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FROM
CUBA
A
Cuban prisoner convicted of drug trafficking bears
witness
PRISION DE BONIATO, August (José Eduardo
Girón Cabrera / www.cubanet.org) - Under
the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government
has embarked on a campaign against any person
who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain
minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
The operation is called Popular Shield. It appears
to mean Cubans may not aspire to a human standard
of living.
I am accused, without any proof, of drug trafficking.
There is not a single piece of evidence that justifies
my imprisonment. I have been held since October,
2002 in maximum security cells, in solitary confinement,
sentenced to 23 years in prison.
My confinement is arbitrary; there is no real
judicial system; defense lawyers are only decorative
figures in the judicial process.
I have been in solitary for more than 9 months.
To be taken to the medical post, they shackle
my feet, which makes me bleed. I suffer from cardiovascular
disease and have no medical treatment available.
The food is poor and scarce.
I am in the so-called special regime in Boniatico
prison. The narrow cell in which I live is crawling
with cockroaches, mice, mosquitoes, flies, scorpions,
and ants. Here, it's hard to sleep and there is
no one tell about the pain.
I ask myself day after day what proof authorities
had to convict me and I think I have been condemned
as an example to others.
Two officers who head Popular Shield, a colonel
known as "Cambara," and Captain Eduardo
Regifon, have proposed that I cooperate with them
in exchange for my freedom.
I write my testimony so that the world may know
that in Cuba the government of Fidel Castro uses
us as guinea pigs and manipulates the courts at
will. Trials are parodies, meant to give a false
image of a supposed war on drugs.
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