Cuba
Responds to Rough Lies on 75 Imprisoned Mercenaries
Havana, March 25 (AIN) Cuba responded on Thursday to rough lies on
imprisonment conditions and medical treatment of 75 mercenaries condemned to jail for
having worked at the service of the US government, which paid them and gave them
instructions.
In a two-hour press conference, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque presented, in
the traditional Cuban objective and serious way, views on the issue, which has been
extensively been exploited on the basis of all kinds of false statements and lies.
In a meeting with the local press and 63 reporters from 50 international media outlets
from 22 countries, the Cuban Foreign Minister exposed the new defamatory campaign against
the country’s rights to self-determination and enforce its laws.
"Cuba—said Perez Roque—has the right to defend itself and apply punishment
just like other nations do, like the United States punishes those who cooperate with a
foreign power to inflict damage on their people and territory.
This country will not murder or torture anyone; it will not use violence, but it will
enforce its laws", stressed Perez Roque.
He pointed out that there are seven lies in the current anti-Cuba crusade and he went on
to denounce them.
He said that it is false that the 75 persons, a woman and 74 men, are in solitary
confinement, in walled cells, or that they have been beaten, or have not received medical
assistance or family visits.
Perez Roque also rejected a repeated lie that the prisoners are not receiving appropriate
food, that they have no drinking water and that they live under sanitary conditions that
are incompatible with life.
In that regards, the Cuban Foreign Minister stressed that Cuba as well as penitentiary
authorities meet the minimum UN requirements for the treatment of prisoners.
Perez Roque also referred to the 16 rights enjoyed by those persons, such as a bed with a
mattress, access to drinking water, access to reading the press, daily sun and fresh air,
toilet items and required uniforms.
They are also allowed to watch TV in common areas, receive religious service, enough and
appropriate food (over 2000 kilocalories), despite limitations imposed on the island by
the US economic blockade.
Perez Roque said that the prisoners are offered free medical assistance of high humane and
scientific level, disregarding their political ideas and their behavior,
while every three months they receive family visits and have relation with their spouses
every five months.
Each one of them, Perez Roque said, receives food and books brought in by their relatives
with whom they have mail communication and phone conversations (100 minutes a month where
conditions are available). They can also be benefited
by the current progressive rules according to their behavior as established by the
penitentiary system.
The Cuban Foreign Minister used irony as he addressed alleged concern by US Secretary of
State Colin Powel on alleged bad conditions facing these US paid agents.
He urged Powel to better devote his time to give a response on the concentration camp
raised at the illegal US naval based in Guantanamo, where there are thousands of arrested
persons with no previous trial as part of the US antiterrorist campaign and on the
impressing mistreatment given to Iraqi prisoners.
As antecedents of Cuba’s transparent behavior in the enforcement of its laws, Perez
Roque underscored 12 characteristics of the trials to which the counterrevolutionaries
were submitted, which did not use violence at all, not even the slightest force in their
arrest.
He said the trials had summary character, implying shorter terms but guaranteeing their
constitutional rights, while the defendants previously learned of the charges imposed on
them and had the opportunity to make a statement on them before hearings.
"All of them --he said--, use their right to have a defense attorney; some 54 lawyers
played that role, only 10 of them were appointed, while they were processed and listened
to by ordinary civilian tribunals that were previously set up.
He added that all 29 oral hearings were public and contradictory with the attendance of
nearly 3000 persons and relatives.
Perez Roque said that all the accused and their defense attorneys contributed proofs and
witnesses they considered convenient, and they had access to the records of their cause,
which was different from what happened with the five Cuban political prisoners in the
Unites States, whose defense team has not had access to 80% of the proofs presented by the
prosecutors since they were declared secret.
The prisoners also had the opportunity to appeal a higher court, in that case the Cuban
Supreme Court, said Perez Roque who explained that a dozen of them are still appealing
their sentences.
He said that confiscation of items were made under judicial warrant and after proving
their illegal origin; the process was carried out with strict respect to physical and
moral integrity of the accused, which was recognized by some of
them in voluntary statements.
The Cuban Foreign Minster said that there was not the slightest sign of pressure, threat,
intimidation or blackmail to have their statements, and he said if someone
has any proof against that he or she must present it.
He rejected statements that the prisoners are renowned Cuban intellectuals, since 93% of
them were jobless, only 33% of them were university graduates, including two journalists,
while 20 % of them have criminal records such as robbery with the use of force, economic
crimes and drug trafficking.
He said that it is completely false the statement that these persons are outstanding Cuban
intellectuals, as a representative of Europe recently said.
Perez Roque asserted that these campaigns against the island are nothing new in this field
and he recalled the well-known case of the Batista follower and terrorist
Armando Valladares who was condemned for blasting bombs in Havana and who pretended to be
a poor and crippled poet in jail.
Valladares—said Perez Roque—was exposed later by life when it was proved that he
was neither one thing nor the other.
Finally, the Cuban Foreign Minister presented the testimony by doctors Felix Baez Sarria
and Annette Alvarez Perea, first degree specialists at the Carlos Juan Finlay hospital,
who are in charge of offering medical assistance to prisoners Oscar Espinosa Chepe and
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello respectively and whom anti-Cuba propaganda attributes
mistreatment and medical negligence.
Both doctors contributed convincing information on the healthy conditions of their
patients, particularly Chepe who is not suffering from cancer or hepatic cirrhosis as it
was falsely spread abroad.
Meanwhile, Roque Cabello is not suffering from breast cancer or an ischemic heart disease
either, though she does suffer from a breast development disorder and some risky factors
due to overweight, high blood pressure and diabetes type two, which are diseases that can
be controlled with the use of systematic medications at the hospital where she is.
The press conference concluded with the running of videos of close relatives of some of
the 75 mercenaries who voluntarily speak about the correct and respectful
treatment given to the prisoners; some of them have undergone surgery due to minor
diseases and have recovered satisfactorily.
The Cuban Foreign Minister stressed the respect to the prisoners´ physical and moral
integrity, since they have been treated as human beings.
He stressed that they have not been treated with any revenge feelings for their
contribution to the policy of an enemy. "We practice ethics that does not allow us to
violate such principles", said Perez Roque who challenged the called on the foreign
press to tell such truth in an objective way.
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