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IN CUBA, PRISON OFFICIAL THREATENS TO KILL INCARCERATED BLIND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ LEIVA - Determined to continue a fast he began on September 4, 2002, protesting his situation

Wife of blind lawyer intimidated by prison officials with arrest for publicly condemning her husband's situation
NOVEMBER 8, 2002

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a blind lawyer and human rights activist incarcerated since March 4, 2002, was threatened by Mayor Faguo, a top official at the State Security Prison in Holguin, Cuba. The prison official told him "they would not put up with counter-revolutionaries" and that "if they had to kill him they would. " The blind prisoner, awaiting trial, is accused by Cuban authorities of common crimes for protesting peacefully the beating of a fellow human rights activist by the political police.

According to the testimony of Maritza Calderin, wife of Gonzalez Leiva, prison officials are blaming her for the recent harsh treatment imposed upon her husband, due to the public comments she provided about him through "a short-wave enemy radio station". Because of this, prison officials told Mrs. Calderin that her husband Juan Carlos would never be liberated as long as she continues pronouncing herself publicly on behalf of her husband.

Prison conditions have worsen for Gonzalez Leiva: a bed provided when ex-president Carter visited Cuba in May was taken away and replaced with a small bed with a hard mattress, and a common prisoner has been placed in his cell once again. In addition, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva has been told he will no longer be considered an "individual case" but as "a problem of the state".

For denouncing her husband's case publicly, Maritza Calderin is also being threatened with arrest and incarceration by prison officials who told her they would apply Gag Law 88 against her "for informing the enemy."

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva's health is presently in danger, due to a liquid fast he began September 4, 2002 and is determined to continue to protest the accusations held against him and the other nine human rights activist involved in his case. Using a Bible text as reference, the blind prisoner is only wearing black clothes and shaved his beard and head to manifest his mourning, objecting the injustices committed in Cuba.

Maritza Calderin told prison officials that they are physically and mentally destroying her husband, and as long as he is unjustly imprisoned and tortured, she will continue to openly report his case to the world.

Information obtained via telephone from Cuba. Recorded, transcribed, and translated in the USA
Coalition of Cuban-American Women/ LAIDA CARRO

Statement smuggled out of Cuba
You want heroes? Ill give you another one: Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a blind lawyer who has been beaten, tortured, and held prisoner in Castro's Cuba since March 4. They even took away his Braille Bible, swell guys. Mr. Gonzalez is president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, and also of the Fraternity for the Blind. He is incarcerated in the State Security Operations Unit at Holguin. Recently, a statement of his was smuggled out via his wife, Maritza Calderin Columbie.

I hesitate to stick a toe in embargo politics, but let me share with you the closing paragraphs of his statement:

When my house was searched on March 8, four days after my detention, all documents of the [human-rights association] were taken, along with the resolutions adopted at the 2nd Congress, where I was democratically elected. Included in these resolutions was the agreement, arrived at by ten organizations representing nine provinces, that the U.S. must not lift the embargo against Cuba.

LIFTING THE EMBARGO WOULD MEAN OXYGEN FOR THIS CRIMINAL TYRANNY AND THE CONTINUATION OF THE MISERY OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE. THIS WAS NOT MY OWN PERSONAL PETITION, BUT THE REQUEST OF ALL THOSE PRESENT AT THE CONGRESS. I REALIZE THIS STATEMENT WILL PLACE MY LIFE IN GREAT DANGER BUT I LOVE CUBA AND I WISH TO HELP SAVE HER.

Thank you so very much. May God bless you all. The statement is addressed to the international community, Congress, President Bush, the EU, etc., my Homeland, America and the World.

Surely a blind human-rights activist horribly tortured in Castro's dungeons should be heard just a wee bit, dont you think?

Castro is always heard, including through Barbara Walters. Shes interviewing him again, for broadcast on Friday night. Human-rights groups are sick about it, in advance. Walters, like most of the Western media the free media has had a perverse romance with this tyrant for years. There is nothing to be done: but after the liberation, maybe these people will be a little ashamed. Or maybe they wont.

Armando Valladares (Against All Hope) says itll be like the post-Nazi period, when scales fell from eyes, re death camps, etc. Dont count on it. Mao Tse-tung is still being praised on American campuses.

Excerpt from an article written by journalist Jay Nordlinger and published October 10, 2002 in National Review Online.
http://www.nationalreview.com