Today, August 30, is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances commemorating those who have been forcibly disappeared by dictatorial regimes. These disappearances have been taking place in communist Cuba for over six decades, but the few are known about or have ever garnered any attention.
Today, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter remembers these forgotten Cubans:
International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Some of the forgotten Cubans
Today, August 30th, is International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, but you won’t hear much about the disappeared in Cuba. The Cuban dictatorship has been successful in concealing its traces and terrorizing most families from speaking out, but not all.
Roberto Amelio Franco Alfaro (Beto), born on January 23, 1947, disappeared in Havana on May 20, 2009 at age 62; He was a member of the 30th of November Frank País Party and the 20th of May Human Rights Movement. He left behind a wife and son. His wife holds the Cuban government responsible for his disappearance. He lived in San Miguel del Padrón.
There is the case of Omar Darío Pérez Hernández, a Cuban independent journalist who went missing in Cuba in December 2003. He was just 39 years old at the time of his disappearance. They said that the secret police were threatening him with prison and that he and three others had set out to leave the country on December 7, 2003 but they were never heard from again.
There have been others that stretch back decades.
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