Interviews with Ariel Sigler Amaya

I believe the type of support the U.S. government offers Cuban dissidents is useful and positive because the Cuban regime has always tried to separate Cuban dissidents from their jobs and economic resources. They have always worked this way because once you don’t have economic resources, you can’t move freely around the island, you can’t communicate with other organizations; and this benefits the regime. They’ve always been strongly opposed to the government of the United States sending aid to Cuba because of the negative effect it has for them. If you don’t have a job and you don’t have economic resources, your actions are limited; but money sent by the U.S. government fosters dissident activities.

Dissidents are able to move around the island, communicate, and take pictures that evidence what is really happening in Cuba. This is why it upsets the regime, and they call the dissidents traitors. We could care less what the regime calls us because they will always accuse us of something – mercenaries, criminals, whatever they want. All this hearsay doesn’t worry us because they will always accuse you of something. In fact, one of the things we were accused of was being mercenaries, which everybody knows is not true. They hate this because, like I mentioned earlier, sophisticated technology, computers, and other communication devices that we didn’t have before, comes in – and that affects them. Now people in Pinar del Rio can communicate with other Cubans on the other side of the island. Before, to communicate, we had to travel; and with no money it was very difficult. Now with Internet, mobile phones, dissidents can communicate over long distances easily.

The Cuban regime will never look positively on any support or logistics that comes from a foreign country, because it can directly hurt them. That support can deteriorate their political leadership, which is exactly what has happened and is continuing to happen. The dissidents in Cuba have received aid with arms wide open because they need it. Why do they really need it? With no resources, we can’t do anything; we wouldn’t have the ability to do so. And I tell you this because I was in Cuba; and I’m thankful to the U.S. government, its institutions, and anyone who makes any kind of contribution – clothes, whatever. Remember, they don’t have jobs; they don’t have money, so they really need this help. The government tries to shut you down so eventually people will have to forcefully give up the fighting.

Ariel Sigler Amaya was a teacher and an accomplished amateur boxer in his native Cuba. After he began speaking out in favor of democratic reforms, he became one of the 75 dissidents arrested in the Black Spring of 2003 and was convicted of having acted “against the independence or territorial integrity of the state.” In prison he suffered torture and other forms of ill treatment.

By the time of his release in 2010, Sigler’s weight had gone down from 205 to 117 pounds. Once in excellent physical shape, he suffered from a variety of medical conditions resulting from his treatment in prison and his friends and family members feared he was near death. After arriving in the United States, he gradually began regaining his strength and began walking with a cane instead of using a wheelchair.

Sigler remains a vigorous advocate of freedom and democracy, not only for his fellow Cubans but also for others living in countries with totalitarian and highly authoritarian governments around the world.