Interviews with Fidel Suarez Cruz

The repression is well-calculated. It is a repression that is not seen. Viewers see only what appears on television. But there is a repression that is worse than what appears on television. It is psychological repression. Because unfortunately, totalitarian systems are characterized by reaching at least one family member. And co-opting him.

It is the family member that will do the dirty work. That is where you get the “divide and conquer.” That family member is capable of confronting other members to create an internal struggle. A struggle from which arises uprooting, mistrust, and betrayal of all kinds and without scruples. That is the so-called “internal police.” Every Cuban feels violated, watched.

From there the fear begins to worsen, because I want to do something but will not do it because even my brother may betray me. It is not visible. The beatings, the draggings. But what’s worse is this – they keep the people of Cuba completely defenseless. In dead silence. It begs the question: why such silence? If you have a regime of that type for almost 54 years, where they are starving, freedom does not exist in Cuba.

For a people to be able to bear it must be because something big is happening there. It is not just the beatings. Beatings are only one ingredient of many existing repressions against Cubans by the regime. There is much terror. Fear can be overcome but not terror.

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.