If It’s Not Rotten, Why Does it Stink?

If It's Not Rotten, Why Does it Stink? / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado
Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado, Translator: JT

Yamile Bargés Hurtado is a 48-year-old woman who was put through a legal
process which leaves us feeling defrauded. In 2003, she traded an
apartment in the Bahía neighborhood for a similar one in El Vedado with
Mrs. Teresa Luisa Rivero Domínguez, co-owner of the building located at
355 3rd Street at the corner of Paseo and 2nd. Both were one-bedroom,
small square footage residences; but Yamile's was in perfect condition
(new) and that of Teresa Luisa in ruins.

In 1998, Mrs. Rivero became widowed and was awarded the residence her
husband, Baltazar Toledo Rodríguez, willed to her and whose title she
shared. Later, the grandson of the deceased Toledo, Eliazar Yosvany
Rivero Toledo, argued that the (grandparents') marriage had broken down,
and sued his grandmother that he should be registered as a co-occupant,
although he had never slept in the apartment; and so it was done. The
grandson never spent a night in the house, according to testimony Yamile
Bargés obtained from her neighbors in the building.

Since moving to the apartment, Bargés Hurtado made huge sacrifices to
improve its condition. She arranged and expanded it to be more
comfortable — now it has another bedroom and more than double its
original square footage — she obtained the legal licenses and
subsequently, legally added the modifications to the property. In doing
so, she converted a little one-room apartment — originally valued at 806
pesos by the community technical architect — into a property priced at
$5,408.24.

In 2008, five years having passed of living there, after having done all
remodeling and following the death of Mrs. Teresa Rivero, Bargés
discovered that a dispute existed over the property. If the trade had
been a legitimate fact and both women were owners of their dwellings,
Yamile (her name is written without an accent) didn't understand how
someone could question her rights.

In the year 2006, the Provincial Court passed final judgment on the
complaints against Mrs. Rivero Domínguez who, at the time, was in
serious (medical) condition. The Court mentioned that she had lost her
rights because neither she nor her notary appeared on either occasion it
had summoned her.

Teresa Luisa's son, after having been cited himself, said that he had
submitted a certificate that would testify to Rivero Domínguez's
inability to appear. Without review and in absentia, the legitimate
award of her house — which came to her on her husband's death, and of
which she was co-owner — was cancelled.

In the heir's declaration — apparently altered, with blanked-out lines
and in a different font — the name of the litigant grandson does not
appear. The children of Mrs. Rivero swear that he was taken into account
and was part of the same. Why did he not appear in any written
documentation? Where does one go to look for the original file if there
is inadequate manipulation of the documents?

One supposes that Burgés would have been named as one of the affected
parties, but this wasn't so. In 2006, the cancellation of the deed to
her house had been finalized, and she didn't find out about it until
2008, when she was notified of the lawsuit. A record dated 2002 alleged
that the grandson had been asserting his right as "former heir" for
years, violations of which do not expire. It is worth adding that in all
the ordinary proceedings 114/08, they never mentioned the co-owner
character of Mrs. Teresa Luisa Rivero, who'd always been referred to as
"the widow". To top it all off, she had an attorney who didn't
adequately defend her rights; to the contrary, she seemed to be allied
with her opponents.

After 4 years of judicial dispute, the People's Supreme Court confirmed
the Provincial Court's findings in favor of the plaintiff Eliazar
Yosvany, to whom was awarded the residence. Next November 15th the
principal victim and her daughter must abandon the building in which
they have resided for almost ten years.

This is a proceeding in which there are many victims, but one of
Teresa's children, age 70, lives in the apartment passed down by his
mother, and now must abandon it so that Yamile Bargés can return to her
original place. Or maybe, pretending to defend the supposed rights of a
grandson, they violated the rights of a dead owner and her children.
What is the value attributed to a will in Cuba?

The character of a widow of Teresa Luisa wasn't worth anything — the
award of her residence was cancelled — neither was her condition of
co-ownership, nor the will she left to her descendents (all this is said
to be in favor of Eliazar Yosvany, but there is nothing in writing), nor
the privileges of her inheritors or those of Bargés Hurtado. How many
rights have been trampled upon? Beyond current law, a new legal ethic
which restores citizens' faith in the upholding of law and procedure is
both necessary and possible.

In this case there is no doubt that, to honor the old refrain "the laws
and its traps were made together," the number of arbitrary acts seen
seem to go beyond legal norms and have left Yamile Burgés a serial
admission in the psych wards of Calixto García andManuel Fajardo
Hospitals. Fortunately, Yamile keeps photocopies of each one of the
papers or documents issued and required for the lawsuit.

I have no legal aptitude nor knowledge of the legal resources that
should compensate all parties, but I feel obligated to give my opinion
of a process I won't say is corrupt, but that stinks badly enough.

Translated by: JT

November 6 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/if-its-not-rotten-why-does-it-stink-rosa-maria-rodriguez-torrado/