Juan Wilfredo Soto García

Juan Wilfredo Soto García (born April 27, 1965 in Santa Clara ; † May 8, 2011 ibid) was a Cuban dissident . The human rights activist gained international fame due to the politically controversial circumstances surrounding his death.

Life as an oppositionist

Soto was a member of the banned opposition group “Foro Antitotalitario Unido” (United Anti-Totalitarian Forum, FANTU ) in his hometown of Santa Clara and was the head of the Commission for the Care of Political Prisoners of the “Coalición Central Opositora” (Opposition Center Coalition ) for the province of Villa Clara ). He had spent a total of two years in Cuban prisons for politically motivated crimes. In Cuban opposition circles he was nicknamed El Estudiante (the student / high school student), as he was arrested for the first time as a high school student at the age of 17 for being active in the opposition. Since he had lost his job as a bricklayer due to his political activities, he is said to have made money mainly through bargain sales, preferably in the area of ​​Vidal Park in the city center. Outside of Santa Clara he was largely unknown until his death. The State Security Service had him temporarily arrested on several occasions, including B. in April 2009, when he wanted to visit the hunger strike dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” together with two other opposition activists in his apartment. In the first half of 2010 he was one of the closest supporters of his prominent group colleague and friend Guillermo Fariñas , while he went on a hunger strike to protest the continued imprisonment of dozens of political prisoners. In connection with his open support for Fariñas, Soto said he was severely threatened by agents of the State Security Service. In order to make these threats public, he turned to the US state broadcaster Radio and TV Martí in Miami, which broadcast his protest message, which he had sent over the phone in July 2010. In it, Soto stated that an employee of the State Security Service had told him that he would still have to pay dearly for his support for Fariñas. In the event that something should happen to him, Soto blamed the Cuban government for his fate.

Juan Wilfredo Soto suffered from several chronic diseases including hyperuricemia and gout , heart failure , severe hypertension , mild pulmonary hypertension and diabetes . In January 2011 Fariñas reported on Soto's hunger strike after he had been refused a medicine he needed in a hospital with the words that it would only be given in hard currency or to real “revolutionaries” (government supporters). In April 2011, Soto and Fariñas were detained for a day and then placed under house arrest after they went to the State Security Unit and insisted not to leave until they were given information on friends who had been arrested a few hours earlier .

Circumstances of death

On the morning of May 5, 2011, Soto was in Parque Leoncio Vidal in downtown Santa Clara, where he was arrested by police officers for alleged disturbance of public order, driven in a police van, detained for a few hours at the nearby police station and then released. He then went to hospital with acute pain, where he was examined and discharged before his condition worsened and he was taken by relatives to Arnaldo Millián Castro Hospital the following morning, where he was born on the night of May 7. died on May 8th. There are contradicting reports from confidants of the deceased and the Cuban authorities about the more precise circumstances and processes of the last days in Soto's life. The central point are the beatings by police officers, cited as the cause of death by opposition activists, which the Cuban government rejects as fictitious and condemned as part of a campaign against Cuba.

Initial reports of violent blows with batons (type ' baton ') of the police against Soto came already on 5 May, when these do not yet appeared life threatening, it appeared to the opposition as newsworthy example of the human illegal dealings of the regime by peaceful critics. Soto’s friend, the Baptist pastor Mario Félix Lleonart, who met him and a relative on the way to the hospital, sent a message from his mobile phone via the Twitter message network shortly after the incident in question, denouncing the police violence against Soto , of the painful consequences of which he had just reported.

Reactions to Soto's death

However, there was a big response only after the dissident's death, when several prominent Cuban opposition figures turned to the international public with reports and pointed out the connection between the incident on Thursday and the death on Sunday night. A key multiplier was Soto's close confidante, Guillermo Fariñas, who, according to his own account, had telephoned Soto in the hospital and spoke to numerous witnesses and later informed several news agencies. Soto had been asked to leave the parks by a police patrol without any reason. After he refused, he was handcuffed and started shouting anti-government slogans in protest. Thereupon he was severely beaten by the police: first on his legs, when he then went down on his knees, also on his back. A doctor at the hospital (where Fariñas has been on hunger strike for several months in the past) confided that Soto's pancreas was probably damaged by the beatings. FANTU members reported that Soto had given them the names of the two State Security officers present in the park who were instructed to carry out the beating on him. Already on the day of his death, Fariñas pointed out that President Raúl Castro was complicit in Soto's death, as he not only did not prevent the use of violence against publicly demonstrating opposition members, but even approve them, as most recently in his speech to the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba a few weeks earlier , when he declared that the "defense of the revolution" in the squares and streets was "still the primary duty of all patriotic revolutionaries".

Sources close to the government immediately contradicted the description of the circumstances of Soto's death: he died of an acute inflammation of the pancreas without receiving any blows. While initially it was claimed to justify the police action that a “protest action” by his “counterrevolutionary group” had been carried out in the park, this was neither repeated nor named as proof of further participants. A "scuffle" alleged by the correspondent of " Neues Deutschland " as a reason for arrest is also not proven by any source.

The numerous critical media reports, however, caused u. a. Foreign governments also responded to official statements, for example in Germany the Minister of State in the Foreign Office, Werner Hoyer , demanded that the Cuban government clarify the death. In an article published later on the state website “Cubadebate”, Germany was severely attacked for this call and described as the US “unconditionally submissive NATO ally” who was engaged in a “media war” against Cuba based on lies. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton , also called on Cuba to clarify the case in a statement before the European Parliament. Similar demands came from various political camps and from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International .

Media offensive by the Cuban government

In view of the great media interest, the government in Havana was prompted to issue an official statement in which on May 10th it rejected the allegations as a campaign of lies to "undermine the international reputation and moral strength of the revolution", the deceased as lawfully convicted violent criminals and the Opposition movement represented across the board as a mercenary. The pathological examinations in the hospital would have indicated a "natural death". This position was disseminated by the state media channels including the government-related blogs and subsequently also reported by many international agencies and media. Cuban state television showed excerpts from interviews with a sister of Soto, a niece and her fiancé, as well as statements by a hospital doctor and a flower seller in the city park, which contradicted the statements of the deceased and his friends and were also repeated in the state newspapers.

Further Cuban and international reactions

Fariñas and other dissidents meanwhile called for a "public and transparent investigation, carried out by experts of international renown who are not under contract with the Cuban government". Although there were first reports of the suicide of a policeman who might be involved in the Soto case as early as May 12th , these did not materialize until May 17th: After that, on the anniversary of Soto's death, the policeman Alexis Herrera had killed himself with a shot in the head after on the same day he had already been summoned to two meetings of the police leadership on the occasion of Soto's death. According to the opposition in Santa Clara, Soto had driven from the park to the police station in Herrera's patrol car. There was no official comment on the policeman's suicide or any explanation for the fact that three days before his death Soto had complained to two witnesses about the police beatings he had recently received, one of whom had immediately posted it on Twitter.

As a result, there were numerous new testimonies that were incompatible with the official account: for example, a neighbor of Soto, who had been in hospital at the same time as Soto to look after her son, testified in front of the video camera that Soto was there with her his niece and her fiancé reported the police beatings as the trigger for his acute complaints, so the two of them would not have told the government media the truth. Two friends of Soto's who visited him in the hospital also confirmed that Soto had told them about the beatings he had suffered. Fariñas asked the authorities to publish the video footage from the security cameras monitoring the city park so that the circumstances of Soto's arrest would be documented.

In view of the unresolved contradictions, Amnesty International launched a campaign on May 19, 2011 calling on doctors and other health care workers around the world to contact the Cuban government by July 6 and request an independent, impartial and international standard To request an investigation into the circumstances of Soto's death. The writers 'association PEN International included the Soto case in its resolution on Cuba at its delegates' meeting in Belgrade in September 2011 and expressed its "shock" at the observed increase in repression by the police, including the use of beatings against dissidents. The human rights organization Freedom House documented the case in the Cuba chapter of its annual report on the human rights situation in the world.

Hunger strikes by Jorge Luis Artiles and Guillermo Fariñas

→ more details on this in the article on Guillermo Fariñas

From May 9 to June 3, 2011, the former political prisoner Jorge Luis Artiles Montiel - like Soto and Guillermo Fariñas a member of the opposition FANTU - was on a hunger strike, with which he launched an independent investigation into Wilfredo Soto's death and an end to violence against peaceful people Opposition, which he had to break off due to personal problems. Artiles' protest had largely received no international attention. Immediately after the end of the Artiles' action, Fariñas began a hunger strike linked to the same demands, which he paid close attention to at home and abroad, which he finally broke off after a week on June 10, 2011, saying that he was doing this in order to prevent other former political prisoners from joining his action against his will, for which he does not want to be responsible.

The twelve most recently released and remaining in Cuba of the group of 75 political prisoners sentenced in the “ Black Spring ” in 2003 signed the so-called “Roque Declaration” on June 4, which they handed over to the Ministry of Justice on June 6. In it they demand an independent investigation into the circumstances of Soto's death by international experts and an end to violent measures against peaceful democracy activists and hold President Raúl Castro responsible for the possible death of Fariña.

Web links

• Knut Henkel: The dissident with a bald head , in: Daily newspaper from May 10, 2011
• Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello: Nuevas evidencias en el caso de Juan Wilfredo Soto García (Spanish) in the blog Voz desde el Destierro from May 19, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cuba must investigate beating and death of dissident (English) press release from Amnesty International dated May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
2. ↑ Arrestados ex-presos políticos por visitar a Antúnez ( Memento of January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) In: Cubanacán Press of April 7, 2009, accessed on May 16, 2011
3. ↑ Acosan a opositor  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Spanish) In: Martí Noticias on July 12, 2010, accessed on May 11, 2011, with audio recording of Soto's statement  
4. ↑ Copy of the medical summary of the disease history (Spanish) as of October 2010, accessed on May 11, 2011
5. ↑ El opositor Soto García en huelga de hambre (Spanish) In: Martí Noticias on January 20, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
6. ↑ Guillermo Fariñas, en arresto domiciliario tras ser excarcelado (Spanish) In: La Vanguardia (Barcelona) of April 7, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
7. ^ Cuba: “Police Brutality” or “Natural Causes” in Dissident's Death? (English) In: Global Voices of May 11, 2011, accessed on May 12, 2011
8. ^ Reform policy: Cuba wants to grant its citizens freedom of travel In: Welt Online of May 9, 2011, accessed on May 12, 2011
9. ↑ Twitter message from Mario Félix Lleonart (Spanish) of May 5, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
10. ↑ Cuba: Controversia por muerte de disidente ( Memento of May 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) Interview with Mario Félix Lleonart in: Radio Nederland of May 9, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
11. ↑ Activists: Dissident dies after abuse In: Der Standard from May 9, 2011, accessed May 11, 2011
12. ↑ Disidente denunció golpiza antes de morir ( Memento of May 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) In: El Nuevo Herald (Miami) of May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
13. ↑ Asesinado Opositor Pacífico por Golpiza (Spanish) In: Foro Cubanacán Press of May 11, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011
14. ↑ Muere un disidente tras una brutal golpiza en Santa Clara (Spanish) In: Diario de Cuba of May 8, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011
15. ^ Annual report for the 6th party congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, presented by Raúl ( memento of November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in: Granma (German edition) of April 29, 2011, accessed on January 24, 2012
16. ↑ Muere ciudadano cubano: ha comenzado nueva campaña de mentiras (Spanish) in the blog Islamía of the civil servant journalist Norelys Morales Aguilera, from May 8, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
17. ↑ New campaign against Cuba: Counter-revolutionaries abuse the death of a seriously ill In: Junge Welt, May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
18. ↑ religious war to a dead ( Memento of 9 August 2011 at the Internet Archive ) In: Womblog of 14 May 2011 (originally in New Germany of 13 May 2011), accessed 7 June 2011
19. ↑ The death of Juan Wilfredo Soto García , statement of the Polish Foreign Ministry dated May 10, 2011, accessed on July 29, 2013 (English)
20. ↑ Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on death of Cuban dissident and political prisoner Juan Wilfred Soto García , statement of the Czech Foreign Ministry dated May 12, 2011, accessed on July 29, 2013 (English)
21. ^ Minister of State Hoyer demands clarification about the death of Juan Wilfredo Soto in Cuba Press release of the Foreign Office of May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
22. ↑ Buscando visas…, buscando un muerto (Spanish) In: Cubadebate from June 6, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011
23. ↑ Ashton pide información a Cuba para esclarecer la muerte del disidente Wilfredo Soto (Spanish) In: Europa Press of May 11, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
24. ↑ Cuba must investigate beating and death of dissident (English) press release from Amnesty International dated May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
25. ^ Information from the Revolutionary Government ( Memento from November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Granma (German edition) from May 10, 2011, accessed on July 11, 2012
26. ↑ Cuba's government rejects account of the death of dissidents ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Stern.de from May 10, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
27. ↑ Indignados familiares por manipulación política de la muerte de Juan Wilfredo Soto (Spanish) In: Cubadebate of May 12, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011
28. ↑ Cuba despises lies ( Memento of November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Granma Internacional (German edition) of May 12, 2011, accessed on June 9, 2011
29. ↑ Dissidents in Cuba demand investigation of Soto's death ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) AFP report (from Google News) from May 11, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011
30. ↑ Declaración de Alianza Democrática Cubana (ALDECU) sobre muerte de Wilfredo Soto ( Memento of July 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (Spanish) In: El Blog de Emilio Ichikawa of May 10, 2011, accessed on May 12, 2011
31. ↑ Twitter message from Mario Félix Lleonart (Spanish) of May 12, 2011, accessed on May 18, 2011
32. ↑ Cubanacán y la Virgen ( Memento from May 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) in the SinEVAsión blog of the non-governmental journalist Miriam Celaya, May 17, 2011, accessed on May 18, 2011
33. ↑ Se Suicidó Presunto Implicado en Asesinato de Opositor (Spanish) In: Foro Cubanacán Press of May 25, 2011, accessed on June 8, 2011
34. ↑ Muerte de disidente sigue en el misterio ( Memento of May 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) In: El Nuevo Herald of May 22, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011
35. ↑ El Estudiante, Diálogos al Pie de la Muerte (Spanish) In: Foro Cubanacán Press of May 25, 2011, accessed June 8, 2011
36. ↑ Fariñas Reitera que la policía mató al disidente Juan Soto (Spanish) In: La Voz de Galicia accessed on 17 May 2011 8 June 2011
37. ↑ Amnesty International: Death following alleged police assault in Cuba: Health professional action ( Spanish version here ) Call for action from May 19, 2011, accessed on June 5, 2011
38. ↑ Resolutions passed by the Assembly of Delegates of International PEN Meeting at its 77th Congress in Belgrade, Serbia (Word document; 318 kB), p. 8, from September 2011, accessed on July 29, 2013 (English)
39. ↑ Cuba , in the annual report Freedom in the World 2012 , accessed on July 29, 2013 (English)
40. ↑ Fariñas explica sus reivindicaciones ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Audio statement by Guillermo Fariñas, Diario de Cuba, June 4, 2011, accessed June 5, 2011 (Spanish) 
41. ↑ Guillermo Fariñas inicia su 24ª huelga de hambre In: Diario de Cuba of June 3, 2011, accessed on June 4, 2011 (Spanish)
42. ↑ Fasting against repression: Cuban dissident on hunger strike In: NZZ Online from June 4, 2011, accessed on June 4, 2011
43. ↑ Buscando visas…, buscando un muerto In: Cubadebate from June 6, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011 (Spanish)
44. ↑ Dissident Farinas ended hunger strike: Weakened In: Der Standard from June 11, 2011, accessed on June 11, 2011
45. ↑ Fariñas depone su huelga de hambre In: Diario de Cuba of June 11, 2011, accessed on June 11, 2011 (Spanish)
46. ↑ Ministerio de Justicia recibe finalmente petición de opositores ( Memento from June 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Martí Noticias from June 6, 2011, accessed on June 7, 2011 (Spanish)
47. ↑ Demanda al gobierno cubano (copy of the petition) on the website of the Asociación Damas de Blanco of June 7, 2011, accessed on June 12, 2011 (Spanish)