Interviews with Pablo Pacheco Ávila

In Cuba, the fear is greater than the pain. Because it is a real fear and not secret. At the onset of the revolution, Fidel Castro introduced fear and terror.

He executed many Cubans who opposed him. Following Fidel Castro’s public retirement as the head of the revolution and the handover to his brother, Raúl, there is a reality: people were terrified with Fidel and with terror you do not think. With Raul there is fear. With fear you can think. That´s my point of view, what I have seen in recent years in Cuba.

People now express themselves more openly against the system than when Fidel was in power. Of course, the hardships have continued to grow. The system has been declining. But with Fidel, people were terrified. With Raul they are fearful.

With terror you do not think. With fear you can think. [Fidel Castro (1926 – ) led the Cuban Revolution and seized power in 1959. He established a brutal communist dictatorship in Cuba and led the country until 2008. Raul Castro (1931 – ) is the younger brother of Fidel. He assumed leadership of the Communist Party and the country in 2008.]

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.