[Peace-discuss] The Death of Irony

[David Green]

Chicago Tribune Editorial

The gulag next door

November 9, 2004

What goes for justice in Cuba is nothing if not swift.
The trial of Raul Rivero Castaneda began on March 20,
2003, and ended 10 days later, when he was sentenced
to 20 years in prison. The government-appointed
defense attorney didn't call any witnesses. A feeble
appeal was quashed immediately. Rivero, 59, now sits
in a stiflingly small cell with a hole in the floor
for a makeshift toilet.

Rivero's crime was that he had published, at his own
expense, three issues of a small magazine dealing with
social issues, culture and art. It was an exceedingly
modest effort; the quality of the printing was
terrible. By the time the third issue appeared,
though, Rivero was in prison.

Fidel Castro is well-known for his disregard for human
rights and due process of law. What's not as
well-recognized is his exquisite sense of timing.
Castro can act to draw maximum attention within his
country and abroad, and he can time events so almost
nobody notices.

Castro's most recent crackdown on as many as 80
dissidents, including 29 journalists, began the day
before the invasion of Iraq by the United States and
its allies in 2003.

Castro apparently calculated that the thunder of war
from halfway across the world, the rush of headlines
and non-stop coverage of Iraq would drown out the
moans of another wave of repression on his island.
It's a calculation that has been working for nearly
half a century.

The dissidents were charged with "acts against the
independence and territorial integrity of the state;"
75 people were sentenced, after flash trials, to up to
27 years and shuttled off to prisons scattered all
over Cuba. Rivero ended up in a remote prison in
Canaleta, Ciego de Avila, in the northern middle of
the island.

"The real problem is that according to the government,
everything is red, when in reality the world is full
of yellows, blues and countless other colors,"
Rivero's son, Jose, recently told journalists at a
meeting in Guatemala.

Castro's calculation hasn't been entirely successful.
Rivero's tragedy has not gone completely unnoticed. In
March, UNESCO awarded him the Guillermo Cano World
Prize for Press Freedom. And despite the grave risk
they run, independent Cuban journalists keep sending
courageous reports via fax and telephone.

In March 2003, as the world's eyes focused elsewhere,
freedom of expression in Cuba was assaulted by Fidel
Castro. It was not extinguished, and it never will be.

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune 



		
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