Free Panfilo now!

Cuba jails man for saying he is hungry - that's not right

By HARRY STERLING, FreelanceSeptember 24, 2009

Fidel Castro used to give marathon speeches there, some lasting five hours.

But Fidel wasn't there last Sunday when 500,000 delirious Cubans attended a peace concert in Havana's Revolution Square organized by Colombian singer Juanes, the first such massive concert since Castro's revolutionaries came to power in 1959.

Another person who wasn't there was Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos, better known as Panfilo.

Gonzalez was recently sentenced to two years in prison for saying he was hungry on a video that ended up on YouTube.

Panfilo's fate is symbolic of the ups and downs of life for the long-suffering Cuban population.

His problem started last April when, in a state of apparent inebriation, he interrupted a video being shot in Havana and shouted on camera that there was hunger in Cuba.

"We need food! We're hungry here! Listen to what Panfilo tells you from Cuba: food!"

Unfortunately for Gonzalez, his outburst was posted on YouTube (go to YouTube, and search for "Panfilo" and "hunger'), receiving hundreds of thousands of hits, especially after anti-Castro Cuban émigrés publicized his remarks. The Florida media picked up his story, citing his words as proof that the Marxist government in Havana couldn't feed its own people and was denying them basic human rights.

While the overthrow of the corrupt Batista regime by Fidel Castro in January 1959 was received with almost rapturous joy and Castro's initial reforms, including eliminating illiteracy and introducing universal health care, were considered positive accomplishments, the economic hardships that followed, particularly food rationing, has made life difficult for people like Panfilo.

Panfilo quickly discovered that his overnight fame came with a price tag. Within days, a somewhat chastened Gonzalez appeared in another video recanting what he had originally said. He mentioned the police had visited him and he was "under fire."

On Aug. 4, police arrested Panfilo and after a closed-door trial in municipal court he was sentenced to two years in prison for "pre-criminal social endangerment," a charge commonly used against political dissidents and human- rights activists.

Several human-rights backers joined a campaign to secure Panfilo's release, including Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater, Cuban-born musician Paquito D'Rivera and dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, a resident of Havana.

"I thought it was important to give my full support to a humble man who has become a symbol of freedom," D'Rivera said. "Panfilo did not talk about changing the government nor about democracy, but about a simple and fundamental concern of the people of Cuba: their hunger, which is also a hunger for freedom."

Despite such support for Gonzalez, an appeals court upheld his two-year sentence this month.

But, stunned by the international outcry at Panfilo's incarceration, Cuban authorities this week announced Panfilo will undergo "rehabilitation" for his alcoholism, and then be freed.

The treatment of the previously unknown 48-year-old Panfilo is indicative of the hesitant changes taking place in Cuba since Fidel ceded power to brother Raul.

Raul Castro has always been dedicated to Marxist principles, but he's also demonstrated he can give pragmatism precedence over ideology.

Raul has encouraged Cubans to be more critical of government policies, openly acknowledging mismanagement and corruption in certain sectors.

Aware of the deficiencies of the agricultural sector, Raul announced underused farmland would be made available to quasi-private farmers to grow additional crops. This move could significantly increase food stocks for the country's 11 million people who are restricted to fixed rations on almost everything. It could also increase the range of fruit and vegetables available in the open markets, reducing the black market in the process.

Raul Castro also authorized the sale of computers to ordinary Cubans, though few could take advantage of this change, given the average monthly wage is $18 to $20 U.S. And many Cubans were heartened by the government's decision to approve the massive Sept. 20 peace concert in Havana.

Although Cuban émigrés in the U.S. denounced the organizers for "endorsing" the Cuban government, 20 high-profile jailed Cuban dissidents approved, saying the concert could help reconcile the Cuban people.

It's unfortunate Panfilo couldn't have been there like everybody else. Maybe the government's willingness to bow to international pressure for more sensible treatment of Panfilo is a harbinger of further positive changes in Cuba.

But saying you're hungry isn't a crime. Panfilo should be set free.

Harry Sterling, a Canadian former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He served in Cuba.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

I have personally have been to Cuba twice and the truth is Panfilo represents the majority of Cuban's feeling and what the Castros have been hiding for a very long time. I imagen what would happen if Nuria Piera and Alicia Ortega were cuban in Cuba.

Panfilo was obviously intoxicated enough to have the courage to speak the truth. In a police state like Cuba that is a cardinal sin. His desperation fueled by his intoxication is a cry for help to other humans, living in the island prison of Cuba, but unable to speak freely, in the Castro's "paradise".

So right general children and a drunk have one thing in common they will tell the innocent thruth, this desperation and hunger have been hidden from foreign eyes for a long time, it's about time for real change to start taking place in cuba, I believe communism as it apply to china is the road to capitalism, that lenin style have proven not to work..

Cuba is the saddest place that Ive visited. Panfilo did not lie, heck I was hungry all the time while there. The lack of good food or availability of it shocked me upon landing. Hambre is word that can have multiple meanings in Spanish, in Cuba it really means lack, not hunger. En Cuba hay hambre de todo. Have any of you ever heard the song "Hambre" by Blanca Rosa Gil.