Translation to English of remarks delivered in Spanish.
The art exhibit “Executed 1959” (“Fusilados 1959”), by Juan Arbreu, is presented at the European Parliament in Brussels. Remarks by Maria Werlau, Cuba Archive’s Executive Director, at the opening event, February 7, 2017.
I have been asked give the historical context for this art exhibit titled “Executed, 1959” —that means discussing 58 years in 5 minutes.
Juan Abreu’s work depicts mostly portraits of victims of the early stage of the Cuban revolution simply because there were many more executions at that time. Cuba Archive has been able to document around one thousand executions in 1959 to 1960; they took place without trial or due process and involved members of the institutional police or armed forces of Cuba, whether or not they had committed crimes, as well as Batista paramilitary goons. Very soon thereafter, many members of the resistance that formed very quickly against the incipient Communist regime were executed. Many of them had been part of the struggle against Batista together with Fidel Castro. Cuba Archive has documented around two thousand cases from 1961 to 1970. After that period, because terror and submission had already been instituted, the Cuban communist regime was consolidated and had no need to execute en masse; this was also the case in the European countries of the former communist bloc. All vestige of effective dissidence had been eviscerated and civil society and independent economic actors had been eliminated. The foundations had been established for the repressive apparatus that continues to maintain its iron hand on society and to infiltrate agents around the world to influence in its favor as well as for the propaganda apparatus. This explains a lot of what has happened and continues to happen with Cuba. From then on, the Cuban regime has continued to execute and kill extrajudicially selectively. For this reason, Cuba Archive’s work, and the meaning of Juan Abreu’s artwork, is not about a historical memory that is past. Also, it not only has to do with Cubans. Tragically, the cost in lives of the Cuban regime has extended all through the planet and prevails to this day.
Currently, civilians are still assassinated in Cuba’s “Tropical Berlin Wall” that surrounds the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo. Sharpshooters and minefields kill or maim those who seek asylum. The world ignores, or wishes to ignore, this deadly wall that has lasted much longer than the one in Berlin and has a toll of many more victims. Hundreds of people also die yearly in dangerous journeys escaping Cuba by land and sea. Horrific conditions prevail in Cuban prisons, yet we have only been able to document two thousand deaths in prison, a minor fraction of the dozens, if not hundreds, of cases we believe are occurring annually. Many perish for treatable medical causes, suicide or alleged suicides or are assassinated by guards. There is no way to gather this information systematically, as Cuba denies access to the Red Cross and human rights’ monitors. We note that in today’s Cuba, thousands of mostly young people are imprisoned for the judicial aberration in the Cuban Penal Code called “pre-criminal dangerousness,” the presumption that a person will attempt against socialist morality. Similarly, thousands serve prison for economic crimes that do not exist in civilized or democratic countries. Opponents of the government are also killed —or presumed killed, as it impossible to prove— in suspicious and premature circumstances at the hand of Cuban state actors. Two of them, Oswaldo Payá in 2012, and Laura Pollán in 2011, were recipients of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought of the European Parliament. We documented two such cases for last year, 2016 —that of Arcelio Molina and Jorge Liriado. Also, Cuban workers die in Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and other countries where they serve Cuba’s capitalist government conglomerate in conditions of modern slavery. The victims of the Cuban regime are also citizens of Spain, France, Mexico, United States, Bahamas, and other countries directly executed or extrajudicially assassinated. The toll in lives also includes many more thousands, from Colombia, Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Ethiopia and many more countries that have endured Castro-Communist subversion, terrorism, and armed intervention. There is no time to detail or honor this tragedy, so I refer you to our work, available at CubaArchive.org, for details of cases documented one by one available in our database or to see our reports. Apropos, the partial number of deaths and disappearances we have documented is much larger than the final official toll of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. That military regime lasted a third of the time the Cuban regime has lasted and gave up power peacefully, something Cuba does not even suggest. The Chilean dictatorship was resolutely condemned and isolated internationally, meanwhile, as the Cuban dictatorship has been committing crimes against humanity for 58 years and manifesting its profound disregard for human life and all other fundamental rights of its people, it is granted total impunity and, what’s more, is tolerated, legitimized, subsidized, and even celebrated. Particularly for this reason, we greatly appreciate this opportunity to remind the European Union of the criminal nature -—past and present— of the Cuban regime. We especially thank Teresa Giménez-Barbat, Member of Parliament, and all who made this event possible as well as all of you here today. I conclude by noting that we are concerned with human beings more than with numbers or comparisons. Each one of the victims is a stolen life and a path of loss, sorrow, and injustice impacting many people and forging a collective history, whether 50 years ago or yesterday. This sad history, one that is still being written with the indifference or collaboration of the world, calls us to assume responsibility. I make a call for your solidarity to help the Cuban people put an end to this atrocity and to support in action, not just in words and diplomatic comuniqués, the just and imperative demand for a democracy under the rule of law in Cuba with respect for all fundamental human rights. No more impunity, Stalinist laws and practices must cease. I`m honor to introduce the artist, Cuban writer and patriot residing in Barcelona, Juan Abreu. We have had the opportunity to collaborate with photographs that have allowed him to create many of his oil portraits. It moves us to see the impact this work causes as it opens a singular window to his victims. We celebrate and appreciate his commitment to deliver this message to the world. Each one of his portraits speaks for itself and in an intimate way that requires no words. Juan’s fascinating story and how he came about giving us this gift deserves more than this brief introduction. I leave you with him so he may share some of it with you. Links to media coverage of the exhibit in Brussels appears in Spanish above. See coverage in English on Juan Abreu´s work at: http://www.14ymedio.com/englishedition/Abreu-Executions-Cuba-Untold-Story_0_1807019302.html
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