The Bravest People on Earth

Thursday, March 8th, 2007 1:55 pm by Neal
Liannis Meriño Aguilera and Luis Esteban Espinosa of Youth Without Censorship

Jay Nordlinger has an excellent piece in today’s National Review entitled “Youth with Unfathomable Courage “ on the remarkably brave group of young, Cuban journalists — Youth Without Censorship.

Nordlinger’s interviews with two of the journalists inspire hope in the power of love for freedom. The courage and sacrifice of these young heroes is remarkable and humbling.

Under Castro, independent journalists are called American stooges, enemies of the people, and so on. Besides being subject to constant surveillance, they are subject to actos de repudio, or “acts of repudiation.” This is when the government has a mob surround your house and throw stones at it, or beat up you and your family. The intimidation is fierce. And this warns others to stay away from you. Liannis Meriño, while she was in that psychiatric ward, was threatened with actos de repudio.

And the government can do far worse, of course: They can abduct you, torture you, or “disappear” you. …

She relates that Youth Without Censorship was founded in 2005, by human-rights activists — including the heroic Juan Carlos González Leiva, a blind lawyer. They now have reporters all over the island, 16 in all.

Liannis began this work because, as she says, “in a totalitarian system, the people don’t have access to information, and the regime can do or say anything it wants. It doesn’t want anything brought to light.” She explains that, “between Cuba and the world, the regime has built a wall. And we have not been able to penetrate that wall to communicate with the world. The government wants people to think Cuba is a paradise. That is not the case.”

Free Westerners seldom comprehend the atrocities that occur in Cuba’s gulags, and the journalists who expose this hidden world put their lives and families at enormous risk. When they shine the light of truth on Castro’s monstrosities, these journalists expose themselves to the same abuse and torture they report. Yet they continue.

All the journalists in prison have demonstrated huge courage, and their cases should be known — well-known. One of the most remarkable is that of Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta. He is in Kilo 8 Prison, in the province of Camagüey. Like many others, he is kept in the most vile of conditions: surrounded by violent criminals, denied medical care, perpetually abused. One day in December, he took the extreme step — this is hard to understand outside the context of a totalitarian society — of sewing his mouth shut. The news was reported by a member of Youth Without Censorship, Luis Esteban Espinosa.

Some days later, Luis Esteban himself was arrested. He was beaten up by State Security, but, luckily, not imprisoned. He was merely detained for a couple of hours — and warned to quit his independent activities, lest a worse fate befall him.

I’ve left out the best parts so that you’ll read it here. You’ll be inspired.

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