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Mayo says he wanted to
die rather than remain in prison
Reporters
Without Borders,
December 12, 2005.
Journalist Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández
of the Félix Varela independent news
agency, who was jailed along with 26 other
journalists in a crackdown in the spring
of 2003 and who was finally released on
medical grounds on 1 December, has described
to Reporters Without Borders his difficult
time in prison and the psychological ordeal
it became:
"The prison universe is the absolute
opposite of my own moral universe and my
own way of looking at life. Prison is full
of dangers. You have to be on constant alert
against mistreatment by guards, fights among
detainees, theft and humiliation. It is
psychologically traumatizing, a permanent
source of stress for someone like me who
defends his ideas.
The sudden transfer [he was transferred
five times] aggravated the trauma because
it made any adaptation impossible. I was
initially held in Holguín (in the
east), then in two prisons in Santiago de
Cuba (in the southeast). From the outset,
I refused to accept that I was a prisoner.
I believe the transfers were part of the
reprisals for this. I even staged several
hunger strikes. That is why I was admitted
to the military hospital in Havana's Combinado
del Este prison. Time went by before I was
given treatment. The wait was another torture.
The prison authorities finally agreed to
move me closer to my family by sending to
Camagüey's Kilo 7 prison. The time
spent in jail became harder and harder to
bear. The director of the psychiatric hospital
in Camagüey helped me to hold on, but
I wanted to leave this world rather than
continue living in such conditions. It was
a question of conscience.
I never thought I would be released so
soon. Two prison monitoring officials came
to see me. They told me the director of
Kilo 7 wanted to see me and they took me
to his office. There was a state security
agent there. I was very excited to learn
that I was to be given medical parole. I
was so excited that when they called my
mother to tell her, I was unable to find
the words to talk to her.
I think it was thanks to poetry that I
managed to hold out. I wrote poems in prison,
especially about my wife, my mother and
my town. After getting out, I learned that
thanks to my wife I had won poetry prize
at a meeting of dissidents in Puerto Rico.
For the time being, I now need to rest and
to write for myself. I am still being treated
for depression, even if the drug dosage
will be steadily cut back."
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