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Testimony
of a dissident from a punishment cell
Information
Bridge Cuba Miami.
(Prison Combinado de Guantánamo,
Cuba, November 4 / Puenteinfocubamiami.org)
- Friends and brothers: I have cautiously
written this letter from prison, and I pray
to God that is not intercepted by the prison
mafia, for reasons of repression or physical
abuse.
My life as a peaceful opponent began in
1990 and since then, I have been, imprisoned,
kidnapped and tortured in more than one
occasion. I will proceed to mention some
relevant elements in regards to the political
persecution I have suffered.
September 1992 - Detained and interrogated
with force and violence by members of the
Department of the State Security.
May 23, 1994- detained and brutally beaten
then taken to the feared torture chambers
of the (CIM) Military Contra Intelligence,
where I remained three months "naked",
subjected to countless interrogatories accompanied
by humiliations, beatings, mosquitoes, cockroaches
and other insects, without knowing when
was day or night.
August 27, 1994 - I was transferred to
cell #12 of the infamous "Operations"
at the Department of the State Security.
October 17 1994 - transferred to the Guantánamo
Provincial Prison, also known as Combinado
de Guantánamo, to punishment cell
#13 without a mattress nor sheets and with
many other limitations, accompanied by rats,
cockroaches, mosquitoes and victim of many
more humiliations and brutal beatings.
I remained in this punishment cell without
due process until May 13, 1996. For 1 ½
year I lived in a terrible nightmare. When
my wife saw me -pale, with long fingernails
and weighing just 40 Kg.- she began to cry.
I told her… don't cry because I'll
do the same…
Later, I was transferred to the department
of The Revolutionary National Police (PNR):
where a Territorial Military Tribunal in
Holguín brought charges against me
in Case #7/94 for the supposed crimes of
sedition, weapons theft, illegal exit of
National Territory and a preparatory act
of piracy; many of these imputations were
false; I was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
On September 2, 1997 I was paroled due
to pressures from the International public
opinion and some friends and family residing
in Spain.
In 1998, I was detained several times
in my province. This same year I join the
Christian Liberation Movement.
Afterwards, I was elected president of
the club of Political Prisoners and Former
Political Prisoners in Guantánamo,
for which I suffered countless of kidnappings,
beatings and arbitrary detentions, all in
defense of the human rights.
June 16, 2001 - At 8:40 PM I was kidnapped
from my home, by a Lieutenant Colonel and
other officials and then brutally beaten
by Lieutenant Colonel Juan González,
Officer Orelvis Frómeta Velásquez
and Lieutenant Bartolo, all officials with
the Political Police. My wife and children
went to every police station looking for
me and received no answer as to my whereabouts.
They covered my head, handcuffed me and
rushed me to an unknown location in the
back of a black Lada car. Once there, I
was beaten and then the interrogatory began;
all along, they kept telling me that I should
abandon the constant recollection of signatures
for the Varela Project, to stop visiting
the families of the political prisoners,
end all opposition meetings in my home and
finally they wanted me to close down the
independent library my wife runs from our
home, otherwise they would charge me with
any crime and leave me in prison.
As a result of all of the above, I had
to take my youngest son to see a psychologist
for he began to have panic attacks for fearing
that those men were going to kill me, he
was only 10 years old.
On November 20, 2001, my 16 year-old son
skipped school and was caught with another
young man trying to escape communism,trying
to reach freedom through the Guantánamo
Naval Base. He was arrested, brutally beaten
and taken to a cell at the Department of
the State Security, then was transferred
to the (CIM) Military Contra Intelligence.
In that awful place he was humiliated, abused
and then taken to the maximum security prison
of Combinado de Guantánamo. He was
later tried and sentenced by a Military
Tribunal.
So much suffering, so much pain, anguish
and desperation! Two months of intense interrogatories,
humiliations and physical abuse. My son,
Albertico Martínez Martínez,
a 16 year old boy who had never been away
from home for so long, was in isolation.
They never allowed us to visit him. But
one day, by the Grace of God, we will be
able to denounce to the world these abuses
and humiliations.
On June 8, 2002 - upon arriving at the
San Rafael Cemetery, located at Street 5
and the West corner of Bartolomé
Masó, I was jumped from behind and
savagely beaten. Again, my physical integrity
was threatened if I continued collecting
signatures for the Varela Project. They
robbed me of my belongings and threw me
in some bushes many kilometers away from
the city of Guantánamo.
On January 18, 2003 - I was detained in
Street 1, West corner of 1, in Guantánamo,
beaten and thrown into a car by orders of
Colonel Juan González, the official
Orelvis Frómeta and Lieutenant Bartolo
and was taken to the Prison Niceto Pérez,
where I was subjected to a long interrogatory
regarding the same topics as before- my
visits to municipalities in the province
recollecting signatures for The Varela Project,
the club of Political prisoners, the visits
to the Department of Press and Culture of
the SINA, the visits to family of political
prisoners, the Independent Libraries, my
relationship with Elizardo Sánchez
Santacruz, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas,
Vladimiro Roca, Héctor Palacios,
Raúl Rivero, Oscar Espinosa Chepe
among others.
We argued all through the interrogatory.
In the end, Lieutenant Juan told me: "Martínez
the Varela Project is finished". The
Colonel didn't say a single word; he just
wrote down a few notes. Then at the end
he said: "Martínez, enough of
your arrogance. Take him to prison".
I was naked in a cell for five days, accompanied
by mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats.
On January 22, 2003, at approximately
2 PM, I was transferred to the Municipal
Tribunal, located at Calixto García
entre Carretera y Emilio Giró, where
I was charged with a supposed crime of contempt
involving Colonel Juan González.
I was sentenced to 1 year and three months
in prison. The District Attorney accused
me of dangerous to the security of Cuba.
I was sent to Section 2 A at the maximum
security prison of Combinado de Guantánamo.
Once there, prison authorities threatened
to break every bone in my body if I dared
speak against Fidel Castro. Major Pablo
Reyes, head of the interior order at the
prison, locked me in cubicle 7 with 48 more
prisoners, a dungeon of only 4x5 meters.
Thereafter, I was transferred to cubicle
4, of Section 4-A better known as the Gulf,
place where the most dangerous prisoners
are housed, murderers, rapists, thieves
and drug addicts, with sentences of 20-30-40-50-
years and also life without parole.
On March 18, at 6 PM the military police
arrived at my home for a search which lasted
until 4.30 PM of the following day. They
confiscated all the medicines, food; they
even took the kitchen's gas tank, leaving
my wife, 10 year old son and 78 year old
mother in law without any food and no facilities
to cook either. This is how communists behave.
It would be too long if I continued telling
all the atrocities that my family and I
have had to endure; therefore I will just
say, till soon,
For a Free Cuba.
Alberto Martínez Fernández
Friday, August 15, 2003.
Reported the correspondents
of Lux Info Press in Havana Gilberto Figueredo
Alvarez and Ada Kaly Márquez also,
National Coordinator of the Democratic Party
November 30 "Frank País".
For the Information Bridge Cuba Miami, given
on October 2003.
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