Documents recently smuggled out of several Cuban prisons are painting a grim picture of the cruelty and sub-human conditions which are rampant there, especially in the Quivican and Kilo 8 prisons.
An elaborate description of the situation in Quivican (Havana province) was obtained from an ex-officer of Castro's Rebel Army, Miguel Sanchez Valiente, who is now a political prisoner:
"The situation in Quivican is marked by chaos, gross negligence and a complete abandonment of the prisoners' daily living conditions. For five days we didn't have a drop of water in the whole prison. The stench, sickness, lack of basic hygiene and prisoners' lock-downs all combine to make this place absolutely cruel and unbearable.
"Among the political prisoners being denied medical attention here, the most note-worthy are Sanchez Valiente, Carlos Julio Gato Casals, Tomas Lopez Segui and Dionisio Miranda Iglesia.
"Acts of extreme violence include the savage beating of Crispin Sanchez Aguirre, who lived at 10013 - 206th Street in Novoa: He was attacked by Internal Order vice-chief Losvani who, after the beating, sent the prisoner to a punishment cell rather than allowing medical attention for the wounds inflicted.
"Among the most violent offenders is Internal Order Chief Eduardo Sabori, who is always armed with a hard rubber hose for administering beatings. Another officer heavily involved in the beatings here is Reisel Sanchez Nu~ez.
"The food rations for each prisoner generally consists of two pieces of potato and a clear broth. Often the two meals of the day don't arrive until after sundown. It is widely known that part of the foodstuffs which are delivered to the prison are syphoned off by officials for home consumption.
"An report made in March by a commission headed by two military officers found that 10% of the prisoners (127 men) were malnourished and 'cadaver-like'. Only widespread protests by the prisoners prompted some action in their cases, but anti-riot troops were brought in to patrol our cells and frighten us."
In Camaguey's Kilo 8 prison, political prisoner Armando Alonso Romero, ex-Navy captain and nautical engineer who was imprisoned for returning to Cuba from abroad to help the internal civil rights movement, was transfered to a cell filled with highly dangerous common criminals where he has been attacked with razor blades.
From Kilo 8, Alonso was able to get out word that 33-year-old prisoner Raul Socarras Hechemendia, from Ciego de Avila, committed suicide, unable to withstand the horrors there. His suicide provoked protests from many other prisoners, 24 of whom began a hunger strike.
Another prisoner, Eduardo Gomez Sanchez, 50, who has liver cancer but is being denied adequate medical attention or food, recently staged a hunger strike for 35 days.
Roger Roberto Nu~ez Castro from Mayari in Holguin province, who was accused of attempted political assasination, has been beaten several times for demanding medical treatment for beriberi disease, which he contracted after having to sleep on the floor of his cell for eight months. The beatings left him with a cracked skull. More than ten times, the guards have dragged him down flights of stairs feet-first.
Other cases of physical violence include:
* Mariano Luperon, who had both his arms broken and a nose smashed so
badly
that surgery was required.
* Frank Sotolongo, who was kicked in the stomach so violently that an
emergency operation on his appendix was performed.
* Luis Portuondo Velazquez, whose skull was fractured so brutally that it
required metal implants.
* Pascual Aguila Sardui, whose face is now disfigured and who has lost
several
teeth.
Other beaten prisoners are: Rene Veliz Lopez, Jorge Luis Greno Naranjo, Francisco Mayea Concepcion, Juan Lam Moya, Daniel Sarsari, Willian Vale Garcia, Juan Alberto Isaac, Orlando Farias Morales, Enrique Hernandez Tosca, Hector Consuegra, Joel Bueno Prior, Waldo PerdomoBernal, Alexis Martinez Dante, Robert Ley Villalobos Torres, Alfredo Hernandez Perez, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Barbaro Teheran Valladares and Ramon Manzo Barrio.
All prisons are reporting the same thing: terrible sanitary conditions, with rats and cockroaches everywhere and outbreaks of various diseases.
This report was read by phone, from Havana, by Gregorio Fajardo Hernandez, spokesperson for the Democratic Civic Association, to Tete Machado of Cuban Human Rights Information Bureau, Miami, on 14 May, 1996.
Translation for CubaNet by Miguel Casuso Rivera