Moreover, inmates who have made any form of protest about the traetment received or who reject reeducation, which according to information received consists of political and ideological training, have been subjected to reprisals such as beatings, being shut up in punishment cells (which are extremely small, with the door closed and where the prisoner can be kept for months without seeing the light of the sun), being transferred to prisons normally far from where their families live, suspension of family visits, or denial of medical treatment.
In this context, the IACHR has received numerous reports from different civic groups that paint a most distressing picture of life in Cuban prisons. The Civic Democratic Party representative in the Manacas prison, in Villaclara province, refers to the prison as "a place where hunger, disease, lack of medical supplies and repression threaten to decimate this huge prison population". According to his report, these conditions lead many prisoners to attempt to commit suicide, either by trying to hang themselves, by injecting gasoline into their bodies or even throwing themselves on the fence, which is the maximum security line, where they are shot down. The report also refers to the propagation of diseases such as tuberculosis and fatal parasitic ailments such as amebiasis.
Also during the period covered by this report, in the "La Sociedad" prison in Santo Domingo municipality, the prisoner Lisandro Morejon, after having been held in solitary confinement for preaching the gospel, was the subject of constant harassment and mistreatment by the chief of that prison, Roberto Perez Guillen (known as "El Papa") despite having complained about this to higher authorities.
Writing from the Quivican prison, the political prisoner Reidel de la Torre Calero, complained about "the cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions" suffered in that prisons's punishment cells. The political prisoners Omar del Pozo Marrero, Joel Alfonso Matos and Torre Calero himself were kept incomunicado in those cells for three months simply for having repeated their disagreement with current government policy. During those three months they were made to do without portable water, and had to sleep without mattresses, while the scanty diet allowed them was poorly balanced and lacking vitamins and protein, as a result of which their physical condition deteriorated rapidly.
The Civic Democratic Party reported that its Vice President, Domiciano Torres Roca, held since August 1993 in the "El Pitirre" prison, is constantly being summoned by the State Security officer Nelson de Armas, who repeatedly threatens him and urges him to stop his denunciations of human rights violations. Torres' wife, Aida Rosa Jimenez, the President of the party, has been prohibited from visiting him.
A report has also been received that Gumersindo Valero Diaz and Jose Ramon Hidalgo have been held in the State Security Department's Villa Maristas detention center since November 1993. They have been accused of belonging to the "Movimiento Martiano por la Libertad y la Democracia". Both Valero Diaz and Ramon Hidalgo have developed health problems, with weight loss and skin lesions.
While it is difficult to estimate the number of political prisoners, certain sources put the figure at between 2,000 and 5,000 civilians, including those imprisoned for attempting to leave the country illegally. Another problem that has to do not only with the percentage of political prisoners and the crowding in the prisons, but is also directly connected with violations of the right to a fair trial and individual freedom is the number of citizens who are languishing in numerous prisons awaiting trial, despite the fact that they were arrested months--and in some cases, years--ago, according to information received.
Thus, two young men arrested during the October 1993 mass protests, Jose A. Perez and Daniel Santana Quevedo, are still locked up and isolated awaiting trial in Havana's Combinado del Este prison. Another four young men--Antonio Boza Segura, Jose Ramon Suarez Alvarez, Orlando Conte Capetillo and Jose Antonio Diaz Gutierrez-- have been held in the Quivican prison since September 9, 1993, on a charge of "enemy propaganda" in the high-security area known as "El Tiburon". Family members are only allowed to visit them once every 60 days. "These measures are excessive bearing in mind that these four men are awaiting trial and have not yet even been formally charged", according to a note written by the political prisoners in that prison.
The citizen Mario Camellon has been held in the Ciego de Avila prison for a year and a half without trial for having shouted in front of the Chambas Municipality Communist Party Headquarters "Down with Fidel, we're hungry". Camellon is obliged to do ten hours a day forced labor, despite his critical state of health (he suffers from pulmonary emphysema).
The IACHR has also been informed that Carlos Rollo Sala has been held without trial for two years on a charge of "enemy propaganda" in the Valle Grande prison where he has been interned with highly dangerous common criminals. In the same prison, Renato Rodriguez Sanchez and Jorge Luis Sanchez Marrero have been held without trial since November 1992, on a charge of alleged "piracy" for attempting to leave the country from the port of Mariel, where they were wounded by shots fired by border guards (two of the crew members, Jorge Luis Sanchez and Mrs. Yvette Molina, are currently in exile after a second--successful--attempt).
Similarly, according to information received, the trial of Rodolfo Gonzales, spokesman of the Cuban Human Rights Committee jailed since December 10, 1992, has been postponed. The reports received state that the trial, which was set for January 28, 1994, was postponed when the court officials realized it had been scheduled for the birthday of the Cuban patriot Jose Marti.
Dr. Sebastian Arcos Bernes, vice president of the Cuban Human Rights Committee, who is 63 years old, has been jailed in the Ariza prison in Cienfuegos province since December 1992. According to his family, which visited him on July 13, 1994, Dr. Arcos is being held in deplorable conditions, together with common criminals, the food provided is most inadequate, no medical care is available and he is subjected to constant psychological pressures and threats of physical abuse. Although he was recently moved to different quarters, his new cell has no artificial lighting and the prisoners refer to it as "the Persian Gulf" because of its unbearable heat. The common criminals with whom he shares this cell are young men of between 21 and 30 years of age who have been sentenced to 15 and 30 years for violent crimes, which makes them all the more dangerous.
During the period covered by this Annual Report the IACHR received the following letter from a prisoner, which it considers appropriate to quote verbatim since it reflects the serious conditions prevailing in Cuban prisons:
In the Combinado del Este, designed with a maximum capacity of some 3,000 inmates, over 5,000 have been crammed in. Some are sleeping on the ground, the vast majority on grass mats without sheets or pillows. The lack of hygiene, due to official neglect and lack of concern, and the nonavailability of cleaning products and equipment, is harmful and poses a constant hazard to the health of the inmates, who appeal in desperation to their families for medications not obtainable in the prison. An identical situation prevails in the Guanajay prison, where more than 700 prisoners are being held in some buildings desigend for 400 at the most. In both these prisons, which which are swarming with cockroaches, flies and rats, the inmates are exposed to contagious diseases and have at best insufficient medical care or none at all. A proportion of the inmates in the two prisons are suffering from scabies and tuberculosis, among other diseases. The scanty and very poor quality food provided includes whole fish mashed in such a way that the prisoners are obliged to swallow spines, scales and pieces of bone.
The IACHR wishes to underscore that this complaint and others cited in this chapter constitute evidence of the serious prison conditions and the deliberately severe and degrading treatment meted out to prisoners by the Cuban Government, and that these conditions and the treatment inflicted amount to serious violations of human rights.