Interviews with Jose Luis Garcia Paneque

Aid from the exterior to the opposition within Cuba is very necessary due to its circumstances. It is essential to keep the international support. The opposition groups would not have grown so much within the island, if it were not for the international aid. With the help of these countries like the USA and Europe there are many friends in many parts of the world.

Our main support comes from the USA. In this moment though there are countries in Europe which are helping us. We are talking about the Czech Republic, Poland and Sweden, which are really supporting us.

I can tell you that we have received great support from the political parties in Europe, and we have been able to keep a common ground. This is achieved through the support of many people, of many institutions and even from governments. So we believe that within the democratic world we have gotten support. We cannot call it a massive support, as that is not the reality. It is a modest amount of support but very valuable to us. We also understand that the help, to help Cuba, to help the opposition inside of Cuba has a high political cost for these countries and they are assuming responsibility for it.

We have to understand that it has to be done with some discretion to avoid the regime using it as a weapon against the democratic world. They would try and show why the democratic world wants to destroy them.

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/.