Standing in front of the Palace of Justice, Eneida felt humiliated. The president of the Court, without arguments or incriminating evidence, tried to tie her —along with a hundred inmates on probation— to "the wave of crimes and violence in Santiago de Cuba."
The assistant accountant was indignant that the judges had tried to wash their hands of responsibility for the public's insecurity and helplessness, generated by unchecked banditry, murders and other aggressive behavior.
"I came due to the threat to rescind my parole,," Aeneid said. "Also, because I thought the meeting was a serious, credible effort. In the end, it's just more of the same: convicts will always be treated like criminals, murderers, scourges of socialism."
According to Yipsy Pedreira, president of the Court, this was the first activity forming part of a "national exercise to prevent and address crime, corruption, illegalities and indiscipline," through which the Government seeks to mollify the population, frightened by the increase in robberies and violence.
La Santiaguera, a prostitute who has been arrested and prosecuted several times for "dangerousness," said the event was "a mockery, to offend, embarrass and remind us that social reintegration is a joke and job opportunities depend on your political position."
"When and how will we eliminate the threats made to produce fear, which leave inmates defenseless and demonstrate the selective administration of justice?" asked a lawyer arrested for the crime of bribery, who said that violence continues to spiral out of control "due to the ineptitude of the Prosecutor's Office, police indolence, and the arbitrariness of the criminal courts."
According to Lorencito, who has only one month left in the police sector, "this was yet another reminder that prisoners have no rights, and they are only portrayed to blame them for everything that happens."
A hauler serving time for a traffic accident called the meeting a "cynical act" at which "the justices colluded with the media to misrepresent and justify their incompetence in the face of gangsterism, criminal incidents, and femicides."
"No one can call my son a murderer or a criminal. Nor can they oblige him to visit Fidel Castro's tomb, or to donate blood, to preserve his freedom," said Paulina, the mother of one of the young men sanctioned for shouting "Down with the president!" at a street protest.
Nilda, the wife of a man convicted of embezzlement, asked her husband to lower his voice to avoid retaliation. The people know that "those responsible for Santiago being one of the most violent cities in Cuba are in the courts, which punish political crimes more severely than pedophilia or street violence leading to the deaths of minors."
"The court doesn’t concentrate on what it has to do," said Rosario, the grandmother of two teenagers convicted of assault, explaining that the mission of these institutions is to "demand that the police and prosecutors investigate those who have schools for thieves and pickpockets, and that take advantage of children by getting them into gangs."
Ricardo said he stole from the State to keep from starving, "but I didn't stab anyone." If they want to arrest those responsible for the violence, "they have to look for those who aren't solving the crisis, and are drowning the people in a sea of need."
"I don't know of a single judge who has acted to ensure that the rights of prisoners at the Boniato and Mar Verde prisons are being respected," said Alejandro, who has friends who "have left there and returned as if they'd been in a war, or a Nazi concentration camp."
Sitting on a bench at a Coppelia, trying to calm her nerves, a mother stated: "If tomorrow my son is told that those responsible for hunger, blackouts and lack of money must be captured, I'd be the first person to go with him to the Police to arrest those scoundrels, but I don't want any indoctrinating him or accusing him just because they think that no one's going to cry over him anyway."
"Prosecuting the spiral of violence requires a deeper analysis than slandering an inmate or punishing those who commit acts of extreme violence," said the aunt of a prisoner who has been working on projects to address that problem without support for years.
Daniel, who served almost ten years for theft and the illegal slaughter of cattle in San Luis, expressed regret that all those who were on probation, or had served time for that crime in Paraíso, Pedernal, Bucuey, Nuevo Mundo and La Caoba, following the murder of a family in Chamarreta, were arrested.
"That is conditioning the population to spurn us," he argued.
The president of the Provincial People's Court stated that similar meetings were held in the nine municipalities of the territory, in order to find "creative ways" to reintegrate those sentenced, "always looking for ways to attract them to society in a healthy way."
To highlight the "human part of justice," he mentioned concessions by convicted producers of food for preschools and nursing homes; what he failed to explain is that this is one of the requirements to receive parole.
The presiding judges of the chambers of all the courts, together with the enforcement judges, supervise 110 people serving sentences for drug offenses and the theft and slaughter of livestock. But, more than oversight actions, this is seen as a kind of witch hunt against the convicts.
Although exemplary trials were announced, the press in Santiago de Cuba has not covered any, something that has happened in provinces such as Las Tunas. What was confirmed is that those convicted had to participate in a pilgrimage to Fidel Castro's tomb at the Santa Iphigenia Cemetery.
According to the authorities, the ongoing exercise will strengthen internal and external control by the State, Government and society, with a view to the anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution and other anniversaries that they intend to celebrate with crackdowns against MSMEs, self-employed workers and street vendors.