Interviews with Pablo Pacheco Ávila

On March 18, 2003, they arrested Pedro Argüelles Morán, head of the press agency for which I worked. I went to see what had happened. Some friends warned me, then I was arrested the next day. The same search as everyone, from 9 or 10 am to 4 pm. They woke my child. The incredible things that happen in Cuba… [Pedro Argüelles Morán (1948 – ) is a Cuban dissident and independent journalist. He was the director of the Avila Cooperative of Independent Journalists (CAPI) and was arrested and imprisoned in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown.

He refused exile in Spain in 2010 and remained in prison until 2011. In 2013, he received asylum in the United States] From there they took me to the State Security headquarters in the Ciego de Avila province. The process took some time … I was arrested on March 19. I saw my lawyer twice. My trial and 20-year sentence took place on my birthday, April 4. The same for everybody. There was no due process. As a lawyer told me, “that judgment has already been made.”

[I was sentenced for] “writing without dictate.” For not accepting the chain of thought. [The trial] was quick and behind closed doors. They invited five relatives who were surrounded by the police.

The evidence presented was the same submitted for everyone else: books, reports, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reports from Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, books by [Mario] Vargas Llosa, books by Raul Rivero – what they used against everybody. If it were not so sad, it would make you laugh.

[Mario Vargas Llosa (1936 – ) is a Peruvian – Spanish writer and politician. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. Vargas Llosa initially supported Cuba’s communist government before becoming an outspoken critic of it.

Raul Rivero Castaneda (1945 – ) is a Cuban writer and former political prisoner and dissident. He was a leading pro-communist figure known as the “Poet of the Revolution” before breaking with the Castro regime in 1989. He was among those imprisoned during the Black Spring crackdown in 2003.]

I had already been imprisoned for political reasons in 1994. Three years of restricted freedom for posting posters that read “Down with Fidel”. Other acts against state security. Posting a “Down with Fidel” poster is a crime in Cuba. Imagine an American here not being able to post a “down with Obama” poster.

Pablo Pacheco was born in the city of Puerto Padre in Cuba’s Las Tunas province.

He first became involved with the opposition in 1998 when he joined the Cuban Human Rights Foundation, an organization that monitors and denounces human rights violations and supports Cuban political prisoners. He became the foundation’s secretary.

In 1999, Pablo started a career as an independent journalist. He worked for several independent news agencies such as the College of Independent Journalists of Camaguey, the Avila Independent Journalists Cooperative, and the web-based Cubanet, an online compendium of independent news stories offering alternative perspectives from those of government-controlled media.

On March 19, 2003, Pablo was arrested during a massive government crackdown on activists known as the Black Spring. He was one of 75 nonviolent dissidents, human rights activists, and independent librarians arrested by security forces. In a summary judicial proceeding, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

During his incarceration, Pablo helped to establish a blog called “Voices Behind Bars” with dissident bloggers Iván García, Yoani Sánchez and Claudia Cadelo. The platform featured testimonials from political prisoners describing conditions and abuse inside Cuban jails. Their stories were recorded over the phone during the prisoners’ limited telephone privileges. In the event that guards cut off the phone lines, relatives would smuggle written testimonials out of the prison for inclusion in the blog. In 2009, “Voices Behind Bars” was recognized as the best of 187 Cuban opposition blogs in the Una Isla Virtual (A Virtual Island) competition.

After 7 years, Pablo was freed when the Catholic Church and the Spanish government negotiated the release of the 75 Black Spring prisoners. Pablo went into exile and currently lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife and son. He continues to share his experiences from his time in prison and remains active in Cuba’s freedom movement.