Forced Labor
willemstad, curacao, Curaçao
The Curacao Drydock Co. hired at least 100 Cuban workers to repair cruise ships and tankers at its dock in Willemstad. Court records show that instead of paying the men, the Curacao company applied their $6.90/hour value to the Cuban government's multi-million dollar debt with the company. Company officials seized the Cuban workers' passports and forced them to labor as many as 112 hours a week fixing ships. The workers were rarely allowed to leave the shipyard complex and only in groups with a guard watching over them. They typically worked 15 days in a row, and sometimes 45 days in a row. Fidel Castro's nephew, Manuel Bequer, was a senior manager of the shipyard during the time of the enslavement. Three of the survivors, Alberto Justo Rodríguez, Fernando Alonso Hernández and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo sued the Curacao Drydock Company in US federal court in Miami. Their Miami-based lawyer, Seth Miles, reports: "They faced the worst choice you can imagine: to continue being slaves not knowing if they would live or die because they were being treated so badly, or to try to escape, knowing that even if they were successful it would be horrific for their families in Cuba." Alonso Hernandez claims he was enslaved in hard labor for ten years. No information available on the length of servitude for the other 99 plus slaves. Documents reviewed by the Miami Herald offer a rare glimpse into the employment terms typically kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business. The documents appear to offer proof that the Cuban government's joint ventures abroad frequently involve forced labor. For more info, see: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/734004.html http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/44550.html
2008