent seven years confined and tortured in Aguica high-security prison, one of the worst ill-famed jails in Cuba.6.
Brazil's President Lula, he himself being a Little Red Riding Hood a la Brazilian, has been one of the most internationally criticized and blamed for the Cuban tragedy. Former political prisoner Julio César Gálvez put it bluntly: "We cannot forget that Lula has always been Fidel Castro's friend and that he never supported the restoration of freedom in Cuba". It comes to no surprise that Mr. Gálvez and other political prisoners considered it an insult when Lula compared Cuba's political prisoners to São Paulo's regular criminals."Lula declared being happy with our liberation, but we would have been happier if he had interceded for Orlando Zapata Tamayo", added former political prisoner Omar Rodríguez Saludes. Mr. Zapata died out of hunger and thirst in a Castrist dungeon while Lula had just arrived for a visit in Cuba. "Lula was shaking Fidel and Raul Castro's hands while Zapata was agonizing and he did not raise his voice to save the political prisoner's life. He allied himself to crime and not to justice", concluded Mr. Rodríguez.
7.
Even Ms. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's newly elected President, has not been spared by former political prisoners' statements. "Brazil's new President shall advocate for the Cuban people the same freedom she would promote for her own people if Brazil had been in our situation", stated Dagoberto Valdés.8.
By the way, as we deal about heroic tiny stones, a special mention must be made in honor to Cuba's dissident "Ladies in White", as well as to the mothers, wives and daughters of Cuba's former and current political prisoners.9.
New generations of Cuban former political prisoners, especially those that have just left for exile, are playing a most important role in the defense of freedom in Cuba, the Americas, and even further, in countries such as Venezuela and China. Those exiles have the key historical vocation to multiply the tiny stones so that many mosaics are built on behalf of freedom. They have the vocation to be like modern-day Davids who, from the depths of the exile, may fight with their voice and pen for the sake of the truth, as much as possible side by side with historical figures of the Cuban political penitentiary, such as the poet and writer Armando Valladares. They ought to be like modern-day Davids who hit Cuban Goliaths and Wolves from head to toe - and tear away the masks of the Little Red Riding Hoods. Modern-day Davids called to constitute a reference point, a group of spokesmen for those with no voice in Cuba, always ready to fight by straightforwardly denouncing things that Big Bad Wolves, Little Red Riding Hoods and collaborationist Shepherds are willing to cover up or remain silent about.