Rafael Ibarra Roque: A profile in courage and perseverance

Rafael Ibarra Roque released on February 9, 2012

Rafael Ibarra Roque was falsely imprisoned on June 24, 1994 for a crime he didn't commit, and spent over 17 years and 8 months in different prisons to block his opposition activities. He refused an offer by the dictatorship in 2010 to be released into exile.

On February 9, 2012 when he finally walked out of the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, Rafael Ibarra Roque spoke to the Cuban Democratic Directorate and made the following statement:

"We have to persevere until the last days of our life and that is the message that I say not only to the brothers in struggle but to the entire Cuban people. That we have to liberate ourselves of this tyranny that during 53 years has punished our people taking them to so much misery, so much desolation and that sooner rather than later the moment will arrive when we will be free."

On Radio Republica he expressed that he was “very thankful for all the solidarity and fellowship that I always felt from one of you from the exile and here in Cuba from all the brothers." In an interview with El Nuevo Herald Rafael Ibarra said that his daughters Gladys and Rosalía, both in Miami, were trying to get to Cuba to reunite with their father.

Rafael Ibarra Roque with his daughters Gladys and Rosalía prior to his imprisonment

Cuban prisoners of conscience and the revolving door

Amidst the news that the Castro regime is pardoning 2,991 inmates, of which 7 have been identified as political prisoners, another bit of news has gone relatively unnoticed. Long term prisoners of conscience continue to suffer and endure in the dictatorship's prison complex and new prisoners are being added. It is a revolving door.

Rafael Ibarra Roque, imprisoned since June 17, 1994

However, one that has been unjustly in prison since June 17, 1994 and remain there today is Rafael Ibarra Roque. He was arrested on that day and accused of sabotage without any evidence and on June 17, 1995 was condemned to 20 years in prison.

A man of conscience who became disaffected with the Cuban regime following his military service in Ethiopia where he served as a radio communications specialist. It is not difficult to imagine that the well documented atrocities committed their by Cuban troops in collaboration with their Ethiopian ally, and today convicted war criminal, Mengistu Haile Mariam would shock the conscience of a good man.

Rafael Ibarra Roque with his daughters Gladys and Rosalia

Returning to Cuba he ended his links to the military and the regime working on his own as a truck driver who also worked odd jobs as a handy man. In 1981, he married Maritza Lugo and would have two daughters with her: Gladys and Rosalia Ibarra.

In 1986, his brother, Agustín Ibarra, and three other men tried to leave the country on a raft and were captured by State Security agents with both the plans and materials to build a home made raft. Rafael was also detained and held in the “La Cabaña” prison for six months without charges and was later released.

It was there that he came into contact with Cuban political prisoners and became aware of the gross and systematic injustices taking place in Cuba. Outside of prison he began to associate with former political prisoners and to learn about the real history of Cuba.

In 1991 Rafael Ibarra Roque co-founded the Frank País November 30 Democratic Movement, and in 1992, was elected president of the group. The organization is nonviolent and rejects violent resistance. Onilda A. Jimenez in an essay she wrote about Rafael Ibarra Roque titled "The Forgotten" described what happened next:

"His new position as head of the Party placed him under the scrutiny of the authorities, who quickly found a pretext for jailing him. They accused him of sabotage, which they were never able to prove, and of which he declared his innocence. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1994. Apparently the sentencing of an innocent person is but a game or something similar to counting sheep before going to sleep."

In addition to the injustice of having their father imprisoned unjustly, Gladys y Rosalia Ibarra were targeted for harassment by Cuban state security. Maritza Lugo was also imprisoned for her human rights activism and would serve a total of five years in prison. The girls had both parents in prison at these times. It was because of this harassment that it was decided that Maritza and girls would go into exile and arrived there on January 11, 2002.

Rafael Ibarra Roque would continue to suffer torture both physical and psychological. At one point he was thrown into solitary confinement for having a copy of information from a United Nations special rapporteur. Despite the International Red Cross being barred from visiting Cuban prisons reports emerge of the torture taking place inside of them.


Gladys Ibarra Lugo, holding a photograph of: Rafael Ibarra Roque And Maritza Lugo Fernandez (Her Parents)

On October 21, 2010 having served 14 years of a 20 year prison sentence Rafael was offered his freedom conditioned upon going into exile which he refused and denounced as blackmail. He now has five years remaining of an unjust prison sentence. It is also important to remember that the 16 prisoners of conscience currently out of prison in Cuba from the group of the 75 who refused exile can also be returned to prison at any time to serve out their sentences.

New Cuban prisoner of conscience Ivonne Malleza

Finally, it is important to recall that new prisoners of conscience have been imprisoned and placed into maximum security confinement in the past days in Cuba. Ivonne Malleza was arrested at Fraternity Park in Havana on November 30 for having held a nonviolent protest.

She was missing for ten days.

It was only on December 10 that she was allowed a phone call to inform family and friends of her whereabouts. She was held at the Alternative Center for Processing Detainees (Centro Alternativo de Procesamiento de Detenidos) along with her husband Ignacio Martínez Montejo, who was also arrested at the demonstration. Now she has been transferred to Manto Negro, a maximum security prison. Both Ivonne Malleza Galano and Isabel Hayde Alvarez Mosqueda are facing 5 years in prison.

Below is the video of the November 30, 2011 protest in Cuba:

Cuba: The Continuing Tragedy

Cuba's Prisoners of Conscience

Rescue crews at plane crash site in Cuba

In the midst of mourning for the 68 passengers who died this past Thursday in a plane crash in Central Cuba we must not forget another ongoing tragedy that continues to unfold. Despite a pledge to free all the prisoners of conscience arrested in 2003 the Cuban dictatorship has not fulfilled its promise.

Meeting between representatives of Catholic Church and Cuban dictatorship

According to the agreement reached with the Catholic Church on July 7, 2010 the Cuban regime pledged that "the 47 remaining prisoners of those who were arrested in 2003, will be released and may leave the country." The agreement went on to specify that the prisoners would be released within "three to four months from now." The four month mark has been reached and 13 prisoners of conscience arrested in 2003 are still in prison, apparently because they want to stay in Cuba.

Rafael Ibarra Roque, unjustly imprisoned for 14 years

A fourteenth prisoner of conscience, Rafael Ibarra Roque, who has served 14 years of a 20 year prison sentence was offered his freedom conditioned upon going into exile which he refused and denounced as blackmail.

Furthermore, Miami's Archbishop Thomas Wenski returned from Cuba with sobering news. Raul Castro disapproved of Archbishop Wenski's statement in the El Nuevo Herald that the July 7 agreement with the Cuban Catholic Church was a step towards greater civil society participation in Cuba.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

The bottom line is that it was the sacrifice of Orlando Zapata Tamayo combined with the brutal assaults on the Ladies in White that led to both national and international pressures being brought to bear on the dictatorship that forced the regime to the negotiating table with the Catholic Church in July 2010.

Ladies in White

Anatoli Marchenko, the Soviet dissident who died on hunger strike in 1986, was correct in his observation with regards to the Soviet Union when he said: "I am convinced that publicity is the sole effective means of combating the evil and lawlessness which is rampant in my country today." Sadly, it appears to apply to Cuba today.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Also, today in Burma (Myanmar) sham "elections" are being held in a desperate attempt by the military junta (dictatorship) to legitimize itself, but thankfully the world is not buying into the lie. In honor of Aung San Suu Kyi, the last actual democratically elected president still under house arrest, remember her words for Burma and also apply them to Cuba: 'please use your liberty to promote ours'.