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Between 1977 and 1978, after the Cuban regime allowed the controlled entry of Cuban citizens living abroad, the famous “Flights of the Community”, the dictatorship of Fidel Castro began talking with people and groups abroad, including public interviews such as that of the well-known American journalist Barbara Walters and a group of Cubans based in Miami, called “The Committee of the 100″, thus beginning the negotiation process for the departure of Cuban political prisoners. Cuba’s totalitarian government, having in advance decided what it wanted to do, agreed to allow the first pardons, leaving for last the most rebellious, the so-called PLANTADOS, who were being released depending on their conviction. All prisoners waited for their freedom vehemently, no matter the price; for the 138 of the firing squad, united in a head-on struggle with the Cubans Government and endorse with blood of fellow Cuban that were executed in the firing squad, maimed, resentenced and mistreated, negotiating with Castro’s regime, was and impossible task: ¡not even their freedom was to be negotiated!
Thus, a letter was written at Combinado del Este, a well-known prison in Havana, by a group of THE PLANTADOS responding to the well-known Dialogue. It was published in several newspapers in countries of the free world.
www.LosPlantados.com
DECLARATION OF CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA, THEIR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN IN EXILE AND TO THE WORLD.
October 10th, 1978 -East Havana Prison on the 100th anniversary of the Baragua Protest.
We, the undersigned, political prisoners who have resisted without claudication for almost twenty years the most oppressive and abusive prison in America throughout its history, from a position of rebellion, consolidated by a rosary of martyrs who spilled their high share of blood, sacrifices and humiliations, offer the following response, informed and convinced that the question of our possible release is being used as a deceptive manipulation. By this mean, on this historic date, we clearly and precisely state our position:
FIRST: We advocate for the freedom of all political prisoners, without exclusion and for the reunification of Cuban families. For this, only an order is needed that a) opens the barded doors of all the Cuban prisons so that the women and men who are members of this presidium and who have suffered so much can meet with their families and b) also authorize Cubans residing in the national territory or abroad, the entry and exit of the country they have been requesting, or to do so in the future, to join their respective family members temporarily or definitively. For none of these measures do we have to engaged in a dialogue. Let the government speak with concrete facts if it wants to rectify its policy of dispersal of the Cuban family.
The, Government of Cuba, has little moral strength to summon a dialogue, as they have sown mourning and hatred in Cuban households and have arbitrarily divided and kept the Cuban family apart.
SECOND: We repudiate a dialogue between Castro’s Government and the supposed representatives of the Cuban exile, a dialogue after experiencing the horrors, outrages and manipulative games characteristic of the regime, is nothing more than a farce mounted by Mr. Castro with the purpose of deceiving the people of Cuba and the world at large; and especially it is intended to deceive and divide the exile community with hollow words of peace and conciliation when in reality they are feeding subtly discourse among Cubans and an undertow of hate. This makes it impossible to live under their despotic conditions on patriotic ground, it is also the reason why our countrymen found refuge and raised their families and homes on other lands.
THIRD: We also repudiate any kind of dialogue or commitment that means freedom at the price of surrender. No one, absolutely no one, no personality of sorts or member of the Cuban emigration community, is authorized to negotiate our freedom with the government of Cuba in exchange for any concessions on our part. Our freedom must be condition less according to our unbending historical position maintained with singular stoicism. Likewise, no persons can adjudicate our release on the day it occurs.
FOURTH: If Castro and his government believe that the price paid by the political prisoners is small, with its burden of martyrs, its disabled, its madmen, its mutilated, its bricked up cells, its condemned prisoners who server their time and have not been released, and its condemn heroic women, aged but active in defiance in the face of beatings by endless prison guards; in the end, if you think this price paid is small with such immense sum of sacrifice and human pain, you can do what you want best. We still have moral reserves to stand firmly and determined in the face of your repression as we have been doing for almost twenty years.
¡WE DON’T NEGOTIATE OUR FREEDOM BECAUSE WE DON’T NEGOTIATE OUR PRINCIPLES!
These words leave our position clearly defined and for which we add our signatures, backed by the years of sacrifice that patriotic duty reserved by us.
Osvaldo Figueroa Gálvez
Víctor M. Cantón Gómez
Cecilio Emiliano de la Fe Mirabal
Eduardo F. Capote Rodríguez
Roger Reyes Hernández
Antonio López Muñoz
Silvino Rodríguez Barrientos
Reynaldo Figueroa Gálvez
Ramón Grau Alsina
Alberto Grau Sierra
Rodolfo Rodríguez San Román
Ramón San Román Novo
Agustín Robaina Rodríguez
Heriberto Bacallao Espinosa
Gustavo Areces Álvarez
Jesús Silva Pontigo
Servando Infante Jiménez
Argelio Aparicio Betancourt
Luis M. Zúñiga Rey
José L. Pujals Mederos
Reemberto Zamora Chirino
Eugenio Silva Gil
Tebelio Rodríguez San Román
Gerardo Rodríguez San Román
Pablo Guerra Santos
Francisco Chanes de Armas
Israel Estévez Velázquez
Eleno Oviedo Álvarez
Domingo Madruga Herrera
Ángel D’Fana Serrano
José O. Rodríguez Terrero
Waldo Muñoz Fraga
Armando Yong Martínez
Baldomero Pérez Álvarez
Pablo Prieto Castillo
Jorge Águila Roque
Juan Valdés Terán
Guillermo Escalada Montalvo
Lázaro Frayle Vichot
Omelio Rodríguez Hidalgo
Eloy Rodriguez Rodriguez
Felipe Alonso Herrera
Fernando Fernández Mesa
Mario Peraza Martí
Dagoberto Rodriguez Acevedo
Pedro Santana Camejo
Isidro García Arrieta
Miguel A. Lucena López
Miguel A. Fernández García
Amado Ravelo Travieso
Armando Martínez Echevarría
Bruno Salas Ledo
Santiago Méndez García
Rudesindo Rodríguez Blanco
Justo Amaro Balado
Ramón García Salcedo
Roberto Alberto Azcuy Cruz
José A. López Rodriguez
Oscar Legra Galano
Genaro Dita Morfa
Raúl Arteaga Martínez
Jesús Pérez Cruz
Norberto Abreu Guzmán
René L. San Juan Rivadulla
Manuel Hernández Cruz
Raúl Morales López
Nilo Raúl Ledon Pérez
Raúl Alonso Parra
Everett D. Jackson
Ignacio Cuesta Valle
José E. Velazco Santa Cruz
Joaquín Valdés Curbelo
Vidal Sánchez Vega
Elías Acevedo Santiago
Anselmo Gala Medero
Roberto R. Alvaro Díaz Diaz
Néstor Ruidiaz Marichal
Arnaldo Fraga López
Guillermo Cáceres Izquierdo
Carlos M. Portela Orosa
Edilberto Llerena Abreu
Domingo Núñez Trujillo
Orestes T. Espinosa González
Enrique Vázquez Rosales
Teodoro González Alvarado
Reinaldo Pérez Rodríguez
Rigoberto Pérez Roque
Ramón Placeres Alfaro
Arnaldo Castellanos Esquivel
Troadio Martínez Bartolomé
José M. del Pino González
Marcelo Morgado Cruz
Ramón Rodriguez Lago
Juan González González
Eladio Ruiz Sánchez
José R. Lefran Echeverría
Wilfredo Martínez Roque
Manuel Valdés Ponce
Eliodoro Pérez Lizano
Miguel Mendoza Rojas
Herminio Gómez Suarez
Juan R. Díaz González
Evaristo Paulino Jiménez
Eusebio Peñalver Mazorra
Ramón Hernández Padrón
Jose M. Soca Domínguez
Wilfredo Echevarría Alpuin
Delio Blando Soto
Rafael Alzamora Alvarez
Dagoberto Romero Figueredo
Ángel R. Arguelles Garrido
Luis Cruz Díaz
Orlando García Plasencia
Oscar Cáceres Valdivia
Raúl Núñez Valdez
Juan F. Valdés Camejo
Rene Ramos González
Carlos M. Calvo Sanabria
Orlando Pedroso Monogas
Alejandro M. Novo Alvarez
Jacinto Bao Ramos
Ernesto Palomeque Bussier
Juan González Ruiz
Fabio Ramos Molina
Pedro M. Montey Hernández
Juvencio Díaz González
José Grau Suarez
Andrés Vargas Gómez
Julio Enrique Lamar
Enrique García Palomino
Tomas Regalado Molina
Vicente Salazar López
Antonio Sanchéz Pérez
Claudio Rodríguez Molina
Aldo Cabrera Heredia
Original letter from the 138 signers.
Project: www.LosPlantados.com
This page has no link with the organization Plantados, “Planted to Freedom and Democracy in Cuba”. I am proud to be their friend and part of their family. My respects and admiration for these compatriots who gave everything for our homeland.
Miguel Sanchez