AN ARCHIVE OF CUBA’S VICTIMS:
THE CASTRO BROTHERS’ LEGACY OF BLOOD AND TEARS
December 30, 2007, Summit, New Jersey. In anticipation of the 49th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, Cuba Archive, a non-profit organization based in New Jersey, has unveiled an electronic database of its documented victims. With cases encompassing all sides of the political spectrum, the magnitude, gravity, and systematic nature of the crimes of the Cuban Communist leadership leave no doubt of its long and profound disregard for human life.
Cuba Archive launched today an online system with thousands of cases records assembled over years of research. The comprehensive effort documents cases irrespective of political or ideological attributes of the victim or perpetrators. To date, over 9,000 records have been entered into the electronic system, which grows as additional cases are entered and research and outreach efforts expand.
Users who register will gain free access to the electronic archive, containing cases spanning more than five decades. The state led by Fidel and Raúl Castro emerges responsible for thousands of firing squad executions and extrajudicial killings. The archive reports over one thousand deaths in prisons, police stations, or State Security offices, as well as dozens of civilians murdered while trying to escape by sea or seeking asylum in foreign embassies and at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo. Pregnant women assassinated in political prisons and religious leaders and minors executed by firing squad are part of the tragic record. Nine extrajudicial killings and five deaths of prisoners for lack of medical attention are recorded for 2007.
The database is accessed at the organization’s website, www.CubaArchive.org, which complements the archive with summary reports, profiles of victims, and other relevant material in both English and Spanish.
Cuba Archive seeks to focus the attention on the victims rather than the numbers, which constantly change as the work progresses.
Through this work, Cuba Archive seeks to promote an understanding of the large toll in human life of the political process known as “The Cuban Revolution.” It calls on world governments, international organizations, and all people of goodwill to hold Cuba’s leaders accountable for its crimes and deny them the legitimacy reserved for civilized and democratic governments. The toll of 49 years of dictatorship and terror requires an unequivocal demand for the fundamental rights of Cuba’s citizens to life, liberty, and self-determination.