Interviews with Fidel Suarez Cruz

For those who do not know the real situation in Cuba, from 1959 until today, the life of Cubans, especially average Cubans, who by the way make up 95 percent or more of the population, is something quite contradictory, very difficult, very hard.

If we talk about human rights in Cuba there is no freedom of expression. There is only one freedom of expression and it is the freedom to express oneself in favor of the regime. As Fidel Castro said in many of his speeches: “Against the revolution, nothing. With the revolution, everything. ”

That is not freedom of expression. That is nothing but alignment with a regime, which imposes a repressive system, a system of hate and division. Those people aren’t familiar with it, should understand that the Cuban issue is very complex and very difficult. It´s a far-left Communist tyranny. It is characterized by the subjugation of the mind first and then the body. And they behave as if they command animals, like sheep or cattle. I do not know how to explain. It is very difficult. What reigns is terror and hatred.

Fidel Suarez Cruz was born in 1970 in the small village of Manuel Lazo in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio Province. As a young man, he began to question the policies of Cuba’s communist government. In 1994, Fidel became active in the nonviolent opposition, including the Máximo Gómez Human Rights Front and the Human Rights Front Affiliated with the Andrei Sakharov Foundation. He also established and ran an independent library in his hometown. Fidel was detained on numerous occasions and was branded a violent criminal by the state.

On March 19, 2003, Fidel was arrested, along with 74 other nonviolent opposition activists (the Group of 75) in the crackdown known as the Black Spring. In a summary judicial proceeding, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He served time with common criminals in maximum security prisons in Matanzas and Pinar del Río. Like other prisoners of conscience, he suffered brutal treatment and was physically and psychologically tortured, including long periods of solitary confinement. In 2005, he was subjected to nineteen beatings within a four month period, causing him many permanent health problems.

Fidel’s family also suffered during his imprisonment. The regime sent many of the Group of 75 to prisons that were distant from their hometowns and families. Fidel’s relatives would travel hundreds of kilometers to visit him in prison, but were sometimes denied permission to see him. When Fidel was first imprisoned his son was only fourteen days old. Fidel’s wife joined other female relatives of the Group of 75 prisoners of conscience in establishing the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), conducting vigils and other activities to raise awareness of the Group of 75 and press for their release.

After more than seven years in prison, Fidel Suarez and the other Group of 75 prisoners were released in an agreement negotiated between the Roman Catholic Church and the governments of Cuba and Spain. On October 6, 2010, Fidel was released from prison and exiled to Spain with his son Jeferson (named for the American president), his mother Candelaria Cruz, and his wife Aniley Puentes, a member of the Ladies in White movement.

In 2011, he moved to the United States, where he and his family live in the city of Hialeah, Florida. He currently works in landscaping and remains active in the movement for Cuban freedom.