Photo: AP
Rarely can a crime be proved by committing another. To those who doubted that Yoani Sánchez was beaten by State Security henchmen, to those who seemed to find a film where she is seen walking with crutches too theatrical, and who demand medical documents, x-rays with fractures, scars and bruises, to them, to all those who doubted, I ask them if they saw now the images in which a swarm of living beings, shouting, hitting and spitting at a man who went to his appointment punctually, a man who only wanted to get a response.
I was twice lucky; on the one hand the foreign press was filming everything (they also got knocked around), and on the other I suffered less of a beating because an unexpected shield of friends* took some of the blows for me. Will they now demand medical certificates?
Agent Rodney, or whatever the name is of the person I challenged to a verbal duel, lost by not showing up, but that is past history. The Nation lost by being discredited in the eyes of the world and, what is worse, the people lost, my poor people, whom they want to burden with the full weight of fanaticism that they themselves feed on.
When I got back to my house, I found it full of friends, among them Father José Conrado who gave me a hug, and counsel I will never forget: “Forgive them.”
* I note especially the blogger Eugenio Leal, the opposition figure Silvio Benítez, Pastor Manuel Morejon and the Lady in White [Damas de Blanco] Mercedes Fresneda.
Some photos from today:
Desde Aqui / From Here 
1 comment
Comments feed for this article
November 21, 2009 at 10:06 am
cooncubino
Fui de los que dije que ese duelo verbal era ridiculo y todavia lo pienso.
Sin embargo.Debo admitir.Que las imagenes hablan por si mismas.Estuve despierto hasta hasta horas de la noche.Para saber el desenlace.Estuve siguiendo los twiter de Claudia, su esposa y la noticia todas las agencias internacioneles que cubrieron la noticia.
La noticia que mas me llamo la atenion fue precisamente de donde esta foto es sacada en El Mundo Espanna online.
Viendolo a lo Ud entre esa multitud.Estoico.En su rostro no se refleja ningun miedo.Me conmovio sobremanera.
Sennor Reinaldo Escobar mis saludos y respetos .Ud no se ha dejado terrorizar con unos de los metodos de terror utilizado por
El Estado Cubano contra sus propios ciudadanos.El MITIN DE REPUDIO.Ud no se mostro en23 Y G en lo que Gabriel Garcia Marquez describiera como Cronica de una muerte anunciada.Dispuesto ha todo.Gracias a Dios el deselance no fue el mismo que el del cuento del escritor venezolano.
La turba, y la chusma, enardecida, no lo intimido.
Estoy de acuerdo con Ud que la blogosfera alternativa, no solo de dedica ha escribir, en el Ciberespacio, pero ya esta haciendo Activismo Politico.