crime, cynicism and ridicule.
Boyeros, Havana, February 10, 2011, (PD) mid January 2010 the news shocked the public opinion and national International: about three dozen mentally ill, according to sources close to the facts, held at the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana (Mazorra) died from cold and starvation on the coldest night of the winter season.
horrific and unbelievable photographs showing the deplorable conditions suffered by patients in this showcase of Cuban health system toured the country and the world electronically to expose the inhuman indolence of the Cuban authorities, always willing to brag about the supposed excellence of these social guarantees says provide.
The scandal caused by the fact forced the Cuban government to issue a statement on the matter. The statement recognized only twenty deaths attributed to respiratory problems caused by low temperatures of that infamous night. However, following the note line promises an investigation and punishment of alleged perpetrators the fact.
Thus a sparse and contradictory information ended the first official reference to the tragedy. The public health minister, historic leader of the revolution to be more precise, he kept his wallet for many months as if nothing had happened, without even bothering to make a statement about the incident. Not a criticism, or the demotion of a provincial and national, not a word of condolence for victims and their families.
Time passed and the same government that needed only one month - from June 13 to July 13, 1989 - to stop, investigate, prosecute, convict, ratify and execute their most great and legendary heroes, Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa and Colonel Antonio de la Guardia, the same government that took just a few days in March of 2003 for convicting and executing, before the astonished gaze and trembling all over the world, three young black who tried to hijack a boat without causing minimal injury to anyone, it took exactly one year to submit to trial alleged perpetrators of genocide.
But oh, surprise, the official information issued on the hearing process as defendants only reveals several officials and specialists from the hospital setting. With creepy fearlessness, the journalist who reports says that despite the existence of the institution and conditions required material availability, patients were vulnerable to the weather, well tested "positive signs of malnutrition" and "diagnosis of anemia and deficient levels of vitamins. " However, greatly surprised that the terrible genocide of vulnerable people is paid in court on charges of "abandonment of minors, disabled and helpless" and "embezzlement."
Finally these minor officials, hospital managers, specialists, and service workers-were convicted and sentenced to prison terms not exceed fifteen. So the case was closed for the Cuban authorities.
The treatment given to the sorry affair Length portrays the Cuban government, whose behavior hurts all the sensibilities and offends the intelligence of even less informed.
first draws attention to see how this bloated bureaucracy that has all sorts of privileges not play its role and assumes responsibility for a crime that clearly they should have avoided.
How is it possible that the commander be able to cook two days a brigade of seven doctors with the aim of interfering in an issue where No one has called, to know when ear pain suffered by the last survivor in the frozen mountains of Pakistan or to account for the degree of fever which have the most unknown of cholera in Haiti and there were no official partisan sectoral, provincial or ministerial capacity to address the deplorable conditions in which patients struggle to get "Mazorra."
graphic evidence of the tragedy, that part is played with these assessments show that to reach that level of physical depletion takes many months of total starvation. There is partial malnutrition and vitamin deficiency have shown that these horrific images, also account for the customary nature of physical abuse in the hospital setting. It
stabbing shameful that in a country where freely express an opinion or a response may involve sacrificing long prison terms, a premeditated murder and preventable like this happens and ventilate with defendants, sentences and explanations which are a mockery all Cubans, who, incidentally, can be tomorrow's victims or mourners new idleness and new crimes.
* Historian and political scientist. Arco Progressive Party member. Representative in Cuba of the Islands Magazine, lives in Cattle. La Habana.
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