Political prisoner

And under President Trump, we're not going to put up with it anymore.

So yesterday, we had in a group of political prisoners, Cubans who have... recently been released or we negotiated out of their prisons.

Corruption experts, John, they export their doctors all over the world.

It was something Castro was very proud of, but the reality is it's slave labor.

It goes right into the regime.

right into their pockets.

We also pointed out, one of the think tank experts, that the military industrial complex has billions and billions in offshore accounts uh... all over the world in spain and latin america and no surprise like you see with the iranian regime elites their kids are living lives of luxury uh... with you know louis vuitton and and air meds purses and bags and and places like panama and spain while the cuban people live in squalor so enough is enough we're going to call it out at every turn the u n isn't going to be their propaganda playground while the american taxpayers paying the bill uh... and they got so upset The so-called Cuban diplomats here, we have to allow them here into the U.N. by treaty, tried to harass and film and scream at and threaten, it's all online, these poor political prisoners as they walked out of our forum.

Understood.

In 1598, George Barkworth petitions Secretary Cecil that he was committed to Newgate six months ago on suspicion of being a seminary priest, which he is not, has been examined nine times, and brought up at sessions four times, begs the same liberty of the house at Bridewell, which was granted him at Newgate.

Political prisoners were not wanting in Newgate in the Elizabethan period.

In 1585, instructions are given to the recorder to examine one Hall, a prisoner in Newgate, charged with the design for conveying away the Queen of Scots.

This was a part of Babington's conspiracy, for which Throgmorton also suffered.

processI, I think I would agree it was, it was a very difficult, uh, few years there, and I think a- as you mentioned, just closing the doors also meant that all of those presidential candidates and others were, were put into prison.

Um, a year later, or actually two years later in 2023, you played an important role in helping broker the release and transfer of those 222 political prisoners to the United States through what is, uh, called the Operation Nica Welcome.

However, and I wanted to ask about this, three years later, none of those still in the United States have obtained asylum.

And, and I think we, we've seen this also in, in congressional hearings lately with, with some of these individuals, that there's this sense that the administration's immigration policies have impacted not only those political prisoners.

Um, there's, there's one of those of the original group of 222 who was actually deported not to Honduras, but to... not to Nicaragua, to Honduras.

But there are also six currently being held in ICE detention here.

So individuals that the US had originally welcomed to the United States, but that had some reason have been wrapped up in these immigration enforcement operations of the current government.

And we know of other Nicaraguans who have had, you know, had humanitarian parole here or temporary protective status that are also now, you know, without legal status in the United States and in a vulnerable situation.

I- it was the outside offer that Amnesty International made to me that rescued me.

I had sent the pictures of Vietnamese political prisoners that had been tortured to the AFSC office during the war, and they hadn't done anything with those pictures.

Because our other people had testified before me that the South Vietnamese government was torturing prisoners, AFSC didn't make a, a media event out of the news.

But in '73, '74 period of time, there was a big focus on political prisoners, and because a BBC company had come to Vietnam and interviewed me and interviewed some of the men who were held in the tiger cages, there was a documentary film available, and Amnesty International suggested that I would travel with that film.

And what it did was to allow me the experience not only of talking about political prisoners, but when I was in Holland, I would mention that the Americans were, had, had and still were bombing the dikes.

And of course because the Dutch had spent all their lives, you know, pushing back the water and building land on, and crops that were only grown because they could be grown in fresh water and not, they identified so clearly with the, the long years and effort that it took to build dikes and how important it was.

The Americans didn't even understand dikes, and they were...

And I felt like I was really lucky to be able to have a dialogue, because that was the only way I could release the sadness that I felt, that I had come, come back while people like Mai and the prisoners were, were still suffering.

Uh, was not given bail, and is remanded in custody.

Which is, to me, a scandalous decision by a two-tiered justice system that seeks to make this man a political prisoner.

He has a wife, he has kids, and instead of being with them, he is behind bars.

Why is he behind bars? Well, for the alleged crime of causing criminal damage, uh, and not giving police the, you know, the PIN code to his phone.