Open Letter to Raúl Castro from Cuban Opposition Activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

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Open Letter to Raúl Castro from Cuban Opposition Activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera
By Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

Open letter to Mr. Raúl Castro, self-proclaimed President of the Republic of Cuba:

Placetas. March 29, 2009. Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera.

My name is Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. I am the sister of Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera, one of the many young Cubans forced to serve an unjust sentence of 10 years imprisonment on a fabricated common charge in reprisal for his noteworthy human rights activism by the sinister political repression organs, in league with the courts over which you preside.

During his nearly three years imprisonment, my brother constantly has been a victim of countless forms of torture, from beatings, to death threats, to the indefinite denial of his right to food, etc. These and other treatments have been condemned repeatedly through the appropriate channels, which exist in vain within the cruel dictatorship over which you preside, and we receive silence as the response from your puppets in each of your government institutions.

Faced with silence, I had no other option than to begin a protest this last February 17^th, to demand an end to repression against political prisoners, decent and decorous housing for every Cuban, and the publication of international human rights agreements.

Mr. Dictator, may this letter serve to accuse you, before the world, of a whole range of acts which anywhere and under any circumstance constitute typical cases of State terrorism.

I accuse you, Raúl Castro, of being ultimately responsible for the toxic gas attack which the officers of your political police and Rapid Response Brigades of the Ministry of the Interior launched against my home in a cowardly fashion in the pre-dawn hours of March 25th, causing serious after effects in those people who breathed it in.

I hold you responsible before the world and your own people for the kidnapping of two peaceful human rights defenders- Segundo Rey Cabrera González, receiving treatment on Bed Number 6 of the intensive care ward of Placetas General Hospital for a case of pneumonia which was a complication caused by his hunger strike, as well as independent journalist Carlos Michael Morales Rodríguez while he was there caring for Segundo. These instances of kidnapping perpetrated by high officials of the political police, your subordinates, indicate the criminal nature of the government begotten by you and your convalescent brother.

Know, General, that I hold you at fault for the siege of which my house has been the object during half a month, where an overwrought operation by combined forces of State Security and the Special Brigade of your police force, which is not “revolutionary” at all, but rather repressive and cowardly, is being conducted against the protest’s headquarters in this home.

What is there to fear about activists arriving at our house to stand in solidarity with us? Why do your police forces surround my house, whose occupants are armed only with morality and justice, which you and your regime lack?

I hold you responsible for the state of terror you are causing among the little ones of the childcare center which bounds my home after the toxic gas attack, the climate of harassment and physical and verbal violence, and the military deployment against my home.

General untested in battle, unelected President, I am the young mother of a 14 year-old boy whom I have not been able to hug or kiss since February 17^th because your aggressive military forces block all access to my home. The daughter of an infirm and elderly mother, who cannot visit her because the siege leveled by your troops closes her way as well, rebukes you.

I who write to you do not ask you for clemency or even justice, because to your mind and to your government that term is as foreign as it is counterproductive, but allow me to alert you to something. It is our decision to continue this protest to the utmost consequences if our principal demands are not met: those relating to Caridad García Pérez and Mario Alberto Pérez Aguilera occupy our attention concretely.

Far from offering you greetings, I will conclude by desiring an imminent end to the tyrannical and totalitarian regime over which you preside. I do not say this because of hate or a desire for vengeance, but rather because you are those ultimately responsible for the critical situation of Cuba after half a century of repression now.

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera

President of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights

Member of the Central Opposition Coalition

Member of the Liberal Unity of the Republic of Cuba

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