We never ordered killing of an adversary: Fidel Castro

HAVANA - No one has ever been tortured in Cuba, said retired president Fidel Castro while confronting international and opposition criticism of the Cuban government following last week’s death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after an 85-day hunger strike. He stressed: “We have never ordered the assassination of an adversary”.

In his “Reflections” posted Tuesday in the Cubadebate website, titled “My Recent Meeting with Lula”, Prensa Latina news agency quoted Castro as saying: “In our country no one has ever been tortured; that we have never ordered the assassination of an adversary, and that we have never lied to the people.”

Defending Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against those who accuse him of ignoring Zapata’s death, Fidel Castro said: “Some of those who envy his prestige and his glory, and worse still, those at the service of the empire, criticised him for coming to Cuba.”

“To that end, they have resorted to the vile slanders used against Cuba for half a century.”

Referring to his health, Castro wrote: “I had a serious accident on October 2004, which markedly limited my activities for months; then I fell gravely ill at the end of July 2006, the reason for which I did not hesitate to delegate my responsibilities at the head of the Party and the State through the proclamation of July 31 that year, first provisionally, and soon with a final resolution as I understood that I would not be able to resume them again.”

Castro said he was moved to watch the suffering faced by “millions of Chileans materially and emotionally affected by such a harsh blow of nature”.

“If it were not for the sounder buildings and infrastructure, a countless number of people, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of Chileans would have perished.”

EFE adds: State television broadcast an extensive report Monday night accusing “the counterrevolution” of a “defamation campaign” to hide the medical attention that Zapata received before he died.

The programme said that the dissident, who had been in jail since 2003, was attended “with the strictest medical ethics”.

Granma accused Zapata of being a common criminal who “adopted a political persona when he already had a long criminal record”.

State television also presented interviews with doctors and specialists who detailed the reactions of the human body to prolonged starvation and the physical process leading to the fatal result.

It also published pictures of Zapata’s mother, Reyna Tamayo, and videos of her visits to the hospital where he was admitted, meetings she had with police authorities, and wiretapped conversations with members of the opposition in Miami and Cuba.

One of the doctors said that the prisoner was treated with “the latest generation of products in terms of nourishment”.

The report said that “the counterrevolution” is promoting a campaign to “accuse the island’s authorities of not providing Orlando Zapata with medical attention,” and that “it therefore decided to manipulate and cover up any proof to the contrary”.

“The words of Orlando Zapata’s mother about the excellent attention her son was getting were never divulged. That truth was not suitable in a campaign of defamation against Cuba,” it said.

Dr. Maria Esther Hernandez said she kept telling Zapata “about the consequences of his decision and how it was putting his life in danger, but he maintained his position at all times”.

In a related matter, two of the five dissidents who launched hunger strikes after Tamayo’s death decided to end their protests.

Political prisoners Eduardo Diaz Fleitas and Diosdado Gonzalez, both held at Kilo 5 prison in the western province of Pinar del Rio, announced they would resume taking nourishment.

Two other prisoners: Nelson Molinet, also at Kilo 5; and Fidel Suarez Cruz, serving time at the Kilo 8 penitentiary in Pinar del Rio, remained on hunger strike, the spokesman for the unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez, told EFE.