THE total lack of martyrs within the Cuban counterrevolution is proportional to its lack of scruples. It is not easy to die in Cuba, not because life expectancy now parallels that of the developed world – nobody dies of hunger, despite a lack of resources — but because the law and honor prevails. Cuban mercenaries can be detained and tried in accordance with existing legislation.

In no country can the laws be violated: [in this case,] receiving money and collaborating with the embassy of a country considered an enemy. In the United States, for example, such an act can result in a harsh sentence, but they know that in Cuba nobody disappears or is killed by the police. There are no "dark corners" for "unconventional" interrogations of missing prisoners, such as those of Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib. Moreover, one devotes one’s life to an ideal that prioritizes the happiness of others, not to one that prioritizes one’s own.

However, in the last few days, certain news agencies and governments have rushed to condemn Cuba for the death in prison, on February 23, of Cuban Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Any death is painful and lamentable. But the media echo this time is tinged with enthusiasm: at last — it seems to be saying — a "hero" has appeared. For that reason, it is necessary to briefly explain, without unnecessary words, who Zapata Tamayo was. Despite all the dressing up, he was a common prisoner who began his criminal activities in 1988. He was tried for the crimes of "unlawful entry" (1993), "assault" (2000), "fraud" (2000), "assault and the possession of a sharp weapon" (2000: wounds and a fractured skull inflicted on the citizen Leonardo Simón with a machete), "public disorder" (2002), and other charges bearing no relation to politics. He was paroled in March 2003 and committed another crime on the 20th of the same month. Given his criminal record and parole status, he was then sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, but the initial sentence was considerably lengthened in the following years on account of his aggressive behavior in prison.

His name does not appear on the list of the so-called political prisoners drawn up in 2003 to condemn Cuba in the manipulated and extinct United Nations Human Rights Commission — as claimed by the Spanish news agency EFE, without verifying sources or facts — although his last arrest coincided in time with theirs. If previous political intent had existed, he would not have been released 11 days beforehand. The avidity to enroll the largest possible number of supposed or real followers in the ranks of the counterrevolution, on the one hand, and on the other, convinced of the material advantages of a "membership" fostered by foreign embassies, Zapata Tamayo adopted a "political" profile when his criminal record was already lengthy.

In that new role, he was consistently encouraged by his political mentors to initiate hunger strikes, which definitively weakened his body. He received Cuban medical attention throughout. Highly-qualified specialists in the different hospitals where he was treated — in addition to those consulted at a number of other centers — spared no resources in his medical care. He was fed through a nasal tube and his family was informed of every step taken. His life was prolonged for some days by artificial respiration. There is documentary evidence of everything stated above.

But there are questions that remain unanswered and which are not medical ones. By whom and why was Zapata encouraged to maintain an attitude that was obviously suicidal? For whom was his death convenient? The fatal outcome delighted the "bereaved" hypocrites. Zapata was the perfect candidate: a man the enemies of the Cuban Revolution could "dispense with," and who could be easily convinced to persist in an absurd undertaking with impossible demands (television, stove and personal telephone in his cell), which none of the real capos had the courage to sustain. Each prior hunger strike on the part of the instigators was announced as a probable death, but those hunger strikers always desisted before irreversible health incidents occurred. Instigated and encouraged to continue to the death — those mercenaries were rubbing their hands together in that expectation, despite doctors’ unstinting — his name is now being cynically paraded as a collective trophy.

Some in the media acted like vultures — local mercenaries and international right-wing forces — hovering over the dying man. His decease is a feast. The spectacle is sickening. Because those writing are not lamenting the death of a human being — in a country without extra-judicial killings — but instead brandishing it almost with glee, and are utilizing it for premeditated political ends. Zapata Tamayo was manipulated and, to a certain extent, led premeditatedly to his self-destruction, in order to meet others’ political needs. Is this not a charge against those who have now appropriated his "cause"? This case is a direct consequence of Cuba’s political murderer, who stimulates illegal emigration and contempt and violation of the established law and order. That is the sole cause of that undesired death.

But why are governments joining in the campaign of defamation, when they know — because they do know — that there are no summary executions, torture, or use of extrajudicial methods in Cuba? One can find cases in any European country — in some cases, open violations of ethical principles — that do not receive the attention that ours does. Some of them, like the Irish prisoners who fought for their independence in the 1980s, died in the face of the total indifference of politicians. Why are there governments that elude an explicit condemnation of the unjust incarceration being endured by five Cubans in the United States for fighting against terrorism, but which hasten to condemn Cuba if media pressure endangers their political image? Cuba has already stated it once: we can send them all the mercenaries and their families, but give us back our heroes. Nobody will be able to use political coercion against the Cuban Revolution.

We trust that our imperial adversaries know that our country can never be intimidated, bowed or diverted from its heroic and dignified course by acts of aggression, lies and infamy.