Desde Dentro de Cuba.

Distribuido por Cuba Free Press, Inc. - http://www.cubafreepress.org

HAVANA, August 14, 1998, Cuba Free Press.

FOREWARNED WARS DON'T KILL By Juan Carlos Recio Martínez, Cuba Free Press.

(Editors note: This journalist is presently serving a one year sentence to hard labor, without incarceration, for the crime of "not meeting his duty to inform" on fellow citizens.)

HAVANA The day they had scheduled to "kill him" (in this case, take him to prison), he left, early in the morning, with his clothes. He went to another part of the country.

So, when the police arrived, they searched his home while his wife and children watched and could find neither him nor anything illegal, not even a "goat" (cheating) on the electricity meter.

This type of search takes place on a daily basis in Cuba. The police hunt mainly for meat, tobacco, medicines, fuel or other products highly valued on the Black Market. Many of those whose premises are searched were able to "fix it," more often with cash than through uncles or other relatives working at the police station.

They "fix it" when they pay for the service of "watching my back," which means to give gifts of money hard and cold in exchange for being forewarned of raids. So it is that a majority of those engaged in shady dealings are able to be on guard. They remember an old Spanish phrase: "A forewarned war doesn't kill the soldier."

By Juan Carlos Recio Martínez, Cuba Free Press.