BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF FRANCISCO CHAVIANO GONZALEZ

Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez was born on March 7, 1953 in Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara province. His grandfather, Josi Gonzalez Valdis, was a coroner of the Liberation Army that won the independence from Spain. When Chaviano was 7 years old his family moved to Havana and in 1975, at the age of 22, he began to work as Chief of the Work Organization and Salaries Department at the Girsn omnibus factory, where, as he has said in his own works, he began to realize all the "absurd, irrational and dysfunctional of the Cuban economy". He left that job in 1980, to began a career as a Mathematics professor in the Upper Middle Level of the Cuban school system, position that he abandoned in 1984 because of disagreements with the educational system of the castroist regime.

After leaving his job as a teacher, he began working as Chief of an Special Brigade for Construction Projects of the Ministry of Interior, position from which he is fired in October 1988 because of his frequent open criticism of Fidel Castro. Because of this, he tried to leave the country by his own means in march 1989, but he was caught in the act and sent to Villa Maristas, headquarters of the Cuban Political Police, from where he was sent to the Quivican Prison, in Havana province. Once inside the prison, he founded there the Cuban Rafters Council (Consejo de Lancheros de Cuba), an organization dedicated to group the majority of the persons who were or has been in prison for having tried to exercise their right to leave the country by their own means.

He continued the work with the Council after he were released from prison, starting to make a record of all the persons missed inside the Florida Strait searching for freedom. The activity of denunciation on that field became so intense, that it surely was a decisive contribution for the change of attitude of the Cuban government was forced to adopt concerning the rafters, which became visible in the significant reduction of the sentences against the persons who tried to leave Cuba by themselves. But the members of the Council gradually became aware that the reasons for this exodus lay, according to Chaviano’s words "in the discrimination, the touristic apartheid, the labor legislation and in a general sense, the lack of the basic and undeniable rights that the Cuban people is suffering". According to this new perception, they decided to change the organization’s name, and that’s how the National Council for Civic Rights in Cuba was born.

But the Cuban government was also aware of this change of name and orientation of the Council, and they began to carry out a campaign of intimidation and harassment against Francisco Chaviano. On March 7, 1994, four armed men broke into Chaviano’s home and beat him, with the indifference and approval of the castroist’s authorities. This incident was denounced by Amnesty International, who sent one of his Urgent Action notes to repudiate the act and express their concern with Francisco Chaviano’s life. But this doesn’t stop the repressive fury of Fidel Castro and his followers. On May 7, 1994, the president of the National Council for Civic Rights in Cuba was arrested by the State Security police and sent to Villa Marista again, where he was accused under the false charge of "Revealing secrets concerning the state security". After being held isolated for 11 months in the so called Cuban Lubianka he was finally sentenced to 15 years in prison, in a trial with no guarantee of fair process at all. He is now serving this term at the Combinado del Este prison, in Havana City, and he was proclaimed by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of Conscience, on May 11 1994. Eight days later, on May 19, the State Department of the United States made an official press release supporting his work as an opposition leader and also asking for his immediate release from prison.

In spite of every effort made by the Cuban government to destroy him with its irrational hate, Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez has remained as a man with deep humanistic beliefs and sense of nation. As he has said in a document sent to the Cuban people outside the Island: "My fight, is to convince everybody of the necessity to remove the support to those who want to sink the Island in the sea, and also to those who are obsessed with revenge, because the Cuban nation, which is nothing more than the community of interests and individual rights of a whole people, stands above of all those interests."

SMNTESIS BIOGRAFICA DE FRANCISCO CHAVIANO GONZALEZ

Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez nacis el 7 de marzo de 1953 en Sagua la Grande, provincia de Villa Clara. Su abuelo, Josi Gonzalez Valdis, fue coronel del Ejircito Libertador que gans la independencia de Cuba de las manos de Espaqa, y mas tarde fungis con los mismos grados en el Ejircito Nacional de la reciin creada Repzblica de Cuba. Al cumplir 7 aqos de edad su familia se traslada a la Ciudad de La Habana y en el aqo 1975 comienza a trabajar como Jefe del Departamento de Organizacisn del Trabajo y Salarios de la fabrica de smnibus Girsn, donde empieza a constatar segzn sus propias palabras "lo absurdo, irracional e infucional de la economma cubana". En 1980 abandona ese puesto y comienza a ejercer como Profesor de Matematicas en el nivel Medio Superior, posicisn que abandona en el aqo 1984 por discrepancias con el sistema educacional del rigimen castrista.

Despuis de abandonar su trabajo de maestro comienza a laborar como Jefe de una Brigada Especial de Obras de Construccisn del Ministerio del Interior, puesto del que es expulsado en octubre de 1988 debido a sus frecuentes crmticas abiertas a Fidel Castro. Producto de esta situacisn, intenta abandonar del pams de forma clandestina en marzo de 1989, pero es apresado y conducido a Villa Maristas, Cuartel general de la Policma Polmtica castrista, de donde es conducido con posterioridad a la Prisisn de Quivican, en la provincia Habana. Una vez dentro de ese penal funda allm el Consejo de Lancheros de Cuba, organizacisn dedicada a aglutinar a la mayorma de los cubanos presos o ex presos por haber intentado hacer uso del derecho de salir del pams por su propia cuenta.

Al salir de la carcel comienza a desarrollar un amplio trabajo con dicha organizacisn, documentando casos de personas desaparecidas en el Estrecho de la Florida en busca de libertad. La actividad de denuncia desplegada en ese campo es tan intensa, que contribuye de manera decisiva a que el gobierno cubano se vea precisado a cambiar su postura con relacisn a esa causa, reduciendo las condenas a los individuos capturados en el intento de escapar de la Isla. Al comprender que las causas de este ixodo sistematico obedecen, segzn sus palabras "a la discriminacisn social, el apartheid turmstico, la legislacisn laboral y en sentido general la falta de los derechos inalienables" que sufre el pueblo cubano, deciden extender el radio de accisn de la organizacisn y cambiar su nombre por el de Consejo Nacional por los Derechos Civiles en Cuba.

Esta toma de conciencia no pass inadvertida para los cuerpos represivos del gobierno cubano. Francisco Chaviano comienza a ser vmctima de acoso e intimidacisn por parte de la Seguridad del Estado, siendo el mas notorio de estos incidentes el ocurrido el 7 de marzo de 1994, cuando cuatro hombres armados invadieron su casa y lo golpearon ante la indiferencia y el beneplacito de las autoridades castristas. Este incidente fue denunciado por Amnistma Internacional, que el 15 de marzo emitis una Accisn Urgente expresando su condena y preocupacisn por el caso de Chaviano. Pero esto no frens la furia represiva de Fidel Castro y sus servidores. El 7 de mayo de 1994, el presidente del Consejo Nacional por los Derechos Civiles en Cuba fue detenido por la Seguridad del Estado y conducido a Villa Marista, donde se le fabrics una falsa acusacisn de "Revelar secretos concernientes a la Seguridad del Estado". Despuis de permanecer 11 meses incomunicado en la llamada Lubianka cubana, Chaviano fue finalmente condenado a 15 aqos de prisisn en un juicio carente de las mas mmnimas garantmas procesales. Recluido en la actualidad en la prisisn Combinado del este, en la ciudad de La Habana, fue proclamado el 11 de mayo de 1994 como prisionero de conciencia por Amnistma Internacional, que emitis otra accisn urgente pidiendo su liberacisn. Ocho dmas despuis, el 19 de mayo, el Departamento de Estado norteamericano emitis un comunicado oficial respaldando su labor y solicitando su liberacisn inmediata.

A pesar de todos los intentos de la dictadura por aniquilarlo con su odio irracional, Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez es un hombre de profundas convicciones humanistas y sentido de nacisn. Como il mismo dijera en un documento enviado al exterior, "Mi lucha, es convencer a las partes de la necesidad de retirarle a tiempo el apoyo tanto a aquellos que quieren hundir la Isla en el mar, como a los que estan obcecados con la venganza, pues por encima de estos mezquinos intereses esta la nacisn cubana, que no es mas que la comunidad de intereses y derechos individuales de todo un pueblo."