#FreeCardet: The Via-Crucis of Eduardo Cardet Concepción

Update on the plight of a courageous dissident, medical doctor, and family man.

Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción MD: Prisoner of conscience since November 30, 2016

Some good news: Ebert Hidalgo Cruz, and Jose Daniel Ferrer are back with their loved ones but the bad news continues, Eduardo Cardet Concepción remains unjustly imprisoned and no one has heard from him since July 28, 2018. He is an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience and there are more than 100 other known political prisoners in Cuba. 

Yesterday the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) over social media reported that "because for more than two weeks nothing is known about Eduardo Cardet and that some time ago he was able to send a note saying 'I am in danger,' his family traveled to the jail where he is held to appeal, despite having their visits suspended by regime authorities, for his freedom."

Hours later MCL reported: "Continued cruelty against Eduardo Cardet, calls are suspended for two months (in addition to having visits suspended). His family tried to see him today, they did not allow it."

Wife and husband: Yaimaris Vecino and Eduardo Cardet

Eduardo Cardet Concepción is married with two children, is a medical doctor at the health center in the town of Velasco in Holguín province, focusing on family care. In 2013 he was expelled from his work in retaliation for his opposition activity. However, protests over this punishment and popular support led to Eduardo Cardet's reinstatement to his old job.

Following the extrajudicial killing of Oswaldo Payá  and Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012, the Christian Liberation Movement restructured its leadership and Eduardo Cardet was appointed national coordinator of the movement in November of 2014.

The repression ramped up against Doctor Cardet when he succeeded Oswaldo Payá as head of the Christian Liberation Movement.

Dr. Cardet was arrested on November 30, 2016, beaten up by the secret police in front of his wife and two small children. Since that day he has suffered, beatings, a stabbing, the denial of family visits and has not been heard from since July 28, 2018. 20 days without a phone call or physical visit.

His crime: speaking negatively of the legacy of Fidel Castro in Cuba and advocating for Cubans reclaiming their sovereignty in a restored democratic order through nonviolent means.

It has been a lengthy and distressing journey through the repressive apparatus of the Castro regime. A via-crucis that the Cardet family has been suffering through for the past 625 days.

Please ask the Castro regime over social media English, Spanish and whatever language you find appropriate: #WhereIsEduardoCardet? and #WhenCanEduardoSeeHisFamily  

End the impunity, denounce this crime and hold the regime accountable.  

Family of jailed Cuban human rights defender denounces that he is being tortured

"Children, I will endure everything they are doing to me." - Ebert Hidalgo Cruz

Ebert Hidalgo Cruz  with his wife and children in happier times

Cuban opposition activist Ebert Hidalgo Cruz, who was detained together with José Daniel Ferrer Garcia on Friday, August 3, 2018, following a traffic incident in Palmarito de Cauto that involved a State Security agent, is being mistreated by Cuban officials. 

Ebert was seen five days later on August 8th for ten minutes by his family. They were threatened and told not to speak of what they saw, but they refused to be silent. They saw their father with a blood stain on his shirt, injuries to his head, his hands and feet trembled, and he teared up. He told them to remain united and said: "Children, I will endure everything they are doing to me." Ferrer has still not been seen.  Ebert's daughter Haydeé Hidalgo posted a video denouncing, in Spanish, the torture of her dad.

Prisoners of conscience in Cuba: Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción, José Daniel Ferrer, and Ebert Hidalgo Cruz

A tropical gulag archipelago. 

An update Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción is a prisoner of conscience who has been unjustly imprisoned since being beaten up and taking into custody by the political police on November 30, 2016 for speaking critically of Fidel Castro. He was also stabbed in prison in late December 2017 in an attack engineered by regime agents.  Dr. Cardet is a medical doctor and also the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement, a Cuban dissident movement that seeks a nonviolent transition to democracy in Cuba. 

Rosa Rodríguez explained that on April 5, 2018 she and her husband Alejandro Febles were detained for 24 hours and regime officials seized 10,000 signatures by Cuban citizens petitioning for the freedom of Eduardo Cardet that the Christian Liberation Movement had collected and planned to publicly deliver to the government.

On May 26, 2018 Dr. Cardet's family was told that they would not be able to visit him for six months in reprisal for their campaign to free him.

Wife and husband: Yaimaris Vecino and Eduardo Cardet

In the midst of the bad news there has been something positive to report. In a phone call from prison on July 28th, Dr. Cardet told his family that the Bishop of Holguín had visited him, and had helped him a lot. Eduardo said he was fine, and that the biopsy of the skin lesion was negative. After months of uncertainty, he was finally given the results of the exam. Meanwhile on the international front the Spanish NGO Paz y Cooperación called on the government of Spain to intercede in Eduardo Cardet's case to obtain his freedom. The Christian Liberation Movement garnered press attention calling on the French Foreign Minister, who was visiting Cuba to lobby for the freedom of Dr. Cardet.


Human rights situation worsening in Cuba
The human rights situation in Cuba is worsening. The plight of high profile opposition activist José Daniel Ferrer, who was taken by the political police on the evening of Friday, August 3, 2018 and has still not been seen by his loved ones five days later is cause for great concern. As is the campaign of slander against the two men carried out over social media by regime agents. The U.S. State Department on the morning of August 8, 2018 called on the Cuban government to account for their whereabouts:

We urge the Government of #Cuba to account for whereabouts of Cuban democracy activists Jose Daniel Ferrer and Ebert Hidalgo Cruz of #UNPACU, who were detained August 3rd, and to release all political prisoners.

— Francisco Palmieri (@WHAAsstSecty) August 8, 2018

Opposition activist Ebert Hidalgo Cruz, who was detained together with José Daniel on Friday, was seen today for ten minutes by his family. They were threatened and told not to speak of what they saw. They saw their father with a blood stain on his shirt, injuries to his head, his hands and feet trembled, and he teared up. He told them to remain united and said: "Children, I will endure everything they are doing to me"

Ebert Hidalgo Cruz wearing a hat with his wife and kids

There are at least 120 identified political prisoners in Cuba. The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported in June 2018 that there were 120 political prisoners in Cuba with some the longest serving in the Western Hemisphere. Twenty one of them have served between 15 and 27 years in prison.This does not take into account the far larger number of Cubans arrested for social dangerousness.

Eduardo Cardet Concepción, José Daniel Ferrer, and Ebert Hidalgo Cruz are but the tip of the iceberg. In 2018, Cuba remains a tropical gulag archipelago.