PAPAL VISIT TO CUBA
A shout for freedom brings beating instead
• A memorable sidelight from the papal festivities in Cuba — a man calls for ‘Libertad!’ then gets pummeled and hauled away.
BY JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
He is the man who stood up amid the crowd before a papal Mass in Cuba and shouted “Freedom!”
If his intention was to point out the lack of it, the message was underscored. Security personnel hauled him away, beating him up in the process. Because it happened near a nest of cameras, images were captured and transmitted around the world, a sour sidelight to the pope’s visit last week.
Internal dissident sources have identified the man as Andrés Carrión Alvarez, 38. Along with “Libertad!” (Freedom) he also yelled “Down with Communism!” in Spanish.
The incident took place before the papal Mass at the Antonio Maceo Square in Santiago de Cuba, in an area close to the platform set up for photographers.
As he was removed from the square, Carrión was slapped and beaten violently with a folded gurney by a group of at least three men, including one wearing a Cu- ban Red Cross uniform.
Carrión’s personal information was confirmed by dissident Alfonso Chaviano Peláez and by José Daniel Ferrer García, a spokesman for Cuba’s Patriotic Union. In the early hours of Friday, Ferrer reported through the digital site Háblalo sin Miedo (Say It Without Fear) that Chaviano had recognized Carrión “but had not been able to report it, first because he did not have means of communication and because his house was under severe police vigilance.”
Until Thursday the telephones of Ferrer and Chaviano had been blocked. The interruption of the phone service was part of a 24-hour police watch.
Chaviano said he confirmed that it was Carrión after exchanging information with a friend and former co-worker. The woman told Chaviano that she received a phone call from her husband, who lives in the United States, telling her that he thought he had recognized “Andresito” on a television newscast.
Carrión is married to a doctor. The couple have no children.
“I’ve known him for about 10 years. We live in the same neighborhood,” Chaviano said in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald.
“He supports the opposition but never had gone public about it,” Chaviano said. “He was always looked as the typical professional, a very reserved man.”
He also said that Carrión has a degree in social and occupational rehabilitation. However, he has been unemployed for months and he looked worried, Chaviano said.
He used to work at the Carlos J. Finlay Clinic.
Chaviano said that the last time he saw Carrión they were in a barber shop. They talked briefly and Chaviano asked him if he had plans to attend the papal Mass. Carrión responded: “I’m going to the Mass and I know what I have to do.”
Next thing Chaviano knew, Carrión was being hauled away.
Carrión was in custody at a State Security operation unit and as of Friday no one had been able to get information about the conditions of his imprisonment or the state of his health.
Carrión’s detention prompted concerns inside and outside the island. Elizardo Sánchez, spokesman of the Havana-based Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission , demanded the government guarantee Carrión’s safety.
In Miami, Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Díaz-Balart and Da-vid Rivera, as well as New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires joined demands for Carrión’s immediate release in a news release sent to El Nuevo Herald.
“We call on human-rights organizations such as International Amnesty and Human Rights Watch to monitor this case and to create international awareness of the detention of other activists during the pope’s visit to Cuba,” said the release.
Preliminary reports, including one from the Miami-based Center of Support and Information of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, counted more than 250 dissidents harassed during the week of the pope’s visit.
PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
BOOTED: Andrés Carrión Alvarez is taken away by security at the Mass.
PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
DRAGGED OUT KICKING AND SCREAMING: The man who yelled out ‘Freedom!’ at the pope’s Monday Mass, indentified by dissidents as Andrés Carrión Alvarez and described as ‘a very reserved man.’
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