Prisoners testify to the truth about Cuba

As long as there are political prisoners in Cuba, no deal to lift the so-called American "embargo" on Cuba is morally acceptable.

As long as there are political prisoners in Cuba, there is no liberty in Cuba, no matter how much Raúl Castro talks about shaking up the system or implementing economic reforms. His goal is not to reduce repression, just to make it more efficient in order to continue the dictatorship.

As long as there are political prisoners in Cuba, that truth about the Castros and their regime will be there for the world to see.

If it only dares to look.

Whether it's Fidel or Raúl holding the keys, nothing changes for the prisoners of conscience in the Castro dungeon. The suffering only increases.

Just ask Rolando Jiménez, José Ferrer and Francisco Diaz, who recently were targeted for especially brutal attention by their jailers.

Rolando Jimenez

An attorney, Jiménez, 37, was arrested in April 2003, and after being held without charges for more than three years, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for the "crimes" of revealing state secrets and disrespecting the Cuban government.

On Monday, Jiménez was ordered to spend 21 days in a punishment cell at the El Guayabo prison on the Isle of Pines, for supposedly showing a lack of respect for a prison employee, according to a story by journalist Lamasiel Gutiérrez posted at Miscelaneas de Cuba. Gutiérrez also is Jiménez's wife.

Jiménez is a former Uncommon Sense Political Prisoner of the Week.

José Ferrer

Also recently spending time in an isolation cell was Ferrer.

Journalist Abel Escobar Ramírez, writing for CubaNet, reports that Ferrer, 36, was targeted for special punishment after he protested how officials at the Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey were treating family members wanting to visit their loved ones. Escobar reports that family members were forced to wait for several hours and that they were not allowed to give prisoners any food.

The latter, Ferrer believes, is designed to punish him and fellow prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera, who for several months have refused to eat prison food, as a protest against conditions at Kilo 8.

Ferrer, a democracy activist and journalist, was arrested during the "black spring" of March-April 2003, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Francisco Diaz

The punishment recently inflicted on political prisoner Diaz was much more severe.

Writing for Puente Informativo Cuba-Miami, journalist Aidé Rodriguez Rodriguez reports that 15 guards severely beat and kicked the 55-year-old Diaz. The injuries were so grave that he was immediately admitted to a prison hospital in critical condition.

Diaz, who was jailed in 1990, is serving a prison sentence of 20 years and nine months.