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Armando Valladares Perez (born May 30, 1937) is a Cuban poet, diplomat, and human rights activist. In 1960, he was arrested by the Cuban government for protesting communism, leading Amnesty International to name him a prisoner of conscience. Following his release in 1982, he wrote a book detailing his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Cuban government, and was appointed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. ==Arrest and imprisonment== Valladares is from Pinar del Rio, Cuba. Initially a supporter of Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, he later became an employee of the Office of the Ministry of Communications for the Revolutionary Government, working at a post office.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Armando Valladares )〕 In 1960, at the age of 23, he refused to put an "I'm with Fidel" sign on his desk at work.〔 Shortly after, he was arrested by political police at his parents' home. He was subsequently given a thirty-year prison sentence.〔 The Cuban government stated that his arrest was on charges of terrorism, and that he had previously worked for the secret police of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. The international human rights organizations Oslo Freedom Forum, PEN International, and Amnesty International, in contrast, stated their belief that Valladares had been imprisoned solely for his anti-Castro stance, and the latter organization named him a prisoner of conscience.〔〔 Valladares states that he was offered "political rehabilitation" early in his prison term, but refused. According to Valladares, this led to his being abused and tortured by his guards, including being forced to eat other people's excrement〔 and imprisonment in cramped "drawer cells" in which multiple prisoners were confined in a space too small to lie down, without being allowed toilet access.〔 Describing his incarceration later, Valladares wrote: "For me, it meant 8,000 days of hunger, of systematic beatings, of hard labor, of solitary confinement and solitude, 8,000 days of struggling to prove that I was a human being, 8,000 days of proving that my spirit could triumph over exhaustion and pain, 8,000 days of testing my religious convictions, my faith, of fighting the hate my atheist jailers were trying to instill in me with each bayonet thrust, fighting so that hate would not flourish in my heart, 8,000 days of struggling so that I would not become like them."〔 Describing his thoughts on Che Guevara later, Valladares stated: ""He was a man full of hatred ... Che Guevara executed dozens and dozens of people who never once stood trial and were never declared guilty … In his own words, he said the following: "At the smallest of doubt we must execute." And that's what he did at the Sierra Maestra and the prison of Las Cabanas."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Armando Valladares」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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