I was a political prisoner in La Cabaña, in the Isle of Pines, in Cinco y Medio Jail in the province of Pinar del Rio, in Guanajay Prison, in Boniato Prison in Oriente and in Combinado el Este in Havana. In this last prison I stayed for 4 years, dressed only in my underwear in protest for the arbitrary dictates of the Cuban communist regime. They wanted us to wear the uniform of the common criminals and we chose to wear no clothes instead. I was there without medical assistance, without sun, without family visits, without being allowed to write or to read anything, without being allowed to receive packages from family, with all my belongings confiscated, walled-in 24 hours a day. The cell was humid, without light and full of bugs.
I was arrested on June 14, 1963 at 1:25 PM in Franco Street, between Desague and Bejumeda Streets in Havana. No arrest order was shown to me, no reasons were given to me. Simply, several men dressed in civilian clothes surrounded me with drawn pistols and rifles and shoved me inside a vehicle. My arrest was not made public. I was immediately placed in isolation, without being able to call a lawyer or to call my family. I was heavily interrogated, under threat of death, for 90 days. This took place in the headquarters of State Security, between 14 June and September of 1963. The cell in which I was held, was approximately 1 meter long by 1 m wide, the bed was a canvas held by a circular tube. There was no water and no light. The person who interrogated me was Omar Hernández Rojas, of the Intelligence Service. He kept asking me about my political activities, my relationship with others and a supposed uprising in the island. I was constantly threatened with the application of the death penalty. I was beaten repeatedly. I was tortured physically and psychologically. As I was being beaten during interrogations, I was also promised that my life would be spared, that I would receive a light sentence and that no reprisals would be taken against my family if I “cooperated.” They wanted me to sign a “confession” but I kept denying all accusations. A physician was present when I was being tortured, and he actually participated. He declared that he was a communist more than he was a doctor. While I was in the State Security and heard the screams of other prisoners, I heard cries, sobs…
I was given a sentence of 20 years on September 24, 1963 by the Revolutionary Tribunal No. 1 in La Cabaña. It was a Military Court, composed of 5 military officers whose names I don’t remember. I was not allowed to have a Defense Attorney. Furthermore, I was taken away from the courtroom because I protested the lack of drinking water in the wing where I was being held.
My years in prison started in La Cabaña fortress in Havana. It was 1963. There were violent searches where the guards would throw away whatever our families brought to us (fruits, powder milk, etc.). During the searches, we would be savagely beaten, and we were ordered to shed all our clothes in the yard of the prison, even in winter.. In La Cabaña Prison I heard the testimonies of those who were condemned to death. I heard how they practiced mock executions, how some of them were tied and dropped in a tank full of water. I saw men crying because their wives were paraded naked in front of them and threatened with rape if they did not confess. In La Cabaña I also spoke with children, under age, who had been sentenced to death.
On January 13, 1964 I was transferred to the Isle of Pines Prison, where I suffered under the forced labor “Camilo Cienfuegos Plan.” I was beaten with chains, sticks, bayonets and rifle butts. I witnessed machine gunning of prisoners. This forced labor plan lasted three years and resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded men. Some of the victims were:
Julio Tan Tesier, murdered by bayonet blows in the field.
Ernesto Díaz Madruga, killed by a bayonet stab while he was in the latrine during a search.
Diosdado Aqui and Eddy Alvarez Molina, shot by guards
Roberto Lopez Chavez, Pedro Luis Boitel, Reinaldo Cordero Izquierdo, Carmelo Cuadra, Enrique Garcia Cueva, José Padre, Luis Alvarez Rios: died in hunger strikes.
In Cinco y Medio Prison, in Pinar del Rio province where I was later transferred, I witnessed four children as young as 7 years of age being caged in a cell with a solid metal door, without light or water and with cement beds. This took place in the year 1968, precisely the year when Cuba was vying to gain the presidency of the Commission of Human Rights in the UN! I met the four children because I was in the cell across the hall from them, naked with an abscess in a tooth, without the services of a dentist. I knew the children by their nicknames: Tatica was 9 years old, punished because he took a bottle of soda pop ; Eduardito was 7 years old, punished because he found the Director of the Children Center and a teacher in a sexual act in a cane field. Jabao and Mozito (8 and 11 years old respectively) because they took a horse and began running around. In that prison, there was a wing for minors, where children as young as 5 were sent for the most minimal break of the rules in the “Children Circles” where they received classes and indoctrination.
Food, in this prison, was a paper bag filled halfway with cornmeal, a piece of yam and a little bit of water to drink and a little piece of stale bread. This prison was under the command of Edmigio González (el Nato), sinister, evil man with a vast record of executions and murders behind him, capable of chilling the blood of Satan himself.
I also spent some time in Guanajay Prison, in Boniato Prison in Oriente province and finally in Combinado del Este Prison in Havana
During our hunger strikes, the doctors let us proceed until we went into coma, and then they would revive us. I remember the names of Dr. Caballero when I was in Boniato Prison and of Dr. Campos in Combinado del Este Prison. Their preferred medications were barbiturates and sedatives.
I have several broken bones, a lost a toe in my right foot and a skull fracture. I was tortured by:
Captain Emilio in La Cabaña Prison in Havana
Edmigio López (el Nato) in Pinar del Rio
Lieutenants Cosme, Tejeda and others in Guanajay
Captain Albi Matos and Israel Coba in Boniato Prison
Captain Raúl in Combinado del Este Prison.