MADRID, Spain.- This January 10 marks the 16th anniversary of the death of the independent Cuban journalist Miguel Valdés Tamayo, one of the 75 detained and sentenced by the Castro government during the Black Spring.
In the summary trials carried out by the regime against peaceful opponents, Valdés Tamayo was sentenced to 15 years in prison, accused of treason against the country, sovereignty and national integrity, for founding the Fraternal Brothers for Dignity movement.
He was released in 2004 on extra-penal leave for health problems, including serious heart conditions, which led to his death in 2007.
After his release, Miguel Valdés Tamayo declared: “They have released me because they know that my state of health is broken, that my body is sick.”
The dissident and human rights defender died at the age of fifty of a cardiac arrest at the Julio Trigo hospital in Havana.
After her death, opposition member Martha Beatriz Roque announced that three days of mourning would be dedicated to her with a black ribbon on her arm.
In statements to AFP, Roque expressed: “We are calling for three days of mourning for this dissident, we hold the Cuban government responsible for this situation because, despite knowing about his state of health, it did not allow him to leave Cuba, he had a visa for the Netherlands and for the United States. (…) He was cruel by the Cuban government, he was a person harassed by this regime and this harassment brings this as a consequence, it can happen to any of us from the opposition ”.
In March 2003 Fidel Castro unleashed the crackdown wave known as Black Spring. In just over 48 hours, 75 peaceful opponents were jailed, many of them journalists.
After very summary trials, the regime handed down lengthy and unfair prison sentences against them.
After this barbarism, a large part of the left and the world intelligentsia distanced themselves from Castroism.
The event was condemned by several European countries, Pope John Paul II and organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.
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