Havana Cuba. – On February 2 of this year, I underwent eye surgery at the “Ramón Pando Ferrer” Ophthalmological Hospital in Havana, known as the “League Against Blindness.” We tried to handle the previous preparations with the utmost discretion, fearing that State Security could intercede to, for example, cause me permanent blindness.
It was not paranoia, it is no secret to anyone that political police officers have even caused the death of political opponents. An emblematic case is that of the leader of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollan, who in 2011 was admitted to the “Calixto García” Hospital for an alleged viral infection and died shortly after. To date, the cause of death remains cloudy.
Right at the moment when it was my turn to enter the salon, I had to postpone the surgery, due to sudden interruption of electrical service throughout the hospital. The emergency plant kept the equipment in the room running, but not perfectly. At the last minute, and since the conditions were not guaranteed, the doctor decided to suspend my operation. A simple sudden power cut in the middle of the intervention could have caused some irreversible damage.
Even so, and trusting that it could have been a coincidence, we decided to attend the following week to finally have surgery. This time there were no complications. But, without knowing it, at the exit of the room was a political police officer who took the photos that I am now sharing and that were published on social networks by an unidentified user. I don’t know if they tried any other maneuver or if they had to do with the power outage the week before, but This post made from a Facebook page ―who for some time has been dedicating himself to defaming various opponents and independent journalists― exposes the danger to which ―unknowingly― I was subjected.
In the photos I find myself leaving the operating room, guided by my mother because I could hardly open my eyes. In addition to the photos, my use of medical services in Cuba was questioned, since I have affirmed on several occasions that Cuba is a failed state, which I maintain.
It is because of this situation that I make the current complaint public because, otherwise, both my surgery and issues related to my personal life would be inconsequential.
If I had surgery in Cuba, it is because, first of all, the repressive organs do not allow me to travel abroad. But, fundamentally, because medical assistance is a right recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and even by the Cuban Constitution. Health services are not a prerogative of power or the government in power, much less an ideological benefit or an achievement of the so-called Cuban Revolution.
Both the “terrible” health services and education and other so-called “achievements of the Revolution” are not free; Several generations of Cubans have paid dearly for them with their slavery, misery and lack of freedoms, while the Castros and the military leadership live like millionaires.
However, I would not have tried to go outside the country to operate. So far this year I have been invited to travel to at least two countries: the United States and Colombia, to present the book that I recently published with the Primigenios publishing house. Despite not knowing if my ban on leaving the country currently persists, I have declined both invitations. I’m not interested in traveling, I’m not interested in leaving Cuba; In order to do so, I know that I would first have to reach an agreement with the political police, at least develop an implicit agreement to “behave well” so that they “reward” me. But I refuse to, I refuse to give in.
I also don’t want to travel because, if I did, I know that it would represent a definitive farewell to Cuba. The political police in recent years have implemented a kind of cleansing of the country, banishing those who are uncomfortable; Some have their exit “regulation” removed and then they are not allowed to return, as happened with Anamely Ramos and Omara Ruiz Urquiola.
In the almost four years that I have been working as an independent journalist in Cuba, I have been turned into a target of constant attacks by the Cuban repressive organs: defamations, arrests, interrogations, evictions from homes, threats to both me and my family, intrusions in my personal and family life, false accusations of common crimes, as well as the “regulation” of leaving the country (the euphemism coined by State Security to refer to the prohibition to leave the Island).
As part of my work, I not only question the Cuban social reality but also those responsible for the misery, repression and human rights violations in Cuba: the communist dictatorship of the Castros and their henchmen. I do it because, in addition to being honesty part of my profession, it is up to the press to expose and monitor political power.
This work, and the corresponding harassment by the political police, makes the work of independent Cuban journalists distinctive: we are not just reporters but also human rights activists. Our work and exposure to repressive actions, within the longest-serving socialist tyranny in our hemisphere, becomes an act of resistance and rebellion.
But, despite all the outrages, never before had I felt my physical integrity so exposed as until now. When I saw the photographs that were taken of me when I left the hospital, I remembered the cases of Laura Pollán and Xiomara Cruz Miranda, a lady in white who is also presumed to be you they inoculated a bacterium being in prison, which almost leads to her death. The name of Harold Ceperowho, according to the former political prisoner and current leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) Regis Iglesias, arrived alive at the hospital after a alleged accident (which would have been orchestrated by State Securityaccording to various sources).
With these photos, State Security sent a message and a threat: that all Cubans are in their hands and that they can make or end our lives whenever they want.
Even so, even if they call me crazy or naive, even if they continue with the blackmail, intimidation and discredit, I cling even more to this land and my profession. Doing journalism and activism in Cuba, even facing death, is the closest thing to being a war correspondent: the risk is high, but our enormous responsibility to truth, justice and freedom makes up for it.
I hereby expose any threat or harm to my health or life. But I won’t give up. Only God knows and will arrange the end of my existence, I am not afraid or ashamed of anything as long as he is consistent and faithful to my principles. Let them, the infamous and perverse Cuban political police, worry, because the impunity they enjoy today will sooner or later become justice, and then they will pay for all the damage they have done.
OPINION ARTICLE
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