Interviews with Pablo Pacheco Ávila

It is no secret technologies have overthrown dictatorships in the Middle East. It is one of the best weapons we have today to deal with them.

If the dictators have made certain concessions to new technologies it is due to self-interest more than anything else. They are practically suffocated and are opening up. When small cracks open in a totalitarian regime like Cuba, we must seize upon them to open larger gaps.

I think that one of the best ways to open those gaps are these new technologies. It used to be in Cuba if [the regime] would beat someone or there was a protest, it wouldn’t be known until 72 hours later. People did not see the video. Now when anyone confronts the regime, the world sees it within the hour.

You watch it; you are not just hearing about it. Seeing it makes an impact. There is no better witness than what you see. The Cuban regime has always been known for selling an image that greatly distorts the Cuban reality. Obviously, they use social networks like Twitter and Facebook as weapons a lot. Those of us on these social networks see it every day.

Knowledge is power. The person who seeks information finds it. It’s not necessary to say how because, obviously, they´re going to prepare for that. But the person that wants information will seek it.

Whoever wants to use the means will search because it was not the same 15 or 20 years ago as it is now.

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.