Interviews with Jose Luis Garcia Paneque

Foreign investment into the island does not benefit the people, the only party that benefits here is the government. But it neither improves the standard of living of the population nor creates a more open society. As I have said, the regime has the monopoly on information, the regime has the monopoly in all sectors of the country’s economic life. So for these companies to come into Cuba, the hiring of labor has to be through the regime.

The foreign companies pay the regime and it is the regime that pays these workers so that they work in these companies. Therefore, personal development does not occur. And the country is not developing either because people have limited opportunities. That is to say, that people have no freedom to go get hired wherever they choose.

José Luis García Paneque was born in 1965 in Cuba. He studied medicine at the Institute of Medical Sciences of Camaguey. As a doctor, he specialized in plastic surgery.

In 1998, he became active as a dissident, joining the Freedom Press Agency, an alternative journalism project. In 2000, he became the initiative’s director. For his activism, he was removed from his position at the hospital where he worked.

In March 2003, Dr. García was among the 75 dissidents who were arrested in the crackdown known as the Black Spring. He was summarily sentenced to 24 years in prison. He was imprisoned for seven years and four months, two years of which were in solitary confinement. The harsh conditions in prison caused him to lose half of his body weight, posing life-threatening consequences to his health. In 2010, he was released in negotiations brokered by the Roman Catholic Church. As a condition of his release, Dr. García was required to leave Cuba.

Since leaving his homeland, Dr. García has overseen the Freedom Observatory project, which is associated with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies at the Catholic University of Valencia in Spain. He currently lives in Florida.

Follow Dr. García’s blog at http://vocesdeldestierro.wordpress.com/.