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Letters
Letter from Juan Carlos González Leiva to Bishop
John H. Ricard
Chair of the Internacional Policy Committee of the US Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
Ciego de Avila, Cuba
August 12, 2004
Bishop John H. Ricard
Chair of the Internacional Policy Committee of the US Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
Honorable Sir:
It is a great pleasure for me to greet you and wish you blessings of
peace, love, and hope in the glorious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The purpose of this letter is to let you know that, in spite of the
tight censorship to which we Cubans are subjected, I have been able to
read the communiqué of this past July 27th about Cuba from the committee
over which you preside in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Because of the importance of the subject, I must respond to you from my
position as a Cuban, a blind lawyer who continues to suffer the
consequences of twenty-six long months of imprisonment and physical and
psychological tortures that were carried out upon me day after day by
Cuban military personnel. I respond to you as well as President of the
Cuban Foundation of Human Rights, an organization that proclaims those
rights which are based in Christianity and whose creation resulted in my
imprisonment.
It was the second Congress of this organization, held on February 9,
2002, on a farm in La Juana, Piedrecitas, in the province of Camagüey,
and in which 114 human rights activists participated, that not only
expressed its total backing and support of the US embargo against the
Cuban government but also requested the stiffening and the hardening of
the policy of the European Union and other countries of the
international community toward Cuba.
It became quite clear to the participants in this conclave that the only
protection that we human rights activists and independent journalists in
Cuba have is, precisely, public opinion, the international community,
and their methods of pressure or punishment against tyrannies.
Freedom and democracy for Cuba will not come to us from American
citizens or by means of people to people contacts. From within the
island, our own strengths and our own weaknesses must take each other
on, and in the end, the former will prevail.
I appreciate the generous efforts of all human beings of any nationality
to help our country. As such, I appreciate yours in the name of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, although in my opinion, they are
completely mistaken. The lifting of the embargo and its subsequent
flexibility will not help to bring about solutions or improvements for
us Cubans. American business has not brought about any freedom in China.
We cannot confuse freedom with the fish of the Israelite’s during their
slavery in Egypt.
This politics of erratic methods that dig the grave of our freedoms,
rights, and power to reach our goals only succeeds in underpinning and
supplying oxygen to a tyrannical regime on its deathbed and in further
prolonging the martyrdom of an entire nation.
JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ LEIVA
President of the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights under House Arrest.
Testimony given over the telephone from Cuba by Juan Carlos González
Leiva.
Address: Honorato del Castillo #154, entre República y Cuba, Ciego de
Avila, Cuba. Tel: +53-33-222235
Taped and transcribed by Laida Carro,
President-Coalition of Cuban-American Women/ E-mail:
Joseito76@aol.com
Translation: Tanya Wilder, Human Rights Committee, Coalition of
Cuban-American Women/ E-mail:
tswilder@charter.net
Website on Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva -
www.jcgl-cfhr.info
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