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NEWS
Testimony of
member of the Christian Liberation Movement in punishment cell at
Combinado de Guantánamo.
By: Alberto Martínez Fernández.
(Prison Combinado de Guantánamo/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 (3) 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. My wife began to cry when she saw me the first time, for I
was extremely pale with long fingernails and
weighing only 40 Kg.
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 am 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, mistreated 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 badly about 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.
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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