Cubans mourn death of dissident Sebastian Arcos

December 24, 1997, in the Miami Herald

By FABIOLA SANTIAGO

Herald Staff Writer

Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits mourned Tuesday the death of Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, a founder of the human rights movement in Cuba and a lifelong champion of democracy.

Arcos, who reluctantly came to the United States two years ago to seek medical treatment, suffered from rectal cancer he developed while in prison in Cuba and for which he received no treatment on the island.

He died in his Miami home Monday night surrounded by close family and friends. He was 65.

As were Arcos' wishes, there will be no public funeral until his ashes can be returned to a democratic Cuba, his family said. A simple Mass attended by family and friends was held in his memory Tuesday at St. Agatha Catholic Church.

"He leaves a movement that started with just a few people and now has hundreds and hundreds throughout the island,'' said human rights activist Ricardo Bofill, who met Arcos and his brother Gustavo in 1981 when they were all in prison at the notoriously harsh Combinado del Este.

Arcos, a dentist, was vice president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, one of the first dissident groups to organize inside the island in the early 1980s. The group is led by his older brother Gustavo, who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the historic Moncada attack of 1953.

"We've been in this struggle since we were young," Gustavo Arcos said in a telephone interview from Havana that was repeatedly cut off. "We were united by blood and by the same ideals.

"What can I say? This didn't take us by surprise. We knew his days were numbered, still, we are deeply saddened.''

Arcos belonged to a family of nine brothers and sisters with a long history of fighting dictatorships in Cuba.

In the struggle against Batista, Luis, one of the brothers, was killed at the foot of the Sierra Maestra mountains; Gustavo was left with a maimed leg after the Moncada attack; and three—including Sebastian—were imprisoned.

Once hailed as heroes of the Revolution, the brothers broke with the Castro government but refused to leave the island. In 1981, they began to publicly speak out against human rights abuses and boldly hold meetings in their homes. They compiled testimonies of human rights violations and gave interviews to foreign journalists, for which they were continuously harassed by government mobs, and arrested.

Sebastian was sent to prison twice, to Combinado del Este in 1981 and to Ariza in Cienfuegos in 1992.

Government officials went to see him when he was ill, a plane ticket to Spain in hand, and told him that if he agreed to stop the denunciations he could leave for Madrid the next day,

Bofill said. "He refused and he stayed in prison, getting sicker and sicker," Bofill said.

Another time in 1988, Bofill recalled, Arcos faced with patience and courtesy an angry mob invading a Vedado house where dissidents were meeting.

"They were yelling obscenities and trying to destroy the house, and in a serene and calm voice, he invited them to leave,'' Bofill said. "That's how Sebastian was.''

Arcos and his family blamed the Castro regime for the spread of his cancer. He told the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that he was kept from getting timely treatment as punishment for his refusal to stop denouncing human rights abuses.

When he was arrested in 1992, he told the United Nations, he weighed 170 pounds and jogged five miles. In the first eight months in prison, he lost more than 30 pounds and became ill. He said he was "systematically denied'' medicine sent to him by his family. A

Miami physician said the three-inch growth in his body could have been easily detected earlier.

"It was negligence, plain and simple, and there is no excuse for it,'' Arcos said in an interview shortly after his arrival in Miami.

From exile, Arcos continued to press for attention to violations of human rights in Cuba, and was in constant contact with dissidents on the island.

Although he was too ill to make public appearances, Arcos participated in a moving anniversary ceremony to denounce the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes.

His frail presence and short but moving speech brought a standing ovation and tears to people's eyes.

"The Cuban dissident movement is in mourning because this man achieved a stature that transcended our national frontiers,'' dissident Elizardo Sanchez said from Cuba. "His loss is irreparable, and his absence has been deeply felt here among the dissidents. He was a great organizer in the semi-clandestine conditions in which we operate. He came from an exemplary Cuban family, which has given their homeland many martyrs, a family of heroes.''

In a statement from the White House on Tuesday, President Bill Clinton called Arcos "a courageous and tireless activist for human rights, democracy and freedom in Cuba.

"Mr. Arcos dedicated his life to peaceful change in his beloved homeland,'' Clinton said.

"He was a man of honor and dignity who commanded enormous respect around the world for the sacrifices he made and the good work he did for the people of Cuba.''

Arcos "blazed a trail which has inspired many others who cherish individual liberties,'' he added. "He was an example to us all and will be missed.''

Herald staff writer Pablo Alfonso contributed to this report.