Life in a totalitarian society: A thought experiment

Empathy: n. 1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives.

Mother and Son

 A thought experiment.

You are a human rights defender in a totalitarian country. You are also a mother, a wife, and a sister.

You have a grown son who his entire life has been mentally challenged but has a love for working on mechanical things.

One day secret policemen come to you and demand that you become an informant spying on other members of the human rights group of which you are a member. You reject their offer saying that you will not be subjected to blackmail.

They warn you that your son will pay.

Three days later he is arrested and held in custody for nine months and then subjected to a show trial and given a 12 year prison sentence.

You respond by denouncing the blackmail and demanding the immediate release of your innocent son.

Two years pass and your son is still unjustly imprisoned and international attention draws some attention to his plight.

Early one morning your sister, who is a cancer survivor, gets a phone call they ask her if she is related to you and they ask you her son's name. You answer all their questions truthfully and then they tell you to talk to your sister and take care of your son or he will wind up the same way.

Unfortunately, this "though experiment" is a reality for Rosa María Rodríguez Gil, her son Josvany Melchor Rodríguez and her sister Dalia Margarita Rodríguez. They are victims of the totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba that is now engaged in such repressive and threatening actions.

Oswaldo Payá died in a suspicious car accident on July 22, 2012 along with another member of his movement, Harold Cepero, but months earlier in an interview with the Associated Press he addressed this case:

"There are political prisoners in Cuba; the son of a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) was sentenced to 12 years in jail for the sole reason of being the son of a MCL member. His name is Yosvany Melchor Rodriguez and he was artificially condemned in Santiago de Cuba on November 30, 2010, after his mother was threatened by state security forces for not wanting to cooperate against us."

The question that should be gnawing at you after reading all this: What can I do? 

 If you want some answers than leave a comment and you will get a response.

Cuban State Security punishes mom by imprisoning her innocent son

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Poster translated: Liberty for Josvany Melchor Rodríguez, A youth with mental limitations. Sentenced to 12 years in prison because his mother, a member of MCL, refused to collaborate with the political police. Information: http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es

State Security agents visited Rosa María Rodríguez Gil, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, and demanded that she spy on the organization for the Castro regime. She was warned by the agents that if she did not comply and spy for them, her son would suffer.

Relatives of Cuban dissidents have suffered harassment, punishment and prison just for being a member of their family. Josvany Melchor Rodríguez who turns 30 in 2012 was detained by State Security on March 19, 2010 housed with convicted criminals and sentenced to 12 years in prison in a sham trial. Although he is mentally challenged, Josvany was accused of helping a baseball player and the player's wife to defect. Another individual had already pleaded guilty to the "offense" and been sentenced to 12 years in prison on November 30, 2010. The reality is that Josvany is serving a 12 year prison sentence for two reasons: his mother refused to spy on human rights activists and he refused to denounce his mother and end his relationship with her.

Unfortunately this is not an arbitrary act of injustice but a deeply ingrained part of the communist system that operates in Cuba and elsewhere.

Rosa María Rodríguez Gil distraught over her son's unjust imprisonment

Since the founding of the Soviet Union and the launching of the Red Terror in 1918 communist regimes have punished the relatives of dissidents and conscientious objectors with great brutality in including shooting one family member from each family.

In 2011, Amnesty International reported how the families of human rights lawyers in China are harassed and mistreated. These are not isolated cases but a tactic within a larger overall strategy to destroy not only the individual who dissents but his family as well.

Brutality against family members was taken to great extreme in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge where a theory of contamination meant that not only was the dissident imprisoned and executed but also his entire family. This was because according to Pol Pot "contaminated people" had to be destroyed. People contaminated by Western influence needed to be exterminated.

The only way to save Josvany Melchor Rodríguez is to let others know of his plight. Please spread the word.

For more information visit the website of Oswaldo Paya, of the Christian Liberation Movement