- On what charge were you imprisoned in Cuba?

- They don't need a specific charge to lock somebody up in Cuba. It's enough for the authorities to convict you of posing a threat to the system. The judicial process is also just a formality and there's no chance of getting any legal defense. I was in prison from 1997 to 2010. The conditions in the prisons are terrible and the country is interwoven with jails.

- How many prisons and how many political prisoners are there in Cuba?

- There are one hundred correctional facilities. The number of political prisoners runs into the hundreds but it's not possible to know the exact figure because many of them are registered as having committed crimes against public morality. Prisoners have no rights whatsoever and prisons have been placed under the supervision of the army where the guards are under no obligation to keep an account of the numbers of prisoners. They do what they want with us, so people not only lose their freedom but any sense of hope as well. The system has virtually institutionalized torture. As a result of the psychological terror I underwent, the pigment layer on my body was damaged and that's why I have white marks on my hands. The jail where I was imprisoned had 160 cells and half of these were converted into solitary confinement cells, hermetically sealed from the other parts of the prison so that not even a sound seeped through to the prisoners kept in them. 

- Do you know of anyone having died as a result of maltreatment?

- They killed Orlando Zapata Tamayo in the prison where I was. We had shared the same cell for three years. In order to protest against the ruthless treatment of the prisoners and to attract the attention of the international community, he went on a hunger strike this February. The prison guards deprived him of water out of revenge. After eighteen days he died of thirst. The authorities tried to claim to the outside world that Zapato Tamayo had died as a result of the hunger strike he had been on but this is not true. Unfortunately for him he not only had to endure the maltreatment meted out by the guards but also the beatings inflicted on him by other prisoners cooperating with the regime.

- Why did they set you free in the end?

- They did not set me free they just let me out of the prison. They forced me to leave Cuba and travel to Spain. They didn't provide me with any documents whatsoever and wouldn't even let me go home. They immediately transported me to the airport, where I met my family. They bundled all of us onto a flight bound for Madrid. The Castro regime wanted to use this to make the outside world believe that things were changing for the better in Cuba. (Since Spain has historical and cultural ties to the region the EU entrusted it to monitor Cuba's internal political development - the editor).

- And does the outside world believe this? Is this why Spain unconditionally agreed to accept you and your compatriots?

- From a human rights perspective the behaviour of Spain's left-wing government led by Rodríguez Zapatero can be condemned in relation to Cuba. My being let out was celebrated as a victory and the conditions of my imprisonment were ignored. The Spanish have economic interests in Cuba and it is these that they are protecting and not human rights. Fortunately, this attitude is not typical of Spanish public opinion in general.

- What should the EU do in regard to Cuba in your view?

- Nobody should believe that anything has changed in Cuba. The system under Raúl Castro has remained every bit as oppressive as it was under his elder brother Fidel. We expect no more and no less from the EU member states than that they show their solidarity with us and stick to their defense of human rights. The release of each person is reason for joy but if the EU interprets this as Cuba going in the right direction, this is the worst message of all from our standpoint, since it gives provides Havana with fuel to increase its oppression.

- Has the machine of oppression not become even slightly milder since Raúl took over the direction of the country from Fidel?

- In a certain sense there is a power vacuum in Cuba. Although the Castro brothers represent the same politics, the system of one-man rule has ended in failure in a certain sense as they have had to divide control of the country up between the two of them. However, the army is there behind them both to guarantee the continuation of the system.

- How does the oppression of the regime affect people who are not involved in politics?

- People can only travel from one province to another if they have a permit and only a privileged few are allowed to travel out of the country. Salaries are low and there is hardly anything available to buy, there is a constant shortage of foodstuffs.

"Two pipers don't fit in one pub."

Fidel Castro's latest announcement shocked the world. The father of the revolution of 1959 told an American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model was not working. The former Cuban president has only rarely commented on the country's affairs since his younger brother Raúl Castro took over the leadership of Cuba in 2006.

Fidel later accused the journalist of twisting his words. Observers interpret the announcement as the former president finally wishing to support his younger brother's efforts at reform which are faced by opposition from the party's orthodox upper echelons, who are against all of Raúl's initiatives. Raúl warned Cubans that in the future they should expect less from the state. He believes that it should be reconsidered how much the state can intervene in the economy - for example a fifth of the workplaces are superfluous.

It is thanks to the younger Castro brother that village smallholders and barbers have been able to start up their own businesses and use mobile phones. However, substantial change cannot really be expected from Raúl Castro. For example, when he came to power he dismissed the foreign minister, Ramón Pérez Roque, who had urged a more flexible policy towards the USA.

The vice-president for energy provision, Carlos Lage Dávila, who had worked for better cooperation in the region was forced out of office. Raúl also dismissed Luis Rodríguez García, another vice-president, who had established a research centre to study global economic processes. All three men had sought to make tentative steps towards the outside world.
 

INFORMATION BLOCKADE

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta arrived in Budapest as a member of the Cuban Resistance Association, an organisation for Cuban émigrés with its seat in Miami. The organisation is made up of several groups of Cuban émigrés and one of its objectives is to hold these groups together. The aim of the present delegation is to demonstrate the dictatorial policies of the Castro regime to the member states of the European Union. The émigrés seek to bring attention to the fact that the system has not changed even though the authorities in Havana would have the outside world believe this. 

The Cuban Resistance Association operates in the United States as a lobbying organisation for human rights and supports peaceful, democratic transmission in Cuba, led by the island nation's opposition groups. With American support it transmits radio broadcasts to Cuba, breaking through the regime's information blockade. It maintains daily contact with the leadership of the opposition by telephone, archives these conversations and wishes to use this "audio library" for historical and cultural research following a transition to democracy.