BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF DR. OMAR DEL POZO MARRERO

CUBAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE

 

Dr. Omar del Pozo Marrero was born in Havana, Cuba, on March 30^th, 1948. In 1978 he graduated as a medical doctor at the University of Havana. After graduation he was assigned to military duty by the Cuban government, and when he refused to wear the military uniform, he was punished by sending him to work at a post in a remote place in Oriente province, in the eastern side of the island. He was retained in this place for 4 years, which is two years more than the time of mandatory service required to newly graduates by the Cuban government.

In the late 70’s, Omar was send to work in India, where he tried to ask for political asylum. Unfortunately the Indian government not only denied the petition, but instead surrendered him to the Cuban authorities. He was accused of "abandon of public assignment", and sentenced to 3 years in prison. While he was serving this sentence at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, he joined the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

He was released in 1982 after serving the whole sentence, and he continued his civic activities as part of the Cuban Human Rights Movement, writing, among other essays, an analysis of the Cuban medical sector entitled "The role of a doctor in Cuba", which was presented to the Work Group of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations that visited Cuba in September 1988. Omar also gave testimony of his case in front of these representatives of the UNO, denouncing the truth about the Cuban public health system. Curiously, that was the one and only time when any Human Rights official of the United Nations has ever visited Cuba to examine and talk with the people of the island about the human rights situation.

The next step in Omar’s fight for freedom and democracy in Cuba was to create the Committee for National Unity, with the purpose to unify all the pro-democracy movements inside Cuba. Not long before that, Omar became one of the founders of the Cuban Democratic Coalition, a conglomerate of several political organizations opposed to Castro’s tyranny.

On September 6, 1996 a historical fact took part in front of the headquarters of Cuba’s political police, known as "Villa Maristas", when a group of courageous opposition leaders made a public demonstration asking for freedom of all political prisoners in the Island. Shortly after that, Omar del Pozo, along with other opposition leaders, founded the National Civic Union, and organization conceived to promote the concept of civic fight for democracy among the Cuban people.

On April 19^th, 1992, Omar is detained for the last time by the Cuban government repressive forces, and is sentenced to 15 years of prison under the false charge of "divulging secrets about the State Security police". He is now serving this sentence at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, where he stood faithful to his principles. A recent letter smuggled out of the prison and written by Hector Palacios, president of the Democratic Solidarity Party, another oppositionist leader incarcerated by the Castro’s regime who met Omar at the Combinado del Este, describes Dr. del Pozo’s health situation as critical, weighting only 55 kilograms, his hair almost totally disappeared and suffering of several diseases, but also states that "his reasonings are more mature and serene . . . Maybe the physical man has been diminished, but I’m sure that the moral man, idealist, patriot, truthful and careful, has been multiplied."

More than a mere oppositionist to Castro’s tyranny, Dr. Omar del Pozo Marrero has become a symbol of the relentless fight for freedom and democracy of the Cuban people. By standing and fighting for what he believes, he has become a living example of what was once said by the great American writer Ernest Hemingway: "Man can be destroyed but never defeated".