after requesting to see letters and cards of solidarity that had been sent to him from around the world, BosNewslife monitored Thursday July 15.
In a statement released via the ASSIST News Service (ANS) Human Rights Watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said 39-year old Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (Antnez), had been "thrown to the floor of the prison, kicked and beaten." Antnez, who has already served 14 years in jail and is recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, had both of his arms shackled and then pulled in opposite directions, resulting in bleeding from the neck and sustained difficulties in breathing, CSW said.
News about his alleged torture came just days after one of Cuba’s most known Christian dissidents, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, urged family and friends to pray with him amid fears he may die of starvation as prison officials apparently denied him food for about three weeks.
"Since June 17 I haven’t had any food brought to me, practically forcing me to be on a hunger strike. No one has given me an explanation for this, not even the prison director," he wrote in a letter smuggled out of prison. It is unclear whether his situation has changed. "I am praying to God so that this situation is resolved in the best manner possible. I ask you, my mother and my friends to read Psalm 11. I have the spiritual sustenance and the strength that God provides to all those who love him in justice and truth, he wrote.
RIGHTS GROUPS
Human rights groups say the growing pressure on dissidents are an attempt by the Castro-regime to crackdown on a growing grass-root pro democracy movement in the mainly Communist nation. The attack against Antnez came after he asked prison guards to give letters and cards he had received from around the world to his sister, CSW quoted his sister as saying.
"According to Berta Antnez, the attack began when Jorge Luis questioned the official’s actions and said he would not remain silent about such injustice." In a distributed statement she said that "the threats and beatings continue in the prisons, as does the jailing of more activists. Our family and our lives are in serious danger.".
CSW has urged the European Union and the UK government to communicate their concern to the Cuban government, ANS reported. "The EU and UK must denounce these actions in the strongest possible terms. The Cuban prison officials responsible should be removed immediately from their positions, " said Tina Lambert, Advocacy Director at CSW.
THOUSANDS SEND LETTERS
Thousands of CSW supporters in the UK and in other countries reportedly regularly send letters of encouragement to prisoners like Antnez, and the organization said these letters are "a vital link" for the prisoner with the outside world. Born October 10, 1964, he began fighting the Communist regime at an early age. Antnez was arrested on March 15, 1990 on charges of "verbal enemy propaganda" for shouting "We don’t want communism, we need reforms!", in a public square during a live broadcast of the inauguration of the Fourth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party.
Human rights investigators say he has been confined to punishment cells and that frequent beatings have lead to bone fractures and that he is suffering from kidney failure caused by hypoglycemia. Born October 10, 1964. "Inside prison he suffered repeated beatings by the prison guards for his refusals to participate in mandatory Marxist "re-education," CSW said.
In the Autumn of 1992 he was transferred to a labor camp. While there he requested permission to visit his mother who was on her deathbed in a hospital only 5 km from the camp. "This permission was denied and in his desperation he escaped to see her. Security agents apprehended him the following day at the home of a friend and, as a punishment, set police dogs on him while he was handcuffed," CSW reported. "In May 1993 he was sentenced to 10 more years on top of the original 5 for "enemy propaganda" and "intent to inflict damage on government property."
A DECADE PRISON
During the ten years he has spent in prison he has consistently denounced the torture and other inhumane treatment which prisoners are forced to endure at the hands of the guards. He, along with two other prisoners, founded the Pedro Luis Boitel National Movement for Civil Resistance, which seeks to record and denounce maltreatment of political prisoners and to promote passive resistance amongst prisoners. In retaliation, the authorities have repeatedly confiscated his Bible and denied him water, medical attention and clothes, CSW said.
Antnez has also been confined in solitary confinement in a "tapiada" – a tiny, sealed cell with no light or bedding, typically overflowing with excrement and infested with rats and insects, CSW claimed. He has repeatedly gone on hunger strikes to draw attention to the prisoners’ plight, and his health has suffered enormously, human rights watchdogs say.
During the Papal visit to Cuba in 1998, the Pope included Antnez’s name on the list of political prisoners for whose freedom he was petitioning. Amnesty International has also repeatedly petitioned for his release. He remains in prison, however, and is now held in the Convenedor del Este in Havana. Some 70 human rights activists were arrested in Cuba last year as part of a massive crackdown on dissidents and pro-democracy activists, including Christians.
