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发帖数: 29846 | 1 A memorable sidelight from the papal festivities in Cuba — a man calls for
‘Libertad!’ then gets pummeled and hauled away.
A man who charged through the barricade screaming is rapidly removed by
security during mass on Monday March 26, 2012 for today's Papal Mass by Pope
Benedict XVI in the Plaza de la Revolución Antonio Maceo in Santiago
de Cuba. PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
He is the man who stood up amid the crowd before a papal Mass in Cuba and
shouted “Freedom!”
If his intention was to point out the lack of it, the message was
underscored. Security personnel hauled him away, beating him up in the
process. Because it happened near a nest of cameras, images were captured
and transmitted around the world, a sour sidelight to the pope’s visit last
week.
Internal dissident sources have identified the man as Andrés Carrión
Alvarez, 38. Along with “Libertad!” (Freedom) he also yelled “Down with
Communism!” in Spanish.
The incident took place before the papal Mass at the Antonio Maceo Square in
Santiago de Cuba, in an area close to the platform set up for photographers.
As he was removed from the square, Carrión was slapped and beaten violently
with a folded gurney by a group of at least three men, including one
wearing a Cuban Red Cross uniform.
Carrión’s personal information was confirmed by dissident Alfonso Chaviano
Peláez and by José Daniel Ferrer García, a spokesman for Cuba’s
Patriotic Union. In the early hours of Friday, Ferrer reported through the
digital site Háblalo sin Miedo (Say It Without Fear) that Chaviano had
recognized Carrión “but had not been able to report it, first because he
did not have means of communication and because his house was under severe
police vigilance.”
Until Thursday the telephones of Ferrer and Chaviano had been blocked. The
interruption of the phone service was part of a 24-hour police watch.
Chaviano said he confirmed that it was Carrión after exchanging information
with a friend and former co-worker. The woman told Chaviano that she
received a phone call from her husband, who lives in the United States,
telling her that he thought he had recognized “Andresito” on a television
newscast.
Carrión is married to a doctor. The couple have no children.
“I’ve known him for about 10 years. We live in the same neighborhood,”
Chaviano said in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald.
“He supports the opposition but never had gone public about it,” Chaviano
said. “He was always looked as the typical professional, a very reserved
man.”
He also said that Carrión has a degree in social and occupational
rehabilitation. However, he has been unemployed for months and he looked
worried, Chaviano said.
He used to work at the Carlos J. Finlay Clinic.
Chaviano said that the last time he saw Carrión they were in a barber shop.
They talked briefly and Chaviano asked him if he had plans to attend the
papal Mass. Carrión responded: “I’m going to the Mass and I know what I
have to do.”
Next thing Chaviano knew, Carrión was being hauled away.
Carrión was in custody at a State Security operation unit and as of Friday
no one had been able to get information about the conditions of his
imprisonment or the state of his health.
Carrión’s detention prompted concerns inside and outside the island.
Elizardo Sánchez, spokesman of the Havana-based Cuban Human Rights and
National Reconciliation Commission, demanded the government guarantee Carri
ón’s safety.
In Miami, Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Díaz-Balart and
David Rivera, as well as New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires joined demands for
Carrión’s immediate release in a news release sent to El Nuevo Herald.
“We call on human-rights organizations such as International Amnesty and
Human Rights Watch to monitor this case and to create international
awareness of the detention of other activists during the pope’s visit to
Cuba,” said the release.
Preliminary reports, including one from the Miami-based Center of Support
and Information of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, counted more than 250
dissidents harassed during the week of the pope’s visit. |
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