I AM A WITNESS

This testimony from inside Cuba was written by Luis Osvaldo Manzaneira Cúcalo, Acting President of the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank Pais," for it to be read at the 58th Session of the Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.

(HAVANA, CUBA, March 30th /Information Bridge Cuba Miami) - I , Luis Osvaldo Manzaneira Cúcalo, 37 years old, a Cuban citizen, address this Commission using my inalienable right as a human being, and  hereby attest that what I am about to declare is the absolute truth, putting my faith in you, representatives of various nations, in the hopes that you  will lend your ears to the cries of a humiliated and oppressed Nation whose freedoms were taken away by the so called government of Cuba.

I am a witness of how the Cuban citizen is abused, mistreated and prohibited to attend public places, churches, etc, for the only reason of being opposed to the communist ideology of the government of Castro.

I am a witness of how the political police regulates the comings and goings of the people throughout the different counties of the Island.

I am a witness of how Cubans are kidnapped from their homes and transferred in  unmarked government cars to locations at the disposal of the State Security where these men and women are subjected to interrogations where they are also beaten and tortured and then abandoned  in the middle of the night in roads outside the perimeters of the counties where they reside.

I am a witness of how the political police and the paramilitary services enter into the homes of  Cuban citizens by force without a search warrant and proceed to beat and repress the citizens inside their own home.

I am a witness of how a Cuban citizen is arrested and his relatives and friends go look for him at a police unit where the answer has been: "No, he is not here", even though they know that he is in a cell in that same police station.

I am a witness of being kept in a cell for eight days,  without drinking water, sleeping among urine,  feces, insects and rodents, where the food they have been served was rotted.

I personally have been a victim of long interrogations and personal offenses while in custody where no charges have been filed against me.

I am a witness of how the Cuban citizen is arrested because he differs from the ideology of the Castro regime and for that reason is kept in prison for more than three months in a cell with prisoners serving sentences between 15, 20 and 30 years  for common violent crimes.

I am a witness of how families of oppositionists' families are blackmailed with academic studies and with labor instability if they don't ban from their homes the relatives that openly oppose the regime.

For all of the above exposed, for my brothers and sisters suffering in the jails of this unjust regime for the only crime of being members of the opposition and defending human rights.

I humbly request that this Commission take into account each and every accusation  and denouncement against Castro and his regime that will be brought before you on behalf of the Cuban people and that the dictator Fidel Castro Ruz and his government be condemned as violators of Human rights.

For killing the hopes of our Nation.

For fomenting  hatred and wars amongst Nations.

For giving sanctuary to subversive, fanatic terrorist forces that have served in El Salvador, Chile, Nicaragua and África, among other countries.

For the despicable murders of the pilots of  "Brothers to The Rescue".

For the children, women and men that lost their lives in the tugboat "March 13th ", which the Castro regime sunk on July 13, 1994 in the coast of Havana.

For all those who were wrongly shot to death inside Cuban prisons for facing this communist regime.

For all of the above,  putting my humble but honest heart,  before our Lord Jesus Christ.

With pain in my heart, with tears commanding the fear I feel inside, I am hereby requesting  a guilty vote against Castro's communist dictatorship from all governments represented in this Commission in Geneva.

Respectfully,

Luis Osvaldo Manzaneira Cúcalo.
President in Functions of the Democratic Party 30 of November "Frank Country."

Faxed by the Author to The Information Bridge Cuba Miami on the 10th day of March, 2002.