CUBA: Cuban dissident, freed after 17 years in jail, says he will work with the current opposition movement to oppose Castro

Record ID: 369411

  • Title: CUBA: Cuban dissident, freed after 17 years in jail, says he will work with the current opposition movement to oppose Castro
  • Date: 26th April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JORGE LUIS GARCIA PEREZ 'ANTUNEZ', FREED DISSIDENT WHO SPENT 17 YEARS IN JAIL, SAYING: "Now I have to learn from current experiences. I need to relate, to familiarize myself with the new methods of the opposition's fight and then insert myself in that. That will be my path, above all with the support and solidarity of those who remained behind bars."
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7L5U092FL422P29TE3EW4Q9MB
  • Story Text: Cuban dissident, freed after 17 years in jail, says he will work with the current opposition movement to oppose Castro. Jorge Luis Garcia Antunez, one of Cuba's longest-serving political prisoners, stepped free after serving his full prison term of 17 years and 34 days.
    Antunez, now 42, went home to Placetas in central Cuba on Sunday (April 22) and headed for the cemetery where his mother was buried while he was jailed.
    He said he had completed his sentence and believes the release of several dissidents over the past few days was a political manoeuvre.
    "The political prisoners who were freed a few hours ago also completed their sentence. So what happened?" he said. "In the framework of the context of (Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel) Moratinos' visit, or the problem of the new commission of the council of human rights and those things, the government could use this strategically for its image."
    Antunez was 25 when he was jailed for spreading "enemy propaganda" after he grabbed the microphone on a stage during a musical recital in Placetas and began shouting slogans against President Fidel Castro.
    Antunez also was convicted of sabotage after authorities accused him of setting fire to sugar cane fields, a charge of violence that he denied but which meant he was not considered a prisoner of conscience by international rights groups.
    He said that his long term means he will have to learn many new things, but he clearly plans to continue opposing the current government.
    "Now I have to learn from current experiences. I need to relate, to familiarize myself with the new methods of the opposition's fight and then insert myself in that. That will be my path, above all with the support and solidarity of those who remained behind bars," he said.
    Other dissidents have called Antunez Cuba's Nelson Mandela because he was the longest-serving jailed black opponent of Cuba's communist government.
    Antunez continued to rebel in prison, where he founded a political prisoner group named after Pedro Luis Boitel, a jailed dissident who died in a hunger strike in 1972. He wrote a book on prison conditions in Cuba called "Boitel Lives."
    As he looks ahead, he said he believes Castro's death will bring changes in Cuba.
    "The disappearance of Castro's political scene (meaning Castro's death) is going to bring change-- and by change I don't mean specifically mean a change in the political system. Why do I say it will bring change? Because I am convinced, I am fully convinced, that there are many Cubans and many people inside the government and close to the spheres of power, who are less orthodox, people who want, shall we say, to break the hostility some with that false enemy of imperialism and those things. It will open the door some, (albeit) a bit timidly but it will open it," he said.
    Human rights activists say there are some 280 Cubans in prison for political reasons.
    The government says there are no political prisoners and labels dissidents "counter-revolutionaries" and "mercenaries" who are on the payroll of its enemy, the United States, to undermine socialism in Cuba.
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