Ref. Legacies bind Castro, Pinochet in their twilight, by Fiona Ortiz and Anthony Boadle, Wed Dec 6, 10:42 AM ET

Dear Mr. Boadle,

I have long appreciated your coverage of Cuba. For this reason, I was shocked to read the following in your article of December 6th comparing Castro and Pinochet:

"Both leaders built police states. Dozens of Pinochet's agents were convicted of assassination and torture and Castro's government has not hesitated to jail dissidents. But there are no credible reports of disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture in Cuba since the early 1960s, according to human rights groups."

Our organization is documenting the loss of life resulting from the Cuban Revolution. Our work-in-progress has ironically already documented more cases just of firing squad executions in the first three years of the Castro regime to surpass the entire number of killed and disappeared by the Pinochet regime in its entire tenure (3,197). 

Perhaps a shallow understanding of the mass killings in Cuba of the early sixties explains your misunderstanding. But, we would very much appreciate if you and Reuters could set the record straight and pass along the correction to the human rights groups consulted on this matter.

 The fact is that thousands of Cubans have been killed by the Castro regime over decades, i.e. well beyond the early sixties.  Hundreds have been machined-gunned down or drowned just for attempting to flee.  Sadly, world media has given too little attention to this appalling reality.  But, it has been extensively reported not only by Cubans' human rights groups inside and outside Cuba as well as in the substantiated reports of organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, Reporters without Borders, and the United Nations.  

For your review, attached is the bibliography for 90% of our records, compiled by our Research Director, Armando Lago, Ph.D.  Soon primary sources that have provided us direct testimony will also be available. Regrettably, this listing is not yet ready, as it is presently been worked on to be added to the searchable database of cases coming soon to our website. We urge you to visit our website, www.CubaArchive.org, to familiarize yourself with the victims and the sources of our information.

On the matter of torture, there are countless reports that this has been and remains a systematic practice of the Castro regime.  The evidence is substantive and is even validated by the recovered files of the Secret Police of the former Soviet bloc countries, such as Stasi and Czech Police. These records clearly demonstrate that Cuba’s secret police had joint training and cooperation programs to torture and repress opponents, both imprisoned and not, that date into the late eighties. But, the evidence is even easier to find. All one needs to do is take a stroll along Little Havana in Miami or Bergenline Avenue in New Jersey to come upon first-hand testimony of killing and torture by the Castro regime well into the present.

Given that you have long covered Cuba and work for the largest news agency in the world, we are aware of the effect your reports have.  We trust you take this responsibility to heart and better inform yourself on this matter, not just for the sake of Castro’s victims, but as a service to the readers. After all, Reuters, as we have learned from its website, is committed to upholding at all times “integrity, independence and freedom from bias.”

I do not have Ms. Ortiz's email and would appreciate if you could forward her this message.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we may assist you or your news agency in investigating this matter.

Sincerely,

Maria C. Werlau
Executive Director, Cuba Archive
P.O. Box 529
Summit, NJ 07902
Tel. 973.701-0520
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See article that prompted the letter at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120600677_pf.html