Human rights in Castro's Cuba - Fidel Castro

US Department of State Bulletin, Feb, 1987

The most brutal treatment isreserved for the plantados, as those political prisoners who refuse "political rehabilitation' are known. They spend their days dressed only in pajamas or underwear or without any clothing at all. Visits by friends or relatives are limited to one or two per year, or less, and letters to one per month.

Political prisoners are not routinelyreleased at the end of their terms. Their freedom depends on a personal decision by Fidel Castro, who has frequently used the release of political prisoners to gain favor with an influential foreign visitor or to put the latter under obligation to "respond.' Sentences are often extended without any trial or due process. Plantados are especially likely to be forced to remain in prison after expiration of their sentences. There are reports that these prisoners are subjected to particularly harsh conditions, especially those in Boniato Prison.

Many of those forced to remain inprison past term have been incarcerated 15-20 years when their extensions are given. In at least one case, that of Santos O. Mirabal Rodriguez, the "past term' sentence has been longer than the original one. Mirabal was sentenced for political offenses at the age of 12 to be imprisoned until the age of 21. Although his sentence expired in June 1971, he has been forced to remain in prison ever since. His only moments spent outside prison were in June 1984 when he was subjected to the psychological torture of being put on a bus of freed prisoners bound for the United States only to be removed at the last minute.

Torture and mistreatment continuetoday. In April 1986, a dozen former prisoners testified before an international panel in Paris about additional examples of torture and inhuman treatment. Ana Lazara Rodriguez cited cases of guards throwing women down stairs and kicking them in the breasts and stomachs. Raoul Carmeante reported that 15- to 18-year-old boys were put in prison barracks with sexual degenerates who raped them repeatedly. Eduardo Capote showed the panel his hand where one of his fingers had been chopped off by a prison guard.

Teresa Mayan, who was imprisonedin 1982 for 1 year for attempting to flee Cuba with her son, told the panel about beatings and lack of medical care. She also stated that many fellow prisoners went mad and "almost every day a prisoner committed suicide.' Mrs. Mayan observed: "If anybody says that all happened years back, I am here to tell them it is still happening.'

Once political prisoners are freed,they are sometimes forbidden to leave Cuba. Ricardo Bofill Pages, chairman of the Cuban Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, was released from his third term in prison in August 1985 but still awaits permission to depart the country. In August 1986, following the arrest of five members of the committee, Bofill--fearing a fourth prison sentence-- took refuge at the French Embassy in Havana, where he remains today.

While waiting for exit permitsformer political prisoners sometimes are denied the right to work, possess ration cards, or obtain basic identification documents. They are subject to discriminatory treatment for the rest of their lives. They must live with constant surveillance and social ostracism.