CUBA: Cuba frees longest-serving political prisoner Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez

Cuba's longest-serving political prisoner is released after 13 years, but continues to speak out against the government and advocate for change. Prison hasn't appeared to temper the views of Cuba's longest serving political prisoner, who was released over the weekend. Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez spent more than 13 years in jail and was freed on Friday (August 10). In an interview with Reuters, fifty-four-year-old Chaviano said his release didn't mean much in terms of the Cuban government's tolerance for dissidents. "They [the government] have not done anything. There has not been a relaxing [of restrictions]. My release does not mean that they [the government] have diminished repression or that they want to, no," he said. Chaviano was arrested in May 1994, convicted of revealing state security secrets and sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in a statement. He was released on parole. The former mathematics professor, dissident and human rights activist was listed by Amnesty International as one of Cuba's 72 prisoners of conscience. Despite his imprisonment, he said he is determined to see change in Cuba. In fact, he wants voters to literally cast a ballot for the word "Change" in the next round of elections. "Promoting change, that the people take advantage of the elections [referring to elections in February 2008] and, independent of what happens. That is, if they vote for some candidate of government, [the people] understand that the situation of the country should change, they must say it to the government in some way. Putting the word [in the vote], "Cambio" ["Change"], putting a "C" in a way that each one understands what should be said to the government, what they have failed to change. I think that we should say it because if not the tragedy that we have lived through for almost 49 years will continue," he explained. He added that the Cuban people are going to have to take matters into their hands because the government is not going to do much. "Truly we need it [change] and we are at the moment of when it should occur. Now, truly the Castros are stubborn and the are not in the mood to make this change. But, well, the rest - I believe the country is not for them [the Castros]. This country belongs to the Cubans," he said. One of the main stumbling blocks to the dissident movement is the lack of media access, Chaviano argued. He explained that Fidel Castro took full advantage of the media when he launched his revolution, whether good press or bad. "When Fidel launched the Revolution, it was done in the Cuban media. It was on Cuban television where the concerns of the revolutionaries - Fidel Castro and his followers - came out. It was in the written media, on television, on radio where they spoke constantly of him, in one way or the other, to criticize him, to applaud him. In one moment, looked at with criticism, but still talking about him, with limitations, but they talked about him. And well, all these spaces of communication have closed [to the opposition]. They [the government] doesn't allow anything to be spoken, absolutely nothing against the government," he said. The Cuban government denies there are political prisoners in Cuba and labels all dissidents "counter-revolutionary mercenaries" on the payroll of its arch-enemy, the United States. Former political prisoners and relatives of currently jailed dissidents denounced jail conditions at a meeting at the residence of the top U.S. diplomat in Havana last week. They complained of the lack of medical care, overcrowding, bad food and inadequate drinking water. They said common criminals were treated better than political prisoners.

ITN Source | August 14, 2007

Tags:. .blocks. .written. .jailed. .professor. .absolutely