Cuban prisoner of conscience, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, was arrested March 18, 2003, as part of the “black spring” roundup of 75 journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents. He was convicted under the abhorrent and arbritary Law 88 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Internet is a powerful instrument, disseminating information of a quantity and kind that is almost unimaginable in its volume, from the trivial, to important world events. But this my friends is staggering; in spite of all the oppressive tactics used by the regime, with a little help from friends, Pablo is blogging from the gulag. If you have not yet seen this, prepare yourself, reading it almost brought me to my knees. Go now and read his beautiful blog, Vos tras las rejas – Voice through the bars, in English here, and in Spanish, here.
And from his blog, this graphic requires no commentary:
A huge thanks to Capital Hill Cubans for bringing this to our attention. Read their quote of the week by Pablo here.
Robert Molleda’s “polite” remarks to Castro disturb me because his tone should reflect what is happening to this brave prisoner of conscience.
It is inappropriate to be courteous to the animals that locked up this eloquent and audacious young man.
It is also worth reading Sharansky’s The Case for Democracy, which I wish he had instead entitled The Case for Liberty.
In this book Sharansky tells how news would get to the Gulag. New prisoners would bring the latest that they heard. So when Reagan called the USSR the Evil Empire, the prisoners all found out he said that through a unique intercom system and it gave them so much heart to go on.
What was this system? They would put their heads down the toilets in the Gulag and talk to each other through them. You can imagine what this must have been like. I don’t think their toilets came with room service, if you get my drift.
No internet. No one to take messages to the outside world. But at least they had their own intercom system.
I meant Andy Gomez, not Molleda. sorry about that.